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We are coming in to May, which here in Japan means Golden Week. A magical time of strained family relationships and unspoken expectations that can only result in disappointment. Fortunately if you are I, and thus only involved in these festivities by the loosest of connections, it is possible to sit back and observe during your three extra days off, dodging the barbed comments and drinking beer. Plus as an extra bonus I get to finally try and finish Dragon Age on my laptop.

Unfortunately the downside to my upcoming situation is that I will have no Internet during the five-day visit to my other halves family abode. Thus unless I manage to get my planed post finished in my remaining time in Osaka, April is going to look like a pretty Spartan month for DoFuss. Not to worry really, my time has been fairly well spent, indulging in games (for edification and review) and writing for other sites. I have little to complain about but would like to have managed to get at least one of my two articles in progress up on the site before I left.

There is still a small chance I will manage to complete one of the unfinished projects that sit on my desktop before tomorrow morning when I have to leave. Just in case I don’t however here are some links to my other writings for the month of April on the wonderful Game People and Play Devil. Please visit them and remember to check back here next week for when I get back to civilization to post these articles, and maybe even do a podcast.

Line Rider 2 (Wii), Dark Void (PS3), Greed Corp (360), Lumines (PSP), Heavy Rain (PS3).

Heavy Rain (PS3), Silent Hill – Shattered Memories (Wii), An Open Letter To Fanboys (Feature).

Welcome to my fourth rewrite of this, and really I am still not 100% satisfied. In my first draft I went through describing the gameplay in detail, then it was the plot, before finally I realised what I wanted to say. If you take nothing else away from this article take this; if you have never played Killer 7, and are interested in extending you understanding of gaming outside the standard main stream offerings, you should find a way to play this game.

The Killer 7 Syndicate assassins, plus Harman (center) and Kun Lan (center top).

Killer 7 is an oft over looked game, yet it stands as one of the most interesting titles of its generation, and remains refreshingly different to this day. It has been so long since I played the Grasshopper Manufacture game that I have to confess it is something of a blur. But despite the haziness of its details, the concepts (I feel) it touched on and its commentary on gaming have stayed with me, and continue to inform my view of games.

From the start Killer 7 defies expectation. Looking at coverage of it before release I expected a third person action game, instead what I got was an on rails experience. ‘On rails’ is a term that conjures preconceptions of arcade light gun games, controlled experiences that move players through the world as though on a conveyer belt. Killer 7 differed from this format, placing me as a train driver on the track rather than a passenger, but constrained none the less.

Killer 7's third-person camera and linear nature allowed for some dramatic framing of action, which accentuated the games cell-shaded style.

The importance of Killer 7’s guided play mechanic went beyond simple gameplay, speaking to an underlying theme, the predetermined nature of gaming. Each of the seven playable characters is manipulated by powers greater than themselves. Be it the player or the games omnipotent forces, their lives are not their own, indeed they do not even control their existence. As the player I was also subject to this control, as the game and designer manipulated me, determining my actions and their outcomes.

Ultimately the subject of the game is control and predetermination. Within Killer 7’s universe there are no powers greater than Harman Smith and Kun Lan. Established in opening scenes as old friends and rivals, these two are shown in a conflict that dictates the balance of world power. Locked in this endless battle (implied by the games near identical opening and closing scenes, set some hundred years apart) these two omnipotent characters manipulate governments and events in their struggle, assuming control of numerous individuals to achieve their ends.

To my mind these two characters represent Killer 7’s designers. Directing every act, the designer’s presence is rarely felt, but ever present. Like the almost god like Harman and Kun Lan, they influence every event toying with me as the player, setting me up and watching the events play out.

Harman and Kun Lan locked in their game of chess.

Sat below the battling forces sits the larger political events of Killer 7’s world. In the games alternate history the Earth is close to peace. With all militaries nearly eradicated, when the UN is hit by a Japanese terrorist attack they have to enlist the help of a private group. Harman Smith’s Killer 7 Syndicate (made up of seven top assassins) are the called in by the West to defend from the terrorist group named Heaven Smile.

