Killer is Dead: Nightmare Edition

I normally play RPGs and live off a diet of skill trees, character customization and that delicious nonlinear exploration experience. This game has, however, caught my attention. Only played a bit so far, but the story, the characters the setup, the action - they all have some kind of creative spin on them, and I can't wait for more. Mondo is a fascinating protagonist, with an air of mystery wrapping his suave, badass look. Nothing makes any sense, of course, without the potential 2 hours of exposition that'll probably be dropped onto my head like a small ship somewhere down the line. But until then - Moon River, Dark Side of the Moon, Stylish kills, SUPER-stylish graphics - I'm drawn in. If only to see what it's all about. And that's honestly my only complaint about this game - it feels relatively linear to the extent that levels seem to have (so far) a linear path through. I may have just missed the branches, but a game that hides its complexity too well is perhaps, in my view, not such a good one. And that's where I'll leave it - if you come in expecting a super self-aware hack-and-slash, with intriguing characters and story, you'll probably enjoy this a lot. If not, well.....

As good and wacky as I remember it. Did have to install a crashfix but it was simple enough to find.

I feel the combat could be amazin, if the game ran at 60fps and wasnt stuttering all the time. Story was consisting of just "too cool to explain" characters, dropping purple prose all the time.

This game's slick visuals and animations will fool you into thinking you're purchasing a character action game with depth, but in reality there's very little to be seen here. Like Metal Gear Rising, you can mash your light attack button and get an infinitely long light attack string with varied animations to make you feel like something impressive is happening, but beyond that the game features a heavily restricted moveset with only a few command input moves (some with redundant or useless properties). Don't be fooled by footage: the light attack string's animations change as the player gains a higher combo counter, but the properties of the attacks remain essentially the same and the input method for performing them remains mashing the same button endlessly. The shooting mechanics are equally flaccid, and the sum total of both parts is a game in which there's no point in doing anything beyond landing "perfect" dodges and blocks (both with extremely generous timing windows), mashing an enemy to death thereafter, and then shooting the ones that can't be mashed. There's no room for meaningfully unique approaches or combo variety, just the application of a combat algorithm to every enemy you face. Inclusions like the vertical launcher attack are a token effort at best, and the rest of the game's combat design makes them, once again, useless or redundant (you can't even jump in this game and unlike God Hand there's nothing interesting to do to enemies once you've launched them). The story has none of the charm of Suda51's (Goichi Suda's) previous titles. He doesn't have directing credit on this one, he shares writing credit with others, so don't expect another Killer7 or No More Heroes. The plot meanders aimlessly and even principal characters remain flat and uninteresting for the duration. The plot concludes in a way that is unlikely to satisfy anyone.

I purchased this game on Steam a while ago, and am sad to say I can't recommend it. For the effort that went into the visual aesthetic, there wasn't nearly enough time devoted to crafting its gameplay or story. Frankly, it seems like it was released mid-development. The characters give you the initial impression they will become something striking and iconic - dropping verbal and visual hints at a noire, shadowrun-like world blending myth and futurism. But, the game forgets story elements as quickly as it introduces them. All these 'clues' are revealed to be nothing but fancy packaging for a mish-mash of stereotypes. Like many premature games, the gameplay is repetitive. There are simply not a wide enough variety of actions the player can take, or elements for them to interact with, to keep it interesting. Even the art design, which is gorgeous in the cut scenes, breaks down once gameplay starts. The screen space is a high-contrast fever dream that makes levels hard to navigate, and combat a shiny, but jumbled mess. A particularly hard problem to have in a fighting game. This would be disappointing enough. But even for something under Suda51's banner, the writing is remarkably juvenile. Specifically, the Gigolo missions - one of the necessary ways to progress in the game. In essence, you need to ogle women at bars until you have enough "guts" to bribe them into fucking you. There is no more depth to it than that - you look at their tits, until the game lets you offer them chewing gum, then implied sex. Seriously. These are not the crass antics of No More Heroes, presented with a knowing wink-and-nudge. This is a cynical, wit-less, crusty pick up simulator, only palatable for the loneliest of 13-year-old boys. This is not the visually stunning hack-n'slash you're looking for. What we are left with is a messy collage of horror tropes; held together on the ceiling of a teenager's bedroom with tacks, novelty Hot Topic duct-tape, and probably some semen.