Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

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.

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.