You can’t talk about The Witness without talking about John Blow, and you can’t talk about Killer 7 without talking about Suda 51. Well-known today as that quirky Japanese auteur developer, Killer 7 was the breakout game that established his unique style. His games commonly emphasize the visual spectacle of violence, otherworldly aesthetics, and incomprehensible plots about assassins. Describing the gameplay of Killer 7 will convey even more weirdness: it’s a nonlinear first person rail-shooter with seven playable characters. While the environments look like they would fit in a standard first person shooter, your character only moves forward and backward along a track, shooting enemies that get in your way as you find the collectibles needed for progression. It’s an odd system, but one that streamlines an experience that’s more about narrative atmosphere than gameplay. In fact, it’s streamlined to a fault. Your map shows every relevant location, where all the collectibles are located, and which character is needed in each location to surpass obstacles. The only real agency you have is in the shooting, which is kept fairly basic. The other giant caveat that I’ve alluded to is that the game is about the focus on narrative atmosphere rather than a coherent plot. This is a game for people who appreciate stories where you can form your own opinion or create your own closure, interpreting the emotions of scenes rather than a strict telling of events. I’m finding it hard to describe the appeal here, which is the best summary of why people should give it a try. It’s not so solidly designed that I would say I generally recommend it, and I think even the people who would be interested might bounce off of it, but it’s just so intriguing that you should try it anyway. You never know when you’ll win the niche-appeal lottery and find your new favorite thing.

Damn, saw a friend play part of this and finally got around to it, absolutely don't regret it.

There aren't games like Killer 7, and there absolutely shouldn't be.

This is my first proper Suda51 game and holy shit, the story was great, the imagery and direction was great, so much about this game is so unique, there has never been a game like this before.
This is a game that always slips under the radar, it even slipped under mine until I saw it played.

I don't even know how to describe it (which isn't a problem I normally have), it's so atmospheric, has such a unique look mixing it's horror imagery, sci-fi premise, and something else that I don't even think has a name.

The only problems I have is that the game is a little longer than it needs to be, maybe it's because I've spent the last two months playing six hour games, but this game being almost double that hit me hard, but I still finished it in just under three days (helped by the game's more-ish-ness) and that the game's story can sometimes feel heavy-handed, but that's just a taste thing. I also found the menus a little clunky, especially the character screen, recovery always felt like a chore, but again that might just be a me thing. Finally, some of the bosses could have been more interesting, I remember one specifically where I just stood there and shot, occasionally switching characters so as to not die, it felt challenging but unengaging, but that was one of my only real negative moments with the game. (I was going to mention the constantly repeating voice lines on killing enemies but honestly it's not as annoying as it feels like it should be.)

This is a batshit crazy game that won't leave you the same;

and I think I recommend it? It's surprisingly approachable if you're open-minded about gameplay, and even more open-minded about story (but I'd say that about a lot of Japanese action titles).

Killer7 is far more avant garde than it is about being an approachable game. In such a way, a lot of things can be praised about Killer7. The protag super powers and way they interact with the world, the way people talk, how death and cutscenes are shown; Killer 7 is a very stylish game, no question. Once you start to remove all the fluff though, you get a game with a ton of cryptic hints, frustrating movement patterns, and a story that doesn't make sense.
I'm not inherently mad at Killer7 for how it presents itself either, but it was completely jarring coming in expecting something akin to No More Heroes only to get Star Fox with puzzles that make some other games blush. Killer7 is a hard sale and I wish it wasn't. It really has a lot of neat ideas and sets up a world that is super interesting to dive into that they even made a book. While I'm not nearly impressed with this game as most, I do wish we get more of this series as it was at least an interesting start.

One of the few games that will stay with me during my whole life and that I love in a kind of irrational way.

It's flawed as fuck (as all of SUDA51 games) but, at the same time, has such a HUGE heart beating behind it, it is so FULL of ideas, of STYLE with substance and meaning, of interesting characters and scenes...

It will change your life.

I absolutely adore everything about this game's aesthetic and writing, despite the fact I only have a vague idea of what the fuck happened.

Unfortunately the actual gameplay doesn't resonate with me very much. It feels like a cross between a rail shooter and the puzzle solving of a Resident Evil game. This is not a combination that I think works especially well, I ended up getting lost and having to do a ton of backtracking for items which doesn't feel great in a shooter. Also the shooting kinda feels awful.

Overall though this is a super unique game that I'm sure I'll be thinking about and trying to interpret for a while, it's just not a game I want to actually play again anytime soon.

As my first entry into Suda's works, I found it to be utterly enthralling from an atmospheric perspective. It was weird and strange but not in a lolsorandom way that somehow when a man in a gimp suit started giving me tutorial advice and hints, I didnt even bat an eye. The game is utterly hilarious at times, using its cutscenes to deliver utterly insane dialogue and over the top actions.

The game play itself is pretty simple, and engaging (at first). Its effectively a mix of a Rail Shooter and Resident Evil. You wander around the mission, shooting explosive enemies that walk towards you and shoot their weak point to kill them instantly. Enemies change up as the game progresses adding more variables and caveats to the simple bread and butter, but overall I found it getting rather dull by the end.

The puzzle elements in each level are'nt anything too deep either, its either use the right Smith or have the right item equipped to complete the solution. Which I found to get a bit grating at times because I honestly just wanted to get to the next cut scene more than anything.

I think the two primary flaws with the game are tiny nitpicks in the grand scheme. Other than the game play being a little bland, I found the blood system to be rather strange. As you kill enemies, you get blood, as you get blood, you get vials that can be used to heal your characters, which each have individual health values. I found in some sections, particularly where I felt the game did not explain how to fight the enemies properly, I was very low on blood and would die rather repeatedly, which I wouldn't mind as much if I didn't have to pilot Garcian back to the corpse, and then get teleport-ed back to the save room where I then had to retrace my progress again. There were a few points in the game where I felt this frustration, especially, in the Cloudman Mission, at the final boss, where you have to take a long trek back to the boss each time. I also felt gating off the usage of the Smiths' abilities to having a bit of blood to be kind of superfluous. I get that its supposed to be a simplified version of Resident Evil's resource management, but it still felt a bit too awkward for me. I usually never used charge shots because the healing was too valuable when the precision of the shooting was poor enough that sometimes I'd get hit no matter how hard I tried.

Overall though, a fantastic game with marvelous twists and turns, and an ending that absolutely blew me away. I have a feeling that I will be thinking about this game for a long while.

I'm sort of at a crossroads when it comes to this game. On the one hand, the initial confusion regarding the controls, the incredibly bizarre gameplay feel, the insane puzzle of plot, obvious lock and key approach to gameplay puzzles, and the shitty boss fights do drag the game down to a degree and make it difficult to recommend to those not willing to tame it.

But on the other hand, I've rarely seen a game that felt more specified on a craft level. Killer7 is a weird, weird game, yet all its mechanics and plot beats work toward its intent. Each of your 7 characters have a distinct feel in terms of their gameplay and the proper use for them, while the forgiving death system and brief spurts of anime cutscenes add to the style in their own way. You're constantly left surprised by killer7, sometimes confused and sometimes in awe, but I was compelled to keep going in it all throughout for how well its style coats it in exploring what a game can be capable of in piecing together this information. The final (real) chapter of gameplay in particular has such a tone to it, helped along by great tone setting music and truly sublime sound design.

It's a game I admire more than love, but nonetheless find it a remarkable craft that every piece could arrange itself in such a way.