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You see, I’ve recently been giving a lot of thought about going into journalism since I have been complimented on my writing abilities by numerous people (outside of family and teachers, thank you) and, as you can probably tell, I usually enjoy writing. Even though I’ve always been more of a mathematical nut and math primarily being my educational focus, I’ve noticed over the last five months that I seem to be switching dynamics towards the “English” side of the spectrum. With this in mind, and my sudden urge to wash my hands in the journalism/reporting salt-water lake, I decided to take a necessary History class that is required for Journalism majors. Looking at the options now, I see that there was also the option of taking Political Science, and there in lies my mistake.
It isn’t that I actually care about the political realm; quite the contrary. I’ve said numerous times before that I have been unable to name, much less meet, three people that could honestly say to me that he or she has enjoyed talking about politics and felt that their respective life was better off because of it. JBL may be one of those people, but I digress. The political realm is a realm in which I am a strong believer that ignorance truly is bliss, and I’ll take my obliviousness in stride. So why, all of a sudden, do I feel that I cheated myself? Simply put, I feel cheated because I know that in some of the most plot-driven games in the history of my generation, containing vast political knowledge isn’t a bonus, it’s mandatory.
Throughout the fifteen years I’ve held a controller in my hand, I’ve noticed that the political realm has either one of two distinct uses and significance levels in specific video games. The first use is the much more commonly used method: A simple backdrop to validate or give an excuse for what you, the player, are doing. Sure, the game tries to develop an elaborate plot involving fictional (or even real) defense groups that hold substantial power in America looking to disarm or stop the evil country’s plans for global takeovers, but in the end, the plot is rather moot. Arguably the best example of this usage would be one of the many “Tom Clancy” games (Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, etc...). The reasoning behind your antics is for the good of your country and involves foreign policies, but for about 95% of the people that play these games, the plot is rather forgettable if not unnecessary.
The second use of politics in the gaming world is the type in which the game indicates from the get-go that the game’s plot involves political policies, but unlike the former, it turns out throughout the game that political influences end up impacting almost every single aspect of the game. The game uses a plethora of political references and symbolism that may go unnoticed until the end of the game, in which the major plot twists are revealed and almost every one of them is due to intricate political schemes and so forth. The Metal Gear Solid series is arguably the most notorious of these games. In “Metal Gear Solid 2", the second half of the game begins simply enough: a terrorist group has hijacked a cleaning plant and the terrorists hold a significant number of hostages (United States President included) that they will exterminate on the hour. By the time the game is over, most players will be doubting their own existence. The game practically goes out of its way to swerve players (for better or for worse), using the aid of massive conspiracies and symbolism (ex: the Raiden/Jack connection) to make the player numb.
Of course, the use of politics is mainly superfluous if the game isn’t fun. If a person is going to spend around twenty to fifty dollars to experience a **** that person will gladly claim that he or she better have a smile on his or her respective face throughout. The two games I’ve mentioned above thankfully fall into this category.
And now, “Killer 7" is riding that saddle.
Released to the world about two months ago, “Killer 7" is a game that places the player in the beginning stages of a new terrorist threat headed by Kun Lan, a powerful eastern cultured “renegade” that wields the “Hand of God”. By making contact with another person, he is able to transform anyone into a “Heaven Smile”: A mindless, monstrous, kamikaze invisible to the naked eye. In order to save America, the government contacts the “Smith Syndicate”, a group of cerebral assassins (Triple H not included) all bearing the last name of “Smith” that are the only people capable of eliminating the smiles. This group is appropriately nicknamed the “Killer 7". If this isn’t already a unique and confusing start, consider that from the onset of the game, it is uncertain whether these “Smiths” are seven different beings or simply the seven different personalities of Harman Smith, the assumed leader of the group. Nicknamed the “God Killer”, Harman is a grizzled old man handicapped to a wheelchair. He needs his maid Samantha to take care of him, and even odder, he is also decent friends with Kun Lan (frequent chess players, to be specific). If you haven’t been able to tell by now, “Killer 7" easily falls into the “Metal Gear Solid” category of politically-charged gaming.
As if the beginning aspects weren’t overwhelming enough, the end of the game may cause an aneurism. Not only is the political realm and fears of today’s America accentuated, but the same political focus, if not more, is represented in Japan as well. Throughout the game, the plot will take some drastic turns and make stabs at the worlds of politics, religion, sex, xenophobia, racism, East vs. West philosophies and traditions, to name a few fields. I will not give anything major about the plot away, but I will say that there are about three to five different storylines going at once (that are admittedly tied together rather loosely in the finale), and some of the twists are as casual as they are complex (one twist may not be as unfamiliar to video gamers as the game may hope; another twist will remind most of a popular cult film). While many gamers will probably be turned off by the influx of the political, the game makes up for this by establishing from the beginning that not only is something rather eccentric occurring, but also establishing (via excellent presentation) that the game itself is eccentric in many other ways. Therefore, most gamers may continue playing based solely on confusion alone while wondering what the hell is occurring at a given moment.
Of course, that last paragraph will not mean a damn thing to you if the game isn’t fun. Thankfully, it is...given that you are either willing to adapt to “something new” and/or familiar enough with a specific gaming genre to know what to expect. Browsing through numerous video game sites and message boards, I’ve noticed that the people that hate the game with a passion hate because of its gameplay. These people typically seem to believe that “Killer 7" is terrible because it is trying this new format of gaming genre that isn’t functional, too confusing, and is too restricting compared to other games. With this in mind, I feel I should say it now: KILLER 7 IS A GLORIFIED RAIL SHOOTER! IT ISN’T A “NEW” STYLE OF GAMEPLAY, IT’S JUST A RAIL SHOOTER! To the defense of those “detractors”, I can understand why Killer 7 may come as a bit of a shock. After all, I admit the Rail Shooter is very similar to the 2D fighter: all but archaic at this point. In the era of “Grand Theft Auto” and “Halo”, a game in which something seemingly as simple as moving the character isn’t as easy as using an analog stick sounds like a decent detractor to those unfamiliar with the rail shooter.
This doesn’t mean, however, that the rail shooter isn’t fun. I can guarantee that almost everyone reading this article has played at least one rail shooter in their lifetime, more than likely at an arcade. Games like “Silent Scope”, “Area 51", and “House of the Dead” can typically be seen at any decent arcade since it’s practically the law: these three games, and other rail shooters, are usually the most popular games at arcades. That being said, a decent arcade is hard to find nowadays since the console age has made most arcades obsolete. Sadly, the rise of “next generation” consoles also means that the rail shooter’s popularity decreased further. If one was to look through the catalog of games available for any of the three major current consoles, finding a good original rail shooter is nearly impossible. Although I never played it, I have heard that “Time Crisis 3" is a solid game. Other than that game, the only other really good rail shooter was a game called “Panzer Dragoon Orta” (another game in the series that made the rail shooter great on other consoles), which may be one of the most underappreciated, underrated masterpieces of our time. Unfortunately, the game didn’t sell as well as expected. Needless to say, up until “Killer 7", the rail shooter was pretty much buried.
Even though I call “Killer 7" a rail shooter, that term isn’t fully accurate. In fact, “Killer 7" may be the most unconventional rail shooter to ever be released. The main aspect that separates “Killer 7" from other rail shooters is how much freedom of movement the player has over his or her respective character. Typically in a rail shooter, the player has absolutely no control over the character’s horizontal/lateral movement: the character usually moves to their location on their own while the player only controls an aiming crosshair (or in the case of “Panzer Dragoon Orta”, the vertical movement of the dragon). In “Killer 7", the player can hold down the “X” button or up on the directional pad to move the character along a set path to a various location. When an intersection comes along, the player can simply use the left analog stick to control where to go. Many people consider this aspect of character control to be a major weakness in the game. It’s only until one grows accustomed to the control scheme that this aspect of the controls not only make sense, but help the game. Since the game uses a lot of dynamic camera angles (if the player chooses to use them), complete freedom of movement would be frustrating, if not impossible in this game. Also, the game never takes the player to a place/object that is useless; every location and/or object holds some significance in a level. Therefore, the rail movement aspect of the game keeps the game moving quickly, smoothly, and most importantly, it’ll be very rare that a player will be stuck looking for information.
