"One of the most unique and gripping games to come out in a long time"

Story – 10/10

Killer7's storyline is quite possibly one of the most confusing plots you'll ever play through. There has been an outbreak in mysterious laughing zombies called Heaven Smiles. They seem to be breeding and are being ordered to kill innocent people all over the world. A secret assassination group known as Killer7 plan on taking the Heaven Smiles down and uncovering who's behind it all.

Killer7 are made up of seven different people – Dan Smith, Kaede Smith, Con Smith, Mask de Smith, Coyote Smith, Kevin Smith, and Garcian Smith. You can freely switch between any of these people at any time, apart from Garcian. Every person has special abilities which you must use to get through the game. Garcian is special because he is what he calls “the cleaner”. If a Smith dies then you can use Garcian to come and clear the body up and revive them. However, if Garcian dies, it's game over.

What's so weird is that these seven people are the seven different personalities of a wheelchair-bound person named Harman Smith. He's an old fellow but very intelligent. When necessary, the game automatically switches you to Harman as he must speak with certain people.

As the game goes on, you complete different missions, and learn a lot about what is going on. It seems that the US government is intent on destroying Japan, while Japan simply cannot give in to them. A lot of this is the work of a certain person who is creating the Heaven Smiles and taking over the UN Party. It's up to the Killer7 to crack down on the real intentions of the UN and put a stop to the on-going murders.

As you will soon find out as you play the game, it becomes very, very confusing, yet at the same time, it remains one of the most creative and intriguing stories in a video game. After I beat the game myself, I could see that it has the potential to become a fantastic worldwide movie and I'm sure many will agree. It really does feel like a movie as you play through. Killer7 definitely has one of the best and most gripping stories that will have you totally confused and put so many different theories into your head by the time you finish it.

Gameplay – 10/10

You must switch between the seven different personas of Harman Smith and use each character's abilities to your advantage. Only certain people can clear out certain enemies, while people such as Mask de Smith can smash down walls. You must learn to use each person's abilities to progress through the levels.

You play through Killer7 in chapters. After you complete one chapter of the story, you move on to the next. Each chapter has a totally new mission each time you play with new enemies to kill, and new areas to explore. You'll find yourself travelling all over the United States trying to take down the Heaven Smiles.

Killer7's style of play is very different too. You run around on a set course by pressing the A button, and when you come to a junction with multiple routes to take, you select which road you want to go down and press A again. When enemies approach you, you hold the R trigger and the screen switches to a third-person perspective, with your gun in front. Pressing the A button lets you fire away at the enemy. You must collect the blood from your enemies by shooting off limbs or by shooting the weak spots which appear on the enemies as yellow patches. You must use the blood to create semen to level up your characters and make them stronger and faster. The more you level up your characters, the more skills they'll learn. These include such moves as being able to shoot twice with one pull of the trigger, and being able to blow off the head of a crawling enemy when it's close to you.

The game's length is quite long and actually uses two GameCube discs. It's not often you get a game which needs two GC discs, so this should give you an image of how big K7 is. When you start the game you can choose from two difficulty levels. The basic normal mode is actually quite easy so you should get through it fine, but the next mode up is such a leap, you'll be shocked. You will be cursing out loud so much at the amount of times you find yourself getting killed. It's all part of the fun though.

What's great about the game is that it's so different to anything gone before. Killer7 is unlike many other games so everyone has a whole new style of gameplay to learn. The whole uniqueness Killer7 has is what makes the game so great.

Controls – 10/10

I know that a few people will fault the game for the lack of moving your characters with the control stick, but I actually like it. As I previously mentioned, to move forward you hold the A button. The control stick is only used for aiming your gun in the third-person viewpoint, or selecting options on the menu. To turn around, you simply tap the B button. What's interesting is that the Heaven Smiles are invisible but you have the ability to scan the area at any time to reveal them by pressing the L trigger whilst in the gunpoint view. You can enter gunpoint view any time by holding the R trigger, and can reload your weapon with a simple tap of the C-Stick. Likewise, after you run out of bullets, you will automatically reload anyway.

If you have enough blood from enemies, then you can charge up your shots with it, to make them more powerful. This is done by pressing the Y button in gunpoint view. Some enemies can only be defeated with charged shots, but you must savour your blood so try not to use them all too often.

The control style will take a little getting used to for everybody because we are all so familiar with moving characters with the control stick. But it soon becomes second nature and you'll be running around and killing zombies with ease in no time.

Graphics – 10/10

Capcom decided to use cel-shaded graphics for Killer7. Much like the sort of graphics you've seen in games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Viewtiful Joe. Despite the game's nature with killing, blood and sexual scenes though, Capcom have still managed to portray a violent and mature game even with the cartoon style graphics. Saying that though, Wind Waker and Viewtiful Joe still show mature themes so it proves that graphics do not determine a game's nature.

Killer7 does a fantastic job in producing top quality graphics and I personally love the cel-shaded style anyway. It seems to work perfectly with K7 so I think Capcom have done a good job with it.

Sound – 9/10

There are some great tracks in Killer7 that you'll end up beating to. They don't exactly stick in your head when you aren't playing the game, but what's there is very good.

The voice acting is of the finest quality. There are so many different voices so Capcom have put a lot of effort into the acting for Killer7. Because of the cel-shaded graphics, it seems like it was hard to get the dialogue in sync with the lip movement. But I think that K7 can get away with it simply because of the fact that the game is cel-shaded and isn't intended to look realistic. Yet these are some of the finest voiceovers you'll hear. Everything is crystal clear, and there are some very interesting voices that dead people have when they speak to you. It's kind of a mix of English and something else in a robotic voice. Great stuff.

Overall – 10/10

It's about time we had a brand new and original game over all these sequels we keep getting. Capcom have provided us with a fantastic mature game which will keep older gamers very happy. And as I said, it features one of the most gripping and confusing storylines in a game. By the time you're near the end, you'll be thinking “WTF?!” so many times, it will have your mind spinning around in circles. The amount of plot twists is crazy, yet you will be shocked at the outcome.

Killer7 has the potential to become a worldwide movie hit. By the time you beat the game you really will think that it felt like a movie. Capcom have actually stated in trailers of the game that this was “a film by Shinji Mikami”, so who knows – maybe Capcom will turn this into a movie. It certainly would be a damn good one if it was.

Killer7 has been designed with older gamers in mind as it's full of swearing, gore, and sexual scenes. But if you like that sort of thing, you'll flipping love Killer7. I know I do, and there's enough reason to keep playing the game with the unlockables you can get. This is one of the most unique and best games to come out in a while, so I would highly recommend Killer7.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/05