Format Reviewed: Xbox 360. Also on PlayStation 3
Developer: IO Interactive
Publisher: Square Enix / Eidos
Release date: August 20, 2010
As much as Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was an generic, underachieving shooter from the folks who gave us Hitman, hook up with a buddy and shoot like a team of criminals should, and it was about as much fun as you could have on a console at that time. Three years later, with the arrival of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, we ask ourselves can we possibly have the same fun again, considering co-op shooters have evolved over recent years? The Answer: Hell yes. In fact, it’s a heck of a lot more fun. Welcome back Kane & Lynch.
In terms of gameplay, Dog Days is a simple as it gets. There are no gimmicks present in this one to boost sales potential. It’s Kane, it’s Lynch, it’s Shanghai, there’s lots of trouble and there are plenty of guns. Another generic shooter this could easily be, but Kane & Lynch 2 has so much style that it stands out above many other games of the genre.
As far as third-person games go, never has it been more apparent than here. Heavy Rain sold itself on being an interactive movie, Kane & Lynch 2 betters that with it’s gritty action drama resembling Michael Mann’s Heat to name one. Beginning with Kane’s arrival in Shanghia to once again team up with Lynch for some criminal activity, all the way to the attempt to escape the country, the game flows perfectly like a well put together movie.
The camera follows you around the beautifully detailed Shanghai streets as if your troubles are being documented for a major television network, and while technically you are handling Kane (and sometimes Lynch), you can’t help but feel that you are, in fact, the man handling the camera. It’s grainy, it’s shaky, it falls when you do, gets shot at, it receives a fair share of blood splatter, there’s plenty of lens flare, and it takes a few moments to adapt to new lighting. Even the gory detail is blurred out like some pre-watershed documentary or news piece. It’s cinema at its most stylish. Take this away, however, and you would be left with another generic shooter.
Good thing for Kane & Lynch 2 that the action is gritty enough, and never really once gets ahead of itself with over-the-top moments. While the wafer-thin story does build up to an exciting finale with one or two tense set-pieces, the action stays grounded. There are no lengthy action cinematics, no unique special moves for the two leads, no hidden collectibles, no rankings on level performance – it’s simply about the gritty action and cover and shoot gun play. The moody and miserable side of Shanghai being your playground throughout – shops, apartment buildings, warehouse, railway yards, skyscrapers. You can even shoot civilians at times if you wish, though you’re neither rewarded nor punished for doing so. Perhaps the simplicity is enough to put many gamers off, the fact is it should be seen as a credit to the developer.
Let’s not get carried away here, to say Kane & Lynch 2 is the “must-own game of the year” would be far from the truth. Also, to say this a love it or hate it game could be seen as an understatement. Unfortunately, there are several problems that’ll deter many a gamer. The shooting mechanics have their flaws, the lack of blood in some cases makes it hard to determine whether you’ve killed the bad guy, and also takes away much of the “hardcore” aspect the game strives to present. Also, often on-target shots don’t seem to register, and there are no grenades when many a tricky scenario is screaming out for small explosion to ease the gun pressure – particularly when ammo is low and picking up a new weapons means running into the firing line. However, gas canisters and fire extinguishers can be thrown and shot to cause some explosive damage.
The enemy AI is also laughable at times – with enemies who think it’s a good idea to run up to you and try to get a good shot at your back, rather than taking cover for a pop at your head. While the cover system does work well enough, occasionally you’ll wind up glued to the wall, which can be frustrating to say the least. Thankfully, much like Borderlands, the game does occasionally give you a second chance when you’ve been shot down. You are given the chance to shoot the nearby foes and get back into cover. However, often the screen becomes too dark and blurry when you’re under fire that you soon accept certain death.
Also, 11 missions may sound ideal if they were 11 long missions, but sadly I completed the main game in one sitting, clocking in around four hours of play. Six is acceptable for a game of this type, but four is extremely off putting. Having said that though, we’d see a four hour movie as a movie too long. Bearing in mind you’ll no doubt fancy more than one playthrough, perhaps solo and with a friend (or with various different friends), then there’s the multiplayer.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of the disc is the multiplayer, offering up paranoia inducing segments of online criminal activity. There are three modes to choose from – Cops and Robbers, Fragile Alliance and Undercover Cop. Each one is a play on standard multiplayer modes, but adding tense gun-play and paranoia to the mix. Cops and Robbers does a good job of portraying team deathmatch, doing exactly what it says on the tin.
Fragile Alliance is all about greed, betrayal and revenge, and much more fun that Cops and Robbers.You must work together as a team to escape with as much loot as possible within four minutes, which will be shared out amongst the eight players at the end. Alternatively you can betray your allies, show them your shotgun, and take off with the cash alone, making your cut far greater. If you die, then you’ll come back into the game as a cop to prevent the heist. It’s nice, it’s fun but the cream of the crop is Undercover Cop.
In this mode, one member of the 6-player group will be randomly selected as the cop, while the other five play as criminals. The aim of the criminals is to escape with the loot, while the undercover cop needs to prevent this. Knowing there’s an undercover cop in the group means all the players will suspect everyone else. The police will know who is undercover, so they won’t shoot at you as long as you aim your gun fire away from them. Fail to pull the trigger at all, then your cover is blown. If you manage to prevent the robbery as the cop, you’ll earn a reward. On the other hand, if the group detect you, then they’ll receive the reward. It’s extrememly tense at times, and certainly gets the paranoia working over time.
Despite the gritty and simple main campaign, without the multiplayer Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days would seem very pricey for what you get. The four hour campaign is soon forgiven once you’ve spent countless hours on the multiplayer modes, which are some of the best you’ll see all year. Some will see the main games as a four hour movie where you can shoot people, but the style makes up for it to an extent. Kane and Lynch 2 may be style over substance, but it certainly does ooze the style.