When the player isn’t moving around, the other aspect of the game comes into play: the first-person shooting. Whenever a “Heaven Smile” is around, the player will hear the Smile’s trademark laugh. The moment this is heard, the player can press and hold the R1 button to go into a first person view. Heaven Smiles are practically invisible and invincible to the naked eye. By hitting L1, the player can “Scan” the area to look for any nearby Heaven Smiles. Once they appear, the player can hit the “X” button to fire their weapon. At first, the control scheme is somewhat awkward and aiming using the PS2 controller never really becomes as fluid as one would hope (it’s not bad to the point where it will be costly in a fight, but it could work at a smoother rate), but within a few minutes, the controls become second nature and function very well. Actually killing the Heaven Smiles effectively isn’t necessarily as easy as it sounds. It is possible to run throughout the game simply blasting away at the head and chest and legs of the enemy (if a head, chest, and/or legs are present, mind you), but in order to reap the benefits, the player needs to be more precise. Present on nearly every Heaven Smile is a glowing yellow spot that is the “weak point” of the enemy. If the player can hit this spot of the enemy, the enemy will instantly die. The bigger benefit, however, is that by hitting these weak spots, the player can collect blood from the enemy. Blood may be the most important element in the game: not only is it used to heal damaged characters, but it is also used to create serums used for leveling up characters attributes (such as power, speed, waver, etc...). When characters move up to specific levels, the characters will earn some specific talents. Almost every character will earn a “Counter Hit” which can instantly kill an enemy if one is about to harm you (but you cannot get blood by using this attack, making it a balanced tradeoff), and others will develop the ability to scan and immediately lock target on a specific body part. Other important uses of blood come in the form of special “Charged” shots and character-specific abilities (such as invisibility and super speed).
The addition of the weak spot goes from a difficulty cop out to a strategic element of the game that demands timing, accuracy and patience. When dealing with some enemies, hitting the weak spot is the only way to kill the enemy. There are numerous versions of Heaven Smiles scatted throughout the game, all unique in their own way, and all of them with certain strengths. There are your common armored brutes, but also ceiling climbing enemies, stationary “Laser Shooters”, and “bombheads” (I’m sure you can guess what they’re like). The addition of new enemies occurs fairly frequently, and break up the killing strategy of the game before it becomes monotonous.
When not battling enemies, the player will more than likely be solving puzzles that range from the obvious to the obscure, but some of them are quite creative. One puzzle involves correctly answering a series of questions based on propaganda posters scattered throughout a section of town. Another mini-puzzle requires going through some doors that have a similar pattern in the paintings above them. One of the latter puzzles in the game requires the player to answer a survey about a former student of the school, and the clues to answer the questionnaire come from FBI tapes hidden throughout the school. Some of the other puzzles are much more simpler: Remove the weakest ranked card in a poker hand; Predict the results of a horse race based on the results of a race poster; match the drawing to the kid; all rather basic.
