Kane and Lynch: Dead Men (Xbox 360)
In the never-ending quest for developers to become more like moviemakers, game studios often find themselves creating titles that look like they’re better suited for the silver screen, than an HDTV screen. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, developed by those daring Danes at IO Interactive, is the latest such title, with scenes that bear a striking resemblance to those found in Michael Mann films such as Heat and Collateral. But as is often the cause for such games, where the title excels in the area of dramatic storytelling, it often falters inelegantly with regards to gameplay.
Jumping right into things, Kane and Lynch tells the tale of two lifelong pals, who are tasked with freeing all the helpless kittens and puppies from the pound…
Just kidding. The player assumes the role of the former titular character, a mercenary on death row whose only regret is not having been part of his daughter’s life. The game begins with a bang, literally, as Kane is rescued by his former cohorts, known simply as ‘The 7.’ The scene is performed spectacularly, as the transport truck carrying Kane to his execution is thrown asunder by an explosion and the player staggers bewilderedly around the street amidst a gun battle between his masked rescuers and infuriated police.
The second title character, Lynch, is part of this extraction effort and is hired to keep watch over Kane and report back to The 7. Lynch isn’t your ideal candidate for babysitter however, as the trigger-happy schizophrenic who may or may not have murdered his own wife has a penchant for gleefully unloading buckshot into civilians, only to feel overwhelming remorse and self-hatred about it minutes later.
Kane isn’t exactly welcomed back by The 7 with open arms. Indeed, the only reason for the dangerous rescue operation was to use him to secure a mysterious briefcase that Kane stashed away in an unknown location prior to his arrest. If he doesn’t comply, The 7 will execute Kane’s wife and daughter, both of whom they’ve kidnapped.
The two set out to retrieve the Macguffin for The 7, resigned to shooting, stabbing, kidnapping, and blowing up anyone who stands against them. Along the way, promises are broken, alliances are drawn, and motives are reexamined, but the pacing between action and exposition is kept taut throughout, as the duo jump from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Havana. All the locations explored are memorable and several scenes will be surely seared into the player’s mind, including a hostile encounter in a crowded Japanese nightclub and a bank robbery that doesn’t go exactly as planned.
The real highlight of the game is the believability of the relationship between the two men that’s been established by IO. Neither of them particularly cares a great deal for the other, but they’ve been both forced into a situation that requires them to rely on one another for survival. It’s this “alliance forged in hell” that provides Kane and Lynch with a gritty, sinister overtone that can be darkly amusing at times, as the pair bicker over travel arrangements and constantly question the extent of each other’s violent tendencies.
Kane and Lynch may be a shooter in name, but like any great action movie, the game is less about precision aiming and more about a constant barrage of bullets. This may frustrate some players who have developed pinpoint accuracy after being diligently trained on years of first-person shooters, but it works well enough within the confines of the game. The controls are a bit rough around the edges, especially with regards to the cover system, which only works about half the time. The gunfights feel more akin to Hitman (which should hardly be considered a shooter at all) than the near-perfect Freedom Fighters, both of which are previous IO games.
Kane never goes into battle alone, and the player will always be joined by at least Lynch throughout each mission and oftentimes a squad of four or five additional men. He can issue attack, regroup, and reposition commands to his squadmates by aiming where he wants them to focus and hitting the corresponding letter button. While this feature never runs deep enough to be considered truly tactical and the AI friendlies fare pretty well without direction, it’s nice to know the option is there should you choose to take advantage of it.
Enemy AI isn’t handled nearly as well. Each enemy seemingly has a choice of two actions: rush like a lemming directly toward Kane or sit behind cover for however long it takes for the player to flank. What’s more, enemy bullets obviously benefit from very different trajectories than those fired by the player, because they’ll often be able to pick you off from a much greater distance than yours will. Finally, if you do manage to actually hit your target after unloading two magazines in his general direction, don’t expect just one shot to take him down: enemies are extremely resilient to multiple gunshot wounds and will hardly flinch when hit.
Besides incorporating a regenerative health system that’s become all too common in this generation of games, Kane can be revived by a squadmate with a shot of adrenaline upon collapsing to the ground after taking too many bullets. However, there’s a limit on the number of times he can be revived in a given scene. Exceeding this amount will cause him to overdose and the player is forced to restart the scene from the beginning.
Squadmates can also provide extra ammunition should you require it. Upon running low, Kane will automatically yell out for more ammo. Most of the time, Lynch or one of the others will gladly oblige and the player need only walk over to him to obtain a refill. Ask for too many resupplies in a short amount of time, however, and don’t be surprised to hear “not my fucking problem” in reply.
Along those lines, Kane and Lynch features some of the most realistic violence and unabashed profanity we’ve ever experienced in gaming (or film, for that matter). Frankly, we’re amazed Jack Thompson and parents groups aren’t up in arms already. Understandably, Kane and Lynch isn’t the right choice for teenage gamers or even some adults with delicate sensibilities. But if you don’t mind a little violence toward women and dialogue peppered with every four-letter, monosyllabic word you can’t say on network television, then Kane and Lynch will never really feel particularly gratuitous or offensive.
The voice-acting of the two lead characters is simply phenomenal and really serves to draw the player into their world. The player begins to feel a connection to the character he’s playing as, almost bordering on empathy, when the man’s all-consuming purpose in life is to rescue his daughter and his cries of anguish and desperation really drive that point home. Sound effects are also superb, including gunfire that’ll make you duck your head and enemies that will shout exclamations in their native tongues. The score, provided yet again by the inimitable Jesper Kyd, is always perfectly matched to the action on-screen.
