Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days

Our Hands-On Impressions

by GrathiusXR & Belgavion

© 2010 Arthur Kotsopoulos & Gav Ross

With the retail release of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days just around the corner (August 26 brought forward to 17th), an exclusive demo was released onto Xbox Live Marketplace last week to be downloaded by a lucky few gaming journalists and fans.

OXCGN’s GrathiusXR and Belgavion spent several hours engaged in the game, both in single player and co-op mode, and have sat down to discuss their thoughts on the demo and whether this sequel is looking to be an improvement on the original.

Belgavion: I never delved too deep into Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. I was intrigued by the dynamic between the characters and the intensity of the story, but the gameplay side didn’t live up to expectations.

GrathiusXR: Neither did I to be honest. Coming off of four Hitman games, Dead Men was something I wasn’t expecting from the developers. Maybe it was the constant profanity, maybe it was the wonky aiming, but something stopped me playing about a third of the way through the campaign. I can’t say I was expecting a sequel.

It looked like a good buddy co-op game but having seen how it ran on the PS3 I was less than impressed. As you say – very wonky aiming, less than stellar graphics and profanity left right was what put me off from purchasing the game.

Come review time it wasn’t any different; it didn’t receive the praise that most other games were getting so to my surprise when a sequel was announced I was confused.

Belgavion: Right from the beginning I found myself thinking that I’d downloaded the wrong demo when ‘Square Enix’ was displayed on the screen; a weird moment.

Going straight into the single-player portion of things first, we get a moody intro scene and find ourselves having a late dinner at a restaurant in Shanghai. Not the most original opening location, but it set the mood nicely….

GrathiusXR: The setting is interesting and different; I don’t think I’ve played a game before set in Shanghai like this although I can’t say the same about the whole way the game plays.

The mood is set nicely with the intro scene but that doesn’t hide how weird the gameplay in Dog Days is. There’s this weird film grain effect much like Mass Effect that’s coupled with the neon lights of the Shanghai streets you can’t turn it off.

The wonky aiming and movement is back and gets extremely annoying after a while of play. And profanity probably gets thrown around more than Pokéballs in Pokémon…

Belgavion: Yes, I can understand the use of the grain effect to make the action feel more film-like, but it’s fairly off-putting and almost nausea-inducing, especially if you hold down the run button too long and move around to different covers.

We’re meant to be given the feeling that someone is filming with a hand-held camera over the characters’ shoulder. I agree that some of the lighting effects are strange: headlights from parked cars outside have this vertical banding effect so that they shine a bright line down the whole screen. And neon shop signs are almost as bad.

I’m not sure whether I needed to play with the brightness and gamma options, but I found it difficult seeing many of the enemy cops once leaving the restaurant and hitting the back alleys and streets of Shanghai.

Usually I’d have to wait until I saw a shot fired to figure out where a few were. I think that the core aiming has improved slightly, but the awkward movement offsets everything.

Pressing a button and pushing the left stick from one area of cover to the next often saw my character moving about halfway and then stopping, and I had to manually get to cover from there.

That could have been me not reading the controls properly, but it happened often enough to feel like a problem.

GrathiusXR: I feel your pain. Whilst the aiming does somewhat feel like it has improved, the rest of the gameplay just feels lazy.

The cover mechanic that you speak of happened to me as well in that no matter how many times I’d press on the left thumbstick and A for Lynch to run to the next cover he stops half way – which then results in me copping some bullets, falling to the floor and having to wait until my health has recovered.

It gets frustrating and coupled with that nausea-inducing hand-held shaky, camera effect I tried to avoid sprinting as much as I could.

I don’t understand why this was the direction they went with, I mean, everyone I know who went and watched Cloverfield hated the movie not only for its storyline but for the fact half of them felt sick watching it because of the way the film was shot.

It’s the same case with Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

Belgavion: For a demo that was 1.6GB in size I was expecting a longer single-player section. I think I rushed through it in about 20-25 minutes. Did you happen to run through the DVD store where every title on the shelf was either Hitman or Mini Ninjas? This was an amusing touch…

GrathiusXR: Whilst the demo does stand at 1.6GB in size it does offer a variety of game modes to give you a feel of what the game will include.

My main gripe with this demo though is the fact it’s a heavily induced co-op title, with a lot of emphasis on team work, so why in this can you not play the single player level in co-op over Xbox Live or Local? There’re multiplayer team modes but no co-op for single player. I just don’t understand.

Belgavion: It is mind-boggling that an ‘exclusive’ demo like this – which is aimed at a lot of the gaming press – was released without co-op enabled. I’d like to know if there’s an explanation from IO Interactive or Eidos regarding this. Perhaps it was just a time constraint thing.

GrathiusXR: It is and I’m pretty disappointed that co-op wasn’t enabled but we can’t do much other than play the single player level on our own and wonder what co-op would be like until the games release.

Belgavion: Anyhow, onto the multiplayer: ‘Fragile Alliance’ mode is the same as it was in the first game and it’s still an innovative, unique take on a multiplayer shooter. That doesn’t mean it has staying power though.

Even though I probably played more of the multi than single player in Dead Men, I wouldn’t have sunk more than 4-5 hours total into it. It’s the sort of thing that’s nifty at first but soon loses its intrigue. Out of the other two modes – ‘Undercover Cop’ and ‘Cops & Robbers’ – I found the latter to be more enjoyable.

It’s the closest you’ll get to a classic Team Deathmatch scenario and the lobby I played in was almost full. Basically, one team (crims) are trying to make a getaway with loot and it’s up to the other team (cops) to take them down and secure the cash for themselves.

For the retail build this would most likely be the mode I’d spend the majority of time with. But there’s still not a great amount of longevity in this one either.

GrathiusXR: Multiplayer-wise I must say it is enjoyable. The adrenaline rush of ‘Cops & Robbers’ when you’re collecting the cash from dead bodies you just slaughtered then trying to reach the Escape Vehicle with SWAT all over the place is a great feeling.

Knowing that anyone of your team members can at any moment just use you as a human shield or kill you and take your money if they’re greedy enough is awesome.

But, as you say, there isn’t a great amount of length in these modes; there’s no ranking up no awards or medals just the ability to buy a new weapon.

Belgavion: True. Even some small incentives during multiplayer could have helped. As it currently stands, I think I’d be done with Dog Days less than a week after purchase…..

GrathiusXR: It’s like that new toy you get for your birthday when you’re young for the first week or so you play the crap out of it, then after that week passes you grow over it and the excitement of when you first got it just isn’t there anymore.

With many other more multiplayer focused games that offer more than just the ability to buy weapons Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days does feel like that game you buy at EB finish single player on your own or co-op, play some multiplayer then return within 7 days for something else that’s last longer.

With games such as Halo: Reach, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty: Black Ops all coming out this year, as well as other multiplayer games, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will struggle.

© 2010 Arthur Kotsopoulos & Gav Ross

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