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Killer7
GameCube
Released On: Jul 7, 2005
74
8.7
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
Metascore
Mixed or average
Based on 57 Critic Reviews
74
67% Positive
38 Reviews
38 Reviews
25% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
9% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or average
Based on 57 Critic Reviews
74
67% Positive
38 Reviews
38 Reviews
25% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
9% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
If your looking for a good mature action/ adventure game that makes you think in more ways then one, do yourself a favor and pick up Killer 7.
Laced between the confusing story, unique gameplay, and interesting sounds is SUDA 51's dream of a game that breaks all boundaries and really tries something new and innovative.
User Score
Generally favorable
Based on 78 User Ratings
8.7
87% Positive
68 Ratings
68 Ratings
8% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
5% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally favorable
Based on 78 User Ratings
8.7
87% Positive
68 Ratings
68 Ratings
8% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
5% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
This is one of my favorit games of all time. Suprising, disturbing Story, Awesome unique artsytle and sound design. The whole gameplay mix is unique and weird but it works and is on point. if you can choose, definitely get the gamecube over the PS2 version, because for the better technics and gamepad. i hope there will be some day a HD Port of this gem.
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GameCube
Killer7 is kind of an enigma. It lifts its disparate gameplay mechanics from a number of different genres such as survival horror, first-person shooters, adventure games, and even rail shooters. Its story is an utterly incoherent, fast-paced, and babbling fever dream comprised of political intrigue, spiritual symbolism and cultural variance. Simply put, nothing about Killer7's mechanics or narrative should work, on paper. But it all does work, incredibly well.
The game is often disarming and challenging. Both in terms of mechanics and narrative. In both regards, there's always something new around every corner and in every chapter to take the player by complete surprise. It's an utterly unpredictable experience, and that unpredictability works strongly in the game's favor. It creates a strong sense of discomfort and unease. Killer7 doesn't want you to get comfortable. As soon as you think you are, it throws a legitimately disturbing and challenging narrative aspect your way, or a new enemy type or puzzle that completely changes your way of thinking about how the game has been played up to that point.
And despite this constantly changing pace, there are definitive constants. There is a genuine gameplay loop to Killer7. In essence, you explore levels, kill enemies, solve puzzles, collect items, and find what are essentially keys to unlock a door to that level's boss. It ends up playing somewhat like a Resident Evil that, instead of exploring a few consistent, large areas, is separated into chapters which act as the game's levels. Simply put, if you like the exploration, the backtracking, and the puzzles of Resident Evil, you'll likely find a lot to like in Killer7's gameplay.
The often disarming and challenging nature of Killer7 doesn't end with its gameplay or story, however. The sound design in general is often as advanced and equally interesting. The voice acting and direction is top notch. The music is both eclectic and suiting. The sound design, much like the rest of the experience, is masterfully crafted.
I won't pretend that the game is for everyone, though. Killer7 is intentionally weird. Not to insulting or unconvincing degrees. In fact, this is likely the most convincingly strange game I've ever played. It doesn't feel as if it's trying to convince you that it's weird. It just is. It occupies that space and you end up accepting it for exactly what it is. But its dedication to being as obtuse as it is will surely turn some players off.
However, even if you initially think it's just too weird, Killer7 is a game worth sticking with. Initially, the gameplay was just too obtuse, to me. I really wasn't jiving with the on-rails exploration, or the shooting mechanics. Everything about the experience just felt kind of off. But I stuck with it to the end, and what I found was one of the most surprisingly well crafted games I would personally lump into the "adventure" category, and a story that, despite as incoherent and confusing as it can be, ended up being filled to the brim with legitimately great plot twists, revelations, and surprisingly great commentaries. It manages to become an incredibly immersive and interesting experience completely in spite of everything that shouldn't make it immersive.
Killer7 can manage to be incredibly inaccessible and often confusing, but once seen through, it's as equally rewarding and brilliant. I promise that you haven't played anything quite like Killer7, and you likely won't find anything else like it in the future. It's a dark, comedic, genuinely disturbing, yet genuinely fun adventure game, crafted in such a simple and effective way to allow everything it offers to fit perfectly together. It gives you only as much control as it deems necessary, and only as much narrative thread as necessary, and what we're left with is a concise game that simultaneously manages to feel all over the place. It's a game made of contradictions that the folks at Grasshopper Manufacture somehow made work in every conceivable way. It really is a marvel, and even if you've already experienced some of the later GHM games that weren't your cup of tea, I think it's still worth playing. Simply for the fact that a piece of media like Killer7 exists, and that it managed to turn out as legitimately great as it did, I personally consider it an essential experience that should not be missed in your lifetime.
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GameCube
Recommending Killer 7 is frightening, much like recommending A Clockwork Orange, or Pulp Fiction, or Eraserhead. The art we love is not always universally enjoyable, but we all want to share that favorite special vision with others, while still worrying about what they will think. We offer our sincere but guarded blessing to Killer 7.
It represents a welcoming step away from the masses of clones, while its serious tone, portrayed in equal doses of graphic brutality and absurd comedy will keep those willing to persevere hooked on the edge of the seat awaiting the sounds of cackled laughter.
At the end of the day, I walked away with a handful of great memories and the satisfaction that I had experienced something so innovative and insane. Unfortunately, I also left Killer7 with an insatiable hunger for answers and clarity. [July 2005, p.115]
A rail shooter at best, Killer 7 oozes all kinds of artistic flair. It's just too bad nothing was left for gameplay.
At best, playing the game is like having someone shout in your ear for 15 hours straight. At worst, it's like getting a high colonic with balsamic vinegar.
