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Killer7 Review - Gamecube

Every so often things of a certain type get so popular that the machines of capitalism move in to take over the running of things. Generally this means huge companies buy out the little ones, production costs rise (destroying the old ideal of one man locking himself in his basement for two years and programming a hit game), product quality increases in certain aspects – such as appearance and mass appeal – and decreases dramatically in other aspects – such as originality, innovation, creative genius and so forth.

This has been happening to the game industry for a long time now. We see more and more franchises – pretty much the same game being released year after year – and less and less originality. I'm not saying originality is everything, but it's certainly nice to have – especially if you're talking about art. I very much like to think of computer games as being within the art world.

We are now beginning to experience the backlash against the innovation-hungry corporate black holes. There have been a few new games in recent months which have tried their best to break the mould; and if Killer7 does anything it innovates, and with real style too.

Gameplay

First – the scene. You take the role of a wheelchair bound hit-man/genius/madman who has seven split personalities – other than himself. His name is Harman Smith, and he's got a damn fine maid looking after him, I can tell you – her name is Samantha.

Through an unexplained method, Harmon has been affected such that his personas can now take on a physical form. Each of these characters has their own personality and is a specialist assassin in their own right. Together they are Killer7.

Most of the game you spend traipsing around as one of six of Harman's seven personalities – There's a nice lady (in a very nice dress) called Kaeda who can communicate with a spirit, a flashy but arrogant killer called Dan who likes to show off, a quiet albino called Kevin who can become invisible, an athletic thief called Coyote who can pick any lock, a little guy called Con who can move at lightning speed, and a beefy x-wrestler called Mask who can break through walls. You switch between these various personalities by using a television – of all things.

The seventh personality is a chap called Garcian Smith who's not the best shooter in the pack. Storyline wise, he's the only one who can directly communicate with Harman. He's also 'the cleaner' – which for some reason means he can resurrect the other personalities when they get killed. Essentially this means the only way of dying in Killer7 is for Garcian to be killed – incidentally he has more health than anyone other than Harman.

The first time I played Killer7 it was weird. Even though I was expecting it to be weird it still took me a bit to ... (continued next page)