Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Review

With the original Kane & Lynch achieving considerable success, IO Interactive set to work on creating a suitable follow-up, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. However, instead of simply resting on their laurels, they decided that this time around they would take some risks; most notably in the art department. Gone are top-notch HD graphics and in their place are graphics that have been inspired by low resolution footage that's often seen in candid documentaries. Some risks pay off, but Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days probably isn't one of those risks - if anything, the game feels like a slight step backwards.

Despite going their separate ways at the end of the last game, our 'loveable' dark horse protagonists find their way back together after Lynch gets word of an arms deal through his boss, Glazer. He naturally thinks to cut Kane in, so Kane flies out to China where Lynch is currently situated. However, before the deal, Lynch decides to do some routine side-work, which goes horribly wrong as they end up killing the daughter of a really nasty person called Shangsi, oops.

What follows is a huge game of cat and mouse, as this rather important person wants Kane and Lynch to pay for what they've done. What's miraculous about this though, is that despite having half the Chinese military after them, Kane and Lynch manage to turn the tables. Then again, it's unlikely that anyone playing this game expected a story that had plausibility high up on the agenda. When you finish the game and wonder how they actually went from their initial situation to their ending situation, some boundaries will be stretched, that's for sure. It'll also leave you wondering just how they can top the ridiculously over the top nature of the story in the next game, should they make one.

What follows from here is for the most part, disappointment. The gameplay seems all too similar to the last game and it doesn't sound like many of the complaints have been addressed. The overall gameplay is fairly standard for the third-person shooter genre; there's a cover system, the ability to run and it's now possible to take hostages. However, what's disappointing is that the actual firing is still just as frustrating.

Usually when playing a game, I expect a certain amount of bleed. By this, I mean the amount of times bullets don't hit a desired target despite the aiming reticule being pointed at them. However, in Kane & Lynch 2, it pushes patience to breaking point. When using an assault rifle at around 20-30 metres, you'd expect a certain amount of bullets to hit. In Kane & Lynch 2, you can often find yourself firing an entire clip (or two) at an enemy, who isn't in cover, and they still won't go down. To compound this, enemies don't necessarily die, or even react, when they're shot 5, 6 or even 7 times. They can even take 5 shots, fall to the floor and get back up again as if nothing even happened to them. I think the biggest example of how broken the firing mechanics are is that aside from the sniper rifle, your best bet for killing people long range is a shotgun, yes, a shotgun.

The cover system is competent at best. It works ok during normal gameplay, although on the harder difficulties enemies can hit you even when in cover, which makes it slightly redundant. Also if you're knocked down and choose to "get-up in cover" it will often wrap you to a wall that's not in any way providing cover. The blind-fire mechanics also emphasise further the broken nature of the aiming, as it isn't any less accurate than firing while aiming - very puzzling.

I previously mentioned that the developers had taken a risk with regards to the graphics, and I personally think it was a bad risk to take. One of the key features is that they wanted to make it look like a documentary with often poor quality graphics and shaky cam and I appreciate what they were trying to do, I just don't think it works that well. I had to turn the shaky cam off because it was making me feel nautious and often the graphics had so much lens flare that playing the game genuinely did hurt my eyes. If that's what they were trying to promote, then I guess they achieved their goals, but for me, it wasn't a fun experience at all.

There were a few points where it worked well though, such as a huge explosion that happpened in a crowded street. The sound gained a ton of artefacts and the game did look like it was part of a video on YouTube - however, moments like this are far and few between. The sound was also a bit strange at times - often it was hard to discern what characters were actually saying and the auto-cues during levels didn't always match-up to what was happening on screen.

The campaign can be completed in around 4 hours, and with it being memorable for the wrong reasons, online is where most people will get their fill of Kane & Lynch 2. There is an offline mode called Arcade where players can hone their skills with AI, and there are three modes which can be played online.

The modes themselves, are actually fun - if you can look past some of the game's annoyances - and that's probably what's most disappointing. Firstly, there doesn't appear to be any kind of active match-making system, so players can often end up in a match that's extremely unbalanced. This then leads to the second problem - there's no penalty for leaving matches. If players can see that the match is unbalanced, they will simply leave and look for another game, which then prompts the rest of the team to leave as there's no run in taking place in a 6 vs 3 match where the teams were already unbalanced. It's worth noting that there is a ranking system, but the game matches players up in games that they can't actually play in (because their rank isn't high enough), so I'm not sure what that says about how the system works.