Kane & Lynch are not your typical lead game characters and Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is not your typical game sequel. All too often the begging bowl is brought out and we cry ‘More of the same but shinier’ and go on our way, but this was not going to be the case for the dastardly duo as while the first game sold well it was panned by critics and public alike. An overhaul was needed and the trailers have shown a dramatically different game, but is this sequel more poodle than rottweiller? Read on to find out….
The look of the game is incredible. While and more big budget titles pull out all the stops to look crisp and clear on your shiny new HDTV, Kane & Lynch 2 is downright grubby. Instead of loading screens, we have buffering screens and you often feel like a voyeur peeking at a snuff film on a dodgy website. Sound design is fantastic with very loud guns and atmospheric noises coming from the variety of locations such as tv sets blaring in peoples homes and happy bouncy music playing in shopping malls. There is no musical score, but you won’t even notice once the bullets start whizzing by.The camera swings all over the place and you feel like being in the centre of an action scene in a Bourne movie. I have played many fast paced action games, including Mirror’s Edge, but have never suffered from motion sickness till playing this. Probably my fault for using the sprint button, which tilts the camera like crazy, too much. Luckily for me – and other queasy gamers, is that you can switch the camera off and run for the hills. Or you could just stop running around so much – especially as doing this often gets you killed.
While Kane & Lynch 2 is a raw and intense action shooter, you do not want to be running and gunning too much as you be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of onscreen enemies – most of them far too accurate with a handgun for their own good. The best tactic is to head for the nearest bit of cover, hammer the X button (no loose auto-cover this time round) and pick your spot to pop up and ruin some faces. Sound a bit violent? Well it is an 18 and it is brutal in places. This is not a happy jaunt through the jungle killing hundreds of baddies as a happy adventurer like in Uncharted. In this game you are a very bad man, in a bad situation dealing with even worse people. It is actually quite refeshing to play as someone who is completely unhinged and who kills as he is a bad person, without having to justify his actions. The worst of the violence is kept hidden though. In keeping with the guerrilla documentary/ user generated video style, blowing a baddie’s head off results in heavy pixilation. A lot of the time though it will be your head being targeted and if you take a heavy hit you may find yourself encountering the new ‘Down and Out’ feature which sees you sprawled out on the floor crawling desperately with a gun in one hand trying to protect yourself while you get into cover. Luckily, the gunplay is very good. You will get rather frustrated in the first few missions as it feels like you could probably aim better swatting bullets with a bit of rolled up newspaper, but when you get your hands on some decent weaponry you will love popping up above cover to take down strings of baddies with a single bullet in each of their heads. There is a lot of fun to be had taking down a group of 12 people who are armed to the teeth with body armour while the two of you take your time to take them out one by one. You feel like a hobo James Bond.
So far, so shooty, so what else does the game offer? More shooting. Yes, there is not a lot of variety on offer in the game’s story mode and even fewer light hearted moments. You start the game shooting at enemies that take a few bullets and end shooting enemies that take more. They come in large numbers and try to flank you, you rush to different bits carefully blasting them before they get a lock on you. Then repeat. There are no boss encounters with the only variation in the game coming from an incredibly bizarre – but thankfully short stealth section, and some action onboard a helicopter that also involves some shooting. In some fights you can also use handy gas canisters to take down the hordes of baddies, but that also involves shooting the ruddy things. There are no puzzles, no collectibles, no side story and the very, very brief points of exploration reward you with a different vantage point to shoot from. If you are in the mood to shoot some folk, Kane & Lynch 2 is definitely for you. In between the action there are some cutscenes which tell the bleak story. The story is very dark but there is a moment that makes you wonder should you be laughing or should be repulsed. It is surreal and the longer it goes on you wonder what is going on in the head of the developers. Worth playing the game just to experience that scene of madness.
