Killer 7: Beta Levels

Killer 7: Beta Levels

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In one of the beta trailers we can see the first cutscene in which Dan enters in the Celtic Building, but the place is different from the final version of the Celtic Building in Target 00 – Angel.

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Here’s the same scene from the final game, you can see that the whole room is different from the beta one:

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Here’s another shot from the beta Celtic Building, it seems that there were some drawings on the walls, but there are no drawings like these in any of the levels from the final game.

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This meeting room with a big colored window was used in the original (and removed) level in which Dan was sent to Seattle to kill Curtis Blackburn (we’ll analyze better this in the Beta Story Scenes section). In the final game, the Target 03 – Encounter mission, in which we have to kill Curtis, was set in a completely different level and we never meet our target in a room like this one. It’s interesting to notice that this room was not completely wasted, as it was re-used as  a church in Target 04 – Alter Ego.

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And here’s the “same” room as it was modified for the final game:

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Talking about churchs, another one was shown in the original concept trailer, but in the final game we never explore a place like this. I’m not sure if this could have been an early version of the final church used in Target 04 – Alter Ego level, or maybe it was a concept for another removed area. This was the place in which Dan shots to “Linda Vermillion” (or at least someone that could have been an early version of Linda) in the concept trailer (maybe we had to find and kill Linda in the original game? Was she hiding in a church?).

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Here’s the outside of the  final (and only) church that can still be found in the released game:

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This parking garage was the first area of the original / removed mission in which we had to kill Curtis in Seattle. After Dan arrives at the building, he enters in the garage to gain access to the upper floors. In the final game there’s a little garage in the first mission, but it does not look like this big one.

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Here’s the small garage in the final game:

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In another trailer we can see an unknown area with electronic machines that could have been part of the removed parking garage: maybe this place was used for a puzzle.

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In the same removed mission in Seattle, Dan was able to reach the roof of the building to finish Curtis: as with the rest of the level, we never play in this place in the released game (we do play on another roof for a little in Sunset – Part 2, but it does not look like this beta roof).

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In the screenshots below we can see an early version of the skyscraper where Kun Lan stands in one of the cutscenes of the final game. This place was probably used as a concept for the city scenario, when Killer 7’s graphic was still more abstract / bared than the final one.  This building could also have been used as the hiding place of Curtis in the removed Seattle mission or as the bank for the removed Bank Heist level.

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Here’s the skyscraper as seen in the final game (based on the Space Needle that really exists in Seattle):

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This building could also have had some relations with Sundance Shot, as it looks like he was in the same building from the prototype scene that can be see in the  “Hand in Killer 7” book.

As i wrote before, the concept skyscraper coud have also been used as the bank for the beta Bank Heist level that was later removed from the game. We can find various notes about this mission in the Jaco’s report inside the “Hand in Killer 7” book:

On the afternoon of 18 September 2004, Heaven Smiles appeared in a bank located in the downtown area of Seattle.

The FBI’s special forces were sent to the scene immediately; the incident occurred in one of the buildings under the FBI’s surveillance, so we knew about it as soon as it happened.  Important government documents were kept in the bank’s innermost safe.  We aren’t talking about data stored on a disc, either: I mean real ink-and-paper documents.  I never learned their contents.

When the FBI arrived, one-third of the people in the bank had already turned into Heaven Smiles.  They quickly started killing all the others.  One-third of the armed security guards, too, had become Heaven Smiles.

Some of the early concept screens show a place that could have been this location (and they look similar to the design of the concept skyscraper), in which the Killer 7 team was summoned to stop the Heaven Smiles attack. Note that this mission was neither present or mentioned in the final game.

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In a beta trailer we can even see some gameplay parts from an unknown level that could have originally used for the Bank Heist mission (as the design is similar to the area seen in the concept screens with the stairs).  This area was not in the final game. From the name on the wall (Temple Horizon?) that we can see in one of the screens below, we can speculate that this place was later changed to became the place in which Curtis was hiding in the removed Seattle mission, but then it was completely removed along with the rest of the chapter.

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From an early concept image we can see Harman in front of an house that could have been an early version of the Blackburn Residence.

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Here’s the Residence in the final game:

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A night version of the last area in Ulmeyda City is show in a beta screen, but in the final game this place is played in a sunny day time (but maybe this is just a weird view of the place that makes it looks like the background is all black).

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Final version of the same place in Ulmeyda City:

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Another element that i dont remember in Ulmeyda City is the “Exchange” choice that can be seen in the screens below. Was there something different in this area instead of the truck present in the final game?

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There are a lot of bathrooms in the final game, but i dont remember any that looks like this one (again, i could be wrong):

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A couple of screens from another beta level can be seen below: it could be an early version of the Coburn Elementary School that we explore in Target 05 – Smile in the final game, as we can notice the “Cafeteria” (still present in the released version) and an unknown “Counseling Room” (removed from the final school).

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Here’s the final version of the School:

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The unknown corridor below is not anywhere in the final game and i dont have any clue about where it could have been used in the beta version.  Notice the posters on the walls: we never see those posters in the released game.

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An interesting beta area can be see in the screens below: it could have been a beta version of the (ISZK) Ishizaka Land amusement park (as we can notice a “Game Hall” in the UI choices). In the final game we never see scary puppets all around the floor or kid’s drawings on the walls in any of the levels.

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Killer 7 – Beta Levels Analisys COMPLETE.

>> Continue to: Killer 7 – Beta Story Scenes

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monokoma




2 thoughts on “Killer 7: Beta Levels

  1. Pavomba

    Old article, but here is a nice update

    In the fall of last year, someone discovered that a small developer had their FTP access public and it had the killer7 assets and source code, it includes not all, but a lot of the unused stuff.

    I’m going to explain a few things here.

    1)The Celtic beta version was almost to completely done, but at the beginning of 2004, they decided to scrap it and redesign, actually, some of the unknown rooms are from it, and in fact, few of them still on the gamecube retail version, including Dan 2002 model.

    2)It’s not a bank, but a place called Temple of Horizon where they conducted experiments if i’m correct.

    3)The Coburn beta is not Coburn, it is one of the Temple of Horizon halls.

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