Killer7 is another one of those games that I probably wouldn't have played through all the way till the end unless I felt that I needed to (for purposes of an assignment). And, in the end, I'm very glad I did, and happily recommend other like-minded game players to do the same...I expect they'll also come away with a similarly positive experience. I've complained plenty of times about how video game endings suck and how the journey alone is the reward. Not in this case--here's a game that gives you some real payoff for all you invest earlier on.
I feel like the fact that Killer7 isn't a sequel to anything is hurting perceptions about the game. It's also probably just overhyped--it always looked really interesting since we first heard of it, and people maybe just assumed it'd be some super-slick action game like what Resident Evil 4 turned out to be. I'm usually reluctant to name-drop in my reviews, but I felt the point of comparison to Metal Gear Solid needed to go into this one, because it's by far the closest thing I've played to Killer7. Both games have the pretenses of being these cinematic action adventure experiences, but soon lure you into convoluted storylines with thinly veiled, heavy-handed politcal agendas. They end up being greater than the sum of their parts on account of how over-the-top their stories and characters are. And good for them! It's great to see game designers using games as their soapbox, if only because it's so uncommon. It's great to see game designers with real audacity. Killer7 is a work of confidence. There's this one character in it who just stands there, flipping you off with both hands, and he seems to represent the game with respect to its detractors--screw all you disbelievers (or "losers", as the character would put it).
Much like Metal Gear Solid 3 last year, I'm sure I'll vividly remember Killer7 long after I've forgotten the specifics of most of this year's games. Also like that game, I think Killer7 is better as an "experience" than it is as a game. Mind you, MGS3 is the superior of the two (significantly higher score--take it at face value), but the games feel kind of similar. Actually, Killer7 most resembles MGS2, which is by far the most absurd of the Metal Gear games.
I can't wait to see what everyone else thinks of this game once they play it, though I think I can predict a lot of the immediate reactions. I'm mostly interested to see more interpretations of the game--I have my own, and they're based on my inference that the game is clearly a product of a postwar generation of Japanese...the equivalent of our post-baby boomers. People with high aspirations but a firm grip on the harshness of reality, and who try to enjoy the irony of knowing that humankind seems doomed to repeat its past mistakes, directly as a result of trying to avoid them.