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killer is dead (unfinished) killer is dead has always been one of my favourite grasshopper games but despite that it always feels like one of the ones people tend to overlook, it never gets brought up in favourites lists or in casual conversation even compared to other games from the studio of that era like shadows of the damned or lollipop chainsaw or the NMH games and i don't think that's fair at all, this is one of the best playing and looking games the studio ever put out and it tells an interesting story with a great cast, it doesn't deserve to sit in the B ranks with games like black knight sword because this to me is up there with the studios best output. 　now the first thing you'll notice about the game is it's aesthetic, it's beautiful, like it's one of the best looking games on the ps3 and even today still ranks up there with some of the most impressive looking games out there, you could really easily mistake it for a new release both in gameplay and in cutscenes, the cel shaded style and how the game handles its light and darkness is still a serious sight and the game has some amazing cutscene direction to go with it, every scene usually has at least one really cool shot or angle. the levels too are super varied and nice to look at, i love the snowy train level, the cool Kyoto streets in one of the side missions, the zen gardens, the cool futuristic skyscraper, rainy allies, empty dreamscapes, scary castles, moon mansions and even a whole alice in wonderland inspired level with tons of surrealist imagry and the game is so short that none of them ever overstay their welcome, some like the hotel level I'd even have liked to be longer. the character designs too, i love how mondo looks (i think he's actually kind of cute even), the side cast has some standouts like mika who has the games coolest outfit or Viviane who gives me major MGS3 eva energy, i love the nurse character too that you have to find to unlock the games bonus challanges, it's a really cool design, the games graphics are reason enough to play it and that's not something you can say about too many games. and the music too! as usual per grasshopper the soundtrack kills it, this time it's by longtime collaborator akira Yamaoka, i don't need to introduce him because if you're enough of a dork to read sites like this then you know who this guy is, there's no chance you don't, but I'll introduce him anyway. he worked on some of the best game music ever made, from the silent hill series, to splitterhead, other grasshopper titles like shadows of the damned, 25th ward, let it die and short peace, he's worked on Konami classics like the rumble roses games, DDR, snatcher and rocket knight adventures and this is another hit for him, the OST here is amazing. standout tracks for me are "moon river" which is the games title screen music, "mission complete" which is a fantastic jazz track, "loading screen", "piano school", "fast and loose", "vibration", "ensemble fighter" which channels his silent hill 3 work like nothing else, "songs of danger", "savage", "symphonic razor", "falling angel", "changing reality" and "killer is done", there's also a track that briefly plays during the hotel level but i just could not find the name for it since on the net its just labeled as "episode 2 drum and bass", but it's really good, same with some of the intro tracks like the one for episode 7 or the full episode 7 music, same with the one from the start of episode 9, episode 10 too, episode 12's intro, the amazing gigolo mode music, shin sekai remix, the scarlet challenge tracks and "she who dances in her dreams" all of which are unreleased and often unnamed tracks, there's an absurd amount of good music here. the games combat isn't the deepest, which is pretty typical for a grasshopper game, but what it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in style and the combat has a really nice flow and speed to it, which i think makes up for a lot in making it stay fresh throughout it. the game uses a devils thirdy combination of shooting and sword attacks and it works really well. the sword has a long combo string, that in a really interesting gimmick actually changes and speeds up the more hits you get in, starting slow and getting stronger and faster as you deal out more hits, incentivising you to do well in combat, it's a very unique system and I'm not sure I've seen it anywhere else, it also has a few other moves like a lunge, an AOE and a launcher but i found them a little difficult to activate in the heat of the moment and you don't have a jump button to really make the most of the launcher anyway, they feel a little pointless almost but they do give it the variety it needs since you don't have any other melee weapons. there's kind of sort of a second weapon? if you want to count the games punching attacks, though this is one string and a counter that doesn't really do any damage, it's just there to stun enemies and break guards, it's there though and it's very satisfying to land the full combo, but it not doing much of any damage means you won't be using it much when you don't need to. there's also the shooting you can do with Mondo's arm, it's slow and uses a lot of blood, which is basically ammo for both it and your execution moves, at first but once you start to upgrade it it becomes a really powerful tool in your arsenal, it can instant kill many enemies with headshots and it's great for getting stronger enemies down to low health for an execution move, plus it'll make quick work of snipers. i really like it being there, i always die for these kind of hybrid battle systems ever since devils third showed me just how good they could be and while it's not quite on that level, it's still pretty damn solid, helped by the fact it even has a few different types of shots like the freeze shot for slowing them, a super powerful charge shot and a drill that can break through walls and shields, but i do admittedly find myself just sticking to the machinegun shot most of the time, it's very powerful on its own especially at max level. that's mostly it, you have he execution move that you can chain if you have the blood for it, it's the only way to kill certain enemies but it can be used to take out entire rooms worth of guys in one go, which is always satisfying to pull off. you have a few counters and a dodge that chains into a cool slow motion slashing rampage attack that i love a lot, but that's the gist of it, it's a pretty basic kit but it all comes together very well and it doesn't overstay its welcome at all, if anything i found myself wanting more of it by the end, which you can get from the games bonus missions! special shoutout to the parry move where you flip an enemy though, on top of being signposted the best I've seen in almost any game, it's also just super fun to use and is one of the few times I've ever actively enjoyed parrying, when combined with the rage mode attack it's actually really fun which is cool to me since usually i never enjoy these kinds of systems. i also liked how a few levels had some cool environmental ways of