When I first played Killer7, I was turned off. The gameplay felt like something out of a different dimension (quite frankly, it still does), I didn't understand the story, and it was a bit spooky, at a time when I wasn't really used to horror. I just wanted a cool stylish action game, and this wasn't it. And yet, after I dropped it, it kept nagging at me to pick it back up. Eventually, after No More Heroes proved a more comfortable entrance into Suda51's head, I did, and it ended up becoming my favorite game ever. I genuinely cannot predict what my approach to not just videogames but all media could be had I not played Killer7.

Let's get the boring stuff out of the way. In terms of presentation, Killer7 looks amazing even today. It's dark, it's stylish, and it fits itself like a glove. Music and sound design are great. Gameplay's very weird, but eventually slides into a fun if simplistic loop. The PC port is the best way to play it, just keep in mind that button prompts don't change depending on how you're actually playing it, which is weird but ultimately easy to get used to.

What truly makes Killer7 a game unlike any other is its narrative, style and atmosphere, though. It's deep, inscrutable, dark, prescient, funny, depressing and so many more adjectives I could throw at it, but nothing can really do Killer7 justice other than playing it. There are so many ways to read its story, and so many ways it can gel with one depending on the sort of person they are, that it would almost be unfair to push mine on someone who hasn't yet played it.

"What is United States? What is the purpose of the President?"
"I'm Japanese, how the hell should I know? Figure it out for yourself."

- A brief summation of my relationship with this game

I don't quite remember where I heard of Killer7 for the first time. I have vague recollections of reading about it in an issue of Nintendo Power. Knowing my tastes as a kid, I'm sure I must have thought it looked cool as hell... But there was zero chance of me being able to play it back then. Too violent, too scary. My parents never would have allowed it. In retrospect, it's probably for the best that I didn't get the chance - it probably would have turned me into an art student, which is pretty much a fate worse than death.

I'll give the briefest, most coherent explanation of the plot that I can: The Killer7 are an enigmatic, multinational group of assassins. They are led by one Harman Smith, and along with a number of "remnant psyches" (read: ghosts of past hits), they form a group commonly known as the Smith Syndicate. These assassins frequently do contract work for the US government, but something about this latest job is different. A terrorist group known as Heaven Smile - comprised of humans-turned-monsters whose only goal in life seems to be to laugh and violently explode - has appeared seemingly out of thin air and has started wreaking havoc throughout the world. The Smiths are tasked with bringing down this threat, which is headed by the mysterious Kun Lan, an individual with whom Harman seems to share a long history. As the threat escalates, it is quickly revealed that if any one thing is true of the world of Killer7, it's that you can't trust your own eyes.

I won't beat around the bush - just about everything surrounding this game is on point. The minimalistic cel-shaded artstyle focuses heavily on shadowing and contrasting colors, and is striking from start to finish. The voice acting is exceptionally well done. The character designs are cool, the soundtrack is superb, and while the story and writing are obviously going to hit differently for everybody, I personally enjoyed the absolutely nutty narrative that was spoon-fed to me throughout the experience. And if you need more, there's plenty of supplementary material you can dive into. Killer7 was my first full experience with Suda51, and given he put his head together with Shinji Mikami to make this kaleidoscope of crazy, I put off playing it for way too long. It's obvious that nobody makes games quite like Mr. Go-Ichi... For better or for worse.

