I was hoping to get this game a lot sooner but unfortunately, Killer7 is sort of rare in Europe. It's hard to find and I eventually scored it a few weeks ago on Ebay for 30 euros (43 dollars).
This is definately the craziest, most disturbing and most violent game I have ever played. It's not ridiculously violent or anything, but it's pretty violent. There's also a sex scene in this game (nothing graphic).
SPOILERS START HEREI think I'll start explaining the story. The game's story is really bizarre and unbelievably elaborate and complicated. I don't fully understand it, but after reading wikipedia, here's what I think it is: It's about a group of assassins named Killer7. These 7 people all have unique capabilities. Basically, 6 of these assassins are murdered people and the only living person is a tall black dude named Garcian Smith that has multiple personalities that are the murdered assassins, but later it is revealed he was Emir Parkreiner in a 'previous life'. Emir Parkreiner was a dude who attented a school where they trained people to be assassins and politicians, and Emir was one of the best students. Later, for whatever reason, he kills 6 other assassins in a hotel where they were all gathered, and his mentor of his school, Harman Smith.
And then, he killed himself on the roof of the hotel because he regrets what he did. One way or the other, he is resurrected (by a demi-god who looks like Harman Smith, I think). Him, and the 6 other assassins he murdered. Emir is now called Garcian Smith and he can call upon the other six personalities:
Dan Smith: One of the most awesome bad asses to have ever bad assed his way into a videogame.
Kaede Smith: Japanese-American girl with a hot voice and awesome sniping skills.
Kevin Smith: A weird lookin' dude who throws knifes and turns invisible.
Coyote Smith: A thief who can open locks and jump really high.
Con Smith: A kid who can run unbelievably fast.
Mask de Smith: A pro-wrestler with grenade launchers.
Garcian Smith has the ability to resurrect the other assassins if they have died while playing this game.
The game starts with Garcian Smith and he has no idea what he was in his previous life (Emir). Somewhere at the end of the game, you revisit the hotel where you killed the people you were in control of in cold blood (Dan, Kaede, Coyote, Con and Mask, no idea about Kevin though). You get the memory flash backs and you realize who you truly are. It is also revealed that the big case Garcian always walks with carries all the weapons of the other assassins, which means all the killers he could become he was actually himself all along. Garcian himself is an awesome guy either way. Throughout the game, you receive things to do that are all politically motivated jobs, and it's mostly about the East (Japan) vs the West (US). At the end of the game, you can actually decide the fate of both countries. You can decide to kill this one dude in favor of the US, or let him live in favor of Japan. Doing what's best for Japan is IMO best for the entire world because what goes down in the US involves a lot of dirty politics, and US wanting to nuke Japan has to do with the US wanting to cover things up (it has to do with the presidential elections and how they are rigged from the start).
SPOILERS END HEREAnyway. The game is cel-shaded and use a shooter that is third person on rails and first-person. You walk while on rails and stop to shoot in first person, usually you shoot and kill creeps called Heaven Smiles. These creeps are cool IMO because of the crazy laughter. Killing them is very satisfying.
I'm not sure what else to say about this game, other than to say that this game is unbelievably awesome, even though it has its flaws. I'll mention what awesome things this game has though: Incredible voice acting. Everytime you shoot a Heaven Smile with a critical hit and thus killing it instantly, your character says something. It's a damn shame that there isn't more variety, but even then, it never gets old to hear your persona say something so awesome and badass. Examples: Dan Smith says "This is too easy" when doing a critical, and this guy has an awesome voice. Coyote Smith's line is "You're FUCKED", and Con Smith's is "Fuck you!". It's pretty awesome.
This game has unbelievable style and some awesome voice acting. The person doing Harman Smith's voice is Murdock from the A-Team, and it's a cool voice. I love good voice acting in game so it's one of the reasons why I loved playing this game. It's got some awesome music, too.
It's kinda weird how most of the stuff in the game is in-game cutscenes, using the in-game engine and stuff, but some cutscenes are actually fully animated, like a full-blown anime. Those are nice to watch, but I would have preferred some consistency.
Damn, what more can I say? This game is awesome.
Killer7 didn't sell so well unfortunately, it was released for Gamecube and PS2. Gamecube version is the superior version because it has better graphics, shorter load times and better control. So if you want to try it, get the Gamecube version and play it on your Wii. Killer7 also sold better on Gamecube. I think it sold around 50k in total, worldwide. So it's a very unpopular game, which is absolutely ridiculous, IMO. It seems to have a following on the internet though (See: NeoGAF).
The biggest beef people seem to have with Killer7 is the on-rails, which is ridiculous. This game features long corridors and all kinds of environments that would have no benefit to free-roaming controls. So why do people want free-roaming? I love free-roaming myself, I'm a huge fan of the 3D GTA games, but I loved the on-rails in this game.
Also I have to say, the difficulty in Killer7 is kind of low, because of the puzzles. This game has way too much easy hints on puzzles and such, it's as if the game has a built-in walkthrough. The puzzles are awesome, but very simple and easy to understand. But even then, there's a lot of hints and some blatantly tell you what to do, which is kind of stupid IMO. Hints come from 'remnant psyches' that are basically dead spirits that talk to you in a bizarre language that you can't really understand, so it uses subtitles. There are a lot of bizarre dead spirits that you can talk to, even people that you killed in the game show up at least once.
I think that about wraps it up. It's an awesome, stylish, meaty adventure that any serious videogamer should play with fantastic, awesome, memorable characters. My favorite characters are Dan Smith, which is a total and complete bad ass, and Susie Sumner, who appears in the game as a talking severed head and uses Japanese internet emoticons in the subtitles when communicating, something like this: (`v`)/
Dan Smith has definately become one of my favorite characters of all time. From the way he is dressed, to the way he talks, all the way down to
his gun of choice.
Suda 51
Shinji Mikami
Dan Smith awesomeness:
