“Killer7” is a 2005 first-person shooter (FPS). While it lacks many familiar aspects of FPS’s and has a somewhat frustrating control scheme, still deserves a second look. You play as a group of assassins known as the Killer Seven, made up of seven people you can alternate between on the fly while playing. It features a suave but ruthless killer in the same vein as a James Bond villain, a thief with the ability to scale any building, a blind boy who can run at lightning speed, a woman who walks around in bare feet while sniping her targets, a man who can turn invisible and throw knives with deadly accuracy, a Luchador with a grenade launcher, and the “cleaner,” who will resuscitate any character who dies. “Die” isn’t exactly the right word; the characters are all dead already. Their bodies have been taken on by Garcian, the cleaner, as multiple personalities, and he can switch between them at will – unless one of them dies in combat. In the case of such an event, Garcian must pick up the bag that they have left behind. If you die as Garcian, however, the game will end.

Confused yet? The Killer Seven work as assassins for the U.S. government and go after some pretty interesting characters, such as a megalomaniac who created his own town in Texas and an organ trafficker who stuffs the bodies of his victims. The bad guys you will be facing for the majority of the game, though, are the “Heaven Smiles,” who can best be summed up as exploding zombies who laugh maniacally as they blow up in your face. The Heaven Smiles come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Most look like typical zombies, but some have giant deformed hands, bombs for a head, or are strapped to a gurney and shoot you with an instant-kill laser. Most of them explode into blood if you shoot them in their weak points, which you can use to upgrade your abilities via a blood room found in various places in the levels. In many respects, the game is pretty insane.

The issue that turned many people off of the game is the strange control scheme. Most shooters will allow you to run around and aim with separate analog sticks, but “Killer7” has you running in a third person control with the A button, and pressing B to turn around. The game’s layout is set with multiple “rails” that you can go down, but there is only the option of going forward or backwards, until you get to a branching pathway. In order to actually shoot, you have to hold down the R button to enter first person mode and press L to scan for enemies (because they’re invisible to normal people) before you can shoot the crap out of them.

It’s not surprising that this departure from the normal FPS turned off many fans of the genre who were so used to the smooth controls of games like “Halo,” “Call of Duty,” and even “Grand Theft Auto.”  Perhaps the awkward control was meant to instill the same kind of helpless feeling of the slow tank controls in “Resident Evil,” but if the point was to add fear via subtraction of a good control scheme, the plan failed. The control is fine once you get the hang of it, but it is always a pain when a Heaven Smile is right around the corner that you can’t see due to an awkward camera angle and the only options are to go forward or backward.

While the developers failed to create an ideal control scheme, they still managed to instill fear, anxiety, sadness and even moments of happiness thanks to their brilliant use of music in the game. All sound effects and music were developed by two workers who worked closely with the game developers to build the mood to each and every scenario in the game. You can tell the team really put a lot of effort into each and every scenario, and the result was nothing short of astounding. One of the most memorable instances is seen right before every boss fight; the player walks up an empty staircase lacking anything but an entrance and an exit. However, as you can hear faintly in the background before you enter, the staircase is home to a fast-paced and incredibly happy techno beat. The song is almost like a reward for completing the level, or a de-stressor before the boss fight, a welcome change from the overall eeriness of the rest of the game.

Overall, “Killer7” is a fantastically wild story with a vibrant soundtrack hidden under some questionable controls. It can be found for the Gamecube or PS2 for $5-10.

Joe Kling can be reached at [email protected].