Before I begin there is a significant amount of controversy linked to this game and how a gamespot reviewer was fired from his job for gross inaccuracy and that "fans" became outraged at gamespot and picked up their pitchforks and torches and attacked the game and permanently tainted its reputation in the gaming world by screaming minor flaws with the game and crying at the level of difficulty it had. (Even though you can choose a difficulty level before each mission). And constantly bringing up in arguments the broken cover system that is automatic instead of pressing a button to use cover.
With these blows Kane & Lynch took a backseat in videogame history and was never really going to flourish and relied on loyal fans of the game.
I was unaware of these "problems" at the time I first played this because I did not know what to expect. So I got the goodside of Kane and Lynch and was not blown off by reviews and now know that a number or a score is not the be all and end all of a game.
Anyway onto the review.
Kane & Lynch dead men is a third person shooter, about Kane who is sent to prison for the crimes he and his group known as the seven did. While being transported to prison Kane meets Lynch inside the truck when it is intercepted by hired guns to free them. This is where Kane is reunited with the seven, but all is not well because the seven blame Kane for double crossing them in there last job and so the seven hold Kane's family hostage. So the only way for Kane to redeem himself is to get an important item from the last job he did and give it to the seven in time before they kill his family. Lynch is also in on the deal as he is assigned to keep an eye on Kane and make sure he completes his deal and will be offered a seat in seven group.
But things don't tend to go to plan as you play kane and lynch.
One of the things I like about this game is that its influenced from films like Heat by Micheal Mann (More so than GTA IV). And so it places alot of emphasis on realistic and tough firefights with little soundtrack and loud sound effects like in Heat. And offers mele kills and gives players the choice of singleplayer where you play as just kane or co op where you play as both kane and lynch. Later in the game you work together in a team with other characters called thapa and shelly as group commands are incorporated.
The health system is regenerating but you cannot take too many hits as your vision blurs towards the end of your HP and the character starts to limp. If however you get shot to death you will collapse on the spot and its up to either a NPC or another player to stab you full of Epinephrine (artificial adrenaline). If you take too many needles you'll overdose and if you don't get treated in time you bleed to death. In this time the game becomes voodoo and you hear clips from earlier cutscenes or your character saying something meaningful. I find this quite interesting and I don't think it has been done too many times before.
Now players of shooters will probably hate this game because it doesn't completely recycle tired old engines and so covering will be more challenging and marksmanship is more valued. Despite these new minor alterations it seems to most average players a kick in the testicles and don't really bother finishing the game itself.
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
Needless to say about halfway into the game you fail to successfully do the deal with some of the low ranking seven members and they murder your wife but you stop them in time before they kill your daughter Jenny. After this you kill alot of enemies and goons of the seven until its over and you recruit men who used to work in your crew from prison to get revenge on the seven. This is one of my favorite levels as it puts you through the intimate details of a prison to get your men. So now you go on the hunt for the seven tracking them down to there final location. Havana Cuba.
So now the idea of urban combat is put on its head and towards the end of the game you are fighting in the jungle. This is where its most notorious for being frustrating to players and most cookie cutters rage quit. At first you assault the capital called "El Capitol" which is like a bizarre version of capital hill. You are forced through many mini bosses such as BTRS and one helicopter boss. You need to use strategy you CANNOT run and gun the whole game at this point.
So by now you have penetrated the front defense of the capital and have gone inside. You'll find the guy who punched you in the nose at the start of the game as he hides behind huge walls of sandbags with narrow holes for machine gun nests. To bypass this you need to throw a well aimed grenades through the hole or just over the wall of sandbags. After this you see the president of Cuba (Not castro) commit suicide and get told where the rest of the seven are but some of your team mates will ***** and moan about you not being honest and will leave. So you trek deep into the mountainside jungles and work your way to the seven Hacienda without setting off alarm flares.
And so you've reached the hacienda and Carlos your friend has gone inside to "scope out the place" or something. As something happens to him without you knowing. While inside you hear cuban radio chatter saying that they have Jenny. So now the stakes are more higher. You fight through the hacienda to see the leader of the seven and another member have with Jenny. Now this part is tricky because I never knew first time round what to do and so it won't be a cutscene but a realtime conversation. To help Jenny out you need to shoot the landmine that carlos' dead body has.
This will kill the leader of the seven but not the other member as he runs off to the airstrip with jenny. You chase them in a rail shooting part of the game where you are on the back of the jeep on a mounted machine gun. This part will be quite merciless and wants you to follow a rigid plan of action of who to shoot when and being quite exposed as you cannot turn 360 degrees.
Assuming you've reached the airstrip you now have to kill other enemies on mounted jeeps and destroy bamboo watch towers that have guys with RPGS. It will save you in the long run to kill some enemies on sight as you will have to meet them later under harder circumstances. Now you have to chase the plane that has jenny and the last member of the seven on board. To stop them simply shoot out the plane's engines and they will grind to a halt at the end of the runway. Be careful here as there will be more goons inside the plane and be careful not to shoot Jenny.
Once you have saved her she will show her true colours of gratitude by saying how much she hates you and wishes you were dead and says that the seven told her that you were a good for nothing traitor.
Now you before you reached jenny some of your team was trapped in another part of the forest in a small town being surrounded by cubans begging for help. So you have a choice to either leave with just jenny in a helicopter or take jenny with you through a gauntlet or millions of enemies, while trying to protect jenny and save whats left of your team and leave.