These events form the board for Harman and Kun Lan’s ‘game’. With Harman backing the West and Kun Lan driving events in the East the two players are set to begin (again an idea mirrored in cut scenes as the two sit calmly playing chess). If these two forces represent the designers then the world events of Killer 7 are the game itself, leaving only the lowest level of the game to be established, that of the pieces.

It is the seven members of the Killer 7 Syndicate that form Harman’s pieces (while Kun Lan operates the Heaven Smile). This cast of seven characters formed the drama and emotional anchor that drove me forward as a player. Individual chapters focused on different members of the team and provided me with a back-story to build attachments. From the masked Mexican wrestler Mask De Smith, to the blind rollerblading teen Con Smith, each character had a story to tell that also shed light on their unique skills. Much like a pawn or a solider on the field, these characters knew little about the powers manipulating them but followed their path to its conclusion.

To enable me and my assassin to see enemies it was necessary to switch to first person, though I still don't know if the deliberateness of this represented how unnatural all game interactions are.

As I followed the games path I was manipulated. Slowly I began to see the correlation between the team of assassins and myself. Only able to see what was presented to me, I focused solely on how the stories events affected me. I felt a bond with the assassins, because they were in the same predicament, only able to see what was presented to them. Occasionally I would perceive the board behind the narrative, like the characters would see world events, but this did not concern me. It was only my own manipulated motivations that coerced my involvement. My attention was never focused on the director as I played. Perhaps this is why, after the final scene with Harman and Kun Lan, a screen splash appears proclaiming ‘Written, Designed and Directed by Suda 51’ to emphasis his connection with the two forces and highlight his power over me.

I appreciate how disjointed this may all seem. With so many interwoven elements it is a testament to director Suda 51’s initial vision that it hangs together as well as it does. Offering a peculiar narrative experience it has the feel of a David Lynch film rather than the typical disjointed Japanese story.

Killer 7 altered my view of gaming. From the self-awareness I perceived it having, to the realisation of how completely the director controlled my experience, it made me think differently about how I consume gaming media, and what it is capable of conveying. It is a shame the game didn’t reach a larger audience, no doubt a casualty of its own deviations form accepted norms. It offered a fascinating diversion from the status quo and while much of what I took from it may be due to an over active imagination, it is remains a thought provoking title.

On the occasions my posts fall below one a week here on DoFuss, I start to feel guilty. I have so many ideas for articles littering my desktop that wish I had more time to realise them. One will be going up later today, and already have three more on the go, but whether I finish the next piece on time invariably does not fall to my passion but my schedule. Reviewing games, articles for other sites and life all to frequently obstruct me.

When the feeling of guilt becomes too great I put together these ‘DoFuss Link’ posts, which provides a handy list of my recent work on other sites where you see a little more of my writing if you so choose. These posts serve three purposes, inform you of my work, keep DoFuss a bit more up-to-date and most importantly make me feel better about it taking me ten days between posts.

Below are a list of reviews and articles that have been posted since my last update. Each site has more in the wings ready to go (Heavy Rain reviews in particular on both Game People and Play Devil should be interesting), so if you are eager to stay up to date with my writing keep an eye out there. If you are less inclined to keep on top of my work then I will of course have another one of these updates in April so you can just check back here, or just ignore these posts completely.

As always if you do pay theses a visit I would much appreciate you leave any thoughts or feedback on respective site.

Scared Gamer -

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, Valkyria Chronicles, Valkyria Chronicles 2, Alien Breed: Evolution, Bayonetta (revisited), Mass Effect: Galaxy and Pitfall: The Big Adventure.

Haiku Gamer -

Valkyria Chronicles.

Sports Gamer -

Little League World Series Baseball 2008. (Yes, I did review the 2009 one last month).

Mass Effect 2, Polar Panic, Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond, Alien Breed: Evolution and South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defense!

Post Natal Depression.

