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Killer7
Anonymous Robot
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
God damn this is a fine game. I lent it to my brother and he took it away for several months. I never did beat it, because I got stuck on a puzzle for a really stupid reason, but I finally got it back and have been playing it compulsively. It pushed me away from RE4. It's much more fun on deadly difficulty- some real "oh shit" moments, especially when the Smiles get way up close, only to be hit in the critical spot.
First and foremost, this game has the single best plot that I have ever seen in a game. Kojima, take notes. This is how you do postmodernism and transcend the game/player barrier.
"They change by use of television. I don't know how they do it, or who is ordering the switch." "Bullshit, I change all the time without a TV....Oh shit it's me ordering the change, with my TV!
A lot of people complain about the gameplay, and I can certainly see where their reservations might be justified, but I personally am having a very good time with it. However, I wish that the game sold well enough to justify a Wii release. It's practically begging for it- the game is on rails, and based around trick shooting. It could be played with just the Wiimote.
A: Run
B: Fire
D pad down: Turn
D pad up (hold): Enter first-person
D pad right: Charge shot
D pad left: Ability
Wiimote: Aiming
Wiimote flick: Reload
Plus: Pause
Let's talk about this awesome game. If you haven't bought it, you can't go wrong for the 10-15 dollars it goes for now.
Sigs shouldn't be higher than 80 pixels - Elki.
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This is perhaps one of the greatest games of the last generation, and anybody who doesn't get it, for whatever reason, needs to keep trying.
As for a Wii release, fuck this Wii-make shit. It's got a Wii release: the Gamecube version. Suda51 is working on a Wii sequel, not a goddamn Wiimake.
It's good that the PS2 version got it (fractionally?) more attention, though it was made for the GC, and I think it shows.
I still need to try the new game + eventually.
I did get tired of "Fuck you" though.
Didn't that just add
I didn't see the big deal.
I figure it's a good excuse to replay it.
You're right here. I fucking hated Kevin. Useless character.
Kevin Smith tries to get himself into anything cool.
It is he who wields the
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
I played around with Mask, and apparently he doesn't need to reload any more after that upgrade, but it still seems like a thread that was left hanging.
I really wish I could have found the Gamecube version, I almost went mad looking at the loading screens on PS2.
Also, Suda 51 is not making a sequel to Killer 7. He's making a completely different game with no ties to Killer 7 other than the art style. No More Heroes looks fucking badass, though.
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
Kevin's invisibility is actually pretty useful, especially on the harder difficulties.
I always thought Killer 7 would make such an awesome film. Not as a straight forward action flick, but more like Hero. Breathtaking visuals set around a series of 'boss fights' with one of the Killer 7 facing off against one of the major players in the bad camp. Each fight having a unique visual style and direction.
Imagine Con going up against Ayame Blackburn in Curtis' house. That fight in the garage where the lights are out and the blinds are opening and closing occasionally, so you catch black and white glimpses of them darting around. And the Dan vs Curtis face off would be incredibly tense.
Also, Killer 7 vs Handsome Men.
I dunno, Travis Touchdown looks a good bit like the Travis in K7, and with the whole assassins plot thing, I'd be very surprised if the Smiths didn't at least make a cameo. I'm betting the stories are loosely tied somehow.
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And I am going to have to disagree and say that this would merit a Wii Edition, but it shouldn't be a straight port. Basically, the game was actually released was a completely cut down and shortened version of Suda 51's original concept, since the developer decided it would be to expensive for such a niche game (they were probably right). That is the story ennumerated upon in Hand in Killer 7, which contradicts the actual game events in several departments.
A director's cut remade with Wii controls (which the game seems like it was made for in the first place) would be keen.
You're right, that's it.
It's a shame that he sucks untill you get his 2nd upgrade, then he's just broken.
Different games are memorable for different reasons. Some, such as Tetris, have utterly compelling gameplay that gets over their simplicity in other areas. Why are you clearing lines? Where do they go? Who's sending these pieces at you? It doesn't matter. It's all about stacking tetrads and clearing lines, and the other questions do not and should not occur to you. Conversely, some games, despite having far less gameplay by any measure, still manage to make an indelible mark on your memory. If you've played them, you can't forget them. Killer7 is such a game.
