Recent reviews by SigmaSyndicate

A stylish, over-the-top character action game that's equal parts fun to play and completely freaking mental. It's worth a buy... if you can get the port to work correctly that is.

Killer is Dead - Nightmare Edition, is a port of the PS3 and Xbox 360 game that includes the added difficulty of Nightmare mode, Steam Leaderboards and the Smooth Operator DLC pack. Very little has been changed over all, and the game controls decently with the mouse and keyboard, but a controller is a sound investment if you have one.

The game is made by developer SUDA51, the only survivor of a series of 51 clones who were put in a room together and told that the last man alive could be a video game developer, so you should expect around that level of sanity going in. The story doesn't explain itself at all, and operates under a weird alternate universe logic where the laws of the universe are very different. Expect to be lost and either have to do research outside of the game or in the game's Theater Mode, unlocked after beating the game once.

You play as Mondo Zappa, stylish contract killer-for-hire and a new member of Bryan's execution office, an independent, albeit federally managed assassination service. Your job is simple; kill monsters, in whatever horrific shape they may appear, from self-proclaimed gods who wear nothing but gold chains, to an ex-Yakuza member who has been spiritually fused with a murderous tiger, to powerful vampires; there are so many colorful characters that it's hard to name them all, but they all feel special and they're all memorable.

The gameplay is third person character action, with focus on timing and precision as opposed to brutal and fast combos or moving about the arena very quickly. It's simple but cathartic and satisfying to pull off well, and pulling off a hard fight awesomely is an experience you'll relish. The level design itself, however, leaves a lot to be desired. While there's a great variety of locations, the campaign is rather short, and the arenas feel boring and lifeless, designed to be arenas for combat and little else. And due to how often the game reuses them, you'll become rather familiar with them as well.

It must be mentioned; the port doesn't always work correctly. It worked perfectly fine for me, but I ran it locked at 30fps on a 64-bit OS, and I've heard that 32-bit OS's don't work at all, and running the game at higher than 30 fps causes serious bugs. I noticed framerate drops at specific parts in the game often led to me taking a few hits, but only occasionally, and it didn't bother me enough that I would want to stop playing.

It's not a perfect game, but style oozes out of every pore of Killer is Dead, and it's worth picking up for the total uniqueness of the experience alone. The Nightmare Edition includes a few extra features, but it's not a whole lot in comparison to the console version you can get for almost the same price and with less issues. Pick the PC version up if the game goes on sale, if you need a mouse and keyboard or you just don't have access to a console.

- Broken A.I.
- Physics Glitches
- Frequent Crashes
- Stilted Levelling System
- Goofy NPCs and Dialogue
- Campy RPG Story
- Horse Armor
- Performance Issues and Framerate Drops

I love this game so much.