Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

"Doesn't quite live up to it's potential."

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men is a fairly unique take on the FPS game for the PS3. Fairly short, it focuses on the story of these unlikely partners while letting you shoot your way to a resolution. Here's what I think about Kane and Lynch:

Story: 6.5/10

When I first heard about the game, I was very interested in the story. Kane is a professional assassin, a former member of the seven (which is apparently a group of powerful assassins and leaders). He is on death row after a botched mission where he ended up with millions of dollars for his group. The surviving members of the seven believe Kane betrayed them and stole the money for himself. Lynch is a medicated psychopath, also on death row for the suspected murder of his wife. He claims to black out, during which times he often commits heinous acts.

The story starts with the seven "rescuing" Kane from his prison transport in a well-rehearsed break-out. Of course, they are only rescuing him so they can retrieve their money, using Kane's wife and daughter as leverage and making Lynch go with him as a watchdog (they are promising Lynch Kain's place in the seven once they are paid and kill Kain).

As you can see, it's a very interesting match up of characters and ideas, but following through is another story altogether. The game mainly focuses on Kain and his predicament, often leaving Lynch's story behind. Also, the background behind Kane and Lynch is pretty lacking and disappointing. The game, while pretty short, does span several chapters and gives you two different endings to choose from. One is utter crap and wraps up nothing while the other one wraps up a few more details but still leaves Kane and Lynch's future blurry. The only thing the story really does well is wrap up the seven's dealings with Kane, yet I know it could be so much better if it tried. As far as Lynch goes, his psychopathic problems are never explored at all, and his background only has one detail: that of his wife. You get to see some cool "after" effects of his problem (which makes things interesting) but that's about it.

Gameplay: 7.5/10

I'll probably always enjoy any decent shooter, and Kane and Lynch is no exception. The controls are decent, allowing you to shoot while either aiming or not and move in a crouched position. The hit detection isn't as good as it could be (I've played a lot of shooters recently, and Kane and Lynch's hit detection IS somewhat lacking compared to all of them). It was also disappointing that you can only carry two weapons at any given time, as well as grenades (no carrying around any beloved weapons). Cover is important, of course, as you can fire from behind cover in an un-aimed or aimed mode. There is no health bar, instead you can withstand a certain number of shots until the screen starts tilting and turning red, letting you know that you need to find cover fast. There is also a melee attack for when you are too close to an enemy.

Being designed as a two-player game, sometimes Kane and Lynch will have to split up to complete a mission, but there are times when you have more help than just Kane and Lynch. These teammates are actually impressively smart, but do show their AI weakness from time to time. You can also order them to advance or stay in certain areas, as well as retrieve ammo from them when you are running low (they'll even give you ammo for a gun that they don't have, which is suspicious..). If one of them die (or even if you happen to die) you can give them a shot of adrenaline to revive them. Overall I liked how well-thought out the missions were (fairly entertaining) but the shoddy hit-detection and lack of weapon functionality and usefulness bring the score down a bit.

Graphics: 8.5/10

The graphics in Kane and Lynch look pretty good, I was pretty impressed with how big the maps were compared to how short the loading times are. Things look good, too. I loved Kane and Lynch's character designs. The environments are very varied and well-designed, especially in the South American and bank levels. The little cut scene's are fairly good, though sometimes the lighting in them could use more work (it makes things look too weird). I didn't like how bullet wounds stayed on the characters, though, as nothing looks uglier than seeing a gaping hole in Lynch's bald spot as he's clearly talking fine in the pursuing cut scene.

Music / Sound Effects: 7/10

I'll be honest: I barely even noticed any music in the game, which really isn't that bad as it probably didn't really contribute to the experience too much (I suspect it was mainly mood pieces anyways). The cut scenes had some very dramatic tones to them, as a lot of the "non-shooting" action happens during the cut scenes. But the game is mainly comprised of the sound-effects of battle: gun's blazing and the sound of people dying.

And than there is the voice acting. I absolutely LOVED Lynch's voice actor. He was great and fit his character perfectly. Kane's... not so much. His actor sounded a bit too sane and even-headed, while I thought Kane needed to sound a bit darker and angrier. The other voice actors were ok, but were mostly forgettable.

Re-playability: 7/10

Kane and Lynch's chapter progression lets you start off in any chapter you've unlocked, playing solo or co-op, and in one of three difficulties (cleverly named after medications). There is also the two different endings, one of which adds an extra chapter to the game, and that's pretty much it for Kane and Lynch.

Overall: 7/10

Overall, if Kane and Lynch were a brand new game, I couldn't recommend it, but since it is a budget title now I would recommend it as cheap fun for fans of the genre. There's enough gaps in Kane and Lynch for another game, easy, but I'm somewhat doubtful that that will ever come to pass. Have fun and keep playing!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (US, 11/13/07)