System Played: Xbox 360
Year Released: 2010
Year Reviewed: 2012
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is the sequel nobody asked for to 2007’s universally panned, Dead Men.
Dog Days takes place a few years after the events of the first game, with the characters having parted on less than great terms. Lynch has since ‘settled down’ in Shanghai, where he’s a heavy for some local crime guy, which is where this one takes place.
Kane arrives at the outset, to begrudgingly do a bit of arms smuggling, looking to make some money for his estranged daughter (who apparently did survive the last game). But wouldn’t you know it; things immediately go tits up …and you end up starting a gang war by accidentally killing the daughter of a big-time crime boss.
You’re thrown in at the deep end and the game is just one constant shootout from there on in.
This time you play as Lynch, with Kane only getting a look in right at the end. I get that the developer might have wanted to tell the other guy’s story this time around, but personally, I’m not sure this was the right choice. Part of the fun of the first game was having sensible Kane work his arse off to try and sort shit out, only to have the psychopath Lynch completely and consistently fuck things up! “Now Lynch, don’t press this big red button or something bad will happen, ok?” Playing as Lynch this time takes away some of his magic, and as a partner, Kane does nothing interesting, just complains a lot.
The game is still a third person shooter like the last one, but the first thing you’ll likely notice is how shit everything looks. For God knows what reason, the game tries to create the low-res, grainy video quality of a decade old mobile phone …and it just makes you feel motion sick to watch it.
Luckily you can turn off the shaky cam in the Options, and it should be the first thing you do. This at least makes the game playable, but not any nicer to look at. And, it doesn’t even make much sense! It’s not like there’s a third character following them round with a camera…
The art style is all washed out, often near black & white (which can make it difficult to see enemies) and the lighting still hurts to look at… it just doesn’t work well.
On the plus side, the controls feel very tight, even if Lynch is a bullet sponge. Regenerating health is back, but the partner revival mechanism from the first game has been removed, further streamlining things. I kinda liked that in Dead Men, but it does mean you can spend more time just constantly shooting people.
Despite the controls being pretty spot on, you’ll still die a lot but checkpoints are frequent, and your AI can’t die at all, so that’s one less thing to think about.
…in fact the whole game takes a very minimal approach to just about every aspect.
There isn’t even an ending to speak of !SPOILER ALERT! …they just get on a plane, and the credits roll
The story was a bit of a sore spot in the first game, which again, they’ve bypassed this time by just not even attempting to tell one! In fact the whole game is streamlined to the point where literally all you do is shoot people, one after the next. And yet for all the cutting back, and its meagre runtime of ‘a couple of hours’, I actually quite enjoyed playing it.
These days, I tend to get bored if a game lasts more than 8 hours, and storytelling in games is usually so bad anyway, that not even attempting to tell one saves everyone the embarrassment.
Nobody liked the first game, but I didn’t think it was too bad. Even fewer people liked Dog Days, but despite some awful art decisions, I found there to be something of merit here. It’s just not something that’s easy to define.
Chances of another Kane & Lynch game are probably slim at this point, but I’d like to see another.
6/10
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