Home
sign up| features / game column |
 content by: editor |
 games: killer7
Capcom break the rules. Killer 7 - or killer7, as Capcom insist it be called - is a highly ambitious game that bends convention to result in something that's uniquely innovative and somewhat confounding. Announced back in 2003 as one of Capcom's GameCube-specific titles, its nature remained cryptic for a long while. But now, with killer7 finally released on both GameCube and PS2, it finally becomes clear… or not, as this is a fairly baffling experience. killer7 is destined to be a cult game, not a classic - it's too peculiar for wide appeal.  The design of the game is its first notable point. It not only uses striking cel-shaded visuals (always a winner in my book), it also employs a novel approach to exploring the game space. You can't run around freely, you're effectively on rails in third person, moving using a button press not a stick, and able to turn 180 degrees and go back the way you came. You switch to first person for the action sequences, which involve using one of the game's seven heroes – different facets of a split personality, with different specializations – to combat a grotesque terrorist group, made up of mutated people whose bodies are bombs. The theme of suicide bombers may be a discomforting one, but killer7 isn't afraid to be political. The story involves political conflict between the USA and Japan, with the mastermind behind the Heavens Smile terrorists intent on toppling the superpower.  It's heady stuff, and an admirable effort by Capcom, who are having a strong year, to fly in the face of standardization and conformity. However, compared with the cream of recent action adventures, from Capcom's own Resident Evil 4 to the gleeful God Of War, this is awkward stuff. Being both atypical in its control scheme and ambiguous in its storytelling (which features ghostly gimp guides and a unique but repetitive device for resurrection when a persona gets killed), it demands attention, it demands to be taken on its own terms. Frustration, however, very easily arises, not least because the PS2 version in particular is riddled with too many pesky load screens.
Daniel Etherington
killer7, out now on GameCube and PS2.
 conversations
Read members' comments.
|
 |
related info
 useful linkscapcom europe: killer-7
note: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
see also
 god of wargames #111  godfathergames #110  b-movie mayhemgames #109  conkergames #108  virtual worldsgames #107
also on bbc.co.uk
books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. |
send to a friend
access 1000s of articles
