Retro Review: Killer 7
LisVender reviews:
Available on Gamecube and Playstation 2. Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture.
Here’s an example of a story-based game done right. Killer 7 is a fever dream of a game, comprised of an off-the-wall collection of experimental ideas. Goichi Suda, its writer, designer, and director, deserves the acclaim that this title has brought him. He has made a game that is truly unlike any other. It’s a fine game for action-adventure lovers, but you should try Killer 7 even if you just enjoy a good mindfuck. Killer 7 is not always an easy game to play, or even to understand, but don’t give up on it. It’ll haunt you.
It’s Friday night, and Harman Smith (God) and Kun Lan (the devil) are in the mood for a friendly competition. They take a good look at the world, and see that its nations are at peace, having stamped out terrorism, opened up all trade, and destroyed their nuclear stockpiles. Kun Lan decides that it’s time to introduce a new threat to humanity: the Heaven Smiles, an army of cackling suicide bombers who exist only to inspire fear. In response, Harman takes charge of a mysterious group of assassins called the Killer 7, who are singularly skilled at hunting the Smiles. So begins another turn in the cycle of human history, one that will be marked by many bizarre and terrible events.
THE KILLER 7
Garcian Smith, the front man. He’s the one who takes orders from Harman and missions from the U.S. Government. His silenced pistol is a poor weapon, but he’ll have to risk his neck occasionally to do corpse runs: Garcian is the only one who can recover fallen members of the team and bring them back to life.
Dan Smith, the all-rounder. He’s a cocky and angry fellow in a business suit who hefts a huge revolver. He can “charge” his gunshots to take out even the toughest enemies instantly.
Kaede Smith, a.k.a. Barefoot. Her pistol bears a scope for long-range sniping, and she can open hidden doors by showering them with her blood.
Kevin Smith, the oddball. Kevin is as pale as the moon, he never speaks, and he prefers throwing knives to guns. He can also turn invisible for short periods to sneak past enemies and tripwires.
Con Smith, the kid. Quickness is the name of Con’s game. His automatic pistols fire rapidly, he can sprint at high speed for a short time, and he can squeeze through tiny passages.
Coyote Smith, the thief. Sort of a mix between Dan’s power and Con’s mobility, Coyote can charge his shots, jump onto roofs, and pick padlocks.
Mask de Smith, the luchador. He’s big and slow, but when you need heavy firepower, Mask’s your man. His twin grenade launchers are devastating to groups of enemies, as well as to certain cracked walls.
The game’s look is as memorable as its cast. Few of its polygons are textured. The backgrounds are filled with simple color gradients, and every surface is edged with hard black shadows. It looks like an elaborately lit stage play, and that works to the game’s benefit: you can view any given screenshot of Killer 7 and recognize it immediately.
The game is divided into six chapters, and each chapter is represented by the target you’re out to eliminate. You’ll take control of the Killer 7 and pilot them through large, maze-like buildings and complexes. As you go, you’ll shoot down hordes of Heaven Smile, converse with the ghosts of your past kills, solve the occasional puzzle, and collect widgey-whazzits to open doors and gain access to your targets.
None of these conventions sounds particularly unique for a video game, but Killer 7 grabs them and twists them into new shapes. While most shooting games give you an arsenal of weapons to switch between at any time, Killer 7 lets you switch entire assassins at any time. You choose the Smith you want from the pause menu, and your character literally transmogrifies from one form to another. You’ll have to do this many times to advance in the game.
Another striking feature is that you don’t use the control stick for movement. Instead, you hold A to move your character along a pre-determined path. You press B to turn him or her around to move in the opposite direction down that path. When you reach a point where you can choose from multiple paths or interact with objects, a list of choices appears. You select your choice of direction with the control stick, and then continue holding A to move along the path. You don’t have the freedom to move wherever you like, but in a way, this is kind of a relief. You don’t have to adjust the camera, and you’re only ever presented with meaningful options. You’re not going to be obsessively checking every door, corner, and wall for secrets to hoard, because you can’t. It’s really a daring and brilliant design choice. The only game I can think of that incorporates a similar sort of “on-rails” movement is The 7th Guest, but that game didn’t have bloodthirsty terrorists out to kill you.
The Heaven Smile are a violent lot, but they’re also rather cheery. As you run about the area, you’ll hear these mad bombers snicker at you. When that happens, hold the R trigger to enter first-person aiming mode. While aiming, pull the L trigger to perform a “scan,” which neutralizes the Predator-like camouflage the Smiles use. Suddenly, you’ll see these hideous, gangly beasts creeping toward you. Lock on to them using B, aim manually with the left stick, and press A to fire.