IO has never been known for producing visuals that push the envelope from a technical standpoint, but instead relies on its own artistic abilities to create environments and characters that are equally as captivating. While the levels aren’t nearly as intricate and inspired as Hitman: Blood Money, the world of Kane and Lynch exudes a certain artistic style and creative flair that we’ve come to expect from the studio. Ingenious use of lighting and shadows, plus non-traditional, varied level locations and design keep things interesting throughout.
The characters are extremely well-developed, not only from a narrative perspective, but from a physical standpoint: Kane bears a visible scar across one of his eyes, which can be accounted for if you pay close attention to one subtle moment during the course of play. He wears a bandage over the bridge of his nose after it’s broken early on in the game. Lynch, with his black suit and aviator sunglasses, seems to constantly be on the verge of snapping at any minute. He’ll fire off shotgun rounds into still alive foes left writhing on the ground and mutter to himself when he thinks Kane is out of earshot.
The game is broken up into sixteen chapters, each between about thirty minutes to an hour long, and each chapter is further divided into multiple individual scenes that usually take a few minutes to progress through. Autosaves are provided at the onset of each scene, but quitting before completing the entire chapter will force the player to load not his most recently played scene, but the first scene of that chapter, upon restarting the game.
There are three difficulty settings to choose from, cleverly dubbed ‘Aspirin,’ ‘Codeine,’ and ‘Morphine.’ I personally played through on the last, and the difficulty over the course of the game ranged anywhere from “afternoon tea in the springtime” to “being eaten alive by a pack of rabid ferrets…in hell.” Seriously, the number of enemies thrown at you and their aptitude for firearms is so wildly inconsistent, that you have to be left wondering if anyone at IO actually bothered to playtest the game when it was done. Some parts are unfairly difficult, like a scene involving a helicopter that took at least three hours to bring down, while in other instances objectives are left needlessly vague and the player is left replaying the same scene over and over again just trying to figure out what the hell he’s suppose to be doing.
A decision left up to the player at the end of the game will determine which of the two endings he’ll experience, but they’re both dismal conclusions to an otherwise well-developed story and unsatisfying resolutions for the gamer. We can accept the austere message IO hopes to leave the player with, given the nihilistic theme of the game. But what we cannot accept is intentionally forcing an in-game event upon the player in the eleventh hour, regardless of how well he’s handled everything preceding it.
You’ll know what I’m referring to if you play through. But honestly, it’ll probably just make you miserable.
The singleplayer storyline can also be enjoyed in cooperative mode, with a buddy playing alongside as Lynch. Unfortunately, IO did not include the ability to play online via Xbox Live, so the only available coop option is local split-screen. In the age of Halo 3 and Gears of War, this is hardly up to the standard.
As far as competitive multiplayer is concerned, Kane and Lynch offers what will surely be the year’s most underappreciated online experience. The sole game mode is IO’s own uniquely devised ‘Fragile Alliance,’ which is strikingly simple in concept but can provide for surprisingly deep collaborative and competitive action.
Up to eight players begin the round as mercenaries, who must infiltrate a bank or mall, steal as much valuables as possible, and make it to the extraction point, whilst fending off the SWAT forces sent to eliminate them. That’s where the collaboration comes into play.
But teamkilling isn’t just permitted, its explicitly encouraged. Spend the first few minutes working with your squadmates to eliminate the cops and nab the loot, then turn against them to stuff your own pockets with their haul. Killing an ally will brand you a traitor and your surviving squad might turn against you for doing so, but you’ll have the opportunity to score the most cash that way, which is the ultimate goal of Fragile Alliance.
But there’s more! Dead mercs respawn as cops during the same round, so you can rush back into the fray and exact sweet revenge on the traitor. If you’re not the victim of subterfuge and were simply eliminated by the police, then you can choose to become a corrupt cop by eliminating the other police officers at your sides. Your former crew can in turn drop cash for you as repayment.
We have a few complaints about Fragile Alliance that could have been addressed. First, while in-game voice chat over Xbox Live is necessary to function strategically as a squad, it would have been nice to be able to speak directly with only one teammate at a time, in order to, say, hatch a plan against the others. You can of course do this with Xbox Live’s Private Chat function, but it’s clumsy and time-consuming to go through all those menu commands during a fast-paced match. The ability to do so in-game would have been a more welcome addition.
Also, more expansive maps with escalating enemy forces and additional minor objectives, especially those focusing on collaboration, would greatly increase the longevity and appeal of Fragile Alliance. We don’t merely want to walk into the bank’s vault as the ‘Withdrawal’ map asks us to do. We want two players to plant C4 charges on the vault door, while two more secure the stairwell, and another pair actually go in and grab the cash. This will make it that much harder…and ultimately more appealing, to choose to slay one’s own ally.
Given its novelty and innovation, we’re happy to push these minor Fragile Alliance grievances aside and strongly encourage gamers to try it out first-hand.
Overall, Kane and Lynch could have benefited greatly from a few more months in development. While we completely understand IO and Eidos’ desire to release the title in time for the holidays, a little extra time in the oven would have eliminated most of the gameplay issues we experienced, plus would have probably made online coop a reality and Fragile Alliance even more meaningful.
How much you enjoy Kane and Lynch ultimately depends on how willing you are to overlook its technical shortcomings in favor of its intense action and above-average plot. What IO has provided gamers with is imposingly dark, visceral interactive storytelling first, and a well-polished gaming experience second. We’re confident that the team has the potential for achieving both.
Primotech Rating: 
