I -ALWAYS- worry about a game that spends too many years being made. Oh, I know. Sometimes it works out great. Halo started out as a PC title years before it was released as the Xbox's flagship title. Resident Evil 4 was scrapped and sent back to the drawing board at least twice before the final product we know today even began its existence. But... for every one of these rousing successes, there are also the flops. The Diakatanas that spend so many years in development not because they are building a successful new title, but rather because they are failing to achieve deadlines or meet their lofty goals time and time again. Sadly, I suspect Killer 7 to be on of the latter category. Let me start by outlining the game's good points (don't worry, this'll be brief): The art style is very nice, and is probably what attracted most to the game in the first place. It smacks very much of the Delphi studios rotoscoped games like Out of this World and Flashback. The sound, atmospheric to a point (more on that later). Now for the bad: Hmmm, where to begin. Okay, let's start with the basic premise. You are a hitman. Or something. Maybe. You might be a hitman, or you might be seven hitmen (including one hitwoman). The basic premise that was outlined in all of the previews leading up to the game's release was that you were a single hitman with multiple personalities, each with their own ups and downs. Sounds interesting so far. Okay, here's where it gets a little wonky. Each personality has their own appearance and (apparently) their own body. Now call me crazy, but if I have 7 personalities and 7 bodies, doesn't that just make me SEVEN PEOPLE?!?! If one personality dies, they turn into a little bloody lunch bag of wiggling giblets on the floor. They can later be retrieved by a specific personality who has that ability and resurrected with blood collected from fallen foes. The game is only over if your caretaker personality dies, as he is the only one who can raise the fallen. I'm all for surrealism, even metaphorical gameplay to the point that it feels like I'm playing in a poetic microcosm rather than a reality unto itself. However, Killer 7 is surrealistic to a fault. It's more like a fever dream, but somehow less interesting. It's possible that the story may pick up or grab interest later in the game, but that's the biggest problem. The gameplay is horrible. You move on rails throughout the game, only able to turn at predesignated junction points that appear when you approach them. You can turn around at any point to backtrack, but that's about as much freedom as you're going to get. When you suspect a foe to be near, you can switch to an immobile first person view to shoot them in a number of remarkably similar ways before you proceed. Rinse and repeat. Occasionally (actually more like ridiculously frequently) you'll run into ghost-like characters who have something to say to you. All characters in the game "talk", but the ghost characters speak in strange, near unintelligible empty tones. It's very atmospheric, but gets old fast. You'll be reading subtitles to keep up, but once you become impatient with the slow pacing of the dialog you'll start to try skipping individual lines of dialog once you start reading them faster than they are being spoken. Key word being "try." Dialog drips out at a pathetically slow pace, and whacky translations further slow story development. This is exacerbated by the fact that the dialog reads out at a fixed rate and cannot be advanced without skipping the entire conversation. This makes even the longwinded tutorials a major chore. These pacing issues with the dialog are even worse when you factor in the frequent loading screens. Doing nearly anything, from starting a conversation to moving from room to room will create a 1-10 second load screen. This may not sound like much, but after the 10th loading screen in 2 minutes it'll start to wear on you. Many reviews I've read indicate that the story is actually worthwhile, and that there is a good payoff if you have the patience to stick with it to the end. My question is, if I have to -endure- the gameplay rather than enjoy it to get any sort of satisfaction out of the title, then what's the point in playing it in the first place? Anyone who's played a game like Devil May Cry, God of War, or Resident Evil 4 will tell you that -playing- the game is its own reward, not an arduous torture you suffer through in hopes of a payoff down the road.
Let me start by saying that Killer 7 isn't a game for everyone. It's unique controls, crazy art style and bizarre storyline will likely deter many potential players. But it's obvious this game wasn't designed with mass-m... Read Full Review
Killer 7 is perhaps one of the most confusing games I have ever played. However that may be that shouldn't deter you from at least giving this original game a try. Killer 7 accomplishes something that most game developer... Read Full Review
