Played it through on hard mode, and DAMN, was it cool.
I have no idea what the fuck happened, or indeed, what happened to Kevin, but man was it an interesting experience.
Gameplay wise, it's nothing to write home about. It's best described as an FPS on rails. Each killer has a unique weapon and a different way of dispatching enemies. As time goes on, you can unlock extra character abilities, making killing things easier.
My favourite of the bunch had to be the aforementioned Kevin, with his throwing knives of glorious blood-splatterage.
Closely followed by the akimbo-pistol-wielding Con, although his shout of "Fuck You" after scoring a critical began to grate after a while.
Story and design however are WAY the fuck out there.
Fucked-up Japanese horror is the rule of the day here, and it does it immensely well.
It centres around the assasins of the title, the Killer7, or Smith Syndicate.
First off you've got Darcian Smith. He's the cleaner, and something of a dark horse. He's who you send in to claim the remains when one of the others buys agricultural real estate. Darcian also takes all the contracts and acts as the group's primary liaison.
Dan Smith is next up, and is some kind of hard-bitten Japanese gunfighter, with a demonic power to back him up. He's Mister Average really, and at first you think he's there to provide some kinda heroic focus, much like Ryu in Street Fighter. Well, that's what you think at first.
Then we have Kaede Smith, a dazed little lady who runs round slitting her wrists at the slightest opportunity. Her gun is big and has a scope. She goes EVERYWHERE barefoot.
And her taste in fashion extends to a short dress with massive bloodstain. Odd little woman.
Next up is Kevin Smith.
Kevin never utters a word. He just runs everywhere really quickly and chucks knives at things.
He's incredibly accurate if a little slow-firing and weak, but he never has to reload. He can also turn invisible, which is handy when you feel outgunned. You never really learn anything about Kevin, which I think is why he's remained my favourite.
Coyote Smith is the thief.
He unlocks things and can jump really high, but he holds his gun on it's side which looks really gay. I didn't like Coyote much.
Con Smith is an ex-gangbanger who wears a bandana over his eyes and massive headphones.
Like Kevin, he runs everywhere really quickly.
He's the fastest gun out of all of them, wielding dual 9mm pistols.
When he needs to reload, he does a little dance like he needs to pee. He's great fun, and is also the first character to get the brilliant critical lock ability.
Last but not least we have MASK De Smith.
He's a masked wrestler wielding dual grenade launchers.
MASK is the only character to get special power-ups throughout the game, although at first is completely useless. I must admit, half the time MASK feels more like a tool than a well-rounded character; a gameplay mechanism as opposed to a personality.
But dual grenade launchers are immensely fun, so we can forgive that
There is one more Smith; Harman.
He's allegedly running the show.
Looks a bit like a pissed-off Puritan preacher in a wheelchair with an horrendously large caliber sniper rifle.
The game appears to flick between two realities most of the time, so you're never entirely sure what's going on.
One minute Harman appears as some sage old man offering cryptic advice from his wheelchair, the next he's a dribbling invalid being used as some kind of S&M gimp by his sadistic maid.
Weird little instances like this happen all the time, keeping you constantly on your toes whilst trying to follow the story.
Sick and twisted imagery is put to work in this game as in no other before in. It's all very unsettling, and indeed, has some content I'm absolutely positive has naver been the subject of a videogame before.
For example, one of your targets is paid by his employers in young girls. What becomes of these girls I will leave it to you to find out.
Overall, I've been MOST impressed with this game.
I'm not sure if the replay value is that high, but it was a good length and REALLY made me think.
Highly recommended.
