Who's the Killer??

Got around to playing Killer Is Dead recently, even though I'm being bogged down with assignments. Goes to show that when I want to play a game, even the most tedious of assignments can't stop me. Whoo...?

Right. Killer Is Dead is... different. It's your typical 3rd-person action hack n' slash game. You get your character with your sword, and a sub-weapon... THAT TRANSFORMS INTO GUNS AND A DRILL! Man, that drill's so hype. Aiming's a little clunky though.

In Killer Is Dead, you control Mondo Zappa, a guy who works for a government-run hitman organisation. Your job's to kill killers. So, hit-hitman. You hit them. With your sword. Eh.

Anyway, Mondo has lost his memories, and as the game progresses, yeap, you... get more confused about his past. They wrapped everything up AT THE END of the game. Throughout the rest of the game? The 80% of content you got? Nah son, we dropping tips and hints but no real clue! You can speculate though! (I got quite close to what was going on)

There is not much to be said of the storyline aside from it being a little confusing and... disappointing? I'm the kind of person who wants to know every single detail of what's what, and this game didn't give me the pleasure of knowing the details. Instead, the whole story's shrouded in mystery. You gotta speculate. You gotta make do with what little they give you.

And I like it. I love this mysterious vibe. It's cool!

Back to the story later on. Let's talk about combat. Hmmm... If Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is that game where slicing your opponents feels like you were in control of everything you did, I feel like Killer Is Dead is that game where your every calculated step rewards you with overwhelming power with less control.

Every time you do a well-executed dodge, the game rewards you with this insane "hey-man-mash-that-button-and-go-crazy-slashing-that-dude" sequence. It FEELS super good. Imagine you're in battle and you have complete awareness of what's going on, and you dodge EVERYTHING super well. BOOM! Slice n' dice! The game sort of freezes in time and a small choir sings as you execute that move, and each slash gives you stunning audio and visual feedback. Simply amazing.

Surrounded by enemies? No problem. With enough BLOOD (this game's Mana), you can instant kill an enemy! This grants you more bonuses as well. Problem is, BLOOD is earned by slashing enemies continuously or by picking up orbs. Feel that it's a hassle to keep slashing at them? Dude. DUDE. Building up your combo grants Mondo new movesets, resulting in him slashing even faster and flashier. It starts to feel like Sora or Ventus after your combo reaches a certain level. It's that fast.

It's so hype! You get rewarded for EVERYTHING you do right in battle!

The game also presents the usual SUDA51-styled visuals. I'm not an expert in visual arts, and according to people, this art style is known as cel shading. It doesn't look like Battlefield or Call of Duty's attempts to imitate real life visuals. It doesn't look like some other Japanese games with bright colours. You know what though? I really like this dark, mysterious-vibe giving cel shaded art style. It fits the atmosphere of the game, and has its own flavour. Why not?

Right, the music for the game. Y'know what, I didn't even notice what's playing in the background. That's just how well it's melded into the storytelling. In my experience with games and studies in sound engineering, this is beyond remarkable. It's not like Revengeance's or Anarchy Reign's songs where you feel like you wanna sing along, but it's become the ambience itself. THAT'S something.

Ah, this game FEELS Japanese, so much so that I loved everything about it. The humour, the artistic direction, the dialogue... Everything.

Now, I want to take some time to talk about the West's reaction to something you find in this game - the Gigolo Missions. Some call this "a stamp on sexist culture" and some say this is disappointing. My take on it is that you guys are idiots. Japan is known for making fun of weird things, and you go all serious on it? 

Let's take some Western games overly serious and see what happens:

1. Sleeping Dogs - wow racists showing violent Asians I swear this is bullshit omfgwtf
2. Mortal Kombat - wtfisthisshit so much blood gore and intestine so violent banbanban
3. Battlefield - guns and wars on Middle-East you people promoting the Syrian War arentcha
4. Call of Duty - omfgrlyeveryonewannakillAmericayouselfcentredbastards
5. GTA - are you serious you promoting violence and hookers and drugs and shit
6. Saints Row - wow rly you making gangs cool and into pop culture icon omggtfo

What I want to say is, guys, seriously... The way these missions are made to be so over-the-top leaves no room to even THINK that this is Suda's opinion on how women are. No way will women just somehow be objectified right after such an overly flagrant cutscene, for me and a lot of other people, at least. *sigh* just, whatever.

Back to the kick-ass game. If I'm not mistaken, there are only 12 or 13 main missions for you to do, with plenty of side missions in it too. If you only go for the main missions, this game will be relatively short, and so may not be worth the money you put into it.

Thing with this game is, it has a very good learning curve. Some bits are steep, some are not. Playing through the side missions unlock items and costumes for you, and helps you train with the game mechanics too. I played this on Hard and it's really difficult to beat without taking advantage of the mechanics. So, if you buy this game and want every cent's worth from it, do everything. I promise you, it is really satisfying.

Right, as for the game's plot, you kind of get the gist of what's going on. My take on the ending is that, Mondo has the blood which allows for evil to overtake him as well, which might mean a sequel...? YES!

SO! 

Main missions only? Definitely wait until it's cheaper.

You want to have a good action game? Worth the buy, unless you're in a tight spot.

This game gets an 8/10 from me. 

I feel that certain bits of the combat can be fixed, especially the camera's auto-panning. When fighting tons of enemies, the camera can make your sick combo streak go down the drain - not something I want to experience. Also, the loading screens are used way too often. Not sure if it's possible to clamp it down a little, but the fact that they're there breaks the immersion sometimes.

Alright, on to the next one.