The basic idea is that you are Harman Smith: a crippled old man and one of the world's deadliest assassins. At your disposal you have the Killer7. The Killer7 are, essentially, various personalities of Harman Smith. However, unlike most people with multiple personalities, Harman is actually able to physically manifest these 'personas' into real beings that can interact with the world and its inhabitants. There are seven of these personas, hence the organization's name, and they each have their own unique characteristics, weaponry, and skill sets. Set against Harman is Kun Lan, a terrorist who is able to create the 'Heaven Smiles,' people who have been converted into living weapons. Grinning and laughing they approach their target, then explode, taking their own lives to achieve their objective. Harman and the Killer7 have been hired to stop the Heaven's Smiles.
In terms of gameplay, Killer7 plays something like Myst meets House of the Dead. Hold "A" to make your character run forward; tap "B" to make him turn around 180°. If you come to a junction where there are multiple routes/items to interact with, the screen "shatters" into shards of glass. Tilt the analog stick in the direction of the shard you wish to select, hit "A" again, and keep moving. At any time you can hold the "R" trigger to go into first-person aiming mode, and in some areas you can hit the "Y" button to use your character's special power. Oh, and since enemies are, by default, invisible; while in first-person mode hit the "L" trigger to scan the environment and reveal any enemies in the vicinity. They laugh to let you know they're there, so that's your cue to blow the hell out of them. And blow the hell out of them you do. Combat is brutal, intense, and violent. Enemies can have their limbs shot off, and bleed profusely when you do. When you kill them, they geyser blood, unless you hit their weak spot, in which case they simply explode into an explosion thereof. If they reach you before you shoot them down your character will eventually die, leaving only a bloody head in a paper bag for Garcian Smith, the "cleaner," to reclaim and restore to life.
That said, talking about Killer7's gameplay is only slightly more relevant than talking about Tetris' plot. It's a game, so gameplay is important, but in Killer7 it's a means to an end as opposed to the end itself. Killer7 is all about the experience, and everything else, including the wonky control scheme, serves to further this goal. Everything about Killer7 screams "art piece," yet the game never loses a sly self-awareness that keeps it interesting. The end boss encounter of mission 04 is particularly revealing of this viewpoint. You keep playing through a scenario with only one possible outcome because you have to, and the game actually points out the incongruity to you, going so far as to even overtly laugh in your face.
In the end, this is a game that is stripped to its bare essentials. There's no fat and no excess present. The controls are simple because you don't need to get lost. The game takes you everywhere you need to get through the level, and if there's something important it gets pointed out. Even when you don't know where you're going (which happens frequently) your character does, keeping the game's momentum moving. In addition, the disconnect between total control of your character and their actions (that is you give them a course and they run along it, as opposed to controlling every step they make directly) enhances the feeling that you're not the characters, but instead merely projecting Harman's control over them. You're not the character per se, but rather they're an extension of you that can be directed but retain some degree of autonomy. Run time is a respectable 15 hours or so, which is the perfect length. The gameplay lacks enough depth to create a 30 hour epic mess, but the story is compelling enough and the environments have enough variety that the game doesn't outwear its welcome before ending.
The game starts off slow. The first level begins with a cursory opening video that doesn't explain much of what's going on, then thrusts you into the game world with nary a chance to get oriented. There's a brief tutorial explaining the controls, but it's woefully inadequate to get you truly comfortable with them. That comes only with time. The end result is to put the player in a truly overwhelming situation that has them totally disoriented. The game explains little to nothing of what's going on, the player is trying to come to grips with a simple but unfamiliar control scheme, and around every corner another person is being killed before your eyes. Once you clear the opening prologue (which ends in a fantastic confrontation I might add), the meat of the game opens itself. There's a lengthy and well done cutscene that establishes the setting, main characters, and overall plot, and the design of the second level is far more straightforward and much easier to navigate. By this time you're also getting used to the controls and learning how to switch between the personas at will/as needed to accomplish your goals and the game is starting to come together. The odd cel-shaded graphics don't seem as strange. The plot, while still seemingly nonsensical has a certain strange internal coherency to it that overshadows the ridiculousness of it all. The puzzles that lake any rationality to their very existence seem somewhat fitting.
That's the biggest aspect that makes Killer7 work I think. Even when the game is intentionally and knowingly winking at you, pointing out its own absurdities, it nonetheless maintains an internal consistency that never escapes from itself. Because of this you never get pulled out of the world the game has created, you only keep moving to try and figure out what comes next.
