Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Single Player Review

17 Aug 2010 at 14:00:57 by James Chalmers
Systems used to review this title: (360)

This has definitely got me stumped. I’ve just finished my second play-through of the single player story of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days and I’m still torn on what score to give it. Part of me wants to like this so much, it really does, but like my fears mentioned in the preview a few weeks ago I’m left rather dissatisfied with the game.

The game puts you in the role of self-medicated psycho, Lynch, after bringing Kane over to Shanghai, China for a business deal, things soon go down-hill from there. After chasing a contact through a busy block of flats and then across the rooftops and streets of Shanghai, Kane accidently shoots the contact’s female companion.

Little do you know this isn’t any old female but rather the daughter of “crooked businessman,” (read mobster), Shangsi. The troublesome twosome must now fight a huge array of hired guns ranging from the basic local gangs all the way through to the Shanghai police and also the country’s army, just proof that knowing the right contacts can buy you anything.

As you can imagine the different types of men come with an impressive arsenal of weaponry and armour making the game evolve in difficulty as the action deepens. Thankfully, my worry about being a one man wrecking crew in the preview has been laid to rest with health presenting a much more realistic affair, taking a couple of shots will splatter the screen with blood and if you’re still adamant on mowing forward a couple more shots will put you on the floor. From there you can crawl to safety, fire from the spot, or pick yourself back up on the spot, but believe me the latter option will soon see yourself face down as you bleed to death.

For this game using cover to your advantage is pivotal to succeed and thankfully IO Interactive has created a near flawless cover system. Sometimes Kane will try to take cover in exactly the same spot but give it a couple of seconds and then he will move to the next available piece of cover, then again he shouldn’t worry about incoming fire as he can’t die in-game.

While a lot of the firefights will be aimed at you and your opponents expect the odd stray bullet to spray around the environment and destroy the inanimate objects on each level. One of the later levels sees you in a skyscraper searching for Shangsi and if you shoot out the windows you will see the blinds fluttering in the air due to the wind. Touches like this are a nice addition and really give you the impression of the devastation of a close-ranged gun fight.

There are six types of weapons to wreak havoc with, including bog standard pistols, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, light machine-guns and my personal favourite the semi-automatic shotgun. For each category there is normally two variations of weapons and the accuracy, fire rate and magazine size can vary for each model. S.W.A.T members carry silenced weapons while Shanghai police can vary from carrying stubbed-nosed revolvers to assault rifles

However, despite being able to carry any two weapons at a set time, each level predetermines and makes you feel obliged to use a certain selection. Picking up ammo for a selected weapon is as simple as walking up to downed enemy and then pressing the X button to regain a proportionate amount of ammo for the said weapon.

As I detailed in the preview, the white Xs mark where you have hit an opponent and it's a positive feature for me. Knowing where I’m hitting a enemy and then seeing the resulting animation is extremely satisfying and nothing ever beats firing off a round from my shotgun and then seeing a close range splatter of Xs across the body before it slumps to the ground.

It’s not always that free-flowing though as I encountered a few glitches along the way. Clipping issues for some bodies seem to arise resulting in people falling halfway into the wall. Other niggling issues I saw throughout the story mode included a policeman standing in the same position motionless until I walked up and then executed via his head. Hey I’m a man on a mission I’m not going to leave anyone standing.

NPCs can also stand in the middle of a full blown firefight, this truly showcases the highs and lows of Kane & Lynch 2, while most members of the public will run for their lives creating a real sense of panic and ramping up the tension in the opening moments of a stand-off it can all be ruined by one person standing in the middle seemingly unaware of what is about to kick off.

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