Killer7 review

I thought I’d seen most of the weirdness that exist in games since I’m known around the offices as "him-who-plays-everything-that-is-Japanese-and/or-weird". In Under the Skin I played a tiny alien that ran around and possessed humans in order to utilize different powerups for… Well I don’t know what for really. About a week ago I reviewed Saint Seiya for PS2 – a combat game with no real combat game elements.

Furthermore, I’ve saved the world countless times in one bizarre RPG after another, I’ve fought my way through Movieworld with Viewtiful Joe, I’ve rolled monkeys around in balls and lived an alternative life among cute animals in Animal Crossing. But all of this combined could not prepare me for Killer7, Capcom's latest weird creation. And I do mean weird…

In the name of Harman

Killer 7 is apparently named after the "hero's" seven personalities.

Killer7 is half shooter, half adventure in which you control your character in various stages, shoot monsters and solve puzzles. But that's basically all the normality you're going to get. You play the hitman Harman Smith, who has seven different personalities besides his own. What’s special about Mr. Smith, however, is that not only does he change his personality mentally – he also physically alters his appearance. These personalities combined form a one-man army called Killer7.

And an army is needed, because the deranged Kun Lan is back, even though Harman Smith believed he killed him 30 years ago. Kun Lan has unleashed a mysterious virus that transforms ordinary people into monsters called Heaven Smile. These monsters are almost invisible and explode when they come in contact with people they capture. And unfortunately capturing people is all there is on the minds of these creatures, so it’s up to Harman Smith and his many personalities to stop the carnage.

Wacky gameplay

The storyline is crazy enough in itself but the gameplay still tops it. It took me quite a while to figure out what was going on in the first place. For instance, you can’t move around freely – if you press X, your character runs forward and if you press Triangle he turns around and runs in the other direction.

Whenever you come to a place where you can interact with something, various options pop up that you can select with the analogue stick or the D-pad.

While you’re running on tracks you once in a while hear hysterical laughter coming from out of nowhere, which means a Heaven Smile is nearby.

Then you need to press R1 to pull out your weapon and change the perspective into first-person. But since Heaven Smiles are invisible, you need to press L1 to scan the area, making the enemies visible and enabling you to lock on to them by pressing Triangle.

When you’ve identified your enemies you just need to blast away before they get too close and explode in your face. But that’s not all – Heaven Smiles bleed a lot when they are shot and you can use their blood for healing yourself, doing special attacks and creating a serum that can raise your stats at save points.

Heaven Smiles also have a weak spot, indicated by a glowing spot, and hitting this means more blood for you. You get similar results from hitting limbs and heads.

The seven madmen

You need to know what personality to use to proceed from certain points in the game, and luckily Capcom has been good enough to indicate this with icons on your map. All seven personalities aren’t available from the beginning, you’ll bring them to life as the game progresses. It’s possible to change between your personalities using televisions that are scattered around the game – mostly at save points.

Speaking of personalities; let’s take a look at their abilities. Harman Smith is the original and his abilities are shrouded in secrecy from the beginning. He is said to be the strongest of the Killer7, even though he is bound to a wheelchair. Then we have Garcian Smith, a black badass of a man who is basically the cleaner – meaning that he is the one you change into if one of the other personalities dies.

As Garcian you then need to reach the spot where the other personality died and collect the head, which is oddly enough always placed conveniently in brown paper bag. This enables you to resurrect the personality in question and go on with the game, but if Garcian dies the game is over.

Next personality is Dan Smith, an arrogant guy with a gun and the ability to make Demon Shell bombs out of blood. Third, we have KAEDE Smith, the only woman among the seven. She has a sniper rifle and is able to remove hidden barriers with the so-called Blood Shower – there’s nothing like a good shower of blood when the going gets tight.

Fourth member is the blind Con Smith, who compensates for his handicap with acute hearing and an ability to sprint very fast. How he manages to hit anything with his twin machine guns isn’t quite clear, but I assume his good hearing aids him in nailing the constantly laughing Heaven Smiles.

As number five is Coyote Smith, a skilled thief with the ability to pick locks. Sixth is Kevin Smith, not much of talker – he prefers to speak with his knife, when he is not busy making himself invisible that is. The seventh and last personality is the wrestler MASK De Smith, who carries two grenade launchers that inflict heavy damage but don’t leave much blood. MASK is also able to break through physical barriers.

More style than substance

Graphically Killer7 is very stylish. The game is kept in cel-shaded mock-seventies look with quite bizarre character designs. It’s no doubt a cool style but I wasn’t particularly impressed.

The sound is really good though – the mysterious ghosts and people you encounter in the game all speak in a weird way, seemingly without any real words, and this has a haunting hypnotic effect that fits well with the games overall mood. The enigmatic ghost helper Iwazaru will make the hair stand out from the back of your neck.

The music also gets credit for setting the mood in the game. This game has been perceived as more of an abstract work of art than a game by many and I’m beginning to see why. As a whole, Killer7 is really unique and in many ways directly provocative.

The gameplay element is somewhat lacking unfortunately. This is game that has divided reviewers all over the world, and I have to honestly say that I don’t like the way it is controlled. Shooting small glowing spots on enemies that have to be scanned every single time you want to shoot them is not my idea of great gameplay.

In theory it’s possible to move when you are fighting, but then you have to release R1, press Triangle to turn around and press X to run and often you are near one of the crossroads where you have to choose which way to go. Before you’ve made your mind up and pressed all the buttons, chances are that two Heaven Smiles have already exploded in your back and Garcian has to go out and do the dirty work.

This makes for more grief, though Garcian is cool he still has to run the same way that you just took from the last TV, and after the resurrection you have to take that trip AGAIN to get back to where you were killed. Die again and we are talking frustration that is potentially harmful to joypads and other electronic equipment…

On a side note the PS2 version suffers from slowdown and long loading times compared to the GameCube version, so buy the latter if you have the option.

I could keep on discussing the positive and negative aspects of this game, but one thing is certaing: it’s a very special game. Whether or not you like it is an entirely different matter. I’ve had some serious doubts as to what grade to give this game, but finally I reached a conclusion that I believed is the most honest. The gameplay part unfortunately subtracts from an otherwise exciting experience – but Capcom deserves credit for releasing such an alternative game in times where most companies stick to the safe blockbusters.

Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Julian Henlov (Progrock)