Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days First Look

by Erik Brudvig - IGN.com | 13 January 2010 12:00
 
Taking the sequel in a gritty new direction.
 
The original Kane & Lynch didn't quite set the critical world on fire. It had some control issues and could have used a bit more polish to truly shine, but it did introduce a pair of intriguing and ugly characters as well as a unique multiplayer mode. The team at Io Interactive could have simply smoothed out the rough edges, pound out a new story and called it a day. In the world of videogames, taking that route is almost expected.
 
For Kane & Lynch 2, you should expect the unexpected.
 
The story picks up many moons after the first game ended. That story, you may recall, ended with the player making a certain life or death choice. Dog Days picks one as canon and continues on from there, rather than branching out. The main character this time is the psychotic Lynch, the schizophrenic that played back-up and color commentary to Kane's central role in the last game. He's found his way to Shanghai, where he calls in Kane for one last big score. He calls it a done deal, with no hiccups expected, and so Kane joins up to make some cash to support his daughter.
 

Lynch takes center stage this time.

Of course, Lynch is crazy. His well laid plans quickly go south and you'll find the duo embroiled in quite a bit of good old-fashioned third-person shooting. But before you ever get to the game itself, another aspect of Kane & Lynch 2 is sure to catch your eye. The visual style has seen a complete overhaul, drawing from low-quality amateur YouTube videos as inspiration.
 
How exactly does that work? Glad you asked. The camera follows close behind the action, shaking upon impact. Visual artifacts are present everywhere. Though the game runs in HD, a treatment has been applied to make it look like a streaming video. When you get shot, it looks like bits of digital information are lost and the screen becomes pixelated. The bright lights will oversaturate the "camera," causing light to bleed across pixels. You'll even get a little "buffering" screen to take the place of the initial level load.
 

The visual treatment is striking.

The goal is to make it seem like this is a video being directed by the player, recorded on a small handheld digital camera. You'll stay with Kane and Lynch for the entirety of the roughly 48 hour time period that the game takes place, tracking the duo from fight to conversation and back to fights as it all unravels.
 
It's a great direction to take for the sequel for two reasons. The first is that it gives Kane & Lynch 2 a look all its own. Its uniqueness creates an instant allure. While other games strive for crisp and clean visuals, sometimes aiming for photorealism, this one revels in its rough look. It also covers up some of the textures that don't look so hot. The first Kane & Lynch game looked OK, but wasn't exactly a visual stunner. Without the visual tricks that make the sequel unique, the sequel would look roughly the same.
 
Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to pick up a controller and play. Had I, some co-operative action would have been in order. Like the original, this sequel can be played co-operatively in its entirety. This time, however, it can be played either offline with a splitscreen or online.
 
The combat looks roughly the same with a heavy focus on gunplay. The controls have been reworked, I'm told, with a special focus put on making sure the cover system really works this time. For those out of the loop, the cover mechanics in the first game didn't perform so well.
 
I got a look at two levels of Kane & Lynch 2. The first area I saw was a run through a sweatshop. It provided plenty of walls to hide behind, but those walls were generally thin wood that splintered and shattered under the rain of gunfire. When the cover didn't hold, I got a look at the new "down but not out" mechanic. If you get knocked back by a stream of bullets, you'll have the chance to crawl towards safety. Or you could get up where you are for one last blaze of glory, but you probably won't make it very far with that technique.
 

Crawl to safety, or go down in a blaze of glory.

The next stage took to the streets in a fight against the police. The combat was pretty straightforward here, though the action was crazy enough and there were enough civilians running around to make the scene quite chaotic. The best moment came when the player shot up a store and managed to ignite some sort of explosive. A massive blast ripped into the streets and out of the smoke came stumbling a stunned guard, holding his head with a look of disbelief on his face.
 
I didn't get a look at it, but I was told the well-received Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode will be back. In the original, this unique game type was a game of cops and robbers with a twist -- killing your fellow crooks and betraying them would increase your take of the haul at the end. The drawback was that those people would then respawn as cops tasked with stopping you. The more people you betray, the tougher it became to make it out alive. But oh the rewards if you did. We'll have to wait and see what Io has in store for the sequel.
 

Welcome to Shanghai.

In fact, we'll have to wait for a lot with Kane & Lynch 2 before we can draw any valid conclusions. I'm a fan of the new direction taken with the visuals, but simply telling me that the game mechanics have improved isn't quite enough for me. I didn't get a chance to play Kane & Lynch 2, so the jury is still out on whether the most wanting parts of the first game were indeed made better.
 
Stay tuned for more impressions once I do get a chance to play a level or two. Kane & Lynch 2 is coming to Xbox 360, PS3, and PC later this year.
 
Supplied by IGN.com