I didn't play the first game, I never had a reason to, thankfully that didn't come back to bite me here because the only consistent factor seems to be the 2 lead characters. Whatever happened in the first game isn't ever brought up in any concrete fashion, there are just a few events mentioned here and there, generally of no real consequence. So now that that's out of the way, we'll move on.
KL2 starts off fast, and it NEVER slows down, for those of you who have played Army of Two: The 40th Day, think of that game, but on crack. It even takes place in the same city. The plot essentially breaks down as follows, Kane and Lynch are reunited in Shanghai, where Lynch has been living the past few years, in order to pull a major arms deal. Before the deal Lynch needs to go rough someone up, to "teach him a lesson", the man is waiting for them, and a protracted gun battle ensues that sprawls out across the crowded streets of Shanghai. SPOILERS BITCHES A mistake is made and a girl is inadvertently killed. Turns out this is the daughter of the most powerful crime boss in all of Shanghai, who has not only the police, but the Chinese military in his pocket. As a result, nowhere is safe, Kane and Lynch can never stop moving, and they quite literally never find themselves in a position where someone ISN'T trying to kill them. Even their own partners betray them eventually, leaving them quite literally alone to fend for themselves, and to scramble for a way out of Shanghai.
This is obviously a fairly thin plot line, but what really carries you through the game is the characters, Kane and Lynch have this bizarrely charismatic air about them despite neither of them being a particularly likeable individual on the surface. Lynch is quite literally out of his mind and will frequently suffer breakdowns mid-firefight, and he has a murderous streak 5 miles wide. Kane is a bit more redeemable of a figure, he is the typical ex mercenary who wants to get out of the game and just wants to pull this one last job so he can give his daughter something when he dies. But it's the constant bickering and bantering between these two that elevates the game above others of the genre. They really feel like friends, as much as Kane seems to hate Lynch he can't bring himself to just ditch him, and Lynch genuinely likes Kane, but is a little bit too insane to express it in words.
The second really great thing about this game is it's absolutely brutal adherence to realism. This is a dark, honest, violent depiction of the seedy underbelly of the world that we all know exists in some extent. SPOILERS AGAIN YO There is a scene about half way through the game, in which the two leads are captured, along with Lynch's wife. They are tortured, graphically, and Lynch's wife is killed (it is also implied that she is raped). This is horrific and honestly fairly hard to watch, and for a short period thereafter Kane and Lynch are forced to run through the city naked, covered in truly horrific looking cuts, in search of clothing. And that brings me to my next point, the art direction.
Kane & Lynch 2 is awesome to look at, the graphics themselves are competent, but the real draw is the presentation. Everything is tailored such that it looks like you are viewing from the perspective of a documentary crew running around with cell phone cameras trying to capture the life of these two psychopaths. The screen is covered in mpeg compression artifacts, lights cause dramatic flare on the screen, and the more brutal moments of violence are concealed by on screen pixelation. An especially cool moment comes at a point early in the campaign when you blow up several propane tanks, the force of the blast and volume of the detonation cause the entire screen and all audio to distort to the point that you have no idea what's happening for a few moments. These small touches are really pretty awesome when you're playing the game. When you're watching someone else play it all seems kind of disorienting, especially the shaky cam that accompanies sprinting, but when you're in control of it yourself it feels much less like watching a drunken cameraman sprint through a hurricane, and more like you're just directly involved with the action on screen.
As far as gameplay goes it's a fairly standard 3rd person cover shooter. You move from cover to cover shooting your enemies when they make the mistake of sticking their heads out. It can be very difficult at times, as you have just about the same amount of health as your enemies on normal difficulty. I had a few moments where I made the mistake of running around a corner without looking, and my head would very abruptly go from normal to pixels as someone took a shotgun to it. It's typically not too frustrating though, as the checkpoint system is fairly solid and rarely sets you back more than a room or two upon death.
In final I think anyone who is looking for a dramatically more mature take on crime thrillers, and video games in general, there is really no reason not to pick this game up next time you find a used copy or it goes on sale, it's worth mentioning that the average gamer will finish the solo campaign within 4-6 hours. But I've already started replaying it and it does have the standard multiplayer modes with a few others added in, one of which places a double agent in the midst of the criminal team, whose job is to kill all of his team mates before they find out who is doing it. I haven't played the multiplayer, but it sounds like a really cool concept that I'd like to try out. All in all I'd give it an 8 out of 10, but those 2 points are deducted solely because of the relative brevity of the game. But to be fair, in comparison with the average 3 hour campaign of your standard call of duty game, I can't see why so many people are complaining about it being short.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is property of IO interactive, Eidos and Square Enix.
All else is ©Alex Jenkins 2011
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