Game Story

• You are Harman, an aging, wheelchair-bound man with a little quirk – he has 8 different personalities, all of which you can switch between on the fly.
• Each has his/her own special ability, and you will need to use them all in conjunction to get through specific levels.
• A radical group named “Heaven’s Smile” (consisting mostly of zombie-esque creatures, clearly Mikami-san’s influence) is terrorizing the area, and you’re hired to stop them.
• Killer 7 contains one of the greatest stories ever told by a video game (which is why this section isn’t going further in-depth).
• It’s very intricate and confusing, and holds many twists and turns you won’t see coming.
• The mind blowing and completely engrossing storyline is something you’d expect to see in a wild indy film, not told in a medium such as this.
• The story is what will keep you going through the game, as most players will find the gameplay to be pretty bland.
• When you hit the final episode of the game, everything comes together quite nicely, and it’s done so in an absolutely beautiful way.

Gameplay

• Gameplay gets a tad monotonous, even if it is something most gamers have probably never seen before.
• It’s a rail-shooter engine, meaning you don’t really have free reign over where you’re moving, or the camera.
• You follow along a pre-set track with a fixed camera (which, by the way, never causes problems), while blasting everything in sight.
• Most regular enemies have a fairly obvious weak point, enabling you to blow them to pieces in a single shot.
• Some boss battles can get quite brutal, and are all very much puzzle based, but it never gets to the point where you want to throw something through the TV.
• Everything is a bit on the difficult side, but manageable.
• If you’re patient and level-headed enough to forgive the fairly bland gameplay, you will eventually see what an absolutely brilliant gem of a game this is.
• It’s guaranteed to be nothing like anything you’ve ever experienced before.

Graphics

• The graphics are very good looking, but it’s hard to tell if they really live up to what the GameCube is capable of.
• They use a very unique cell-shaded look, and it’s one of the best uses of the style so far.
• They do exactly what they’re meant to – enhance the overall experience, and draw the player into the world of the game.

Sound

• The voice acting is really high quality compared to the laughable attempts at high-caliber video game acting we’ve been seeing lately.
• The music is quite nice too.
• All the stages have this very fitting ambient music that works very well, and is sometimes quite creepy.
• The music direction for the final stage especially is breathtaking. It works so well with the scene, and really takes it to the next level.
• All the sound effects are well done, and nothing besides the characters’ catch phrases (muttered after EVERY kill) feel old or over used.

Captivation

• After finishing the game the first time, you unlock ‘Killer 8’ mode, granting you a new playable character and a significantly harder difficulty level.
• After finishing Killer 8 mode, you unlock another mode, called ‘Hopper 7’, where all the enemies are grasshoppers.
• This only covers a small portion of the game, however.
• The game lasts about 10-15 hours, which is comparable to most other action games available right now.
• It doesn’t feel too long, or too short – just right.
• Once you get into the game, you WILL NOT want to put the controller down - let alone move - until you finish.
• This is certainly a feeling that doesn’t occur very often.

Final Thoughts

• Positives:
• The storyline. It’s very unique and original, and is constantly engaging. It keeps you pushing through the game in order to find out what’s going to happen next, like a perfectly written novel.
• The graphics are very well done, and are definitely the best use of the cel-shading technique (we’ve seen) so far.
• Not too easy, but not too hard. A nice challenge.
• Negatives:
• Gameplay might get bland.

Bottom Line

• Killer 7 is, hands down, one of the best games this generation and is therefore a must buy whether you like action games or not.