Killing and cuss language are two things that the video game industry has danced around for years but at the same time pumping it into games faster than the money can be counted. The trailers for Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, from Eidos, have been good so when the game showed up on my doorstep for review I couldn’t help but be excited. Unfortunately for the publisher of Kane and Lynch they decided to release it right in the middle of the biggest, best month of video games in recent history. On one hand this might be because the guys at Eidos Interactive think this is a blockbuster hit that can stand up to the sales numbers of Call of Duty 4, Assassin’s Creed, Rock Band, Guitar Hero III, and countless others; on the other hand it may be to hide it among a crowd of great games so that it passes most un-noticed until shopping season comes around then picked up by the non-educated. The final product ends up being a mixture of both options and while really fun to play through/experience, is a game that could have easily been released last generation.
It would take hours to count the movies/TV shows based on a bank robbery, around a bank robbery, or about bank robbers. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men takes that premise and constructs a very interesting, involving story that most gamers will really get a kick out of. Kane and Lynch are two prison inmates on their way to death row when a gang of badass rich people (The7) bust them out and threaten one of their families. What follows is a well-scripted, well-acted storyline that could, and probably will, be made into a major blockbuster movie someday. Kane is the main character (although both are playable during co-op mode) and has a long/complicated history with The7 that will be flushed out as the plot progresses. Lynch, a crazy psychotic killer, is attached to Kane at the hip, watching his every move, thanks to the orders of The7. Throughout the game the story will flesh out the motivations and emotional problems behind both characters; causing more twists, turns, and deception than any one episode of 24. Everything story-wise is presented with the help of in-game and CG movies, all helping to bring the gamer into the story. The story really is the strongest point of Kane and Lynch, being the main reason I continued to play the game. A small warning, if cuss language offends you stay away from Kane and Lynch, the game does not go more than 5 minutes without a major cuss word. Having been a bank robber in my past life I know that criminals do actually speak as bad as the characters in the game but if any game has ever gone over the top in the language department this is it. Developing a story that involves almost no good characters is hard enough but getting the gamer to bond with those bad characters is even harder, Kand and Lynch does just that and more.
Because the story/plot is so enjoyable and keeps the gamer so involved mentally it takes a while to actually figure out that the gameplay itself is really below average on it’s best day. Kane and Lynch places itself in the over-the-shoulder, third-person shooter category and because of that is quickly compared to games like Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, and even Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Most would assume that because many great games of this genre have been released prior to the one in this review that it would have a good reference for how to make a successful third-person shooter. What it really comes down to is that it seems like Kane and Lynch was developed for the Playstation 2, scrapped, and lastly re-glossed with nice graphics and put onto shelves this month. The controls are pretty standard, one button shoots, one changes weapons, one orders your “squad” around, etc. Where the gameplay really falters is the aiming/shooting system. There is something about the way the game feels when moving around Kane or killing someone with Lynch that just doesn’t feel right. It is very hard to get kills, even in the earlier levels, because something with the aiming is off. If anyone remembers what it was like to target, and kill people in Grand Theft Auto on the PS2 than they will understand the problem with Kane and Lynch.
The last thing that just bugged me about the gameplay was the recoil on the weapons; unless Kane is shooting the pistol the kickback shakes the screen so intensely it is near impossible to connect with the next bullet. While this may not sound that major it caused for more than a few frustrating moments and could have easily been fixed in the development phase. Much of this frustration is created by the faulty cover system that the developers expect gamers to use often. Although it may sound like I would rather have been hitting my head against a brick wall than playing this game all is not bad. The co-op, out of the box, career mode is a real gem and it has been a while since I had so much fun playing a game cooperatively with a buddy. Because both Kane and Lynch are always together, playing with a friend does not feel any different than single player and is the exact same game. The ability to continue your single player career with a buddy when they come over, then go back to single player when they leave, is something usually only found in quarter-eating arcade machines. Another really good thing that the developers did was level design; some of the levels in Kane and Lynch are some of the most exciting and fun levels in any game out there. Others, sadly, are some of the worst and most frustrating levels ever created. One that comes to mind involves a bank robbery and is as close to a re-enactment of the movie Heat than any videogame has ever come.
