Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days – Updated Impressions
Hit reset on your expectations.
Australia, February 24, 2010 - My first instinct was to check and see if this was the same Kane and Lynch of 'Dead Men' infamy – from the same team, running on the same hardware. The leap in quality difference is as stark as comparing 'The Dark Knight' with 'Batman & Robin'. The presentational jolt was that severe. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days takes a running leap from the smouldering corpse of the first game, presenting gamers with a setting so lovingly crafted that it begs to be examined, not just blown to bits.
That's a big ask when the action is as frantic and debris-hewn as it is in Dog Days. To be certain, this is one of the most atmospheric and intense shooters of 2010 – admittedly a big call this early into the year, but one that we're confident enough in making.
Bucking the style and gameplay of the first game, Kane & Lynch 2 is all but unrecognisable next to its forbearer. Taking place over the period of 48 hours, the action now follows psychotic anti-hero Lynch, now the central playable character. He's taken to the streets of Shanghai as part of a new crime outfit; the hope, like all crims, being to set themselves up with the heist of a lifetime – and one that drags a wayward Kane back into the underworld situation.
The first thing that struck us, as you might have alluded (we're subtle, right?) is that, when Io Interactive said that realism is the key objective' for Dog Days, it wasn't kidding. There's a true viscerality (no, that's not a word – but it is now) to the presentation. Taking cues from the YouTube generation, Kane & Lynch 2 apes a hand-held video style, as if there's an anonymous cameraman following Lynch's every roll, dash and gunshot through the grimy alleyways and buildings of inner-city Shanghai.
[ign]14208748&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article/105/1055093/kaneandlynch2_trl_US_121409_flvlowwide.flv[/ign]
Sound distortion from an overloaded microphone crackles and warps as shots ring out; there's a palpable sense of urgency and realism missing from games like Gears of War or Army of Two: 40th Day that Dog Days utterly nails. Pixilation and grain associated with mini-DV cameras, and the juddering and unfocussed and occasionally tilted angles and effects, all contribute to the feeling of being a willing participant and witness to some slice of real-world thuggery. It's arresting stuff, so-to-speak.
Environmental interactivity has clearly been a priority at Io. Breaking through a restaurant, sending patrons in all directions, Lynch pushed on into the kitchen, opening fire and tearing the place apart. Individual tiles were ripped from the walls, everything exploded, bounced, collided and ricocheted, filling the scene with debris and visibly warping the miniDV camera's viewpoint. Later, after ambling through a pedestrian-filled street, all glare and colour and grit, Lynch bashed his way through a music store, popping CDs off shelves as machine gun fire rips the place apart.
The camera perspective is closer to Lynch too, in line with more recent third-person shooters. The effect is immediately more intimate and claustrophobic, adding yet another layer of tension and affect. Combined with terrific texture work, a washed out 'video-like' colour palate, lots of bloom and beam lighting and a robust physics engine that makes the environment feel organic and alive, and the result is utterly absorbing.
The very clever presentation extends to the story integration, too. As in the original game, the story doesn't pull its' punches; the action is intense, the violence gory and the dialogue would make a drunken sailor double-take. We love it, in other words. Where the strength of the first game arguably rested with its characters over the gameplay, this time the 48-hour gameplay period marries the action with the storytelling process. There are no breakaway cutscenes from what we understand – just continuous storytelling; Kane shouts at Lynch, Lynch shouts back and the plot progresses. Every character interacts in the heat of the moment, never breaking you out of the scene.
The heads-up display is fuss-free; your damage is indicated almost solely through a combination of body language and camera effects. The more fire you take, the more pixellated and warped the image becomes. As such, it actually begins to affect your own accuracy, adding to the sense of chaos and panic. Very effective.
Sure, it looks good in screenshots, but it's nothing compared with seeing this game in motion. Trust us.
Of course, the gameplay is the major issue we held against the first game, and thankfully it appears that Io has addressed the gamut of problems. For starters, this is very much a streamlined experience from a structural perspective. You're not going to have to deal with squad mechanics or anything similar; just point, shoot, duck, roll and survive long enough to enjoy the story.
To keep the pace going, death is less of an issue, thanks to the 'down-not-dead' concept. If you've been incapacitated by heavy rounds, you can still stay alive and crack off a few rounds with your handgun until Kane makes it over to revive you. Hence, 'down' not 'dead'.
You're not going to be a walking weapons cache, either. You can only carry primary and secondary weapons – a shotgun and a machine gun, one in hand, one slung over Lynch's back. That keeps the need to think about strategy and environmental layout nice and high.
The cover system and controls have been completely reworked too. It's not going much farther than the industry standard at this stage, but Lynch contextually adjusts to cling to walls, crouch behind all kinds of cover and can dive around as necessary. Handy, if not groundbreaking.
Co-operative play has been a major focus for the studio, this time allowing for (yay!) two-player split-screen as well as full online co-op and multiplayer. That's a great decision, particularly off the back of the setting and potential for strategy that it holds. In the single-player experience, we also saw moments of co-operative action involving Kane helping Lynch up to a higher point. We're guessing that's just the bare-bones start of the contextual 'buddy moments'.
Still tracking for a mid-2010 release, we're clearly pumped like a 12-gauge for more time with Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. We still have yet to see the new additions to the multiplayer modes, or even how the parts we saw factor into the rest of the 48 hours. With that said, we think you're going to be impressed with the 180 degree turn this franchise has taken.
|