Some initial impressions of the GC version of Killer 7. I put about 4 hours in and did the first 2 "episodes".
--There is very little gameplay in the title. The action bits consist of simple shooting a couple of enemies in each section and the rest of the time is running around RE style and collecting items to use in fireplaces which give you new items to use on the empty picture on the wall which opens the secret passage. Though this is not bad, it's actually pretty fun.
--The shooting bits are a joke. You can either aim on your own, or just tap L and it locks on to the enemy's weakpoint and you hit fire and kill them in 1 hit. Basically this is the big "hit win" button game.
--You can change between 6 of the 7 characters at any time, the 7th one is the medical man and can't be changed to during play. But at checkpoint rooms you can use a TV and change to him. If one of the 6 characters dies in battle, you are warped back to the last checkpoint room. If you use the medical man and go to where the previous guy died, you can take their head back and resurrect them for what seems like free of cost. So again "win button"
--Each character has their own unique attacks, special attacks, and personal abilities. Certain enemies are best dealt with by certain members but since you can morph instantely it's no problem. For the personal abilities the map actually marks all points that can be accessed with a specific character and shows a picture of their face. For instance one of the guys can unlock any lock, so if his portrait is on the map screen you know there will be a lock there and you should switch to him. Some characters can jump to rooftops, some can read secret messages, some can destroy walls, etc... but since the map tells you who to use at each area again "win button"
--When you kill enemies you get blood. You can store the blood at your checkpoints and use it to upgrade your stats of your characters. There is a limit to how much you can store per episode and since enemies respawn you reach the max pretty fast. From that point you can just use the blood to heal yourself at enemy time or use it for the character specials which cost blood.
--Level and art design is pretty cool. Each section looks great and the game just has a really nice look that makes it stick out. The game is very gorey (screaming girls exploding and only their top half of torso remains; rolling heads of high school girls, etc...) but since the graphics are kinda like PS1.5 looking they can get away with it. It kinda reminds me of Fear Effect where it's really gorey but the graphics suck so much it's not that offensive. Graphics are decent on the main characters and the levels look alright but yea it's the art that makes it look good; technically it's pretty weak.
--Music ROCKS. Really good music filled with bizarre ambient sound effects. Unique music for almost every few rooms, tons of variety so far and everything fits. Sound effects are pretty good although since the game is about hearing where the enemies are located it's kinda weak that you're limited to Stereo sound.
--Considering the levels are complete insanity, the plot is kinda a normal alternate universe sci-fi political story. Seems interesting so far, but Capcom scripts always have a disjumbled feel to them.
--Voices range. Some like the villian are horrible, while the main old guy and the black guy are awesome. As usual with English voiced capcom games, the dialogue is odd and stilted because I'm guessing that the Japanese team has a ton of control over the english voice recording and use...and yea most Japanese people don't know the difference between good english voicework and bad work.
--I gotta wonder if this game will be uncensored in the US. Not only is it pretty gory, but each character has a tag line they yell when you kill an enemy and one guys is "YOUR FUCKED" and anothers is "FUCK YOU". So when you're shooting a room full of enemies all you hear is "FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU" For a GC game I dunno how that'll go over in the states. Maybe they'll change the lines.
--Another thing that will be interesting with the localization. 90% of the voice acting in Killer7 is by ghost like people who are supposed to be wierd. So in order to up the wierdness Capcom decided to do this:
1. Take the Japanese script for each line (ex: You'll never make it through here alive!)
2. Run it through babblefish (result: Alive you chop wood tree)
3. Use a text-to-voice pc program and record the voicing (robotic voice: Alive you chop wood tree)
4. Insert this as the voice of all the ghost characters
Now in the Japanese version you can at least read the Japanese subs and it'll make sense, since the subs are saying "You'll never make it through here alive" while the voice is talking about trees. But in the US version normally the subtitles would just be a transcript of the voice work which in this case would make 90% of the dialogue sections complete giberish. Hopefully Capcom USA is not that dumb and will have readable normal english subs while the ghost is speaking gibberish.
--Loading times suck. I'm playing a GC game...WHY ARE THERE LOAD TIMES!? In reality they really don't suck and are only about 2-3 secs between rooms. But compared to your average GC game that's like a 300% upgrade in load times. Bah. I bet the PS2 version is kinda bad if they're twice as long.
--Boss battles are kinda bad gameplay-wise. I mean when you can't even move on your own, there's not much you can do with a boss battle so.....yea.
So umm, yea so far it's hard to really describe it as a game. I'm having a good time playing it and certain things have made me smile and laugh a bit. It's really addictive and if I didn't have work tomorrow I'd probably play the entire thing straight through. But for those looking for a RE4 experience or DMC3 or anything gameplay related are gonna be let down. It's a walk around and solve simple RE-style puzzles while going through cool levels game with a little bit of easy shooting to keep things interesting. I don't expect a great plot as it's a Capcom game, nor do I expect great dialogue sequences as it's a Capcom Jpn game with English voices. Yet take it for what it is and it's good stuff; the Famitsu guy who gave it a 10/10 was crazy, but since I enjoy oddball attempts at unique art pieces it's easily a strong 8-9/10 so far.
