Well, rather decently actually. Capcom's latest offering is a heavily story-driven game with several lengthy cutscenes littered throughout each of the game's main five missions. The game's story begins with two dark, mysterious individuals, whose rivalry is finally coming to breaking point. The first is Kun Lan, who controls a criminal organization corrupting the streets of America. People with crazed and distorted smiles, known as 'Heaven's Smiles', are appearing throughout the world, causing chaos and confusion. The other individual the player sees is Harman Smith, a wheelchair-bound assassin with a multiple-personality disorder of considerable proportions whose task it is to restore order to the world with the help of seven Smith assassins: Garcian, Dan, Kaede, Con, Kevin, Coyote and Mask De Smith. Hence ‘Killer 7’.
The storyline is highly prominent throughout Killer7, and PALGN is happy to report that it doesn’t disappoint. To say any more than what's already been divulged on the narrative would spoil a big part of what this game is all about though, but rest assured that things are not always what they seem. Refreshingly, it’s one of those games that doesn’t spoonfeed you every detail, but at the same time gives you enough information and back-story so that the player can make sense of it all. Sure, there are parts that are highly confusing and sometimes just downright weird, but by the time the end credits roll, the important gaps are filled while other things have been left beautifully open for your own imagination to fill in the cracks. Few games these days, outside of RPGs and Konami’s Metal Gear Solid games, trigger discussion. But PALGN guarantees that by the end of this game, you’ll be sharing your personal thoughts and theories with friends and forum members alike.
Details on how Killer7 actually plays have always been somewhat ambiguous, so let's unravel the mystery. Given the uniqueness of the control scheme, movement of your character is initially confusing, but turns out to be deceptively simple. The game is played along fixed rails rather than offering traditional 3D movement, so movement along corridors and through buildings is simply a matter of holding A. The B button turns you around, while tapping B when moving performs a much quicker turn. Once you have reached an alternate pathway, the screen is split into options. Here you merely have to press the analog stick in the direction you want to head, and your character continues along that path. Simple.
Except it would be if it wasn’t for the 'Heaven’s Smiles' littering the place. Thankfully, each of the Killer 7 assassins come appropriately armed. By holding the R trigger you will enter firstperson combat mode where you shoot enemies by aiming with the stick (typically, there’s an option for both normal and invert aiming) and tapping A button Resident Evil 4-style. 'Heaven’s Smiles' are invisible to the naked eye, but their manic laughing will always provide clues on their locations. To shoot them you first have to be able to see them and with a squeeze of the L trigger you will scan everything you see, revealing any enemies and, more importantly, their weakpoint.
This is going to hurt….
With every enemy that you kill, you receive their blood which is stored in either test tubes (for thin blood) or a beaker (for thick blood). Killing enemies via their weak points gives you more blood. The blood in test tubes allows you to heal yourself and also to perform special, character-specific techniques while blood in beakers can be traded in at any of the many TV sets in the game and used to increase your character's power and abilities. Standard attributes - such as character speed and shot power - can be upgraded, but new moves like double shots, counter attacks and ‘down shots’ that you can use on floored foes become invaluable later on. Counter attacks are performed by pressing X when in firstperson mode. Here, your character will automatically defend themselves in close combat with an enemy. The downside is you don’t get any blood for the kill so it’s a last resort tactic really, but it’s essential to learn if you want to stay healthy.
The variety of 'Heaven’s Smiles' you face seems quite limited at first, but they soon become more diverse. Your commonest enemies are simply, human-like creatures with slow movement and an obvious weak-point, but it’s not long before you face more taxing foes. Some fly frantically through the air, some require careful shooting to spin them around to shoot a weakpoint located on their backs, while others run directly at you in a mad, kamikaze dash, exploding on impact. There are also mini boss-like creatures that require extensive firepower or specific weaponry before they’re defeated. The 'Heaven’s Smiles' that produce eggs call for the use of a particular character, while the huge, 50ft beasts you find guarding roadways need to be dealt with using sheer firepower and accuracy. Although PALGN won’t deny that a wider selection of foes wouldn’t have hurt the game, with new enemies popping up in every mission, there's a good enough assortment here to prevent things getting stale.
