As soon as you delve into Kane & Lynch, expect do be shelled immediately over and over by the f-bomb - the deluge of swear words continues unwaveringly over course of the game. Indeed, the story and accompanying cut scenes are extremely violent and orientated towards an 'adult' audience. However, despite the script's shameless nature, it is very engaging and entertaining. The story starts as Kane & Lynch are being transported to death row, when their prison bus is intercepted by a group of thugs under the direction of 'The7' – the most powerful mercenary organisation in the world. After a bloody fire-fight with police, Kane is informed that unless he recovers the loot he stole, his family will be killed. To ensure Kane's compliance, The7 dispatch Lynch along to keep watch. As events continue to unfold, you are progressively drawn into the story and even start to empathise with Kane's predicament. Kane & Lynch's storyline is a very strong one and the locations that it takes players to are always interesting and unyielding.
Unfortunately, the cover system is far from perfect.
Kane & Lynch is a conventional third-person shooter that gives players control over a four-man team, generally comprised of Lynch and three other mercenaries. The controls for managing the squad are simple, but nonetheless allow for a high degree of tactical gameplay. Players can order their counterparts to move to a particular position, fall in, or shoot at a specific target, either individually or as a squad. Team members carry out orders efficiently, ducking behind cover when necessary and throwing grenades. The enemy AI is also mostly competent, working as a team and retreating when injured. However, tangos usually leave part of their body exposed when hiding behind cover, meaning skirmishes are seldom a lengthy affair.
There is decent selection of weapons to choose from in the game, but some of them seem more inaccurate then is necessary, meaning headshots cannot often be executed when firing from a distance. Players can swap weapons with their team-mates by clicking the right thumbstick. When standing in the middle of the squad though, swapping weapons with team-mates becomes a little problematic. Another problem with Kane & Lynch is the cover mechanic. Theoretically, it is supposed to work the same way as in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. However, you can never really attach yourself to a cover object with any degree of ease – it will either take you a few goes to assume cover, or you will give up trying in frustration. When the system works, there is really no problem – players can blind fire or pop out of cover to shoot at an enemy. Ultimately though, the cover system is so flawed that will probably play though Kane & Lynch just standing behind cover rather then attempting to become attached to it.
Should you take too many bullets, a team-mate will patch you up – if they get there in time!
Levels in Kane & Lynch are never boring or the same. Missions range from breaking into a bank, to stalking though a crowded nightclub while protecting Lynch and his hostage. Level design is one of the highlights of the game, and for the most part, all episodes play fantastically and will keep you glued to the screen. Nonetheless, stealth portions the game have not been developed fully and boss battles are sometimes overly challenging. The stage that pits players against a dump truck, though a good concept is probably the most technically flawed part of the entire game – to beat the level, you have to stand in a particular position, which is in no way obvious, to shoot. Some of the later boss battles are also equally difficult to discern.
Players take damage in Kane & Lynch the same as most games these days – if you are hit by too many bullets, you have to avoid losing any health for the next few moments. If your character dies, he can be revived via a quick adrenaline shot from a team-mate, but more then one treatment per area will result in an overdose. Thankfully, checkpoints are well placed, so large portions of the game do not have to be replayed in the event that you meet with death. Load times are reasonable, but that voiceovers the play over them save boredom from setting in.
The graphics in Kane & Lynch are on par with what you would expect from a decent next-gen game these days. Though the visuals aren't necessarily revolutionary, all of the environments look good, especially in the prison break and worn-torn city levels. Rain, lighting and trace-fire add a level of depth to the game, and the cut scenes, are all of which are done in-game, are rendered quite well. Facial models and character actions are animated competently, but the actions of the more generic NPC's look a little mechanic.
The person who steals the most loot wins in Fragile Alliance.
The soundtrack to the game is above average and sets the mood of each level adequately. Explosions and gunfire also help convey the often chaotic nature of the different stages. Voice-overs are believable, conveying genuine emotion. Indeed, Lynch's sociopathic tendencies are expressed well by the dialogue.
Kane & Lynch will likely take players around ten hours to complete. There are two endings to experience and three difficulty levels to help extend playtime. In the multiplayer campaign players can a have friend assume the role of Lynch, revealing as-yet unseen portions of each level in the process. Unfortunately, Kane & Lynch only supports offline co-op, which is very disappointing, given the nature of the game. In the other (online) multiplayer gametype, known as 'fragile alliance', players have to team together to pull of heists, and the person with the most money at the end of the match wins. The twist to fragile alliance is that players can turn on their team-mates, who will then re-spawn as police officers. Cops can earn money in order to win each round by taking out the robbers.
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a slightly above-average third-person shooter that stands out because of its engrossing story, and the decent graphics and fantastic level design add to its credentials. However, the terrible cover system and other broken gameplay elements detract from otherwise could have been one of the better Christmas releases. Despite its flaws, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a decent title – it's just a little unpolished, like the game's two main antiheroes.
Fragile Alliance is fun as hell. I also watched an interview with someone from IO Interactive who says future maps will be added via download later on.
I guess I'm just used to a 6.5 being a pretty bland score for a game when considering other sites and magazines.
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