--There is very little gameplay in the title. The action bits consist of simple shooting a couple of enemies in each section and the rest of the time is running around RE style and collecting items to use in fireplaces which give you new items to use on the empty picture on the wall which opens the secret passage. Though this is not bad, it's actually pretty fun.
--The shooting bits are a joke. You can either aim on your own, or just tap L and it locks on to the enemy's weakpoint and you hit fire and kill them in 1 hit. Basically this is the big "hit win" button game.
--You can change between 6 of the 7 characters at any time, the 7th one is the medical man and can't be changed to during play. But at checkpoint rooms you can use a TV and change to him. If one of the 6 characters dies in battle, you are warped back to the last checkpoint room. If you use the medical man and go to where the previous guy died, you can take their head back and resurrect them for what seems like free of cost. So again "win button"
--Each character has their own unique attacks, special attacks, and personal abilities. Certain enemies are best dealt with by certain members but since you can morph instantely it's no problem. For the personal abilities the map actually marks all points that can be accessed with a specific character and shows a picture of their face. For instance one of the guys can unlock any lock, so if his portrait is on the map screen you know there will be a lock there and you should switch to him. Some characters can jump to rooftops, some can read secret messages, some can destroy walls, etc... but since the map tells you who to use at each area again "win button"
--When you kill enemies you get blood. You can store the blood at your checkpoints and use it to upgrade your stats of your characters. There is a limit to how much you can store per episode and since enemies respawn you reach the max pretty fast. From that point you can just use the blood to heal yourself at enemy time or use it for the character specials which cost blood.
--Level and art design is pretty cool. Each section looks great and the game just has a really nice look that makes it stick out. The game is very gorey (screaming girls exploding and only their top half of torso remains; rolling heads of high school girls, etc...) but since the graphics are kinda like PS1.5 looking they can get away with it. It kinda reminds me of Fear Effect where it's really gorey but the graphics suck so much it's not that offensive. Graphics are decent on the main characters and the levels look alright but yea it's the art that makes it look good; technically it's pretty weak.
--Music ROCKS. Really good music filled with bizarre ambient sound effects. Unique music for almost every few rooms, tons of variety so far and everything fits. Sound effects are pretty good although since the game is about hearing where the enemies are located it's kinda weak that you're limited to Stereo sound.
--Considering the levels are complete insanity, the plot is kinda a normal alternate universe sci-fi political story. Seems interesting so far, but Capcom scripts always have a disjumbled feel to them.
--Voices range. Some like the villian are horrible, while the main old guy and the black guy are awesome. As usual with English voiced capcom games, the dialogue is odd and stilted because I'm guessing that the Japanese team has a ton of control over the english voice recording and use...and yea most Japanese people don't know the difference between good english voicework and bad work.
--I gotta wonder if this game will be uncensored in the US. Not only is it pretty gory, but each character has a tag line they yell when you kill an enemy and one guys is "YOUR FUCKED" and anothers is "FUCK YOU". So when you're shooting a room full of enemies all you hear is "FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU"
For a GC game I dunno how that'll go over in the states. Maybe they'll change the lines.--Another thing that will be interesting with the localization. 90% of the voice acting in Killer7 is by ghost like people who are supposed to be wierd. So in order to up the wierdness Capcom decided to do this:
1. Take the Japanese script for each line (ex: You'll never make it through here alive!)
2. Run it through babblefish (result: Alive you chop wood tree)
3. Use a text-to-voice pc program and record the voicing (robotic voice: Alive you chop wood tree)
4. Insert this as the voice of all the ghost characters
Now in the Japanese version you can at least read the Japanese subs and it'll make sense, since the subs are saying "You'll never make it through here alive" while the voice is talking about trees. But in the US version normally the subtitles would just be a transcript of the voice work which in this case would make 90% of the dialogue sections complete giberish. Hopefully Capcom USA is not that dumb and will have readable normal english subs while the ghost is speaking gibberish.
--Loading times suck. I'm playing a GC game...WHY ARE THERE LOAD TIMES!? In reality they really don't suck and are only about 2-3 secs between rooms. But compared to your average GC game that's like a 300% upgrade in load times. Bah. I bet the PS2 version is kinda bad if they're twice as long.
--Boss battles are kinda bad gameplay-wise. I mean when you can't even move on your own, there's not much you can do with a boss battle so.....yea.
So umm, yea so far it's hard to really describe it as a game. I'm having a good time playing it and certain things have made me smile and laugh a bit. It's really addictive and if I didn't have work tomorrow I'd probably play the entire thing straight through. But for those looking for a RE4 experience or DMC3 or anything gameplay related are gonna be let down. It's a walk around and solve simple RE-style puzzles while going through cool levels game with a little bit of easy shooting to keep things interesting. I don't expect a great plot as it's a Capcom game, nor do I expect great dialogue sequences as it's a Capcom Jpn game with English voices. Yet take it for what it is and it's good stuff; the Famitsu guy who gave it a 10/10 was crazy, but since I enjoy oddball attempts at unique art pieces it's easily a strong 8-9/10 so far.
