Killer7
http://media.strategywiki.org/images/5/54/Killer7_box.jpg
Originality is a very peculiar thing. Everyone yearns for it, and yet it often proves absolutely polarising when it is found; one man?s breath of fresh air is another man?s art house claptrap. If ever there was a game that proved this theory, that game would be Killer7. The chances are, if you put ten people in a room playing it, five would love it and five would loathe it, because it is a game that understands you cannot please all people at all times, and as such makes no attempt to. However, if you yearn for something that can legitimately call itself unique, something wild and weird, something so ?out there? that your mum wouldn?t want to come within a hundred feet of it, then you could do worse than dip into Capcom?s celebration of all things clinically insane, and test just how open-minded you are when confronted with a game so brash in its? defiance of everything that has gone before.
Examples of this defiance were made quite evident before the game was even released ? when asked how the game played just a few months before its completion deadline, Goichi Suda (the man behind developers Grasshopper) admitted he wasn?t sure because the focus in development had largely been on the story. Thankfully, the effort afforded to the story shows. It?s massively confusing, of course, and as such will probably infuriate players who prefer a story steeped in detail with everything laid out in front of you, but it?s so stylishly told it?s never frustrating. The (very) basic version of the plot sees the Japanese United Nations Party attempting to covertly take over the world, and in an attempt to prevent this, the US hires the mysterious assassin Harman Smith, a wheelchair-bound pensioner who can summon any of seven personalities into existence through the medium of television, known as the Killer7 assassins. On their way to completing their hits, the Killer7 are impeded by the terrorist group Heaven Smile, a group led by Harman?s best friend Kun Lan, who spread a virus which turns its? victims into invisible, walking bombs. Of course, to sum up the plot in two sentences does it a massive disservice; every line of dialogue is steeped in cryptic implications, and the game often conjures up some very peculiar imagery when it wants to make a point. To spoil these would be to sap half the fun from the game, and even though you will often wonder just what the hell is going on, it will feed on your imagination and you will find yourself drawing your own conclusions. The most powerful words in Killer7?s story remain unspoken, and as a result the story rises and falls on the imagination of the player. If you want to invest your thoughts into the story and try and solve the many mysteries it has to offer, you will delight in where the game takes you. In fact, it?s probably the only game ever that requires further reading of Eastern and Western culture to fully ?get?, but comprehension is not where the appeal of the story lies. It is intentionally open-ended and confusing in an attempt to speak to the player, and as such the story will take the character into realms far more bizarre than they could ever imagine, and whether you like this or not, try as you might, you won?t find anything else like it.
http://gamesrevu.com/wp-content/2008/10/killer-7-4.jpg
As much as the story?s brazenly weird weavings help shape the Killer7 experience, it is most certainly enhanced by some of the most gorgeously directed visuals ever seen in a video game. At this point, it?s important to point out that the Gamecube version has vastly superior graphics and much quicker loading times than the PS2 equivalent, and if you are considering buying it, is probably the definitive version (although it is important to remember the Gamecube edition is quite rare and much more expensive). The game uses a bleached-out, cel-shaded look that lacks in detail but more than makes up for it in art direction. Killer7 seems to go out of its way to be the antithesis to the stock grey-brown shooter and relentlessly quests to astonish the player with an impressive palette of gaudy colours and visual flourishes assaulting your eyes. It?s really quite a treat to see the game in motion, and you?ll want to drive through the levels to see what outrageous landscape you?ll find yourself in next. It?s testament to the designers? imagination that they can take something as dreary as a hotel and still make it a wonder to behold using in-your-face colour schemes, strategically placed flower petals and smatterings of blood.