The gameplay is functional, and that's about all I can really say to it. Killer7 came out shortly after Resident Evil 4, prompting comparisons at the time. Superficially, they are quite similar: Run around, pick up plot coupons, solve puzzles and stop to shoot bad guys every now and again. Killer7 is a rather linear game by comparison, however - quite literally so. There is no free movement or camera control in Killer7. You press A to move your chosen character forward and press B to make them turn around. The path often forks and is dotted with various smaller locations and points of interests, but in getting there, you will go either forwards or backwards and no other way. It's effectively a rail shooter that lets you decide where the shooting should take place. Your foes, the Heaven Smiles, are invisible. They approach you relentlessly and will explode if they reach you, taking a chunk of your health with them. You solve this by aiming towards them with R, and then scanning them with L, revealing them. At this point, it's a matter of either plugging them full of holes or, more ideally, shooting their weak point which generally kills them instantly. There's no true ammo management; you can reload as many times as you need to get the job done. You will encounter many varieties of Smiles throughout the game, a great deal of which can only be killed by attacking them in a specific manner. Killing foes by striking their weak points will earn you thin blood, which you can use to power special attacks and heal, and thick blood, which will allow you to upgrade the Smiths' stats. Conversely, simply shooting your foes to pieces will reward you with a comparatively pitiful amount of blood. There is a limit to how much blood you can earn in each stage, preventing you from grinding too much. As you go along your merry way, you'll encounter various NPCs who will help clue you in on what's going on and what to do to proceed. Dying will result in no consequences save for being sent back to the last "save room" you visited and making you lose access to the Smith that was killed. You can remedy this setback by sending a particular character to their place of death, resurrecting them - but if this character dies in the attempt, it's a true game over and you'll have to reload to your last save.

Of course, there is the titular Killer 7, who form the cast of playable characters. There's Dan Smith, the ill-tempered gunslinger whose thirst for blood can only be matched by the size of the gun he carries - KAEDE Smith, a mysterious barefooted woman with a scoped automatic who can use her blood to break mystical barriers - Kevin Smith, an unerringly silent man who is lethal with a knife and can turn invisible at will - Coyote Smith, an uncouth gentleman carrying a modified Enfield who can effortlessly pick locks and leap high into the air - Con Smith, a young boy who has overcome his blindness to become a dual-pistol-packing blur of speed - and MASK de Smith, a heroic luchador who totes a pair of grenade launchers and has explosive physical strength to match. You can switch between these six characters freely (although they will occasionally need to be unlocked first depending on the mission) and utilizing their unique abilities will be required to clear stages. There's also Garcian Smith, who acts as a handler of sorts: A self-styled cleaner, he can retrieve the bodies of Smiths that were killed in action and revive them. If he goes down, it's game over. Harman himself can also be played, but only in very specific scenarios.

So let's start with said characters. The idea of being able to freely switch between six characters with unique abilities is awesome on paper. In practice, though, it's very underwhelming and not especially fun to engage with. The biggest issue is that while you can switch to any Smith at just about any time, you need to go into the menu and choose to switch - at which point time will freeze while your current character explodes into particles to make room for the new one. It's a cool effect, but changing from one to the next is anything but seamless. The ability to switch on the fly would have been appreciated (something that is possible using hotkeys in the PC port, which somewhat improves the flow of the game). Even if it weren't a bit of a chore, though, the game doesn't do a great job of incentivizing you to diversify your palette. All of your enemies are killed by shooting them. Some Smiths are simply better at shooting things than others. In particular, Dan Smith has all around good stopping power, accuracy, and health. Whatever flaws he might have are quickly ironed out by investing a bit of thick blood into him, and a certain plot-relevant upgrade doubles his ammo capacity. He's even capable of killing a handful of foes that the other Smiths can't. At that point, there really is no reason to use any other Smith unless it's required for a puzzle or unless you're up against one of the few Smiles that only MASK can defeat. He is likewise nearly broken, almost as a gameplay mechanic. He's built like a tank and his grenades can kill a good number of enemies effortlessly, and he gets multiple mandatory upgrades that just make him even better. The game gives you a tradeoff in that you can't kill enemies that need to be hit in their weak point, and you don't get any thick blood by using him... Which is really a non-issue considering how easy it is to get thick blood otherwise. Finally, there's Kevin, who throws knives with pinpoint accuracy and doesn't need to reload. Since hitting an enemy's weak point kills them instantly, if you have good aim he's basically invincible when up against any generic enemies with a weak spot. The PC port really hammers this home, with the ability to use a mouse totally breaking whatever difficulty curve this game has. Otherwise, KAEDE has a scope which can sometimes be useful for taking out a pesky Smile from afar, Con can spam bullets ad nauseum and Coyote is for all purposes simply a worse Dan. Their special abilities are by and large simply used for puzzle solving or for trivializing combat in other ways. It's very easy to get complacent by just settling on one Smith for general purpose combat and only changing to the others when it's absolutely necessary, especially since it minimizes the number of times you'll have to visit a menu. On the one hand, being able to break the game with minimal investment does mean you can adjust the difficulty to your tastes, making things as easy or challenging as you want them to be. On the other hand, some of the Smiths being so lackluster really undermines whatever cool factor they might lend to the overall gameplay experience.

