Extra Punctuation: Alternative Games

[Sparrowsabre7]

"Now, let me make one thing clear straight away: I do not recommend Killer7 except in very specific circumstances. I love it and I think it's great, but it's polarizing for a reason and really, as a game, it's very very lacking indeed. It's definitely not something I'd point someone towards if they were a non-gamer and I was seeking an argument for games being really good and fun and immersive and whatever else. It'd be more likely to alienate them further."

Pretty much exactly how I'd 'recommend' Pathologic and The Void. Both fascinating games, but if you're looking for fun then probably not for you. Killer7 is agame I've been meaning to replay for a while now too, to try and understand it better. Knowing that Yahtzee still doesn't get it after several playthroughs makes me feel less dumb, so thanks Yahtzee!

 

[Deacon Cole]

Killer7 strikes me as a kind of throwback to even earlier video game logic. Take some of the games from the early 80's, like Pac-man. What the hell was that supposed to be? A yellow dot with a mouth eating smaller dots while avoiding colorful monsters that look like ghosts? Then if you eat the flashing dots in the corner, this gives the yellow dot special powers, so naturally it changes the enemies, making them turn blue and run away. But the dot can eat them now and only their eyeballs remain, zipping back to the center to be reborn.

What. The. Hell?

None of that makes any sense. So, Suda51 is just applying this same moon logic to more modern-style games. Stuff like areas being inside things they could not possibly fit was almost standard on the Atari VCS.

I'm not sure if I've got it entirely figured out. Probably not. But it just seems like this sort of thing used to be standard in video games, with things like a plumber fighting a giant fire-breathing turtle or maybe a paint roller trying to avoid pigs. Just crazy shit which in the early days was useful if it helped your game stand out from the crowd. It's something kind of lacking in games today, which is a darn shame.

 

[teebeeohh]

also, the Mexican wrestler apparently trained Travis touchdown despite not really being a person.
the best parts of K7 probably were the ones that had no connection whatsoever to the main plot (the one with the cult and the power rangers) because those made more sense than everything else.

 

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

I agree with K7 and NMH having no need to explain the floor they stepped in, and how that gave them certain charm, but I also think that what makes Shadows of the Damned so engaging is having such background. we rarely see a game with demons or non human creatures with a world as depth as ours, a place they can call home, a place they can use to hang out, what do they do for fun, besides eating human flesh and moan non-stop.
What got me most interested in this game was that, and in replace, we got characters without explanation. Paula/Garcia/Johnson have little to no background. Some stuff is told, but nothing that makes you think "it explains everything." Just glimpses of background to fill some blanks and nothing else, I'm not mentioning any to prevent spoil the game to those who haven't played it, but in a nutshell, I think that having such background of the demon world, made the game that good for me.

 

[octafish]

Interesting... The games of this Suda 51 person seem a lot like the films Seijun Suzuki. All flash and technique that breaks rules for no real reason but that can be broken. Creating stories with not much substance but intriguing, perplexing, and ultimately endearing.

I'm still not buying a console though.

 

[Amnesiac Pigeon]

Spot on.

I sometimes just boot it up to go through that whole hotel section near the end.

Then feel like I have to go back to see if any of the bit in the school makes sense.

Then go investigate some bizzare cult.

Then wonder why I didn't just play it through in order.

Love it.

 

[Grampy_bone]

Two most awesome parts of the game: the Russian roulette scene, and the scene where you see inside Garcia's case...

 

[LobsterFeng]

I started to watch a walkthrough of Killer 7 on Youtube because I've never played it. Aww man, I only made to part 2 before I gave up. It was giving me a headache, and that was just from watching someone else play it.

Really good article though. You can tell when Yahtzee is being serious when there aren't any swear words.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Can we have a game based on Warren Ellis' Planetary series? Where the Tories sent out civil servant ghosts to assassinate pregnant prostitutes?

Yeah, crazy-ness for the sake of crazyness does not really appeal to me at all. Just fit a bunch of random arbitrary garbage together and you get a good-no, interesting at least game? I don't think so.

Insanity is awesome when it is used as an artistic choice. Meaning that there IS a clear coherent message hidden beneath the chaos, which is just trying to obscure it from you. I'm thinking of Psychonauts or Sam and Max or Amnesia or The Void.