If the discrepancy in puzzles upsets you, the boss battles will frustrate you further. In terms of boss battles, the game is a major double-edged sword: On one hand, these boss battles may be some of the most artistic, unique boss battles to ever be seen in a video game. On the other hand, all of the boss battles are based on patterns that aren’t too hard to pick up on. Thus, when the pattern is discovered, it’s almost impossible to lose. Some boss battles work better than others but still leave too much to be desired: One boss battle involves fighting one-on-one battles with members of the “Handsome Men”, a comic book hero terrorist group that are almost copies of Power Rangers or Voltron. The battles are presented in the form of an online 2D fighter, not that far off from Capcom's famous "Street Fighter" series. That’s the good aspect of the battle. The Bad? To coincide with the plot, all of the battles end up being predetermined; you’ll always win. Another boss battle is a classic cowboy-western series of pistol-whips; hit the boss before he hits you. One steady shows both men no more than six feet apart, and no music plays. The Problem is there’s a fairly easy pattern to see when the player can get off a clean shot. Pick it up early, and the battle becomes far too easy.
Every character, playable or not, in the game is unique and interesting in their own specific way. In terms of gameplay, all of the playable Killer 7 characters have their strengths and their weaknesses as well as a specialty skill. Garcian Smith is a rather weak character with his silencer, but he’s not intended to be a playable character: his main purpose is to revive other characters that die throughout the story. Dan Smith wields a very powerful magnum, is fairly accurate, and has a shot called the “Demon Shell”/”Collateral Shot”, these are the only shots in the game that can destroy Heaven Smile spawning points. However, Dan isn’t very quick and doesn’t have any outside special abilities that come in handy. KAEDE Smith uses her sniper pistol to hit targets from afar, and is great for long distance accuracy. She also can open up secret passages using the blood from her slit wrists. The strengths end there, however. KAEDE’s aim isn’t as steady as one would like, she moves very slow, her gun isn’t too powerful, she doesn’t have much vitality, and she has the longest reloading time. Kevin Smith is the best character in the game: a perfectly steady aim, fast movement, no need to reload (since he uses throwing knives), ability to turn invisible to avoid enemies and security systems, above average life meter, and some decent special attacks. His knives aren’t as strong as some of the other guns and his shots have a delay, but accuracy and timing can withstand these faults. Coyote Smith is an accurate and substantial, but overall average fighter. His main importance comes in breaking locks and leaping to high places, which will be used more often than it sounds. Con Smith is super fast (and even faster with his special speed skill), small (good for hard to reach places), uses two automatics for more firepower (and thus can help hit weak spots), and has a rapid reloading time. He isn’t very powerful, doesn’t have a large health meter, and has no special shots to speak of, meaning there is a significant risk/reward aspect to using him. The last character, MASK de Smith, is incredibly powerful, has a tremendous health meter, and using dual grenade launchers, can obliterate any enemy. But overusing him is a mistake: It’s almost impossible to collect blood from enemies using MASK since he obliterates his enemies with explosions. Therefore, overusing him can hurt the rest of the cast, but he is a very important character and later on in the game, there are certain enemies that show up that only MASK can kill. While in the game, the players can switch to any character on the fly (considering the player has eliminated enough enemies to unlock certain characters) except for Garcian, who can only be accessed from “Harman’s Room” (the checkpoints of levels).
In a game that’s very plot driven, interesting characters are a must. Thankfully, every character in Killer 7 is interesting in his or her own right. The many “Spirits” in the game (despite the annoying fact that all the spirits speak in droning sound effects; think of the Charlie Brown teacher using a voice box for tracheotomy patients) are outlandish in their own unique ways. Iwazaru and Travis are helper spirits that offer tips and comments throughout the game; Iwazaru always has his finger to his mouth, wears an odd bondage suit, and always appears from the spy via a wire before making hyperbolic comments that rival Bill Walton. Travis also offers hints and humourous comments throughout, all the while appearing with a new word written on his shirt with every appearance (which is important for a part later on in the game). Samantha the Maid/Servant appears to have multiple personality disorder, and Ulmeyda may be the most suicidal, psychotic, evangelistic humanist to ever be featured in a video game. Suzie, the disembodied ring-deliverer is as anti-social and understating as a character can possibly get. Like Greg Kasavin of GameSpot.com claimed in his video review, “[These Characters] talk a lot, but usually have nothing to say. Either way, you’ll probably grow to like them”.