damaging enemies, though it wasn't used enough i feel, i mainly remember the sound building level having it. there's a currency system with upgrades, a store for the gigolo mode and costumes and an actually really cool level up system where the more you collect health and blood powerups the more the game will give you XP for them and this XP will give you more total blood and health, it's really neat and you can even nudge it in certain directions if you do well enough in combat, since big combo strings will let you pick which bonus XP you get upon kills! there's side missions with unique area's and objectives, like an exclusive level set in Kyoto city streets, an expanded version of the games cool bike sequence or a cool one where you have to find and light shrines while your health drains, you even get office decorations for doing these which is really neat. you can also find more by finding the nurse character hidden around levels, usually in optional area's or hidden inside of destructible objects, she gives you a blood refill and usually unlocks you a challenge level, which is neat. in terms of length the game will run you a good 5-7 hours depending on how many of those side missions and gigolo mode retries you go for, it's a well paced game, very fast, and the difficulty isn't all that high, so it's a really breezy experience which i feel is very appreciated, it's easy to recommend, though it doesn't have a lot of replayability outside of those side missions, leaderboards, a few costumes and some difficulty modes. the story is good, if very confusing, even by the studios usual standards, things are told linearly but it's very cryptic and will likely take you a few runs before you fully piece everything together, one twist i didn't even realize until i started NG+ and noticed some things in the intro. if you like that kind of storytelling then you'll probably really like this, it's fun to put together the individual clues and figure things out, though i know this style of storytelling isn't for everyone, but even if you don't get it the game has tons of fun writing and cool lines which is entertaining on its own. the whole thing is about stylish assassin organizations working for the government and the supernatural threats they face, it's just a cool idea and the game does it all very well, it's got such a stylish and mysterious energy to it. i like the cast too, sure the bosses aren't as iconic as you might want from the studio, many are even a little uninteresting like the kaiju or the robot train thingy, but the actual main cast is great, i love the office crew, Brian is constantly interesting and hilarious, mondo is a great protag and i love his design, mika has one of my favourite designs of this gen and she's a great contrast to the rest of the crew and Viviane has the groups best bit with her thing with the groups pay, which is also just the games best running joke, it got a laugh out of me every time, the fun group dynamics really help make the games episodic monster of the weak shenanigans cozier and i think it really works. so when you talk about any grasshopper game, suda involvement or not, it always comes down to a huge elephant in the room, is it misogynistic how hard is it to look passed these elements. in this case, i mean, kinda? for once i actually think the game being weird about women is kind of the point. it's a James bond pastiche down to the women being called "mondo girls". while the games content is pretty hard to not point at and call out, like the gigolo mode missions have you drinking and looking at the women's underwear so you can give them gifts to convince you to sleep with them (which okay I'm materialistic enough this would work on me if some attractive guy started showering me in PSVITA games and anime boy merch but that's fully beyond the point), it feels like it's gross with a point to it, like it's calling out that misogyny in similar pieces of media, weather what the game does is enough to actually count as a critique of misogyny is up to you though and it's also easy to side eye it with the amount of "misogyny critiques" that try and portray misogyny by just doing the gross thing and then saying "wow isn't this so bad!" without anything meaningful to really say (look at lost highway) and this could be that , but i think here it work for me enough that i can look passed its issues, it's indulgent fanservice but at least it's aware of it and trying to make a point of it, which is something, more than you see in a lot of games of its ilk. it is also worth noting that they are fully avoidable if you don't mind taking the hit of not having access to the games side weapons. as far as ports go you have a few options here, the xbox and ps3 versions, ps3 was my personal choice, and the former is available via backwards compatibility if you own a one or series x, plus there's a readily accessible PC port seemingly. the console versions will run you anywhere from 20-30 which is pretty affordable and it's not all that rare, at least in pal regions, no fully modern ports though, not really and there's no way to play it on a platstation console newer than the PS tripple. it did get some post launch support with the smooth operator DLC, a mission you got for free with a purchase of a physical copy of the game. it's a vampire themed mission set in a cool castle, it's one of the longer missions and it has a great atmosphere to it with one of the games more fun boss fights against a flying vampire, the story isn't bad either with a vampire sending you after a vampire who feeds on other vampires and you unlock her for the gigolo missions too which, i mean if that's your thing you're really winning here, i prefer my vampire dating in the form of something like diabolik lovers but i won't say no to it here. it has a few new side missions too and an unlockable cameo by Juliet from lollipop chainsaw, it's worth the asking price (which i think is £4 if you don't have the code from the box) so it won't break the bank or anything, though it's not needed to understand the story or anything, it's just a fun extra episode. the game was naturally made by grasshopper and has ended up as one of their more unoticed games mainly due to a lack of real involvement by suda which i always think is unfair since the suda-less projects at grasshopper can sometimes be some of the studios most interesting. it's never given a sequel or really much note in future releases, i mentioned it in the intro but i don't think that's at all fair to it, it's one of their cooler games and it's a really good time, it's especially impressive when you consider that it's director Hideyuki Shin's first and only real directorial projects, a person who had mostly worked on games like pro evolution soccer, though he did some graphics work on games like silent hill 4 and and chulip, which is already a solid duo of games, it is arguably a love-de-lic liniage game in a sense. i don't have much else to say other than just politely asking you to play this game, it's just a good time even with its issues and it's so short that it won't take up much of your time either.