As for the puzzle-solving portions of Killer7, they're mostly quite simple and blatant. A certain character is always there to help you through the puzzles if you get stuck, and his presence alone eventually clues you in that a puzzle is afoot. Most of the game's levels are thinly veiled key hunts, forcing you to find certain items before you can get through certain areas. In some cases, this hunting for stuff feels pretty excessive, especially when the puzzles are both nonsensical and mind-numbingly simple. Later on, they get a little more complex and more satisfying. This isn't to say Killer7 is an easy game. Gunning down heaven smiles definitely takes getting used to, and the mazelike environments you'll be fighting them in can be bewildering if you ignore the game's map feature. The map doesn't show your exact location in the level, but it shows an awful lot, such as where you need to use special items or your different personalities' special abilities.

Each member of the Killer7 has his or her own proficiencies.

What also makes the going easier is that you can't really die. One of the Killer7, Garcian Smith, is able to retrieve the bodies of any slain personas and restore them to life. As any of the six other personas, you're typically free to switch between personas on the fly, but you can only switch back to Garcian from certain locations in each level. If Garcian dies, the game ends. But since you'll be using the other characters to do your heavy lifting, all you need to do should one of them die is run back to that point as Garcian. It's confusing, to be sure, and it sometimes causes you to feel like you're wasting time going through the same sequence as different personas. But it keeps you from running into "game over" screens, and it also keeps you guessing. Namely, just what the hell is going on in this game? To add to the intrigue, you also collect blood as a currency from slain heaven smiles, which may then be transmuted into a serum that can upgrade your personas' moves and abilities.

Killer7 is also rather awkwardly paced, since your fight through each of your various assignments will often be interrupted by dialogue with bizarre characters that seem to love saying an awful lot without really saying much of anything. You can opt to skip through these sequences, but you'll risk missing something important. And besides, these repugnant characters, amazingly, will actually grow on you in time. Numerous other interruptions abound in the form of fairly brief but noticeable loading times that crop up in between all the bite-sized portions of the game's missions. These are noticeably longer in the PlayStation 2 version of the game, and that difference alone is enough to make the GameCube version the superior of the two. It's also marginally better-looking, and the aiming controls feel a little more responsive on the GameCube as well.

Though the gameplay itself isn't always fun, the variety of settings and the desire for some answers ought to keep you going once you get past an initial learning curve in Killer7. Yes, the gameplay itself probably could have been more entertaining or more sophisticated. But it's just a vehicle for the unusual experience that this game provides, which will take you to a surprisingly diverse range of locations and throw you for a number of mind-bending loops. It's difficult to even begin to explain some of these, much less without spoiling anything, but suffice it to say Killer7 has a number of different moments that are probably worth the price of admission by themselves.

The almost-fantastic quality of the game's presentation is probably the most literal symbol of how Killer7 is overall. The game's flat-shaded art style looks amazing at times, but on other occasions suffers from some noticeable and distracting aliasing, as well as severe fits of slowdown in the case of the PS2 version. Textures on the PS2 version also sometimes look plain and ugly. Most of the character animation looks great, though it's sad to see the otherwise lifelike Killer7 running in place when they reach a junction. Luckily, the game's stylistic achievements make up for most of the technical deficiencies, especially on the GameCube. This is one of the first games to reconcile great-looking camera work with simple controls--you can always switch to your first-person aiming when you hear heaven smiles nearby. Killer7 also does a fine job of visually mixing it up, such as how anime is used in a few distinct sequences, in stark contrast to the flat-shaded graphic novel look of the game's majority.

The game's presentation helps keep you riveted even when the gameplay gives up some slack.

Killer7's soundtrack gets better and better the more of it you hear. Some decidedly eclectic music selections gradually start to make some kind of sense as they're used to accentuate certain themes. Most of the sound effects in the game are excellent, too, even for simple things like footsteps and doors closing shut. The voice acting is also of generally high quality throughout, despite not coming from too many recognizable names. Harman Smith both looks and sounds like a stately Clint Eastwood, lending the enigmatic character an immediate air of authority. Some of the speech is recycled too often. Specifically, each time one of the Killer7 scores a critical hit on an enemy, he or she utters the same one catchphrase, the most notable of which is the surly Coyote Smith's "You're f*****!" Since you'll always aim for critical hits against your opponents, it gets distracting to hear the same expression over and over again. You might want to switch between personas just for variety's sake.

Chances are you'll either love Killer7 or hate it. The game offers two difficulty settings, plus some unique bonuses for once you finish the adventure for the first time. But the way in which this game might stick with you could easily outweigh whatever replay value these extras provide. Especially for a game that's filled with lots of mindless shooting, Killer7 makes you think. And it makes you wonder why most games don't even bother to try. And maybe that's the whole point.