Speaking of talking, the audio in the game is excellent for the most part. The voice work is very realistic and flows wonderfully during cut scenes. Adding to that might be one of the more understated soundtracks of the year in video gaming; stylish, subdued, moody, noticeable but not distracting. The main problem with the audio is that whenever a “Critical Hit” is made, the characters will repeat the same one liner over and over again. This actually makes Kevin Smith an even better character since he never speaks a word throughout the game.
It’d be impossible to talk about graphics without bringing up presentation, and vise versa. Graphically speaking, this game could find its own cult. Using a cell-shaded look to accentuate the “comic book” approach the game shot for, the visual style is a great representation of what a lifelike comic book would look like. The smooth-yet-jaggy appearance blends the line between comic book and cartoon/anime very well, and the levels and characters are surprisingly more detailed than the Cell-Shaded style typically allows. The level environments are very eclectic, ranging from a Philadelphia hotel to a relative Texas ghost town to an elementary school. Coinciding with the visual flair of the game is the presentation, which may be some of the best presentation to be seen this year. The majority of the game feels like a comic book translated into a movie with Japanese anime sequences thrown in that only help the game’s artistic direction. The anime sequences are especially noteworthy since they are done with such professionalism that the sequences alone could be mistaken for a legit television series. Fittingly enough, the majority of the anime scenes are used in the level “Alter Ego”, a level that revolves around murdering “Handsome Men” comic book writer/artist Trevor Pearlharbor, who’s stories actually end up translating into the real world. There are some awkward loading times and some rare slowdown on the PS2, but overall, it is very apparent that a large amount of effort was put into making the game ejaculate panache, and thankfully, one not need rub it very long at all to see the results on your hand...if that made sense.
From what I have observed, beating the game once on either normal (which isn’t very difficult) or hard takes about fifteen to twenty hours, and after beating the game, “Killer 8" mode is available, featuring a playable young Harman Smith and much harder difficulty since enemies attack with five times the damage and have no noticeable weak spots to target. Even though the game will satisfy most people getting though it once, there is a level of replay value to be had, and now the game costs around twenty to thirty dollars. The game was originally designed for the GameCube, and thus, has less graphical and slightly less aiming issues that the PS2 counterpart.
About three months ago, I wrote an article praising “Guilty Gear X2: Reload” for keeping a drowning genre from going belly-up. Three months later, I’m doing the same thing to some extent. For all intents and purposes, the rail shooter is suffocated. Drowned. Murdered. Buried. “Killer 7" is only the third noteworthy rail shooter to be released on a console since the dawn on the new millennium.The Third. Almost anyone that plays video games often can name three or more games within a certain genre that are excellent. First-Person Shooters, Third-Person Shooters, any popular sport, 3D fighting, Platformers, the list is endless. However, consider the rail shooter, and it takes a much longer time to conjure up three respectable names. In fact, as I write this article, I must admit that not even I could name three good original rail shooters that have come out this millennium; William supplied me with “Time Crisis 3". Now that the rail shooter seems to be dead, it wouldn’t be very far fetched to claim “Killer 7" is the angel that was created after the funeral: glorious in so many ways and probably the last torch bearer of the genre for this generation of consoles, but it may be too little too late. As we start going into the era of the PlayStation 3, the X-Box 360, and the Ninte....I doubt that the two newer consoles will have no more than two rail shooters tops, and that’s stretching it.
If the rail shooter is going to be left for dead, at least “Killer 7" helped the genre go out on a good note. With simple yet engaging gameplay mechanics, model presentation and attitude combined with possibly the most detailed, politically charged plot the genre has ever seen (and possibly video games in general), “Killer 7" shows the gaming world how underutilized a solid genre had become, and shows that the elementary (controls) can be combined with the extraordinary and complex (Politically charged plot) to make a memorable portrait.
And speaking of “Political”, it’s time for me to start **** to my advisor about my schedule.
Until Next Time...