Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

"A Solid Shooter With Some Unfortunate Flaws"

I don't know if mercenaries and hitmen have to fill in application forms or go to interviews to get their unsavoury jobs, but if they do it would be a good idea to check the small print. I say this because in every story about a hired gun on the cusp of hanging up his holsters, the ageing killer is always called upon to perform one last job. It will come as no surprise to learn that Kane and Lynch continues this tradition.

Cliches aside, the story of this third-person shooter is actually rather intriguing for the simple reason that, although this well-matured plot is often wheeled out in other media it's a comparatively uncommon premise for a game, and it helps draw you into the experience and at least see it through to its conclusion despite the game's all-too-obvious flaws. Kane, a ruthless mercenary, is on his way to death row when he is busted out by agents of a crime syndicate known as The 7. It turns out that Kane betrayed these crime lords in the past, and now they want him to retrieve a vast sum of money for them. If Kane fails to comply, his estranged family will find themselves suffering from a revolver-induced headache (The 7 certainly know how to ensure workforce productivity). To make sure he toes the line, he is assigned Lynch, an unstable sociopath, as his minder, and the sorry tale begins, with you playing as Kane and ythe option for another player to join in as Lynch. So far, so unoriginal, you may think, but the characters eventually reveal a surprising amount of depth and complexity despite essentially being bloodthirsty grunts. You'll never be sure whether to root for them or hope they get a bullet in the head.

However, in getting this far, you'll notice a key problem with the game: the graphics. You'll have seen better-looking games on the PS2. The eponymous anti-heroes look appropriately battle-scarred and weathered, but they are the first and last example of high quality graphics in the game. The environments you move through are bland and appear to be made of cardboard, while the various cops, thugs and civilians you encounter, despite being competently modelled, suffer again from that lack of detail. Given the plain textures on the NPCs and their muddy, blurred faces, you could almost believe Kane and Lynch were fighting off an invasion of animated wooden dummies.

On the plus side, there are a number of missions that are likely to impress at first glance thanks to the prevalence of crowded environments. From nightclubs to banks to battlefields, this is a game that likes to throw around plenty of characters at once to create a sense of panic and confusion. Upon closer inspection it becomes apparent that the crowded areas recycle the same couple of character models over and over, but the game does, at least, distract you from this by arranging for hordes of gun-toting enemies to show up in short order. Battling among crowds is a truly cinematic experience, with civilians scattering in all directions and bodies dropping left and right (unsurprisingly, the amoral protagonists are never reprimanded for hitting civilians, and some stages can end up as bloodbaths).

While the game is underwhelming in terms of graphics, the audio side is of a very high standard. The voice actors all give fine performances and are obviously having fun with the roles, although your allies' tendency to respond to your orders with insults can get a bit wearing (that said, they always obey…maybe they should have incorporated a button that makes Kane taunt them for backing down). Weapons sound appropriately meaty and as for the rare bits of music...well, it's another fine piece of work from Jesper Kyd, whose score conveys the angst and violence of the characters better than any amount of curmudgeonly trash talk.

The main problem with this game is the fact that the core gameplay, though it provides a fun experience when mastered, can feel rather sloppy at first. When a title revolves around gun battles against overwhelming odds, it is vital that players are able to easily target and hit enemies, but with this one you initially feel as if the controls are as great a threat as the bad guys. All but a fraction of the guns are extremely inaccurate. Of course, nobody expects that a sub-machine gun should be able to take out a housefly at 1000 paces, but the over-exaggerated inaccuracy of the arsenal you get here is simply annoying. There's no other word for it. Try to fire more than three-round burst, and the weapon will ride upwards, sending shots flying over your target's head. Trying to shoot someone with a really rapid firing weapon is like trying to wrestle a frisky python into a sack as the gun leaps all over the place. The only way to compensate is to develop a play style based on rapid, twitchy taps of the trigger. An occasional but equally maddening problem is the fact that imperfect hit detection means having an enemy in your sights does not always guarantee a kill. Sometimes the quickest way to put down an enemy is to switch to your pistol (one of the game's precious accurate guns) and aim for the head.