And what a task that is. I've played mind-bending games. I've played games with highly sophisticated and well thought out plots. But Killer7 is a head-trip like no other. For those who have seen it, I'd compare it to Mulholland Dr. on a number of levels. The plots themselves are nothing alike, but similarities exist. Both have a surreal atmosphere where things don't quite line up, The plot of Killer7 is dense and meandering, often taking side-detours whose purpose comes into focus only on repeat play-throughs and even then only if you're very perceptive or get some sort of guide explaining the ore obscure plot elements. It does make sense though, and most of it can be understood with a little bit of thought. It also helps to understand how the various levels are interconnected. Missions 00, 05, and 06 are connected, as are 01 and 02. 03 and 04 are more free standing, but make sense within their own part of the game. 04's discussion of control is particularly relevant to the game as a whole. It has little to do with the plot itself, but as key to understanding the game and what the overall point of things is, it's essential; especially the brilliant boss battle at the end. As the game reveals more and more of its plot points you also realize that the 'M' rating actually truly stands for mature. Sure there's plenty of gratuitous stuff, especially the constant and overly done swearing (voice-overs for critical-hit kills is a good idea, a single line that gets repeated hundreds of times throughout the game not so much), but the game touches on many topics that are quite disturbing. Among the issues at hand it hits international politics, questions of national sovereignty, orphan trafficking, organ trafficking (these last two at the same time), sexual abuse, incest, cannibalism, and many others. None of these are overly dramatized, but they are present, and are alternately disturbing (Curtis Blackburn's mission) or hilarious (Suzy's monologues about her various acts of extreme violence).
An additional note has to be made of the brilliant ending to the game. Most games end on a flat note with a final boss that's either too hard or too easy, followed by a half-ass cutscene that does a mediocre job of wrapping up the main plot points (which leaving everything else forgotten). Killer7 does not fall in this trap. Mission 05 has a brilliant sense of dread the builds throughout its entire first half before cutting off abruptly and without warning. It then goes in a new direction that explains many things but has little to do with the first half and has much more in common with the rest of the game in terms of feel and tone. And then everything gets thrown back on itself; the entire game collapses and reforms in a way that makes you rethink everything that's come before, and creates a brilliant main ending to the game and closes its main characters wonderfully. Had it ended there, things would have been good enough. But then the game tosses you the brief Mission 06, which is by far the shortest mission in the game but adds an additional layer that does a masterful job of wrapping up not only the personal issues left over from 05 but also the international ones from the rest of the game. I don't want to get too specific at this point in the thread, but suffice it to say it may be the best ending to a game ever. Truly a masterwork.
In the end, to me, that's what Killer7 is about. There are plenty of games with better gameplay. There are plenty with better controls. But there are very few that have stuck with me in the way that Killer7 did. Killer7 is an experience, and one where everything comes together to be far more than the sum of its constituent parts. The controls work to the betterment of this game (and probably this game only). The plot is a head-trip but makes sense overall in hindsight. The graphical style is unique and gorgeous, and animations are well done. Sound effects have meat to them, and the voice acting is excellent throughout (Harman is particularly impressive: 'Good night little girl, it's past your bed time'). Everything fits together perfectly. It's not a game I'd recommend everyone own, but it is a game that everyone should play. If you enjoy it, pick it up, as the unlockable very hard mode adds a nice incentive to replay the game, and subsequent replays are made much easier by the fact that you can go back through earlier levels with your now fully powered-up characters. The various plot elements also make subsequent runs very rewarding and allow you to understand more and more of what's going on. It's not the best game ever made, but it's utterly unsuited for any other medium (the interactivity of a game is necessary for some of the parts to come across adequately), but it is a fascinating one, and in terms of experience and what sticks with you once the final credits have rolled, very few others come close. As long as you can adapt to the unusual controls and don't mind thinking a bit about the plot, I can recommend the game with no reservations whatsoever.
See, I thought that it was through the hyperbole presented by the cliche situations like the Handsome Men that the plot really came across; yes it was satire, but its message was still there. It wasn't plainly, hit-you-in-the-face obvious, but if you cared to read into it, it was pretty easy to discern.
That and, walking bombs exploding into nothing but blood.
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Sad days...