New Review Posted: Killer 7

[Daniel Weissenberger]

Jason Karney enjoyed Killer 7 quite a bit:

"It's impossible for the connected gamer not to have heard some of the hype, the questioning curiosity, or even the abrasive sound caused by people scratching their heads and wondering what the @#$#@ this strange game titled Killer 7 is about. The devotees of the enchanted school of hardcore gaming, who are relieved to see otaku bizarreness other than the King of All Cosmos with his magnificent codpiece, of course counter the philistine masses to revel in Killer 7's strangeness. There is one thing that all would likely agree on: Capcom has produced a game that may seem like a throwback to halcyon days of yore, when adventurers pointed and clicked their way to the end of a game, but it drips modern style and gun action along with rivers of blood."

The rest of the review is available here.

[Snack Eater]

I don't see how, outside of the blood collecting gimmick, the game "drips rivers of blood". Sure, the violence in cutscenes is often off-putting, but most of the game proper is blasting demons who just evaporate into red dots. Sure, those red dots are blood, but this isn't Manhunt or something of that level of violence, like a lot of reviews tend to make it out to be.

Other than that, the review is pretty on the mark. However, it is sort of bland in its approach to the subject matter. I tend to like wild proclamations, and this review should have had lots of them, from :"Killer 7 is the weirdest game I've ever played" to "I want Suda 51 to ass-carry my children".

[Jason Karney]

Originally Posted by Solidsnack

I don't see how, outside of the blood collecting gimmick, the game "drips rivers of blood".

Alternatively, I could probably have said "ribbons" of blood... If you consistently attack Smiles by attacking their weak spots, then there is quite a bit of streaming blood that spurts all over the place. It's quite a different effect from the white dots you mention.

As for violence, the game may not be Manhunt (nor do I think I implied that level of brutality), but it does have it's moments. I primarily think of the introductory and ending scenes with Curtis in this case.

Other than that, the review is pretty on the mark. However, it is sort of bland in its approach to the subject matter. I tend to like wild proclamations, and this review should have had lots of them, from :"Killer 7 is the weirdest game I've ever played" to "I want Suda 51 to ass-carry my children".

Hah, now that's a funny one... not quite my style though.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

--Jason

[Snack Eater]

An interesting thought occured to me. What if all the people who refer to Killer 7 as "style over substance" are comparing it to games that never had its goal in mind. Killer 7's goal is to tell a story, so that could be argued that that is substance. If we were talking about something like Resident Evil 4, where all the focus is on the gameplay and the least amount of thought went into the story, then we could say that its focus is different, and it has substance over style. But Killer 7's scenarios were sketched out long before the gameplay style was decided upon, and as such I would argue that the gameplay "style" is the style, not the substance. I would make the same argument for a lot of Hideo Kojima's work, but even then the gameplay is more in depth than Killer 7. In Kojima games, typically the story dominates the gameplay so everything you do as a player is to move the story along. The story is the substance, the point of the game. It's not sneaking around, it's about where you're going to and what will happen when you get there. Killer 7, on the other hand, mostly uses gameplay as a way to justify itself as a game, to draw out the experience. On one hand, I think this hurts the game because the plot is mostly delivered in very short bursts, except at the start of missions, where they typically take a few minutes, and the rest of the time is spent on a gameplay system that doesn't quite hold up to that extensive level of playtime. On the other hand, it makes the gameplay more entertaining (or at least bearable) because you're constantly wondering what the next weirdo you find will talk to you about or what will happen in the next cutscene. The unpredictability of the storyline (the substance) is what makes the predictabiity of the gameplay (style) bearable to the player.

In the gamecritics.com review of The Getaway, the argument was made that many great works have flaws, and that The Getaway's was that the gameplay sucked. I think Killer 7 is a better comparison, because the weak gameplay is in service of an intriguing, unpredictable storyline, whereas The Getaway was a fairly predictable crime yarn with mediocre writing and only mildly compelling characters. Both style and substance in The Getaway failed to achieve their potential, whereas Killer 7 is an artistic masterpiece whose gameplay limps by because of the weight of the artistic vision behind it.

EDIT: And I said "red dots". Honestly, the violence is too mostly abstract to be worth making a huge deal out of.

[Apossum]

I'd have to disagree about the gameplay-- I felt the wide variety of smilies and random assortments that they pop up in kept things interesting. I had a lot of fun keeping steady, trying to be fast and trying to keep a string of criticals going. Some scenes got to be pretty tense towards the end, especially with those smily generators. I also enjoyed weighing each encounter to decide which assassin to use. Some fights were better stay far away from, so I'd use Kaede, other fights were hairy and I needed to be fast, so I used Con etc.