In fact, compare The Void with Ice-Pick's most recent game Cargo: The quest for Gravity which was, as far as I could tell, a game about "kickick lil' mutant babies around for fun(literally).
Why?
WHY NOT!"

Yeah that's nonsense. Maybe they explain it, or hint at the explanation, later on... Dunno, couldn't watch it for too long in fear of a brain hemorrage. On the other hand, I watched a LOT of videos for The Void.... and yeah, it makes sense, in spite of how crazy it seems; and it's a cool game.

 

[I want to leave because extra credits is gone]

I tried playing killer 7 a long time ago. I made it past the first boss monster and then gave up. I think if the game was a third or first person shooter and there was not a wierd guy in a gimp suit I would have played more of it.

 

[Korne]

I've been waiting for Killer 9 to show up in one of Suda's other releases, but haven't seen anything yet. Thinking back on the game, I don't remember much of it making sense, but I loved every minute of it. What a good trip!

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Killer7 is so strange that I can't help being fascinated by it. I really liked watching other people play it and trying to figure out what in the world was going on and reading other people's interpretations of it. As far as the gameplay goes, though, it's borderline unplayable, as far as I'm concerned. I don't think I even made it halfway through on my own before I couldn't take it anymore. Of course, I'm one of those weirdos who found P.N.03 the most satisfying out of the Capcom 5 from a gameplay perspective...

 

[N_Gin]

In my opinion Killer7 was, for lack of a better word, a heavy experience. Contrary to many other games I've played Killer7 doesn't hold you by the hand while it leads you from plotpoint to plotpoint, just so that you can feel that you are smart when you know what will happen next. And, most imoportantly, it doesn't apologize for anything (something that I dislike about modern films and TV-series, and also games, when there is no real sense of mystery in the story [because the viewer/player might feel dumb for not immediately knowing what was going on and therefore consider the experiene to be a bad one]). Sorry about that overly long sentence...

There are a few games, often slightly older ones, that have left me thinking after the end credits have rolled. Glass Rose was such a game. And, just a few days ago I played through the Born from a wish - scenario for Silent Hill 2 Director's Cut for the first time. And it was one of the most intense game-experiences that I've had for a long time (a feeling that most of the new games that I've played have missed completely). Killer7 provided me with a similar feeling, and for that I give all credits to it and the creative minds that stand behind it.

 

[AbstractStream]

Aaah, Killer 7. I remember Killer 7. K7 was kinda whacked, but it was still my cup of tea. Killer 7 is something No More Heroes should have aimed to be. Not in a replica kind of way, but gotten some pointers. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed NMH...but aaah Killer 7.

 

[Mouse One]

Killer7 sounds intriguing, but ince again, I'm irritated by the fact that it's almost impossible to find old classic games that you can easily play on your modern rig. Still would love to play the Silent Hill series, for example. You can watch Charlie Chaplin movies, but you can't play most games from the late 90s.

FWIW, I had a similar reaction to playing Zeno Clash. Tight little game, amazing artwork, surreal plot that clearly isn't intended to always make sense (little things like a character who can only walk forward, no turns, waddling through a fight without affecting it). But the controls were clunky, and the whole plot was on rails with no choices available to the player that would affect the eventual outcome. That said, its imagery keeps haunting me in a way no polished up AAA FPS (or what have you) has. God bless indie companies.

 

[BgRdMchne]

Can we have a game based on Warren Ellis' Planetary series? Where the Tories sent out civil servant ghosts to assassinate pregnant prostitutes?

Things are so mediocre these days...

I came in here to post that I was going to check out K7, because Yahtzee's description made it seem as twisted as Ellis' books.

 

[RA92]

Can we have a game based on Warren Ellis' Planetary series? Where the Tories sent out civil servant ghosts to assassinate pregnant prostitutes?

Yeah, crazy-ness for the sake of crazyness does not really appeal to me at all. Just fit a bunch of random arbitrary garbage together and you get a good-no, interesting at least game? I don't think so.

Dude. Conservative Tories sending out civil servants to kill prostitutes. What part of that didn't make sense?

(Anyway, I gave you Planetary. It's within the stack of comics I got you the last time I went over to your place. Just download ComicRack and go through 'em.)

 

[moosek]

killer7 is not fun.