Indeed, while the look of the game is intentionally perturbing, like an oddball cartoon, the game is one of the most ?mature? ever released, and not just because of the violence. The gore content is somewhat tame by today?s standards, although limbs and heads fly about with abandon, but Killer7 isn?t afraid of profuse swearing, explicit sexual content and some rather controversial socio-political subject matter. Indeed, if only the game had sold a little better in the West, it probably would have attracted a lot more controversy. It?s one of the few games where the age rating on the box doesn?t just stand for ?mindless violence?, rather that you need a ?mature? mind to fully appreciate what Killer7 stands for.
http://www.destructoid.com/elephant//ul/26489-550x-iwazaru2.jpg
Some readers may, at this point, question why I haven?t even touched upon the gameplay yet, and the reason for this is that, in a curious contrast to the story, it is actually very simple, although certainly no less unusual. The thing that most long-term gamers find difficult to grasp about playing Killer7 is the control scheme, which, while not bad (it?s responsive and functional) certainly feels archaic and odd if you?re used to more run ?n? gun all-action games. Movement in the game is on-rails, and you simply hold down a button to run along a pre-set path, press another button to make a 180 spin and retrace your steps, and occasionally flick the analogue stick to choose which way you want to go when you come to a junction. The simplified control scheme effectively lets the player go into autopilot and soak in the sights and sounds of the Killer7 universe, as well as work out what on earth is actually going on in the story. At least, it lets you do this some of the time. Often when you enter an area you?ll heard a burst of maniacal laughter, at which point you must hit the shoulder button to draw the characters? gun and enter the first-person mode. You then need to scan the area to reveal the laughing Heaven Smile enemies, who steadily make their way towards you as you pick them off. In this sense, the game is rather like a series of timed shooting galleries, as your targets shuffle towards you at varying speeds and you pump bullets into them, taking note of a small yellow ?critical point? on each enemy which, when shot, kills the enemy in one hit. The rest of the time you play the game will mostly be spent solving puzzles, although they?re rarely as inspired as most other features in the game. Much of the puzzle-solving is structured not dissimilarly to a very simple point-and-click adventure game; you explore the level, find either an item or password and use it to unlock new areas of the level. Many of these puzzles are a matter of simply having the right items at the right times, although the games? screwball logic can often leave you wondering just what the hell you?re meant to be doing, never mind why, although this bugbear is alleviated by the ghosts who ?haunt? the Killer7 such as Iwazaru, who spends his afterlife in gaudy red bondage gear giving hints to the player.
Sometimes, though, you?ll come across an obstacle which you can only pass using a certain member of the Killer7, as each of them has their own distinct abilities. There?s Dan, who possesses a powerful revolver that can fire an incredibly powerful charged shot, Kaede, who slits her own wrists to create a shower of blood used for breaking down invisible walls, Kevin, an albino who uses throwing knives and can turn invisible, Con, a fast teenager with super-hearing and automatic pistols, Coyote, a thief with a charge revolver similar to Dan?s who possesses the ability to pick certain locks and leap into high areas other personas cannot reach, and Mask, a wrestler who wields grenade launchers used for smashing physical barriers. Each of these six characters can be switched between at will, and have stats which can be increased by spending the blood you accumulate from killing Heaven Smiles. All of their abilities need to be used at some point during the game, although it?s rarely that imaginatively employed; it?s merely a matter of knowing which persona does what. There is, as the games? title would suggest, a seventh character, a ?cleaner? known as Garcian. He is arguably the most important character in the game, as when another persona dies it falls to Garcian to retrieve their remains and resurrect them using his abilities. If Garcian happens to die, then the game ends. You can also play as the master personality, Harman, on occasion, however this only happens in scripted sections which are effectively interactive cutscenes. Whilst the character switching is quite well-implemented, not all the characters are particularly well balanced and you?ll find yourself sticking to one or two combat-specialist (most likely Dan and Con) personas most of the way through the game. The likes of Coyote are all but useless apart from when it?s an absolute necessity to use his ability, since Dan is just as fast and much more powerful. It would have been nice to see a more genuine attempt to encourage the player to want to try every persona rather than a handful of persona-specific obstacles.
