Why Kane & Lynch Deserves A Sequel

21 Jan 2010 at 00:00:00 by Andy Alderson

Following the reaction to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men in 2007, not many people in the gaming industry expected a sequel. If ever there was a bad start to a franchise, it was Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Partly due to its own downfalls and partly due to a supposed publishing  conspiracy to influence review scores, Dead Men was dwarfed by the controversy surrounding it.  The game was undoubtedly flawed, as the developer itself admitted, with clumsy, imprecise aiming, a shonky cover system and a co-op-focused game that, unfortunately, did not allow for online co-op. However, when the news emerged that a sequel was indeed in development, after an initial grump that it wasn’t Hitman 5, I was very glad to hear it. Why? Well, I’ve made you a list: 

• Characters– Lynch is one of the most interesting game characters in recent years. Now we know IO is fond of its anti-heroes – like the cold, amoral Codename 47 – but making one of your central characters a paranoid schizophrenic with a wilful disregard for absolutely everything takes some stones. In the games industry, all too often we see reluctant heroes or loveable rogues who, despite their superficial flaws, are decent enough people who will come good in the end. Lynch, however, is malevolent, fickle, opportunistic, brutally violent and darkly funny. IO made a good choice, focusing the sequel on Lynch as he’s clearly the more intriguing of the titular duo. Plus he’s not exactly a master criminal so you know the capers in Dog Days are more likely to end up like Reservoir Dogs than Ocean’s Eleven. 
  
  
• Dead Men had some great ideas –While there were plenty of negative aspects to Dead Men’s gameplay, there were also some interesting ideas at work. Lynch’s hallucinations are a prime example – it’s not often that a developer turns to paranoid schizophrenia for gameplay ideas and IO deserves a lot of credit for attempting to express Lynch’s fragile psyche to the player.  As Lynch’s volatile mind misfired, the player would be party to his visions, seeing civilians as cops and the occasional human with a pig’s head. It was a deft, stylish touch from IO that not only gave a greater insight to a character’s mind than you see in most games, it was wrapped in the same kind of twisted humour that gave the game a unique atmosphere.
  
  
• Visual style – IO is trying to something genuinely different with the appearance of Dog Days and it ought to be applauded. While many other games will strive for photorealism or bolt on a cartoony slant to the visuals, IO has opted for a style that nobody has tried in a game before: the YouTube video. This is the most contemporary form of visual presentation and, like the developer has expressed, it creates a new kind of aesthetic.  “It really captures this feeling of credibility,” said IO’s Carsten Lund.  “I think that if you want to make something credible, it's not enough to turn up the texture resolution” It taps in to the notion of – and I hate to use this word – immersion. It feels like you’re seeing something you shouldn’t be. It feels candid and dangerous, almost too close to the action.
  
  
• Multiplayer – Dead Men’s Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode, like the game in general, had some great ideas that were a little hampered by the clunky shooting mechanics. In Fragile Alliance players had to rob a bank co-operatively, taking on the police in an attempt to escape with the loot. Except, this being a game about career criminals, it allowed you to stick the knife into your teammates and escape with all the loot (and their weapons). And if you were the type of morally bankrupt opportunistic scum who robs his own teammates (I was) you’d find yourself watching your back as they respawned as cops. In a world where way too many multiplayer games follow the same rules, with the same game modes, it’s refreshing to see a developer trying to do something new and it seems Fragile Alliance will be returning in Dog Days.
  
  
• IO is a first class developer – IO is the kind of developer that pushes its franchises forward. Never content to release cosmetic updates masquerading as sequels, it tweaks and experiments until it has something new and, crucially, better than its predecessor. The Hitman series is a prime example of this, having evolved beautifully from its 2000 debut into what is arguably one of the most innovative, creative and accomplished titles of this generation in Hitman: Blood Money. Which also has one of the best game endings we’ve seen. If IO stays true to form, then we can be certain that Dog Days will be a huge improvement over Dead Men. Oh and Freedom Fighters was fantastic too.

IncGamers recently got a chance to speak to IO's Carsten Lund and Hakan Abrak about the upcoming sequel, find out more here.

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