Now here comes a bit of a paradox – the game can be extremely difficult in places, but you will no doubt finish the story mode in under 5 hours. Not a typo – under FIVE hours. There are many points where you be overcome with the power and number of enemies, barely making it to the next stage after a long drawn out firefight, but the story as a whole seems to breeze past. Once you are done there are no incentives to play through again – no extra weapons or fun new modes. It would have been great if you could unlock a mode similar to ‘The Club’ where you get points for killing enemies, and could get competitive with online leaderboards. I finished the game first on Normal difficulty, and I am now playing it on Extreme (hardest difficulty) which looks like taking about three times as long to get through, but I could never recommend starting off with Extreme as you have no time whatsoever to get used to the controls before being killed by a single shot. Heck, you will probably be tearing you hair out playing Level 2 on Normal mode as it is quite a challenge so early on in the game. Saying that, I would highly recommend doing an Extreme run after a normal playthrough. I thought I would be fatigued from all the shooting, but I found clearing a level in Extreme to be incredibly satisfying. The AI is really cheap in this mode, killing you with a handgun from 3 miles away while you struggle to line up a shot with a sniper rifle, but finally getting past the buggers made me want to punch the air. If you are patient and forgiving and find Modern Warfare fun on Veteran, you will feel at home here.
You may also need to be forgiving for a number of glitches in the game. The game is meant to look a bit drab in places, but I don’t think the visual style was meant to feature sections where Kane & Lynch merge as they try to take cover at the same wall. Another slight annoyance was pumping bullets into a bad guy while he continued on with his predetermined running animation, which only altered when he died. This type of thing only happened a couple of times in the game, but it broke the impressive atmosphere that the game weaves around you. Still it provided a laugh in a world of bleakness.
It’s a shame in a way that IO have built a fantastic world and scary characters but failed to deliver a great story. Lynch is genuinely freaky and throughout the game you are witnessing him break down. In stressful gunfights he starts muttering under his breath, followed by some babbling then war cries. It is really unsettling and the voice actors as whole do a great job, but the storyline is far from gripping – Kane & Lynch plan to do a deal and make a ton of cash, it goes wrong, they are fighting for their lives. When I saw the first trailers I wondered if the pair were actually being followed by a cameraman and fantasied that the title could be the gaming equivalent of the film ‘Man Bites Dog’. Now that the technology is in place hopefully IO can go on to make a very dark comedy featuring Kane & Lynch being tailed by a documentary maker. I think with a good writer and brave direction, that idea could be a brilliant premise for an enthralling future game. Or maybe I think too much of my own ideas!
I would go on to talk about the multiplayer, but it did not seem to be live during my time with the game. Rest assured I will keep trying to log in this week and will have multiplayer impressions ASAP. I could however play the Story Mode via split screen co-op and I want to give a lot of praise to IO for including a mode that is sorely lacking in so many games these days. I used to play some hideous games on older consoles as they were still a lot of fun with a friend, so warm up your vocal chords now to shout at your friend who refuses to get into cover. In this mode the screen splits horizontally with no option to split vertically. You can also practice the main multiplayer mode ‘Fragile Alliance’ in the single player Arcade Mode. Here you and a gang, usually made up of fellow human players, try to steal money from a variety of locations, before fighting the cops and heading to the getaway van. Along the way you can kill other gang members to steal their cash – but be warned the rest will turn on you. This was quite good fun, but I expect it to have much more atmosphere when playing with other humans, but it is a good way to learn how to play before jumping in with a group of strangers. There is a online high score leaderboard for Arcade mode, so when the story is done there is something to go back to that encourages replay as a single player.
Kane & Lynch 2 is a vast improvement over the original game but it is far from perfect. IO need a very good story and some mission variety for a future sequel in order to make a truly great game featuring the psychotic pair. It seems very appropriate that the game is being released on the same day as ‘The Expendables’ film coming out in cinemas – both hark back to a simpler time where action dominated over plot and character. If you are looking for a game that delivers a nonstop intense shooting experience then this for you. If you fancy a bit of variety and depth in your games you might want to give it a miss.
The Pros
- Great visual style and atmosphere
- Incredibly intense, pace never drops
- Satisfying gunplay
The Cons
- Lack of variety
- Very short story mode
- Shallow storyline
- Some bad glitches and partner AI
Overall
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was inspired by online user generated content and indeed you can see similarities to the majority of people found on chatroulette – it’s hard, unpleasant and grainy but you’ll pop back for that short term buzz and excitement. The most intense game of the year so far, shame about the lack of variety. Maybe 3rd time will be the charm.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is released on August 20th on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The version used for this review was PS3 with a mandatory 1.6gb install.
