Unlike most ultra violent, anime influenced, mid two-thousand, shooters-on-rails, Killer 7 escapes all clichés. Taking place in a world where terrorism has been eliminated, you play as the Smith Syndicate, a group of seven assassins that exist as one entity, each with their own personality, body, and play style. On entering a room that exists separate from the rest of reality, you swap identities by flipping channels on a TV set. Your character is: Garcian Smith, Dan Smith, KAEDE Smith, Coyote Smith, Kevin Smith (who never says anything), Con Smith, and MASK de Smith (there is also a Harman Smith, which also exists in your body, but as something of a separate being). Ostensibly, you take contracts from the American government, fighting a rising threat of invisible humanoid bombs called the Heaven Smile.
The Basics of Game Play
The game view is from the 3rd person, but zooms to 1st for attack. The movement system is sometimes called a shooter-on-tracks: your movement is constrained to a path, but you control your position thereon, are able to pan your view, and even turn around to go back the way you came.
Each playable character has a different attack style and abilities. Normal combat consists of scanning for invisible enemies (which makes them appear) and gunning them down. If you move your reticle over the body of the enemy, you can find its weak spot. Killing enemies this way gives you thick blood that you can upgrade your characters with. Otherwise you get thin blood which can heal you and power up certain moves.
Each level consists of fighting a variety of enemies. Using your abilities or otherwise, you find key items that allow you to face off against a boss. During play, you encounter characters who expand the story and world and will give you hints on how to play. Between missions, you play out conversations with Harman Smith and view expositionary cut scenes with other characters.
Much of the game is hard to understand without doing outside research (a problem that was unfortunately not fixed in the 2018 remake). There was to be a companion comic to explain things, but it was cancelled after a few issues. Eventually, an illustrated pamphlet called “Hand In Killer7” was created to flesh things out, but I haven’t read that and will address it in another article.
That said, the second to last paragraph should be rewritten: Each level consists of fighting the Heaven Smile (who laugh softly to announce their presence and maniacally on detonation) which are living bombs that kill themselves on attack. Using your abilities or otherwise, you collect Soul Shells which the so-called Gate Keeper requires before letting you through the Vinculum Gate (all of which are talked about as if you knew what all this means). Once having passed through the Vinculum Gate, it seemingly no longer exists. That is, if you backtrack, it is skipped and you will find yourself in the section that previously preceded it. In any case, after passing through the gate you will presently fight a boss that is sometimes related to the plot. During play, you encounter remnant psyches: the left overs of people you have previously killed who make vague references to what the hell is going on. Between missions, you are given instructions by your true employer, Harman Smith, who is actually God. He sits comatose in a wheel chair until you access him with the TV. Yes, that same TV that lets you switch characters, but for some reason he’s only available between missions and none of the other characters are. There are also a variety of bizarre cut scenes, one of which is a sex scene between Samantha Sitbon (who is another remnant psyche and/or is part of your psyche) and Harman’s otherwise unconscious body.