As mentioned earlier, you take control of seven Smith assassins. Each of these has their own weapon. So Dan Smith has a powerful magnum with special blood-using features, Con has quick firing dual pistols while Kaede is equipped with a scoped handgun, ideal for taking out distant enemies or for precise zoomed shots. While most of the 'Heaven’s Smiles' can be defeated with any character, there are times where you’ll need the ranged combat of Kaede or the sheer power of Mask De Smith’s grenade launchers to take them down.
More importantly, each Smith has their own special abilities too. Puzzle solving is a large part of what Killer7 is all about, and a lot of them rely on usage of all character skills and weapons. With a press of the Y button in certain situations, you can activate your special move. Kevin’s invisibility is ideal for passing through laser beam alarms for example, Coyote can pick locks and access high platforms and Mask De Smith has the strength to move heavy objects blocking the way. The puzzles throughout possess a wealth of variety about them.
And along with character-specific puzzles and Resident Evil-style item carrying/door unlocking affairs, there’s also an assortment of elemental rings you will discover that play a key part all the way through the game. Thus, you’ll be using the ‘Heat’ ring to light lamps to illuminate dark doorways, the ‘Water’ ring to extinguish fireplaces, and there’s even a ring that reverses time to revert broken items to back how they were previously. How PALGN could have used that one a few times in day-to-day life.
The main reason behind all these puzzle-solving shenanigans is to find special ‘Bullets’. These are used to gain access to the 'Colosseum' on each mission, guarded by what I can only describe as a gateway resembling a nightclub entrance (hell, there’s even trance music when you’re allowed to pass). Progression through here usually leads to a boss encounter or a meeting with your target for the mission. In keeping with the game's central philosophy, the Boss fights are typically untraditional. Some are incredibly basic affairs, where the player needs to merely the enemy more times than they hit you before the time limit runs out. But there are some real gems in here, including a superb western-style quick draw battle which is all about instant reflexes. While a few of them lacked the epic feel of something from say, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metroid Prime or Resident Evil 4's bosses, they're refreshingly different from what the majority of other games offer. Going into detail about any of them would really spoil things so PALGN will remain tight-lipped.
Texas has never looked this good.
The length of Killer7 is around 10hours for the first play through, but there are actually a few different ways to play the game. Upon starting a new game, you are presented with two difficulty settings, both of which are quite different and require a bit of consideration before selecting. The first option is the easier setting. Here, enemies are easier to kill, their weakpoint can be locked-on using the L-trigger and they produce more blood. The map (activated via the X button) showing key areas/character specific locations. The puzzles on this difficulty have been tweaked so they're slightly easier as well. For example, there’s a room on Mission 1 where you have to light candles. On the default setting, the candles have numbers on them so it’s easy to work out which order they need to be lit, while on the harder setting the numbers aren’t there, meaning you’ll have to use trial and error (or pray there’s a memo with some info on it). For this reason alone, I would suggest playing it first time through on the normal setting, but for those wanting a tougher combat experience and fewer clues with puzzle-solving, the option is there. Just don't say PALGN didn't warn you.
Upon completion, an even harder mode unlocks with an extra playable character, so there’s good reason to play through it again, regardless of what setting you chose first time. In fact, we'd go so far to say that the game is better on the harder setting, certainly in combat anyway. By taking away the auto lock-on aiming, combat becomes more involving and, along with having less blood, becomes more of a challenge just to stay alive. It’s just this that highlights our biggest criticism of the game: some of the puzzles are a bit too vague on the harder setting, but the combat is more satisfying. At the end of the day, which you choose depends on whether you’d prefer to sacrifice some of the combat enjoyment for some help with the puzzles, or go for the harder setting and risk getting stuck now and again. It’s not a game-ruining fault by any means, but it is one that stops the final score being any higher than it is.
Once you’ve finished the game, playing Hard mode shouldn’t give you many problems. But had they just given the player an option to mix and match the different combat/puzzle difficulties it would have been better for the first-time player. As it is, there's a certain imbalance here. PALGN's other main criticism is how death is dealt with in the game. Should you ‘die’ with any of the Smiths, their body remains in the place they died. You then have to take Garcian from the last save point to wherever you died and go collect the body. Once you’ve done that you’re then transported back to the save point again when you can then continue from. Whilst this is an admirably original twist on the situation, and whilst PALGN understands the game has to punish death in some way, it does make for some monotonous wandering now and again (even though you rarely have to travel far). We've got some minor complaints about the occasional sub-par boss and the odd confusing cutscene as well, but overall Killer7 is a game packed full of positives.
