Killer 7 has been the center of much attention since it was first announced nearly three years ago as one of the Capcom five, a quintet of unique titles slated to hit Nintendo's then-fledgling platform. The ensuing years have seen some of the games released to much acclaim, like Resident Evil 4 and Viewtiful Joe, or to indifference, like P.N.03, while others have been cancelled, like God Hand. But of this group, Killer 7 was the biggest mystery. While the other titles were, for the most part, easy to categorize into existing genres, no one knew what to make of Killer 7. The impressive visuals conveyed a wicked sense of style, and the involvement of Capcom wunderkinder Hiroyuki Kobayashi and Shinji Mikami and director Goichi Suda certainly presented the promise of something special for the 'Cube. However, it wasn't until last year that details on the game's blend of third-person action and first-person shooting were finally revealed. Since that time we've gotten more information on the twisted story and we've seen it in action, but we haven't had the opportunity to play it until now. After spending some quality time with the game and exploring the first few chapters of the deeply atmospheric adventure, we've come away intrigued, mystified, and surprisingly satisfied by the downright trippy experience offered by Killer 7.

The multiple Smith personalities are about as varied and deadly as they come.

Killer 7 tells the tale of Harman Smith, a wheelchair-bound assassin who is basically an army of one thanks to his unique brand of multiple personality disorder. Unlike average folks with MPD, the voices in Harman's head come with bodies and highly useful skill sets that lend themselves to his line of work. Team Smith is tapped by the government when a global peace effort is derailed by a terrorist attack on the UN by the mysterious Heaven's Smile, a new terrorist force led by the evil Kun Lan, a former rival of Harman's from back in the day. While this sounds like an episode of the TV show 24, except for the multiple personality bit, the adventure is anything but straightforward. It seems that Harman killed Kun Lan 30 years ago, but, as evidenced by Kun's return, there's more to the villain than meets the eye. Besides looking pretty great for someone who was supposedly dead for 30 years, Kun has come back packing a wicked power: the "God Hand." Besides sounding cool, the supernatural power makes him a terrorist-production factory of epic proportions. Anyone unlucky enough to be touched by Kun's God Hand loses their mind and runs amok. As if this weren't bad enough, the newly crazy are essentially walking time bombs that blow up around people. Oh and they can cloak themselves, effectively becoming invisible. Good times, eh?

Despite these daunting odds, Harman and company are charged with plowing through the hordes of Heaven's Smile and stopping Kun Lan from sending the world into anarchic chaos. While it's true Kun Lan and explosive minions are a formidable menace, Harman is hardly a pushover, despite whatever preconceived notions an elderly man in a wheelchair may call up. In fact, Harman has a surprisingly robust support system for his adventure. Besides his seven personalities, who we'll get to in just a second, Harman will be aided by a surprisingly useful assortment of non-player characters that include real people--a few more than he has rolling around in his head--and friendly ghosts.

Garcian Smith is the only alternate personality able to communicate with Harman.

As helpful as the game's supporting cast is, your biggest allies will be the Killer 7 of the game's title, which refers to Harman's varied personalities. The seven personas are a diverse bunch that represents a varied sampling of race and gender. Although Harman is the main man in the game, he can't actually mingle with all his crew. That responsibility falls on the shoulders of Garcian Smith, an African-American man who is the only member of the seven who can communicate with Harman. Garcian serves as a de facto leader of the personalities and takes on a few duties. Besides setting up gigs for the crew, he's also the only personality who can revive the others if they fall in battle. Although he packs a solid enough pistol, which is an efficient silencer, he's best kept out of the line of fire, if only to ensure you'll be able to keep from losing the team on a mission.