Almost everywhere I go I hear the same things about Capcom's Killer7. "It's awful. Everyone who's purchased it says so."

The real problem is the word "everyone," because these days (seeing as how the casual gamer drives the industry), that word usually means a group of people who, in their zombie-brained state, shuffle to game stores and purchase the same old dusty franchise titles that are released at nausea each and every year, but God help them if a company they know and trust throws them a curve. Then all hell breaks loose, which seems to be what's happening with Capcom's latest GameCube title. However, after digging in with Killer7 and allowing it to dazzle my senses one thing is clear: this is a damn good videogame, but it's one of the few that drives you instead of the other way around. If that concept turns you off, then you'll probably hate this game. As for the rest of you, come with me.

Killer7 is a third/first person hybrid that features a unique artistic style, a cracked out story, and frantic gunplay. In it you assume the role of seven deadly assassins that represent the multiple personalities of one Harman Smith, an elderly man confined to a wheel chair who appears to be harmless but possesses god like powers. Able to project his mind outward, he takes on the role of these nimble characters and unleashes hell upon all who get in his way, in this case the suicidal terrorist group known as Heaven Smile, these zombie-like creatures that gleefully chase their victims and, once they catch them, explode, something that you get to see almost immediately after starting the game. With that being said, Killer7 is loaded with plenty of delicious gore, from discovering severed heads in a dryer to seeing spurting blood erupting from one of the Heaven Smile. There are corpses that are missing eyeballs, limbs flying every which way, and quite a few creepy characters. It's a huge assortment of w acky stuff, and I absolutely love it all.

The game comes with a tutorial but you don't really need it since the controls are very simplistic. Rather than craft a standard 3D game where we can walk about wherever we please, the developers elected to keep the action on rails, so all you need to do is hold down A and your selected character will run in whatever direction he or she is facing. Once you reach a junction, parts of the screen will split off into the different paths you can take and you just need to highlight one and press A.

Games with super complex controls really turn me off so I think Killer7's simplified scheme is fabulous and serves as a refreshing change of pace. Other reviews complain about not being able to explore at one's leisure, but upon careful inspection I realized that there's nothing particularly interesting to look at, and therefore moaning about one's inability to walk over to a corner and look at a bunch of chairs is quite foolish. Besides, you're supposed to be paying more attention to the game's story than worrying about what happens if you tilt the analog stick left while holding A and tapping B. The simplified style allows all of Killer7's components to seamlessly blend, creating an interactive experience that tricks the player into thinking he or she is doing more than just playing a videogame.

The rest of the game's controls are also easy to grasp. Holding the Right Trigger launches you into first person mode, tapping the L Trigger scans the area and reveals the invisible Heaven Smile, and A fires your myriad of different weapons which include dual grenade launchers, a revolver, and two automatic pistols, among other wickedly cool devices. Also, if you've collected enough blood from your victims (by the way, you collect blood from your victims) and press Y three times while holding R, you'll be able to fire off a super charged shot that'll do a lot more damage than simply unloading standard rounds.