Killer 7 Review

Killer 7 is just one of those that will confuse just about everybody. In all reality, the only people that can ever truly understand the story that drives this game are the developers themselves! In a possible political and terrorist conspiracy between the United States and Japan, Harman Smith is charged with the prevention of a possible cataclysmic event! Just who is Harman Smith? He is a man that has a severe psychological problem, identity identification disorder, but you actually use it to your advantage! Seven personalities, seven assassins will be available at your disposal to expose this possible dangerous plot!

The world has gone through an elaborate process to finally achieve global peace in the past few years. Whether it’s completely doing away with air travel, eliminating any and all nuclear material or ridding the world of all intercontinental ballistic missiles, it’s been done!

Soon the entire world was connected by a series of intercontinental highways that connected the major land masses spanning the oceans. Even an intercontinental delivery system was created and implemented. But unfortunately, when it came time for the major superpowers to sign a UN World Security Treaty, disaster struck…..

A terrorist group known as the Heaven Smile attacked the meeting and showed terrorism in its true form. The only purpose of this attack was to instill fear in the people, and that’s just what it did. Now desperate to quickly rid the world of this threat, the superpowers call upon the help of the Killer7 to eradicate their presence!

When you first fire up Killer 7, be prepared to be surprised due to the strangeness of the opening! Not only will you hear a very creepy Heaven Smile laugh when you start a new game, but just the way it’s presented lets you know you’re in for a very interesting treat! When it comes time to choose your beginning difficulty, you will hear a very cool techno beat that you just may find yourself bopping your head back and forth to!

Once you get past the starting of the game, you will witness the opening anime style cutscene. It features none other than Garcian Smith, the negotiator of the group, as he passes by a mysterious looking man who hands him some sort of document. Garcian continues to walk along with long briefcase in hand, and when he arrives to a certain building, his phone rings.

He begins a short conversation with the man that he just passed, talking about how it’s his job to clear out the Heaven Smile presence in the very building. Of course there is some mature content when it comes to what is spoken, but that’s to be expected in this game. A cool conversation followed by a very intense action sequence make for a very immersive beginning to Killer 7.

The beauty of Killer 7 is the fact that there is an in-game tutorial that you can choose to go through at the very beginning if you don’t think you can get used to the controls quickly enough. Just before you start the first mission, the guide of Harman Smith and his syndicate will ask you if you wish to go ahead through it. It will teach you the basics of the rail movement, how to scan for enemies with your weapon drawn and how to focus on their weak spots! So if you feel the need to go through the brief tutorial, you should be just fine afterward and be ready to take the name of the Heaven Smile! If you’re experienced with shooting games of the past, it really should take no time at all for you to become familiar with how the game handles. If not, then it might take a half hour or so to get a good handle on the game. But nevertheless, it’s really not difficult, and that’s always a good thing!

Killer 7 joins other GameCube titles such as X-Men Legends, Tales of Symphonia, XIII and Mega Man X: Command Mission when it comes to similar graphical style! Utilizing the ever growing and more popular cel-shaded/anime style engine, Killer 7 is one of the most unique and awesome looking titles available to us GameCube owners! What’s even scarier about the presentation delivered in Killer 7 is at times it can offer an eerie three-dimensional display that will make you think you’re looking at something in real life!

One of the strongest points of the graphics in Killer 7 is how diversified your environments are, and how different all the various characters look! Killer 7 will take you to a number of different locations within the United States, and all of them have something unique to offer! Whether it’s at the start with you navigating a normal looking business building (which is a haven of the Heaven Smile), or at a Japanese restaurant to even a small city owned by ONE person!

Now what is truly unique about each level is that it’s not MEANT to look like something in this world, but it does so in the strangest ways possible. Many of the areas that you will encounter look like they have nothing that distinguish them from other parts of the same area, but you will soon realize that is simply not true. Sure some of the areas can look a little bland because of lack of elaborate color, but it’s really how many anime tv shows are created, and Killer 7 is no different! Capcom really did whatever they could to make it feel like an authentic anime experience, and they really are to be commended for their efforts.

Sure some of your environments and characters may just seem totally wacky and out of place, but it really was just something Capcom wanted to convey. Politics tends to be the same way doesn’t it?