http://img.gkblogger.com/blog/imgdb/000/000/158/978_2.jpg
As an artistic statement, then, there are few games that can touch Killer7 in its? ambitions. However, as a game, as a toy designed to entertain, it is most certainly flawed. Many of these flaws, ironically, come from the games? simplified control scheme. Later levels pit you against much tougher enemies, sometimes in very tight corridors which often have a lot of blind corners. You will often find yourself hearing laughter coming from around one of these aforementioned blind corners, meaning you have to dash round the corner before the enemy gets close, draw your gun, scan the area and then open fire. This is all well and good, but if you find the Smiles getting too close for comfort, you can?t avoid them. You need to spin round, run away and, if you?re right on top of a junction, select a destination to make your escape. It might not sound like much, but all these steps eat up the valuable milliseconds that lie between you and a frustrating, often unfair, death, particularly on harder difficulties where most enemies kill you in one hit. In addition to this, finding your way around the levels can prove to be a pain as almost every junction is marked as a ?Hallway? and the map you are provided with is indecipherable and, ultimately, useless. Killer7 is also inescapably linear by it?s very definition ? there?s one way and one way only through the entire game, and you almost feel as if the game is purposefully juxtaposing this simplicity and repetition with the open-ended complexity of the story, just to disconcert you a little more than you already are after being talked to by the ghost of a red gimp.
If you can handle the linearity, and can accept the fact that the gameplay is simply a strung-out bridge between plot developments, though, and if you enjoy a plot that points a gun at your head and forces you to think about it without giving you any clear explanation itself, then you will probably enjoy Killer7. It?s a game that is targeted at a very specific type of person, and it makes no attempts to appease those who just don?t get it ? it makes the player bend to the will of the game, rather than pandering to any particular fanbase. In some ways, it?s incredibly refreshing to see a game take such an approach that is barely considered in any medium today, least of all video games which by definition are required to be entertaining first and art second.
http://mindtankstudios.com/images/killer7.jpg
Of course when throwing up Killer7?s faults, it?s important to judge them in the light of the experience you?re getting from it, because it really is unlike anything else on the market, even to this day. Of course, this point leaves me trying to sum up what the Killer 7 experience is like, a task which is most certainly not an easy one. From start to finish, it does not stop for breath in its? attempts to confound and astonish the player and builds up superbly to the jaw-dropping finale, but if you are not aligned with what the game aims to achieve you will probably have given up long before then. Indeed, chances are many people reading this have done exactly that, but those who haven?t tried to forge their own Killer7 memories owe it to themselves, as gamers, to do so. The people who have played it will either liken it to a work of modern art or a clumsy, pretentious failure, but they will never, ever forget it, and this, ultimately, is the legacy of Killer7.
<spoiler=Other reviews><url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.122501>Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
http://media.strategywiki.org/images/5/54/Killer7_box.jpg
Originality is a very peculiar thing. Everyone yearns for it, and yet it often proves absolutely polarising when it is found; one man?s breath of fresh air is another man?s art house claptrap. If ever there was a game that proved this theory, that game would be Killer7. The chances are, if you put ten people in a room playing it, five would love it and five would loathe it, because it is a game that understands you cannot please all people at all times, and as such makes no attempt to. However, if you yearn for something that can legitimately call itself unique, something wild and weird, something so ?out there? that your mum wouldn?t want to come within a hundred feet of it, then you could do worse than dip into Capcom?s celebration of all things clinically insane, and test just how open-minded you are when confronted with a game so brash in its? defiance of everything that has gone before.
Examples of this defiance were made quite evident before the game was even released ? when asked how the game played just a few months before its completion deadline, Goichi Suda (the man behind developers Grasshopper) admitted he wasn?t sure because the focus in development had largely been on the story. Thankfully, the effort afforded to the story shows. It?s massively confusing, of course, and as such will probably infuriate players who prefer a story steeped in detail with everything laid out in front of you, but it?s so stylishly told it?s never frustrating. The (very) basic version of the plot sees the Japanese United Nations Party attempting to covertly take over the world, and in an attempt to prevent this, the US hires the mysterious assassin Harman Smith, a wheelchair-bound pensioner who can summon any of seven personalities into existence through the medium of television, known as the Killer7 assassins. On their way to completing their hits, the Killer7 are impeded by the terrorist group Heaven Smile, a group led by Harman?s best friend Kun Lan, who spread a virus which turns its? victims into invisible, walking bombs. Of course, to sum up the plot in two sentences does it a massive disservice; every line of dialogue is steeped in cryptic implications, and the game often conjures up some very peculiar imagery when it wants to make a point. To spoil these would be to sap half the fun from the game, and even though you will often wonder just what the hell is going on, it will feed on your imagination and you will find yourself drawing your own conclusions. The most powerful words in Killer7?s story remain unspoken, and as a result the story rises and falls on the imagination of the player. If you want to invest your thoughts into the story and try and solve the many mysteries it has to offer, you will delight in where the game takes you. In fact, it?s probably the only game ever that requires further reading of Eastern and Western culture to fully ?get?, but comprehension is not where the appeal of the story lies. It is intentionally open-ended and confusing in an attempt to speak to the player, and as such the story will take the character into realms far more bizarre than they could ever imagine, and whether you like this or not, try as you might, you won?t find anything else like it.
