Graphically, Killer is Dead oozes style. The high contrast pseudo cel-shaded comic book aesthetic works really well in tandem with the game's well-established film noir theme. Mondo is a creepy-looking dude: picture Kevin from Sin City, but with red eyes and a cybernetic arm. His actions don't do much to shake the creep factor, but that's a story best saved for later. The action itself is flashy and brutal, taking cues from No More Heroes and Shadows of the Damned, even if the combat itself isn't nearly as much fun as it is in those games. I suppose much of the imagery is meant to straddle the line between titillation and severe discomfort; between the busty nurse riding around on a giant flying syringe and a mid-game boss fight featuring a man clothed in nothing but what appears to be a few pieces of crime scene tape, I felt the urge to shower every time I played the game.
Killer is Dead continues the Grasshopper Manufacture tradition of having great music; there's a nice contrast between the casual, foot-tapping jazz and the insanity that so often occupies the screen as you play. Voice work is less praiseworthy, if only because the script is so completely inane. I can't imagine anyone anywhere finding the character of Mika charming. Her excessively childlike antics wear thin within the minute she first appears in the game; it's so bad that no amount of tragic backstory makes her any easier to sympathize with.