Some parts were empty though-- like the fight with the handsome men-- I don't get what was going with that or how I evenwon the fight.

Edit: The puzzles did feel like a waste. I wish they put more thought into them.
"A fire blocks your path. What do you do?"
"Use.....the....uhhhhhh.....oh man....which one is it....oh yeah! the water ring!!! That's the ticket!!"

[Snack Eater]

I'm not saying the gameplay is flat-out BAD, I'm just saying that it could have been much better. I think most of the puzzles were rather interesting, in spite of their obviousness. The combat is stronger than the puzzle solving because there is some strategy to it. However, at no point while playing the game did the combat feel truly exciting. It gets a little repetitive after a while, even with the occasional new enemy type thrown into the mix. I just got a general feeling of "okayness" about the gameplay.

Right now I'm playing through on "Difficult", and that anime girl is kicking my ass. I could have sworn the second fight with her was a piece of cake compared to the first, but I keep dying over and over again, and getting near the end of that fight takes forever so I always end up turning off the Cube after a few deaths.

[Snack Eater]

Originally Posted by Moron Lite

Amazingly, Kojima might actually disagree with you (I on the other hand, am inclined to agree): http://www.gamespot.com/features/6120427/index.html

I finished the first episode of Killer7, and frankly became very disappointed when it moved into schlocky ("Should we fire the missile, sir?!!"), wannabe-profound mode. At least when nothing made sense, there was a shot of it being relatively artistic. Now it just seems like so much bad Japanese cinema.

First of all, Kojima is crazy, so it's better to just make up your own mind on what he thinks than to actually hear it from him.

Second of all, whenever the game seems to be settling down into a cliche or seems to be making sense, some random twist or event happens that totally confounds you, and then the focus changes entirely to a different subject. So even if you aren't digging the political intrigue vibe of Target 1 (it does return to that plot by Target 5, thought it does so in arguably brilliant fashion), *psuedo-spoilers* you will probably groove on Target 2's non sequitor detour into Texas, and then Target 3 is a subplot about a child-organ-trafficking assassin, and Target 4 pits the Killer 7 against what appear to be parodies of the Power Rangers. It only settles down near the end, and even then it's loopy as a bat. (if bats are loopy)

[Hypatia93]

All I can say is (like I usually do -- 'cause I'm no critic and I don't care to be) I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

I just got a used copy off eBay on Friday and I played through to the middle of the 2nd part diese Wochenende. (I would've played more, but alas, I have other things to do as well.) Clearly the story is primary, but I really don't think the gameplay is that much of a downer. I must admit though, it did take a while getting used to the controls. (I do wish, however, that you could change the options in-game.) And no, the violence and blood are so highly stylized that they are of little relevance (so far). The only reason this seems to be an M-rated game is b/c most folks 16- wouldn't understand; hell, from what I've been reading, chances are good that /I/ won't get what's going on in a bit.

And Jason -- Good job on the review. You always do excellent work. When are you going to be a "regular," as it were?

[Boy]

Originally Posted by Moron Lite

I finished the first episode of Killer7, and frankly became very disappointed when it moved into schlocky ("Should we fire the missile, sir?!!"), wannabe-profound mode. At least when nothing made sense, there was a shot of it being relatively artistic. Now it just seems like so much bad Japanese cinema.

Dude, that was totally intentional. Totally. Nothing in the game before or after that sequence is anything like that. Just listen to the music. It's supposed to be every cheesy "should we fire the missile!?!?!" scene from every movie ever. As for why, I have no idea, but I thought it was pretty obvious that it was going for hammy.

[Apossum]

the little parodies are hilarious. Ayame Blackburn had me rolling.

[Snack Eater]

You can't really pin this story down to a specific genre. One second the subject matter is completely serious, the next the puzzle guy is giving you the finger.

The one problem is that for some it's really hard to tell when the game expects you to take it seriously. Personally, I got most of it when I saw it, but for some having a plot about child organ trafficking being interrupted with an anime schoolgirl parody is pretty jarring.

As for the scene in the mysteriously star-shaped Pentagon, I would relate it to some ideas explored in some Japanese cinema. It's expressing disinterest in a particular genre by treating it in a different way. In this one Takashi Miike yakuza movie, all the big meetings between important figures take place from a static angle at the end of a table, low so you only see the legs of the people talking. It doesn't matter who's sitting there, because it's always the same people in every movie. I'm not sure how this relates directly to Killer 7, but I do find it interesting.