It’s pretty obvious the aspirations that Eidos Interactive would have for their
latest action game, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. In the capable hands of Io
Interactive, the team behind the successful Hitman franchise, it would seem that
only good could come from the game. Before it had even been released, it was
announced that a sequel was already in the works and the rights to a movie
version had been picked up by Lions Gate Films, so it would seem that Eidos has
big plans for the future of Kane & Lynch.
Unfortunately, things aren’t looking too rosy for Kane & Lynch’s present. The
anticipated title has finally released, but due to either time constraints or
some other factors, the end product feels like an incomplete and unpolished
mess. The story elements are pretty contrived, and the gameplay is terrible,
from the lousy controls to the boneheaded AI. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men feels like
a forced and unpolished experience, and one that’s not likely to be worth your
time.
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men follows the two main characters as they are busted out of
prison by a mercenary gang known as The7. The7 need Kane to retrieve a package
for them that they believe that he had originally stolen from them. Considering
his betrayal, they tell him that after he gets back their money, that he’ll be
killed anyway but his family will be spared (hence the tagline “Dead Men” in the
title). Lynch on the other hand is a psychotic maladjusted loose cannon with a
penchant for exacerbating any situation he comes in contact with. Kane is forced
to work with Lynch, hence their “Odd Couple” pairing throughout the game.
The story doesn’t really develop itself very well, as certain plot elements are
left dangling in the wind and brushed aside throughout, and the overall
structure is pretty confusing. It would seem that the writers were more
concerned with how many F-Bombs they could fit in than any semblance of plot
organization. Even considering Kane’s delicate situation, it’s hard to rally
behind him when every other thing to come out of his mouth is “I don’t give a
f*** about anyone else, I only care about my daughter,” which gets old very
quickly. And don’t get me started on Lynch, easily one of the most unlikable
jerks ever to be a titular protagonist in a game.
On the plus side, the way the story elements do unfold are handled fairly well.
Kane & Lynch will banter with each other throughout the course of the game, and
several key plot elements are revealed in the midst of the action as opposed
through a tacked on cut scene, which actually was a nice touch.
However, once you get into the game itself, you begin to run into more problems.
The game is a “stop and pop” style of action shooter, like Gears of War or
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Unfortunately, the game’s cover system (the main
element in any “stop and pop” shooter) is broken. Kane will seem to pop in and
out of cover only when he wants to, and sometimes you try to get him behind
cover to no avail. Also, it’s still quite possible to get shot and killed while
behind cover, which can be extremely frustrating.
Another element that is extremely frustrating is the AI. Everyone, teammate and
enemy alike, is horribly stupid. Your teammates have no means of thinking for
themselves, and will constantly run out into the middle of harm’s way for no
good reason, requiring you to go in and save his ass. Enemies will constantly do
the same insipid actions, like run to the same stationary gun when someone has
just been shot out of it, stand around in place when somebody is sniping them,
or do the classic “run at you full speed while shooting at you.” Another sign of
lazy AI programming comes from their aim, which is impeccable. While Kane can’t
hit the broad side of a barn (more on the lousy controls in a bit), the enemy AI
never misses, regardless of what ever close range SMG they happen to be holding
from a few hundred yards away.
Aside from the broken cover mechanic, the rest of Kane & Lynch’s control scheme
is pretty unresponsive. Kane will often just stand there after firing some
rounds, leaving him open to shoot downs, and he’ll arbitrarily reload his weapon
whenever he feels like it (even if the clip is nowhere near empty) regardless of
what may be going down. The aiming is the most unforgivable control faux pas, as
shots will seldom connect regardless of the closeness of the intended target.
Even grenades won’t blow up enemies well within the blast radius. Personally, I
find it hard to believe that a mercenary of Kane’s caliber would be so
lousy with guns.
Instead of having a health meter in your HUD, Kane & Lynch requires you to get
shots of adrenaline when your character falls. This is a novel idea, but in
practice it leaves a lot to be desired. While writhing around on the ground
waiting for one of your teammates to give you a shot, there’s a good chance that
you could die or overdose if you’ve already had a recent adrenaline boost.
However, exactly how recent is pretty ambiguous, and getting shot down and
waiting to get back up only to find that you’ve already had too much adrenaline
is a pain in the ass.
Graphically, Kane & Lynch really isn’t much to look at. While some of the facial
details on the main characters look decent, the rest of the game has a decidedly
last-gen look, with textures and environments that could’ve just as well come
from a mediocre original Xbox game. The framerates struggle to keep up, which
isn’t that surprising considering the general lack of polish.
The sound department fares quite a bit better than the rest of the game. The
Jesper Kyd score is pretty well done and serves to represent the theme and style
of the game, and the voice acting is also quite good, albeit brought down quite
a bit by some weakly written dialogue
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men can be completed in a few hours, and it features not one
but two of the most unsatisfying video game endings around, leaving to whole
short-lived experience as a bitter taste in your mouth.
As I mentioned earlier, Eidos wants to take the Kane & Lynch franchise places,
and they’ll have a fair amount of work cut out for them in the future
to reboot the series with a sequel that doesn’t have the myriad problems and
shortcomings of the original.
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Gameplay: 5.5
Uninspired shooting elements, horrible AI, poor controls and a host of bugs
basically line this one out.
Graphics: 6.0
Kane & Lynch has a decidedly last-generation look to it and chugs along at a
lousy framerate.
Sound: 7.5
A nice soundtrack and strong voice acting are mired by weak and repetitive
dialogue.
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 5.5
For a
story-driven game, Kane & Lynch’s plot is quite thin, and the script is boring
and doesn’t really give you anyone to root for.
Multiplayer: 8.0
One of
the game’s stronger suits, the Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode is actually
pretty engaging at times. Co-op is strictly offline.
Overall: 5.5
Kane &
Lynch is one of those games that really wants to be a big-selling franchise
starter, but falls way short of being a compelling action title, and an
especially glaring one considering the stiff competition this year. The game
could’ve benefited from several more months in development, but isn’t
recommended as it stands.