And then there's everything else. If the core conceit of walking in a straight line from place to place didn't already throw you, a lot of the game's more tedious aspects still might. Puzzle solving in this game is a joke. Most of them have painfully obvious solutions, and just as many others don't even really qualify as "puzzles" so much as simple cases of "use the right Smith here" or "use the right ring here". The game even provides a hint system if one or two still prove a tad too obtuse. Failing all else, there's only so many different ways to interact with things; simply checking out everything you can will be enough to brute force your way in most cases. By the end, the designers seem to have mostly given up - the bulk of your time will be spent merely running around and picking up plot tokens with no real challenge other than trying not to get lost. While the story is a big draw, a lot of the dialogue outside of cutscenes is delivered to you fairly slowly, one line at a time. And of course, there's the way your enemies are delivered to you, frequently popping up in your path and forcing you to search for them. They're all generally designed to be annoying to hit, but otherwise aren't especially threatening. Aim for their weak spots to take them down quickly or unload into them when that fails, heal up if you get hit, and try not to let the repeated critical hit quote (just the one) of your character grate your nerves. Your biggest issues are going to be coming up against enemies that are around corners, approaching you as you exit rooms, or constantly respawning. That last point is definitely part of what makes the exploration a task. You can look forward to killing the same enemies over and over again as you poke through rooms trying to find that one item you're missing. If enemies you killed stayed dead, it might place a greater emphasis on the "aim well, be rewarded" aspect of its gameplay, but as it stands you're likely to get more than enough thick blood to increase your character's stats simply by virtue of all the wandering around you'll do. And yes, there isn't much reason to invest too much in your characters, anyways - again, hitting weak spots results in an instant kill, and some Smiths are more worthy of upgrades than others, so you can pretty comfortably put points in your favorites and leave the rest to languish without hurting your viability in the long run. Boss fights are generally not enjoyable, being either way tankier than they have any right to be or relying on a single gimmick (or both). There just aren't a whole lot of places where I could authentically say I was having fun playing this game.

As a whole, Killer7's core gameplay loop really feels more like a concession to the concept of action game design than an actual attempt at making a fun action game. It has a few cool ideas, but none of them amount to much in the long run. You move and you shoot, and click on a few things in the meantime, and it's fine - if your neurons activate when you fire a gun, you'll probably have a great time - but there is nothing about it that makes me want to play it twice. It could have just as easily been a graphic adventure game like Policenauts with the occasional shooting section and it probably would have been more palatable. Instead, it's a shooter because a game involving gun-toting assassins not letting you shoot would have been considered borderline criminal in 2005, and about no other reason. It's the vehicle that delivers Suda51's crazy tale to you, and not much more.

But I'm not sorry that I played it. Every cutscene, every little plot revelation, every time Andrei Ulmeyda opened his mouth - when all of the components of this game came together to make a whole, I felt compelled to go a little bit further anyways. It's weird and frustrating, but it's slick and it's also funny as hell. There's some good commentary in there if you can manage to arrange all the threads neatly in front of you, and overall I think there's a really good chance it could stick with you, too.