http://gamesrevu.com/wp-content/2008/10/killer-7-4.jpg
As much as the story?s brazenly weird weavings help shape the Killer7 experience, it is most certainly enhanced by some of the most gorgeously directed visuals ever seen in a video game. At this point, it?s important to point out that the Gamecube version has vastly superior graphics and much quicker loading times than the PS2 equivalent, and if you are considering buying it, is probably the definitive version (although it is important to remember the Gamecube edition is quite rare and much more expensive). The game uses a bleached-out, cel-shaded look that lacks in detail but more than makes up for it in art direction. Killer7 seems to go out of its way to be the antithesis to the stock grey-brown shooter and relentlessly quests to astonish the player with an impressive palette of gaudy colours and visual flourishes assaulting your eyes. It?s really quite a treat to see the game in motion, and you?ll want to drive through the levels to see what outrageous landscape you?ll find yourself in next. It?s testament to the designers? imagination that they can take something as dreary as a hotel and still make it a wonder to behold using in-your-face colour schemes, strategically placed flower petals and smatterings of blood.
Indeed, while the look of the game is intentionally perturbing, like an oddball cartoon, the game is one of the most ?mature? ever released, and not just because of the violence. The gore content is somewhat tame by today?s standards, although limbs and heads fly about with abandon, but Killer7 isn?t afraid of profuse swearing, explicit sexual content and some rather controversial socio-political subject matter. Indeed, if only the game had sold a little better in the West, it probably would have attracted a lot more controversy. It?s one of the few games where the age rating on the box doesn?t just stand for ?mindless violence?, rather that you need a ?mature? mind to fully appreciate what Killer7 stands for.
http://www.destructoid.com/elephant//ul/26489-550x-iwazaru2.jpg
Some readers may, at this point, question why I haven?t even touched upon the gameplay yet, and the reason for this is that, in a curious contrast to the story, it is actually very simple, although certainly no less unusual. The thing that most long-term gamers find difficult to grasp about playing Killer7 is the control scheme, which, while not bad (it?s responsive and functional) certainly feels archaic and odd if you?re used to more run ?n? gun all-action games. Movement in the game is on-rails, and you simply hold down a button to run along a pre-set path, press another button to make a 180 spin and retrace your steps, and occasionally flick the analogue stick to choose which way you want to go when you come to a junction. The simplified control scheme effectively lets the player go into autopilot and soak in the sights and sounds of the Killer7 universe, as well as work out what on earth is actually going on in the story. At least, it lets you do this some of the time. Often when you enter an area you?ll heard a burst of maniacal laughter, at which point you must hit the shoulder button to draw the characters? gun and enter the first-person mode. You then need to scan the area to reveal the laughing Heaven Smile enemies, who steadily make their way towards you as you pick them off. In this sense, the game is rather like a series of timed shooting galleries, as your targets shuffle towards you at varying speeds and you pump bullets into them, taking note of a small yellow ?critical point? on each enemy which, when shot, kills the enemy in one hit. The rest of the time you play the game will mostly be spent solving puzzles, although they?re rarely as inspired as most other features in the game. Much of the puzzle-solving is structured not dissimilarly to a very simple point-and-click adventure game; you explore the level, find either an item or password and use it to unlock new areas of the level. Many of these puzzles are a matter of simply having the right items at the right times, although the games? screwball logic can often leave you wondering just what the hell you?re meant to be doing, never mind why, although this bugbear is alleviated by the ghosts who ?haunt? the Killer7 such as Iwazaru, who spends his afterlife in gaudy red bondage gear giving hints to the player.