The shooting action plays something like The House of the Dead. None of the Smiles have long-range attacks; their only method of fighting is to march up to you and detonate their bombs. You must finish them off before they can get close enough to do that. The trouble is that most of the Smiles don’t go down easily. You can tear off their arms, legs, and even their heads, and they’ll continue to come after you. Every Smile has a glowing weak point which can be shot for a one-hit kill, but it’s not easy to hit, and sometimes it’s in an awkward place, like a knee or an elbow.
You could just use Mask and his grenades to burn up the bad guys, but there are a couple of drawbacks to that strategy. First, some enemies are immune to grenades, and second, burning the enemies wins you no blood.
Blood is the currency of Killer 7, and you earn it by blasting off Smile limbs or by shooting out their weak points. You’ll collect two kinds of blood: thin blood, which is depicted as test tubes while aiming, and thick blood, which is depicted as a beaker in the pause menu.
Thin blood can be used to heal your character, or to power special attacks. Dan, Kevin, Mask, and Coyote can each “charge up” their weapons by pressing Y while aiming. Each level of charge requires one tube of thin blood. Some enemies can only be killed using these charged attacks, and sometimes you’ll be unable to advance in the game until those enemies are killed. This means that without blood, you’re fucked.
The key to success is to be a sharpshooter. Your gunplay must be accurate enough to consistently hit the Smiles’ blood-spilling weak points, while also being fast enough to kill the Smiles before they can reach you. Once you get the hang of it, picking off Smiles with one shot a piece is a thrilling and wonderful rush.
It’ll take practice to get to that point, but upgrades are available to help you along. You can purchase them at the “Harman’s Rooms” that are scattered about each area. Thick blood is converted into a special serum, which is then used to improve the stats of your team members. You can boost each assassin’s attack power, increase their firing rates, reduce the kicks of their guns, and inflate the hitboxes of enemy weak points. At the beginning of the game, it’s easy to keep every member at an even level of strength, but towards the end, the upgrades become pricey, and you’ll have to make some tough choices about whom to improve and in what areas. Odds are you’ll grow to specialize in the use of a particular Smith, and I recommend you pour most of your upgrades into that guy (or girl).
As a bizarre game, Killer 7 also has some bizarre problems. The worst one is that its difficulty is uneven. It’s all over the place. Early missions have some tough encounters against hordes of spawning Smiles, while later areas can be extremely tame. These tough fights aren’t too bad if you use the different skills of the Smiths effectively, but they still seem as though they belong in later stages. Meanwhile the final areas offer hardly any combat at all.
The puzzles are so simple as to be laughable, and if you still get stumped by them, there is a friendly character who will give you complete solutions in exchange for some thick blood. In case you encounter a confusing obstacle, you can check the map screen for icons that tell you exactly which Smith you need to use to get past that obstacle. It’s nice that you’ll rarely get stuck, but it makes me wonder why the puzzles are even there in the first place.
Then there’s the story. It’s a cool story, told in a tongue-in-cheek, horror-movie style that keeps you from taking it too seriously, but it’s also a little ambitious, and by “ambitious,” I mean confusing. It’s messy and wild, which can be fun if you’re in the mood for it, but after a while it can make you crazy. This is a story you want to seize by the shoulders and force down in a chair so it can start talking sense. It leaps from one plot thread to another in an instant, it dramatically introduces characters who may or may not be significant, it delves into the pasts of some of the Smiths while ignoring others, and it never bothers to piece its own dreamlike fragments together. You might be able to connect some of the dots if you’re especially attentive, but a host of unanswered questions will still remain. The natures of Harman, Dan, and Garcian are especially strange, but the game never clarifies them, so you have to draw your own conclusions. The finale is a series of half-revelations that seem like they could be powerful and resonant, if only they actually explained anything.
I get the feeling that Goichi Suda had a hell of a lot to say in this game, but he didn’t have the time or the resources to make it all fit. If you’re the sort of person who pores over episodes of Twin Peaks, Aeon Flux, or Lost in search of the tiniest connections in logic, then Killer 7 will keep your mind revved and spinning for weeks. If you’d rather ignore a game’s story, or prefer that the it tie up its own loose ends, then Killer 7 is not the one for you.
Killer 7 is a polarizing experience. Its nightmarish look, unorthodox controls, freaky characters, and shattered plot pissed off a ton of gamers back in 2005, and it didn’t sell well in any territory. Odds are that it will still piss off a lot of people today. Your enjoyment of this game will depend on your willingness to be hypnotized by its creepy world. Once you’re drawn into it, you’ll find Killer 7 to be a lovely gem.
If I still haven’t convinced you of how exceptional this game is, check out the following video, which illustrates the action better than I can describe it.
Controller1.com rating: 2/3