It's a hard sell. Even back then folks were calling it an "art game" - one of the first games I can think of where the point really seemed to be to emphasize the style and story over everything else. These days we call lots of things "art games", especially in the indie sector. It's a redundant moniker, of course, as video games are art. It's something Suda51 himself seems to be acutely aware of, and he seems to feel that video games are an ideal medium for self-expression, which I'm inclined to agree with. I didn't much enjoy Killer7 as a game, but I think it's a real artistic achievement and I still wish there were more games like it. If you're the kind of person that's more interested in what a game has to say than how it plays, I think you'll be pleased with Killer7. Otherwise, feel free to take a chance on it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

It's interesting how closely Killer7 adheres to the classic Resident Evil formula. The main differences are an unlimited inventory and that you're on rails. The latter difference somewhat simplifies exploration but is an added limitation during combat.

Combat with mooks is ideally shooting their weak-spot to instantly kill them. This not only gets you out of danger and saves you time, but it also drops a large amount of the currency used to upgrade your characters and a large amount of the resource used to heal your characters. Most of the time, this is just blasting a shiny yellow spot. Certain rare types require specific strategies, but they don't come up frequently. Your next best bet is delimbing enemies, with your worst option being to just shoot large and easy-to-aim-at torsos. Boss fights have their own rules, and some of them are more demanding in terms of solving a puzzle than twitch-aiming (though the latter is certainly a thing for a couple of them).

The puzzles are typically light diversions, and exist more as an excuse to have you explore each stage.

The unlockable Killer8 difficulty is its own beast worthy of its own paragraph. You take rather extreme damage on this difficulty, with only 2 of the original Killer7 even being able to survive 1 regular attack and the difficulty's exclusive 8th member being able to survive it as well. The shiny yellow spots are also hidden from players seeking out those instant kills. They still exist, and this difficulty does heavily reward knowing all the spots they can spawn on an enemy. With good memory and good aim, they can still be hit, but you'll probably have to go back to delimbing enemies. The game will also force you to iron out your boss-fight strategies if you hadn't already when going to this difficulty.

The PC port is definitely the way to. The unlocked frame-rate, hotkeys for on-the-fly character-switching, and mouse-aim dramatically improve the experience over the PS2 version I originally played through.

It's a great game, but a little simple overall. Super stylish though, and definitely worth a run for that alone.

Killer7 is a game I thought I was going to hate. Prior to playing this game I had sectioned it off in my brain as a game for pretentious assholes, one with an overly esoteric plot and with gameplay that is designed to be tedious, as a sort of meta-commentary at the expense of the player. Still, I decided I should take the plunge and got it for dirt cheap on sale. I went in expecting to dislike the game, but from the moment I killed that first Mother Smile with Dan's charge shot, I was completely hooked.

Every ounce of Killer7 oozes this deeply unique, unflinchingly bold charm. When Killer7 says something, it does so without stuttering. Someday, I'd like to write a longer piece on the greater details of Killer7's narrative. Instead, I'm just gonna gush about all the different things that I love about this game.

I love every single member of the titular Killer7. Each member has totally distinct designs and gameplay types, and I got pretty even use out of each character. Garcian, Coyote, and Dan were the standouts for me, but that doesn't make the other characters bad by any means. From what I've seen online, everyone comes out of Killer7 with differing favorites. I love the aesthetic of this game, from its beautiful cel-shaded graphics to its "futuristic" UI design. Every little bit of design in this game feels intentional, which in turn makes it very satisfying to dissect and consume. I shockingly loved the on-rails shooter gameplay of Killer7, and found it viscerally satisfying to play through. I even loved the filler text in this game. When Coyote uses his ability to jump, the text reads "The Eagle has landed on the roof", or when you use a ring it goes, "(Ring name) howls". It's just the extra effort to characterize even the most basic of actions that made me completely enamored with this game.

