The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Killer 7

I think I've uttered this statement before, but in any case it should be obvious from all of my previous post, as well as the list I've put up on IGN, I friggin' LOVE Capcom.

Whenever they're not making incredible quality titles like Megaman, or Resident Evil, they're trying something new and unexplored, if not gameplaywise, then at least style-wise.
First there was Viewtiful Joe, which introduced American Comic Book style graphics to a great side-scrolling beat-em-up with Slow-motion, Fast Forward and Lord knows what else. This year will hopefully bring Okami, an awesome looking RPG based on Japanese mythology, starring the Goddess Amaterasu in the shape of a Wolf.

To fill in the Cell-shaded gap between these two titles Capcom gave us Killer 7 to ponder over. And it's.....well.....different.

The story is that there's this gang of Assassins called the Killer 7, who are hired by the American Government to dispose of liabilities, ie terrorists. The story behind the Killer 7 is that there's this one dude, Harman Smith, an old guy in a wheelchair carrying a HUGE FRIGGIN' Sniper Rifle, who has 6 split personalities, which have all been made flesh somehow.
It is up to you to take out several terrorists and other dangerous people, making use of each persona's skills and abilities. The terrorists come mainly in the shape of the Heaven Smile, a big bunch of VERY strange creatures who cackly maniacally when you get near them and then try to get close enough to you to commit a suicide bombing.

Sounds weird? This is only the tip of the proverbial Iceberg, my friend.
At your disposal are 7 other Smiths. First there's Garcian Smith, he acts as the middle man between Harman and the other personae. He's also the one people contact for assignments.
You'll get to spend most time with the other 6 persona's though:

Dan Smith, aka the Hellion, good all-round shooter with Energy Shot ability to dispose of stronger enemies.


KAEDE Smith (the capitals are intentional, apparently. An Onimusha reference, perhaps?), aka The Barefoot, who's good at sniping and...er....uncovering hidden areas by spraying them with the blood from her wrists (just to be sure, I'm not making ANYTHING up for this post).


Kevin Smith, who uses knives instead of a gun, meaning he doesn't have to reload, and he can make himself invisible, which is considerably less impressive.


Coyote Smith, aka The Thief, who is a Master Of Unlocking (Damn you, Barry!), and can jump on top of high walls.


Con Smith, who's blind and therefore possesses great hearing ability, which is used exactly 2 times in the entire game, and he can fit through small openings, which is used a bit more. Also, he can run very fast.


And last but not least, Mask De Smith, a Mexican Pro Wrestler, complete with gaudy uniform, and two shotguns, meaning he can pierce through armor, and break walls. He can also smash or move heavy objects.


You can change between these characters on the fly in the menu screen, and you'll have to use most of them very often.
Now, as if the above wasn't already indicative enough, I will restate here that this game is WEIRD. In a good way.
This is seriously one of the most bizarre, disturbing, unique and violently original games I've ever played in every single concept.

Presentation is absolutely awesome. The comic book style graphics and basic color pallette more than once reminded me of Sin City, which is a big complement. Basically, this game is Sin City in Cell-shaded 3D, although it has more color.
The pictures I've shown here are mostly dark which might give you the wrong impression, because there's a surprising amount of outdoor colorful environments, which are actually pretty relaxing, and not scary or disturbing at all.
Which is good, because the environments are pretty unique, not like what you'd come to expect from video games at all (except for the odd school or office building or so), but there's a couple of unusual surroundings in here, which all look really really good.

Make no mistake though, this is not survival horror, and scaring you is not what this game is trying to accomplish, it's just seriously bizarre. It wants to surprise you and perhaps disturb you, It wants you to experience a game unlike anything else, and it manages to do this almost perfectly. Almost

You see, for all its amazing presentation and disturbing events and dialogues, the gameplay is rather tame and quite commonplace. Basically, there's shooting, and there's puzzle solving, making this not much different from your average Resident Evil, only more linear, and with slightly better puzzles.
The R button readies your weapon, and switches the screen to First Person mode, from where you have to shoot the baddies. Make sure you make them visible first, by scanning the area with the L button. Heaven Smile are usually invisible, but they will alert you of their presence by cackling eerily, which is your sign to grab out your guns and start shooting. Killing a monster will earn you a certain amount of blood, which in turn can be used to level up the personae, use special weapons or heal your wounds. Hit monsters in key places to earn more blood (or to be able to kill them in the first place) and you've got yourself a decent fighting system.

The most unusual thing about the gameplay is that you are walking on rails the entire time. Of course you can't actually see them, but you do not have free movement nevertheless. Pressing A will have your character move forward, B will turn him/her around. As soon as you get to a fork in the road, the screen will divide into the possible directions, and you have to use the 3D stick to choose where you want to go. This all goes really quickly though, so it never gets annoying.
In fact, I really enjoyed this system, since it is not very taxing on the reflexes, and you don't need to be a Joystick Wizard to maneuver your character around.
The extreme linearity of this system is what this game has been criticized for most, but I wasn't bothered by it at all, on the contrary.

No, my main problem lies in the map system. You get an instant map anywhere you go, you don't need to find it or pick it up, you're equipped with it from the start, which is fine, but it's rather unbalanced.
It shows you which room you are in, but, and this was my main gripe, it doesn't show WHERE you are. No red dot or arrow to indicate your position, just a (big) room glowing yellow. This means that, when you get to a junction, and you want to make an informed decision on where you want to go, you need to infer from the architecture of the room where you are, which can be a PAIN. You will probably take a lot of wrong turns before you get to the end, but, like I said, the walking system is very speedy, so it never becomes really annoying, but it's something I would've liked to see differently.

The other major problem with the map is that, although it doesn't tell you where you are, it tells you exactly where you have to use which Smith, and where you have to use which item. The location of all key items is shown on the map, and often a little symbol indicates what or whom you need to use to get it, in effect rendering about 80% of all the puzzles in this game COMPLETELY obsolete.
It's like Capcom said: "Well, we WANT to put puzzles in this game, cos there's very little else to do, but we don't actually want the punters to THINK, cos that'll scare them off, so we'd better give them all the solutions in advance."

Furthermore, information that can be acquired from NPC's is usually painfully obvious, the only hard puzzles are those whose answers can be obtained from Yoon Hyun (another freaky character), since you have to pay blood to get the answers from him, meaning you might consider solving them yourself first.

It seems therefore that the sole reason of existence of this game is to freak you out and impress you with its magnificent style and presentation, and admittedly it scores very well on these fronts. If gameplay had been a bit more balanced and, frankly, less simple and straightforward, this game could've scored very close to a 10, but it seems Killer 7 favores style and visuals over content.
The story is complicated, but eventually leads to a couple of plottwists that most serious game-players or movie-goers will be familiar with by now, since it's been done to death. I can't say I was surprised in the least, which was a shame, cos the entire game you feel like you're working up to something really cool, only to get a rather predictable twist at the end.

So that's it then, as a game it offers simple fun with little to no replay value, but as a piece of modern media it offers style, adult content and brilliant originality that'll just blow your socks off. Anyone with a taste for out-of-the-ordinary visuals, and anyone who can enjoy something completely different should DEFINITELY try this out, cos it doesn't get much better than this (well, I still vastly prefer Silent Hill myself actually, but this is too different to even compare).
Anyone who's looking for a great game might want to try and rent this first.
I give it a 9-.

posted by Ingen! @ 12:51 PM