And none moreso than the graphics. Ever since Killer7 was first shown, its unique cel-shaded, abstract style had been what’s made it stand out of the crowd. And in the flesh, it never fails to impress. The environments you traverse are simply stunning at times. The fairly mundane hallways of the early parts of the game (and of most of the screenshots we’ve seen over the months) are nothing much out of the ordinary. But the sheer beauty of later missions such as Texas for example, is like nothing this reviewer has ever witnessed. The rich blue sky, the endless draw distance, the mammoth buildings, later complimented by spiralling cliff paths and deep orange sunset backdrop, cannot be done justice with words. From a technical standpoint, there’s the odd jaggy here and there, but it’s far less evident in-game than on still screenshots. But it’s the animated cutscenes that are the real star of the show. Beautifully drawn and stunningly directed, these are a treat to watch from start to finish.
Killer7’s high quality presentation is typical of Capcom’s Shinji Mikami. In-game cutscene and general storytelling is done superbly with excellent camera work. Character association is done well too, with the game making sure the name is given onscreen on first sight of a new character, helping you mentally note the faces and names of the cast, much like in the way the Metal Gear Solid games do. Character design is top-notch too, with everyone looking satisfyingly different from one another. Enemy designs are pleasingly creative, with all sorts of hideous beasts awaiting you. In addition, various ghosts (supposedly past victims of the Killer 7) are littered throughout various points in each stage to give hints on how to solve puzzles and to fill in story gaps. Character animation is all suitably smooth with each character standing and moving differently from one another, and special mention has to go to the wonderful character-changing animation where they’ll explode into blood before reforming as your chosen Smith - something PALGN will never tire of seeing.
Only Mask De Smith is equipped to deal with these…
The soundtrack and general use of sound in Killer7 is equally as impressive (and important) as its graphics. Firstly, the music perfectly suits the onscreen action and helps pack the game full of atmosphere. The creepy halls of the early stages match the visuals splendidly, while the Texas mission is met with twanging guitars and a generally more buoyant beat. The following stage, set on a Mediterranean-like island in the heat of summer looks impressive as it is, but it’s the slow, lazy backing beat, complete with light guitar melodies, that gives the level the feel that it has.
Secondly, the voice acting is superb. While the game has its fair share of characters speaking (intentional) gibberish, when the game wants to be serious it does it very well. Cutscenes are very well scripted and acted out wonderfully, and a special mention should go to the main character Garcian, who is instantly likeable with some of the one-liners he comes out with. In-game there’s plenty of soundbytes too, with each character having their individual comments to dish out after dealing damage. Sound effects are all top drawer too with meaty gun sound, demented laughter and some of the most disturbing ambient noises you'll have heard in a game. Just leave the game on pause for a minute or so and you’ll see what we mean.
Killer7 is such a difficult game to sum up. With something so unlike anything else before, it’s hard to know whether you’re enjoying the game because it’s good or just because it’s got some originality in it, something that is quite a rarity in these days of profit margins and low-risk games. But there's one thing PALGN does know, and that's that in Killer7, the story, graphics and sound are arguably more prominent than the actual gameplay. Without its super-stylish graphics, slinkily animated cut scenes or its wonderfully weird and intriguing plot, I expect the score at the bottom of the page would have been a fair deal lower.
But then, some would say that about the Metal Gear Solid series, and like the aforementioned game, Killer7 is predominantly an ‘experience’. If you’re after a gameplay feast like some of the other games Shinji Mikami has worked on, such as Devil May Cry or Viewtiful Joe, you're not going to get it. This game is a treat for the eyes, the ears and the imagination first, and a game second. And it’s because of this that Killer7 will be the proverbial love/hate game of 2005, in much the same way P.N.03 was a couple of years ago. But if you’re one of those gamers who are tired of the same cut & paste games year in and year out, be sure to give Killer7 a try.
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