Some might be quick to point the simplicity of Killer7’s gameplay, and they wouldn’t be wrong. But to focus on the gameplay alone is to almost miss the point of Killer7 entirely. That point being, it really just goes out of its way to be non-conventional at every opportunity, and that includes its game design philosophy. The game IS simple, but that doesn’t mean it lacks depth. Killer7 is an action game yet it is very slow-paced, the game is on rails yet it has open-ended and large levels, the story on its surface is completely nonsensical but underneath its exterior it is one of the most mature and complex narratives in video games. Killer7 is a living contradiction, and it embraces this fully. Take for example its execution of boss fights; sometimes the game just totally denies you the satisfaction of a boss fight, and has you one-shot the boss with a lazily placed bullet, while others are so obscure in their design that they feel more like a puzzle than a fight. Killer7 IS an action, but it also isn’t an action game, I don’t know how else to put it.
You could try label Killer7 with genres, but it would end up sounding something like; surrealist, noir, horror, sci-fi, over-the-shoulder, on-rails, puzzle, action-adventure shooter. It doesn’t really roll off the tongue. If you’re wondering how any of these elements co-exist with one another effectively, trust me when I say, it is something you need to see to believe. I say that because it is truly remarkable how Killer7 manages to maintain such a strong sense of mood and atmosphere throughout the entire game, despite constantly toying with expectations and mish-mashing style and genre with complete reverence. The game is absurd and at times hilarious, it is mysterious and deeply intriguing, it is confronting and horrifying, and it is also completely insane yet profound.
If you were to view the game strictly through a conventional game-design lens so to speak, you wouldn’t be able to deny that the gameplay is pretty simple. Your characters have fairly limited attack and movement options, and because levels are on rails there isn’t as much freedom of exploration as you would have in other games. You can’t customize characters, and you start and end the game with the exact same characters and abilities. But focusing on that alone would overlook so much of what makes this game great. Each level is unique and memorable, the settings are based in reality yet feel other-worldly. The atmosphere is ominous and unnerving, yet has this high energy permeating throughout the whole thing which is so exciting and fun to experience. The simplistic cell-shaded graphics are highly stylized and have aged surprisingly well, the game is dripping with style and feels like you’re watching a piece of art in motion. The story and cut-scenes are highly engaging and interesting, and it makes exploring the levels so much more exciting as you anticipate what will happen next. Enemies are dangerous, and their placement effective. Exploring levels is intense, especially on higher difficulties. It might not seem like horror game on its surface, but it’s definitely one of the best survival-horror games out there. People often attribute Resident Evil’s horror to its gameplay, and attribute Silent Hill’s horror to its atmosphere. I would argue that Killer7 is somewhere in between, but its overall feel is much more like the secret dog ending from Silent Hill 2 than anything mentioned.
Killer7 came out in a time where games still used cut-scenes as rewards, and it shows. The cut-scene are arguably the best part of the game and they are all so memorable. Twenty years later the game still looks amazing, but the animations are a little rigid here and there, the voice acting however is incredible and gives the characters so much personality and charm, totally overshadowing the slightly dated animations. With how much content was removed from the game, it is astounding that Killer7 still manages to have so much to say in its short length, and craft such a bizarre and rabbit-hole-like story and world.
There is a lot to unpack in terms of its story, so I won’t bother trying. The game is too complex and bizarre to fully explain, it is best experienced on your own. So despite any issues you might have with the gameplay, the game definitely does not overstay its welcome. Every level keeps the plot moving at an efficient pace, and never slows down. The settings of the levels are all varied and memorable, and some even have their own over-arching gimmicks as well. The game really isn’t that long, and the plot really doesn’t waste time at all. If supernatural assassins fighting power ranger rip-offs while caught up in a cosmic-scale political conspiracy isn’t engaging enough for you, I genuinely don’t know what is. It is a game I CAN recommend, but not to a general audience. People who will like this game already know they like it.
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GameCube
Killer 7 follows the story **** of assassins known as The Killer 7 as they try to put a stop to terrorist group Heavens Smiles. Unusually for a video game it is this story, as much as the gameplay, that will keep most players interested and it is a story that most players won't forget in a hurry.
The unique gameplay sees the player following a set path around the game world by pressing the A button to move forward and hitting B to turn around. At first this seems restricting but it is quickly forgotten about as the game still allows the player to decide which direction to take at junctions as well as whether or not to enter certain doors. Whilst exploring and trying to figure out the puzzles a manic laugh will hint that an enemy is nearby. Pulling out your weapon switches the player to a first person viewpoint allowing accurate targeting of the Heavens Smiles in order to hit weak points or utilise the specific strategy required to defeat them. Once defeated the blood of some enemies is automatically collected for use in upgrading or healing your characters as well as unlocking special abilities. All the characters have attributes that can be upgraded. You can choose to focus on upgrading just one character or share-out the blood evenly. Each of your seven Killers have certain traits that make them suitable for getting by in certain situations such as lock picking breaking through a cracked wall.
Adding to the games uniqueness are the cel shaded, comic book style graphics. Each of the seven killers is well designed and some of the Heavens Smiles are a truly terrifying sight.
Some reviews have stated that controls can be a little fiddly, but since this is not meant to be a straight up first person shooter it is not a huge issue. In fact the only genuine criticism I can level at the game is that the pace can be a tad slow at times.
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GameCube
I liked this game very unique. Story wasn't as good as I hoped tho.
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GameCube
Summary Featuring visual artistry and dark imagery with striking cel-shaded graphics, Killer 7 chronicles the connection between two men whose intertwined paths develop into a compelling tale of revenge and altering personas. Killer 7 propels players into the consciousness of one man and his seven different personalities. The player’s challenge ...
Rated M
for Mature
Platforms:
- GameCube
- PlayStation 2
- PC
Initial Release Date: Jul 7, 2005
Developer:
- Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Capcom
Genres:
