Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days [Review]

FULL REVIEW

IO Interactive takes us on another journey through the exploits of Kane & Lynch with their follow-up title, Dog Days. This time around, their misadventure takes them through the Chinese city of Shanghai where, before long, they once again find themselves at odds with some very violent and disturbed people.

A voyeur's tale

Ever since the game was first announced, IO Interactive had emphasized that the game’s art-style will strive to resemble user-generated content. To that effect, the game employs filters that distorts the game’s visuals and intentionally degrade its quality. The third-person camera’s placement gives the impression that someone is following the duo with a handheld camera. When it rains in the game, water droplets that accumulate on the ‘camera’ diffuse light to add an extra layer of grime to the game’s visuals. Also, there are instances in the game when the camera shakes violently and at times it lingers on seemingly inconsequential areas. The games interface and loading screen is similar to loading screens on video hosting websites. All in all, the developers have made a lot of effort to sucessfully achieve their visual direction for the game. 

Bloody hell

Kane and Lynch are in Shanghai for a job that is easy money. In the first few minutes of the game, the duo is engaged in a gun-fight through the narrow alleys of Shanghai. Out of the dozens of dead bodies that the two leave behind, one of them turns out to be someone significant. The gangster, whose daughter is killed in the gun-fight, sends an entire army to kill Kane & Lynch. If that wasn’t bad enough, other gangsters, the Chinese police and what appears to be the militia, are all set loose to kill two people. Meanwhile, Kane and Lynch in their evening wear and armed with a couple of guns take on the full wrath of the Shanghai’s underworld. 

As you can imagine, this makes for a very violent and bloody affair in which one easily looses track of the body-count. The game is filled with an endless stream of gun-battles that are linked together by equally brutal cut-scenes. The relentless violence and the game’s gritty art-style combine to give a constantly lingering feeling of sick— I guess this is something that the developer’s were intentionally going for. 

What starts off as a pursuit of wealth; quickly turns into a quest for vengeance and ultimately ends up being a desperate attempt to survive and escape. However, any attempt at telling a story is inconsequential as the game is largely a point and shoot affair. 

Cover fire

The game’s combat system appears to be a less than satisfactory adaptation of the system introduced by Army of Two. Unlike Army of Two however, the two-player co-operative, cover-shooting mechanics are not as explicit. For instance, the player cannot directly control the AI partner or give any commands. During a battle, you need to take up positions that are favourable in relation to your partner’s location, and in turn the AI controlled partner adapts to the players location. The basic idea appears to be the same—when greatly outnumbered, one player takes all the aggro from the enemies while the other flanks them. However, due to absence of any control over partner’s behaviour, the system is mostly unreliable, and the best course of action is to play your own game and hope that the AI controlled partner does something worthwhile. Of course, this equation will change drastically when your partner is controlled by another player, using the game’s online co-op mode. 

The game uses a regenerative health system that is quite forgiving and as a result there is never a time in the game when you have to think too hard about your next course of action. The player can carry no more than two weapons at a time from a selection of arsenal dropped by dead enemies. Ultimately, all the weapons in the game are guns that go boom—there are guns that fire with short-booms, big-booms and rapid booms. The only striking differences between the guns are their level on zoom and rate of fire. 

Saints of lost causes

Kane & Lynch: Dog Days ends up being about a bloody rampage of two guys that lose a lot along the way and have nothing to show for in the end. The single-player campaign lasts about 8 hours on normal difficulty and the body count at the end of it would make even John Rambo take a bow. If the game does not have one of the most unbelievable premises in recent memory, then the ending certainly clinches it. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I think that the ending is even harder to digest than the rest of the game. Disbelief aside, the conclusion also leaves a sense of futility and makes you wonder about the whole purpose of the genocide. 

The single-player experience of Dog Days may be an unsatisfactory experience; however, we have a feeling that the game’s multiplayer component has a potential to be a lot more fun. Since we got this game for review before its official release, we had a very small window of opportunity to try-out the game’s multiplayer modes—which we unfortunately missed. The most intriguing of the lot is called ‘Fragile Alliance’ that is accompanied by a new and similar mode called ‘Undercover Cop’. The intrigue in both these modes is an ever present threat of betrayal from one of your team members. 

Along with multiplayer modes, the game also features the offline ‘Arcade Mode’. In this mode, the player faces increasingly difficult waves of enemies, while trying to accumulate as much money as possible. 

Dog Day’s gritty style and crass attitude may be an attraction for some; however as a game, I found this to be quite unsatisfactory and shallow. This is further compounded by bevy of minor bugs throughout the game and this makes you question the publishers’ decision to release this game ahead of its intended schedule.