Another game I've been enjoying recently is killer7. I wrote a review over at demolicious.org. Here's an archived copy.

killer7, a stylish 3rd person adventure game which chronicles the connection between two men whose intertwined paths develop into a compelling tale of revenge and altering personalities. Woo. Well I’ve been waiting for this one for a while, and though I’m possibly just half way through, here’s a review anyway.

killer7 is strange. Strange and wonderful. I’m still not too sure, but I think you play as Harman Smith, a wheelchair-bound old man who has access to several different personalities that collectively form the infamous bunch of assassins known as ‘killer7’.

on rails

At first glance, killer7 is essentially a 3rd person adventure. Also at first glance, you’ll realise an awful lot of evolutionary game design and convention have been bundled up, tied up in a sack and drowned in a river. Yes, yes. The on rails debacle.

For those who don’t know, an oft talked about feature during the development of the game was the fact that the player character could only move back and forth along a linear path. Movement controls are restricted to A for run forward and B for turn around 180 degrees. That’s it. You run along a pre-defined path down corridors, through larger open-plan buildings and even when outside. The camera is either fixed behind or in front of the player. When you meet a character, object or junction, you are informed by an overlay describing each. Touch the analog stick in the direction of the marker on screen whilst holding A, and off you run.

Its not the disadvantage those used to modern, more free-form 3rd person games might initially think. Initially, very confusing (and the map doesn’t exactly help) but once you get over the shock, it becomes fluid and really quite natural. Think about it: you don’t really need to be able to strafe a corridor when simply exploring, do you? It drives the action forward, emphasising combat and puzzles instead of top-to-bottom exploration. Effectively eliminating all faffing and frustrated strolls back and forth endlessly searching for an item that you think you might need or that last enemy to eliminate before being able to exit the level, killer7’s method means the pace of the game is kept up, and allows you to concern yourself with the best aspects of the game. But before that, a quick word on the seven personalities of killer7.

who said that, you schizo bastard?

Each persona has their own strengths and weaknesses as you’d guess, but each one also has access to special attacks and abilities. The personae can be switched either mid-game, or at a TV set in several locations all labelled ‘Harman’s Room’. The only exception to this is Garcian Smith, who acts as a kind of medic and is unable to switch personalities anywhere other than at a TV. If one of the personae dies, switch to Garcian to revisit the body (inexplicably depicted as a small paper bag) and revive that character. Incidentally, this becomes quite tiresome on later levels, especially as Garcian has significantly less firepower and no abilities whatsoever. Getting yourself killed as Garcian also means game over.

The other six personalities and their skills contain the key to solving puzzles and progressing through the levels. For example: Coyote Smith is able to pick locks; Kaede Smith has a useful scope zoom on her pistol allowing her to take out enemies at a distance; and Kevin Smith can turn invisible to avoid security cameras and alarm systems.

The puzzles on the whole aren’t that challenging. Find an item, use it somewhere else or find a picture containing a clue to the next puzzle. There’s also some free, and paid for, information available to hand in the form of a gentlemen holding a wrestling mask and the freaky Travis with his dead, dead eyes. The paid for information comes from the former, who asks you to shook the mask he’s holding, give him some of your tasty thick blood before donning the mask, giving you the finger and providing a further clue.

The relative simplicity of the puzzles does makes sense after a while, and as with the control system mentioned above, it all aids to keep up the pace and avoid frustration, leaving you to bother yourself only with some of the more fun aspects of the game. Shooting things.

you’re all fucked!

The bulk of the combat-based challenge of killer7 is to stop a wave of indiscriminate violence that is plaguing the world known as the Heaven Smile, which incidentally are some of the weirdest, most frightening enemies I’ve seen in some time. Most amble towards you like your average zombie, except these ones make you slightly more uncomfortable with their fixed, over-sized grins and maniacal laughter. There’s a whole bunch of variations on the theme, but the Heaven Smile’s sole method of inflicting damage is, when they get close enough, to explode in your face.

The combat works similarly to many Capcom games, behaving like a hybrid of Time Crisis and Resident Evil. Its like zombie-terrorist quick-draw. Your weapon needs to be aimed with the R trigger (switching to first person), then the enemies ‘scanned’ (most are invisible at first, your only warning being a maniacal cackle echoing around the area) with the L trigger. Most enemies can be taken out with a clipful or two, but some subtlety soon comes into play when you uncover enemies weaknesses and effective means of taking them out. In fact, incorrectly pumping round after round into some enemies has rather nasty consequences.

This style of gunplay is fast, encouraging and rewards accuracy. It can however be clumsy at the same time, depending on the characters position and facing, and that of the enemies. The fixed camera angle can hinder, too: for example running down a corridor only to be jumped by two or three Heaven Smile limping down the corridor off to your right. Raising your weapon whilst the character is facing the wrong way is also annoying, with there being no method of quickly turning the character’s point of view by anything other than 180 degrees with the B button. This usually results in a slow swing in first person view leading only to a bomb-crazed mutant ghost zombie filling the TV and exploding with a horrific cackle. And possibly an unwanted brown visitor in the new Resident Evil 4 boxers you’ve just bought off eBay.

blood rituals

Another aspect of killer7 worth mentioning is the way character and ability upgrades are handled. Every enemy killed release either thick or thin blood, which members of killer7 can absorb. Thin blood is used for recovery and powering up weapons with charged shots such as Dan Smith’s ‘Demon Shell’. Thick blood is given to the doctor in the TV who converts it into serum, used to level up certain skills. Common skills are power, speed, waver and criticals and some of the personalities can upgrade their special abilities using the blood serum, too. You only get a certain amount of use out of this doctor in the TV, so serums should be used wisely to power up the characters most effective for the area.

In some rooms, the TV is also the save method. I say ‘some rooms’ as there’s a maid called Samantha who, when in her maid get-up, allows you to save through the TV. However, when she’s in her civvies its no go. A small touch which adds to the suspense, but unfortunately also to the frustration in parts.

cel-shaded what now?

The graphics are both awesome and rubbish. Let me explain. From the first moment the beautiful purple box gets switched on, the sheer style and sounds are brilliant. Frightening and atmospheric. And quite, quite Japanese. And the in-game action looks wonderful too. The cel-shading carries the dark nature of the game through sharp edges, contrasting colours and harsh-lit shadows extremely well.

The downer here then is in the cut-scenes, which thankfully only enter play after the first mission so as not to take away from the fantastic first impression this game gives. In the cut-scenes, the cel-shaded characters just don’t look right. Unfinished, perhaps. The effectiveness of the style is lost on awkwardly animated characters with awkwardly dubbed American hero voices. Having said that, screen shots of the game just don’t do it justice, either. A mixed bag, then, where a stylish technique worked in some places, but not in others.

Summary? Resident Evil * (Zombies + Suicide Bombers) - Endless exploration = killer7. Wonderful to look at, great fun and is damn sure to improve your accuracy. I reckon the amount you’ll enjoy this one is proportional to how much you enjoy fast, accurate shooting, and perhaps how much patience you have with being repeatedly blown up.

YOUR HEAD A SPLODE.