There is something to be said about the way you view an entertainment. Personally I see sport like news, an event that you find out about, to others it is a drama. I know this fact and respect it so, when I find out the results of an event I keep them to myself unless asked. But sometimes I forget, like when I am drunk and watching the Super Bowl with a load of guys from New Orleans sat behind me (spoiler, the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl this year). Drunk at eleven in the morning I take out my phone, and have messages waiting for me from a friend (Dan Feit a regular commenter here) and my boss. I reply and kindly inform them the score. They were not happy, and I can appreciate why.

The Saints won. It's okay to say that now right?

Putting aside the fact it was a dick move on my part, why did I do it? I have tried comprehending what my thinking may have been. It was thanks to my boss jogging my memory of an old psychology lecture I began to form some ideas (or excuses) for my actions, beyond being drunk. People like to share information; we are essentially hard wired to so. In the primal sense we are driven by a need to give others our knowledge to increase our chances of survival by passing on valuable information. My lack of sleep combined with the nine in the morning alcohol binge, would probably have made ‘primal’ an apt description of my behaviour. This doesn’t excuse what I did but it at least provides me some peace of mind for the idiocy of my actions.

Made me reflect on my own entertainment consumption, specifically how I play games. I am driven by narrative, and a desire to be absorbed in to the world presented to me. Sinking in to a digital world fascinates me; discovering what is around the next corner is infinitely more enjoyable to me than the encounter I have once I round it. Looking back on my actions during the Super Bowl started to consciously consider how others might consume their games differently. In a similar fashion to my view that sport qualifies as news, I have to acknowledge that many gamers consider games to be simply play, without consideration of their drama or story. From these players there must be some who have encountered similar situations to my Super Bowl blunder. Surely some of them have thoughtlessly blurted out unwanted information to friends in the process of describing other elements of the game, because they truly thought their friend would want to know.

If I take my previous assumptions to be true, then I would have to forgive any such people who consume games solely for ‘play’ if they were to spoil a game for me. What confuses me is when journalists and others within the industry are so eager to engage in podcasts and other dialogues about narrative heavy games when they acknowledge that they find story the driving force behind the experience.

For me it is the narrative and worlds games offer.

I understand peoples desire to talk about such titles; the games themselves almost encourage it with branching paths enticing the typically OCD gamers to search for what they have missed. Issues arise when the coverage is so close to a games release that only a small group of players could possibly have experienced it. It is necessary to recognise the need to be timely it is true, but a thirty odd hour game being discussed at length a week, or even two, after release is somewhat unrealistic for the average person.

It is rare now that any coverage will openly, and without warning, spoil any narrative element without due warning. Indeed the ‘spoiler’ mark has become a main stay of blogs and message boards alike. Some outlets are clearer than others in their labelling of such content, while some have a tendency to spring it, unsignposted, in the middle of their coverage. But even with the allowance that there are dedicated players who will finish a game in a matter of days or even hours, I still feel it preferable to wait a little longer before unleashing opinions in to open debate.

Do not say a bloody word, or I swear I will hunt you down.

As an avid consumer of podcasts I realised that all coverage is archived, and I could revisit it at my leisure. But all to often with the rapid turn over of information such content is all too quickly buried. There is a case for coverage while the game is still fresh in the mind of those discussing it. Yet when often even other members of podcast teams are complaining about others among them revealing unwanted information you have to questions the motivation behind the conversation, as it is all to often a (consciously or not) selfish desire to fulfil the primal instinct to share.

Maybe I am just bitter; jealous that others have had time to play the games I want to. After all if there is an audience for the discussion it is justified. Simply knowing that you have information somebody else wants will drive the flow of conversation. Sadly though in the current gaming climate everything is chewed up and digested so quickly that there is no time to savour, and it would be during this ‘savouring time’ I wish the conversation would take place. But as I said at the beginning I am one to talk, because I am sure Dan and my boss also wished I had respected this ‘savouring time’ when I was revealing the Super Bowl results to them.