Once mastered, however, the gunplay becomes genuinely thrilling. A few hits will drop you, so it becomes vital that you quickly take down the hordes of enemies sent to stop you. It's possible to forgive the game a multitude of sins when you're crouched behind a bullet-riddled piece of furniture, machine gun fire chewing up the room, while you wait for a window of opportunity to lean out and return fire. Unfortunately not all gamers will have the patience to become so involved in the game, a shame as when given the chance it can deliver unpretentious, solid gameplay.

When the enemy shoots back, you may want to take cover. Well, good luck with that, because rather than relying on a simple Gears of War-style button press to enter and exit cover, here you simply have to stand near a suitable area and you will “stick” to it – in theory. In practice, there's a chance that Kane will simply refuse to use it, or stick to it of his own accord at the most inopportune moment (for instance, while trying to reload). The upside of this is that it simple to negate the cover problems by standing behind obstacles and crouching manually when necessary. While in cover, it's possible to “blindfire” without revealing yourself to the enemy, but that poor hit detection conspires to ruin this. Try to fire from cover and there's a strong chance you'll hit whatever you're hiding behind, while the enemy returns fire with surprising accuracy.

However, pinpoint accuracy aside, some of the enemies tend to be pretty moronic. Many of them simply lean in and out of the same patch of cover, which is not really a problem – both sides dodging in and out of view, taking pot shots, is the stuff of movie firefights and it gets the job done were well enough. But, when the enemies bother to move from cover, they'll quite happily stand in full view or charge into the unknown while you wait round a corner to cut them down as they dash into your sights. Again, the sheer weight of lead flying your way tends to alleviate this problem to an extent.

Sure, some of the enemies are stupid. But stupid allies are even worse. And Kane could hardly have picked thicker squad members if he'd hired them from a temp agency specialising in lobotomised chimps. At least it's possible to negate this to an extent by letting a friend control Lynch (though the lack of online co-op is a severe omission), but this doesn't solve the problem of the squad you find yourself lumbered with as the game progresses. If any of these knuckleheads dies, the game's over, which is a shame because dying is what they do best. They tend to stand in dangerous areas and do little to find cover, and sometimes, if you end up wounded, they'll stand and fight rather than reviving you.

At least these problems don't hang around long enough to completely ruin the experience, because this game is very short – about 6 to 8 hours. Unfortunately, nearly all of the best missions – the various heists and getaways – are over in a flash. Later, the action is transplanted to an urban warzone. Unfortunately, these frustrating slogs through wide-open areas, being sniped at by unfairly accurate enemies who blend in with the muddy scenery, are some of the longest missions in the game!

This is a shame because when the missions are done well – for example, an assault on a fortified skyscraper or a messy prison breakout – it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and have a great time. In fact, in the earlier half of the game, there are some genuinely exciting and fast-paced missions in which it's possible to overlook the problems with graphics and control (once the appropriate time has been taken to get used to them, of course). Too bad that things eventually run out of steam as the problems stack up, with the lacklustre missions outweighing the highlights towards the end.

There is also a multiplayer mode which revolves around carrying out heists with the option of betraying your teammates. It's an intriguing and exciting mode, but of course the problems of the single player game must be taken onto account here as well. Nevertheless, it's an original idea that can deliver some truly tense moments as you wait for the inevitable betrayal. Credit is due to the developers for taking the time to create a genuinely unique multiplayer mode that can turn from cooperation to competition at a moment's notice.

Kane and Lynch is ultimately a mixed bag. It takes a well-told story and a number of promising ideas and unfortunately marries them to a not-quite-finished combat system, sub-par AI and ugly graphics, flaws that should have been relatively simple to correct. It's not a terrible game by any means, just a little disappointing. The problems are simply too numerous to brush aside. It would make an enjoyable rental, and shooter fans might eventually like to buy once the price drops, as they'll get the most out of trying to beat it on maximum difficulty and the multiplayer mode and appreciate the simple shooter at the game's heart. If it gets a sequel, here's hoping that the story of Kane and Lynch is given the polish it deserves.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/08

Game Release: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (EU, 11/23/07)