Sometimes, though, you?ll come across an obstacle which you can only pass using a certain member of the Killer7, as each of them has their own distinct abilities. There?s Dan, who possesses a powerful revolver that can fire an incredibly powerful charged shot, Kaede, who slits her own wrists to create a shower of blood used for breaking down invisible walls, Kevin, an albino who uses throwing knives and can turn invisible, Con, a fast teenager with super-hearing and automatic pistols, Coyote, a thief with a charge revolver similar to Dan?s who possesses the ability to pick certain locks and leap into high areas other personas cannot reach, and Mask, a wrestler who wields grenade launchers used for smashing physical barriers. Each of these six characters can be switched between at will, and have stats which can be increased by spending the blood you accumulate from killing Heaven Smiles. All of their abilities need to be used at some point during the game, although it?s rarely that imaginatively employed; it?s merely a matter of knowing which persona does what. There is, as the games? title would suggest, a seventh character, a ?cleaner? known as Garcian. He is arguably the most important character in the game, as when another persona dies it falls to Garcian to retrieve their remains and resurrect them using his abilities. If Garcian happens to die, then the game ends. You can also play as the master personality, Harman, on occasion, however this only happens in scripted sections which are effectively interactive cutscenes. Whilst the character switching is quite well-implemented, not all the characters are particularly well balanced and you?ll find yourself sticking to one or two combat-specialist (most likely Dan and Con) personas most of the way through the game. The likes of Coyote are all but useless apart from when it?s an absolute necessity to use his ability, since Dan is just as fast and much more powerful. It would have been nice to see a more genuine attempt to encourage the player to want to try every persona rather than a handful of persona-specific obstacles.
http://img.gkblogger.com/blog/imgdb/000/000/158/978_2.jpg
As an artistic statement, then, there are few games that can touch Killer7 in its? ambitions. However, as a game, as a toy designed to entertain, it is most certainly flawed. Many of these flaws, ironically, come from the games? simplified control scheme. Later levels pit you against much tougher enemies, sometimes in very tight corridors which often have a lot of blind corners. You will often find yourself hearing laughter coming from around one of these aforementioned blind corners, meaning you have to dash round the corner before the enemy gets close, draw your gun, scan the area and then open fire. This is all well and good, but if you find the Smiles getting too close for comfort, you can?t avoid them. You need to spin round, run away and, if you?re right on top of a junction, select a destination to make your escape. It might not sound like much, but all these steps eat up the valuable milliseconds that lie between you and a frustrating, often unfair, death, particularly on harder difficulties where most enemies kill you in one hit. In addition to this, finding your way around the levels can prove to be a pain as almost every junction is marked as a ?Hallway? and the map you are provided with is indecipherable and, ultimately, useless. Killer7 is also inescapably linear by it?s very definition ? there?s one way and one way only through the entire game, and you almost feel as if the game is purposefully juxtaposing this simplicity and repetition with the open-ended complexity of the story, just to disconcert you a little more than you already are after being talked to by the ghost of a red gimp.
If you can handle the linearity, and can accept the fact that the gameplay is simply a strung-out bridge between plot developments, though, and if you enjoy a plot that points a gun at your head and forces you to think about it without giving you any clear explanation itself, then you will probably enjoy Killer7. It?s a game that is targeted at a very specific type of person, and it makes no attempts to appease those who just don?t get it ? it makes the player bend to the will of the game, rather than pandering to any particular fanbase. In some ways, it?s incredibly refreshing to see a game take such an approach that is barely considered in any medium today, least of all video games which by definition are required to be entertaining first and art second.
http://mindtankstudios.com/images/killer7.jpg
Of course when throwing up Killer7?s faults, it?s important to judge them in the light of the experience you?re getting from it, because it really is unlike anything else on the market, even to this day. Of course, this point leaves me trying to sum up what the Killer 7 experience is like, a task which is most certainly not an easy one. From start to finish, it does not stop for breath in its? attempts to confound and astonish the player and builds up superbly to the jaw-dropping finale, but if you are not aligned with what the game aims to achieve you will probably have given up long before then. Indeed, chances are many people reading this have done exactly that, but those who haven?t tried to forge their own Killer7 memories owe it to themselves, as gamers, to do so. The people who have played it will either liken it to a work of modern art or a clumsy, pretentious failure, but they will never, ever forget it, and this, ultimately, is the legacy of Killer7.
<spoiler=Other reviews><url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.122501>Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