If there's anyone out there who may be on the fence about this game like I was, I implore you to give Killer7 a try. I will be thinking about this game for a very long time.

pure fucking insanity. what the fuck is this game. it's incredible. i hate it. probably one of the most stylish, absurd, surreal, nightmarish things i've ever played. one of a kind doesn't even cut it. i love it not just for its story which initially seems nigh-on incoherent but once you delve into it you see just how geniusly it is constructed with thought-provoking looks at politics and the collective unconscious. not that you'd really get that without watching some videos but hey. i love each member of the killer7 and switching between them on the fly. and the ending is one of the most soul-emptying i can think of. there's just so many cool ideas per second in this game, always some new location to admire the awesome graphical style in, always some unexpected comedy, always some horrifying moments. distinctive control scheme, fun shooting mechanics, and head-spinning narrative aside, there's also the odd level design snafu that makes for some absolutely teeth-grinding moments. also, if it's not obvious by now, it's a pretty obtuse game. not just story-wise with how much it crams in there but the first level will be extremely confusing for first-timers which is not always a good thing. once you're on board and you've stuck with it enough the style really grows on you. apart from those little niggles this is pretty much a flawless aesthetic experience and a triumph of insanity and style. i believe suda51 calls this his best, and it's not hard to see why.

Harman, the size of the world has changed. It's changed to the size where you can control it with your hands, just like a PDA. The world will keep getting smaller.

Of all that has changed in my life, of all the opinions I have held that have changed and been cast down the river, Killer7 is a constant in my life.

This game is so much of my id as a human being, it pushes me to look through and look toward more art.

Learn their works, learn their struggles, even their shortcomings and moral failings.

Harman, the world won't change. All it does is turn. Now, let's dance.

" Harman, the world wont change, all it does is turn.... now lets dance"

killer 7 was a game I first thought I couldn't get into but when I actually started playing it I got hooked, the style of the game is so nice and the combat is really fun I loved playing as all of the different assassins. I don't really like puzzles in games but the puzzles in killer 7 were not too bad and it helped to make the game more intriuging

my favourite part of the game is def the well done political references which are quite accurate, reminds me a lot of Kojima and mgs2, after finishing the game things started to click a lot with me, I was confused while playing which is bound to happen for most players

overall, killer 7 is an amazing game with great political symbolism and it gives you such an immersive experience I recommend playing

This game is really fun, but I have to say I was pretty lost on most of the story and just let myself zone out whenever some crazy shit was happening on-screen. That said, I remember the whole thing like I beat it yesterday. The music was great, the characters are funny and unique. Usually i find the Suda51 games like silver case and no more heroes 1 and 2 to be pretty overrated (while still okay in my opinion) this game is just as good as they say. Even on PS2 with long load times and frame drops it's still good, so buy that version if you don't have a PC and don't want to pay the gamecube tax.

Damn what a riiiiiide that was.

Killer7 is hands down one of the most unique and weird games I've played, and it is so in a very compelling way. Its borerline nonsensical at times plot-wise and has some game design flaws here and there, but it remains such a strong statement of «trying stuff and seeing what sticks» that it becomes eminently fascinating. It keeps this momentum going for a surprising amount of time as well without ever becoming the least bit tiresome.

Almost 20 years on, you'd be hardpressed to find something that even comes close to resembling Killer7, and that's quite a feat. It stands in a league of its own, and despite some minor hiccups, it quickly warmed up to being one of my favorite games of this edgy, mis-2000s era of games.

Very, very glad I gave this a shot.

In the name of Harman.

I'm not going to pretend I understand a lot of this game's story (especially the political aspects) but I want to give a raw review before looking into it further. Because to me, it didn't matter. This game oozes with so much style it is crazy. In that regard, this game may be unrivaled for me. It's not in a "style over substance" manner either, as this game has plenty of substance. The only nitpick I have is that it is pretty linear, but I think the alternate modes still give it some replay value. I think it would be nice if you could change the character's outfits manually, or if there were some kind of collectibles you could obtain just to make each player's experience more personalized. Nonetheless, a top-tier game that I don't really think overstays its welcome or becomes boring. Definitely a new GameCube favorite of mine.