Killer 7 Review

So just how to you switch between personas at will? Well it’s simple, it’s all done through the pause menu! At the beginning of each mission, you will have a few of the personas already waiting for you to use them, but some have to be “awakened” through the killing of a certain number of Heaven Smile. Now that doesn’t normally take very long, so you’ll have all of the personas at your disposal pretty quickly, which is a good thing. But all you have to do is go into the pause menu, choose the “Personalities” section and choose whomever you wish to use next! You then see your current character sort of “die out” by exploding into a cloud of blood, and then that cloud of blood comes back to form the newest persona you’ve chosen!

As for puzzles in this game, they can either be blatantly obvious how to solve, or may take a little time to think about because of the number of steps they take to solve. Most of the time it will end up being just being the task of finding a certain item or two or manipulating certain objects or equipment to unlock a door that you need to go through in order to progress. Most of the puzzles in the first few missions don’t require too much thought to figure out, as the NPCs generally warn you of what you’re about to face in regards to that. But the ones in the latter missions can definitely make you think if you’re not immediately sure of what to do at first. Sometimes it requires the use of multiple rings you’ll get in the game or sometimes it may require using certain items you’ve acquired throughout a certain mission. Most of the time the level’s puzzles will bring you to acquire the “Soul Shells” that you seek. These are the items you present to the Gatekeeper you encounter in each mission that allows you access to the Vinculum Gate. This is truly a bizarre area, but it pretty much takes you into the next important area of the mission in which you encounter a “special” Heaven Smile that a little kid clues you in on how to kill. Once you get through the Coliseum area, you will encounter that Smile, take it out, and move on! These puzzles are definitely an integral part of this game, which adds nicely to the action and role-playing elements Killer 7 already offers!

The beauty of Killer 7′s gameplay though, is the fact that there’s a good chance you’ll never get a “Game Over” to happen! Why is that? Well anytime the current persona you using may die, you have Garcian Smith ready and waiting to clean up the mess! The somewhat disturbing part of this is when a particular persona dies, all that’s left of them is a chalk drawn outline of their body with a small paper bag lying with it, only with the character’s head inside of it! As disgusting as it may sound it’s true, but when you die, you can choose to have Garcian Smith go to the very place you died and have him put the head in his long briefcase! After this is done, you will automatically be taken back to the Harman’s Room where you came from where you have to simply tap A multiple times to try reviving the character!

Next, we have the way you actually navigate through your missions! As it’s obvious now, your movement is based on rail mechanics. So how do you make turns and access other areas of your missions? Well it’s simple, through the use of junctions! Junctions are fixed points in each area that basically allow you to choose which way you want to go. They come up automatically to let you know it’s time to make a decision on a different path of navigation, so you should never be confused with where you have to go. The choosing of your next path comes with the simple use of the analog stick and the A button to select which path may happen to pop up on the screen. To turn yourself around, you simply tap the B button, somewhat similar to the “180 degree turn” function of the Resident Evil games.

Finally, you have your lovely NPCs! The main one that you will encounter in this game is a VERY strange looking man that goes by the name Iwarazu. He talks in that very funny tone mentioned before, and he’s basically there to tell you what you’re about to face as you continue progressing. He does tend to be a drama queen by repeating the same “depressing” phrases at the start of all his statements. Whether it’s something like, “We’re in a tight spot!” or “This is bad!” or “This is simply not good!”, it can be annoying. Most of the time he can end up being pretty helpful, but having to see him say the same phrase at the beginnings of all his advice, especially with the number of times you see him in each mission can downright annoy you. Now there are other NPCs in the game as well whose sole purpose is to tell you the most random things you may have ever heard in an attempt to help you understand just what the heck is going on! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the scary thing you will find out is just why these people are really talking to you in the first place!

So to put it simply, if you’re willing to give this game a chance with the restrictive features that the rail shooting engine causes, you will have a blast! Really not having full control over the movement of the Smith characters is almost a blessing at times. It makes for getting through the missions much more convenient by already pointing you in the direction that you have to go, but for those gamers out there that don’t like having their hand held, it may wear thin on you pretty quickly. But even so, it still very much deserves a try!

Just like how the beginning and virtually all the missions will probably end up confusing you, Killer 7′s ending has a very good chance of doing the same as well! The very last mission that you go through with Garcian Smith is truly the most mind bending. Some parts will make sense, but the for the most part, you will be asking questions the whole time. Once again, Killer 7′s plot is just so bizarre and confusing that you simply HAVE to replay it at least once just to even BEGIN having a chance at understanding it! The actual ending of the game is pretty cool, as well as the final cutscene with Harman Smith and his nemesis is, but the confusion level is just too much to really get a concrete understanding of why everything has happened the way it has. If you think you will be able to understand this game the first time through, good luck!

Killer 7 has some great replay value. For those that will love this game, a second time through is an absolute no-brainer. When you actually beat the game the first time, you will unlock a mode called “Killer 8.” It is a special feature that allows you to have one additional persona to play with on the course of your next play through. But just for the sake of not spoiling anything that will not be revealed. However, along with that you can also choose to go through the game on hard difficulty! This mode is far more difficult that normal in that the Heaven Smile are harder to kill and you can only hold ten vials of thin blood at once. In Killer 8 mode, it’s even MORE difficult in that you can’t even see the weak spots of the Heaven Smile terrorists and blood does NOT come very often! The replay value of Killer 7 may offer a hefty challenge, but it’s certainly worth going through at least once more if NOT more!

Killer 7 is without a doubt the most unique game to come out of this generation so far. It’s almost without the doubt the most confusing one as well! Now some may view the game being a huge mistake with the gameplay mechanics Capcom chose to implement into it, but it really does deserve a try by any and all shooter genre fans out there! The graphics are done very well, with the anime style experience truly evident and eye opening during many parts of the endeavor. The music and sounds are great too, even with the few annoyances that some aspects tend to bring! Now the love it or hate it gameplay can definitely make a gamer shy away from this incredibly unique game, but if you can get used to it after the first mission, you should end up loving it! The replay value is also definitely there, with offering more unique and difficult challenges. So for those of you who are daring enough to try out this game, you may just find Killer 7 worth it! Hey, at least we have something to play before Geist comes out in a few weeks right?