There is no right choice. Either way players will be scalded by the game for one idea or the other.If you leave with jenny she'll call you "a fucking coward" and that she hates you or if you try to save the team they die in combat and so does jenny while trying to escape. At first I was shocked because I was expecting a cliche fairy tale ending, and this is probably some of the reasons why people hate it. But I'm glad they didn't because Kane And Lynch is not another clone off the factory workline. It holds its own with a dark gritty plot that doesn't care its true to life and how you don't always get what you want. It reaches out and appeals only to a few demographic of gamers. I love this game. Always have and always will.
I love the blend of combat and the characters are down to earth and human and not overly heroic or annoying or cheesy which is a big problem in most games these days.
With these blows Kane & Lynch took a backseat in videogame history and was never really going to flourish and relied on loyal fans of the game.
I was unaware of these "problems" at the time I first played this because I did not know what to expect. So I got the goodside of Kane and Lynch and was not blown off by reviews and now know that a number or a score is not the be all and end all of a game.
Anyway onto the review.
Kane & Lynch dead men is a third person shooter, about Kane who is sent to prison for the crimes he and his group known as the seven did. While being transported to prison Kane meets Lynch inside the truck when it is intercepted by hired guns to free them. This is where Kane is reunited with the seven, but all is not well because the seven blame Kane for double crossing them in there last job and so the seven hold Kane's family hostage. So the only way for Kane to redeem himself is to get an important item from the last job he did and give it to the seven in time before they kill his family. Lynch is also in on the deal as he is assigned to keep an eye on Kane and make sure he completes his deal and will be offered a seat in seven group.
But things don't tend to go to plan as you play kane and lynch.
One of the things I like about this game is that its influenced from films like Heat by Micheal Mann (More so than GTA IV). And so it places alot of emphasis on realistic and tough firefights with little soundtrack and loud sound effects like in Heat. And offers mele kills and gives players the choice of singleplayer where you play as just kane or co op where you play as both kane and lynch. Later in the game you work together in a team with other characters called thapa and shelly as group commands are incorporated.
The health system is regenerating but you cannot take too many hits as your vision blurs towards the end of your HP and the character starts to limp. If however you get shot to death you will collapse on the spot and its up to either a NPC or another player to stab you full of Epinephrine (artificial adrenaline). If you take too many needles you'll overdose and if you don't get treated in time you bleed to death. In this time the game becomes voodoo and you hear clips from earlier cutscenes or your character saying something meaningful. I find this quite interesting and I don't think it has been done too many times before.
Now players of shooters will probably hate this game because it doesn't completely recycle tired old engines and so covering will be more challenging and marksmanship is more valued. Despite these new minor alterations it seems to most average players a kick in the testicles and don't really bother finishing the game itself.
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
Needless to say about halfway into the game you fail to successfully do the deal with some of the low ranking seven members and they murder your wife but you stop them in time before they kill your daughter Jenny. After this you kill alot of enemies and goons of the seven until its over and you recruit men who used to work in your crew from prison to get revenge on the seven. This is one of my favorite levels as it puts you through the intimate details of a prison to get your men. So now you go on the hunt for the seven tracking them down to there final location. Havana Cuba.
So now the idea of urban combat is put on its head and towards the end of the game you are fighting in the jungle. This is where its most notorious for being frustrating to players and most cookie cutters rage quit. At first you assault the capital called "El Capitol" which is like a bizarre version of capital hill. You are forced through many mini bosses such as BTRS and one helicopter boss. You need to use strategy you CANNOT run and gun the whole game at this point.
So by now you have penetrated the front defense of the capital and have gone inside. You'll find the guy who punched you in the nose at the start of the game as he hides behind huge walls of sandbags with narrow holes for machine gun nests. To bypass this you need to throw a well aimed grenades through the hole or just over the wall of sandbags. After this you see the president of Cuba (Not castro) commit suicide and get told where the rest of the seven are but some of your team mates will ***** and moan about you not being honest and will leave. So you trek deep into the mountainside jungles and work your way to the seven Hacienda without setting off alarm flares.
And so you've reached the hacienda and Carlos your friend has gone inside to "scope out the place" or something. As something happens to him without you knowing. While inside you hear cuban radio chatter saying that they have Jenny. So now the stakes are more higher. You fight through the hacienda to see the leader of the seven and another member have with Jenny. Now this part is tricky because I never knew first time round what to do and so it won't be a cutscene but a realtime conversation. To help Jenny out you need to shoot the landmine that carlos' dead body has.
This will kill the leader of the seven but not the other member as he runs off to the airstrip with jenny. You chase them in a rail shooting part of the game where you are on the back of the jeep on a mounted machine gun. This part will be quite merciless and wants you to follow a rigid plan of action of who to shoot when and being quite exposed as you cannot turn 360 degrees.
Assuming you've reached the airstrip you now have to kill other enemies on mounted jeeps and destroy bamboo watch towers that have guys with RPGS. It will save you in the long run to kill some enemies on sight as you will have to meet them later under harder circumstances. Now you have to chase the plane that has jenny and the last member of the seven on board. To stop them simply shoot out the plane's engines and they will grind to a halt at the end of the runway. Be careful here as there will be more goons inside the plane and be careful not to shoot Jenny.
Once you have saved her she will show her true colours of gratitude by saying how much she hates you and wishes you were dead and says that the seven told her that you were a good for nothing traitor.
Now you before you reached jenny some of your team was trapped in another part of the forest in a small town being surrounded by cubans begging for help. So you have a choice to either leave with just jenny in a helicopter or take jenny with you through a gauntlet or millions of enemies, while trying to protect jenny and save whats left of your team and leave.
There is no right choice. Either way players will be scalded by the game for one idea or the other.If you leave with jenny she'll call you "a fucking coward" and that she hates you or if you try to save the team they die in combat and so does jenny while trying to escape. At first I was shocked because I was expecting a cliche fairy tale ending, and this is probably some of the reasons why people hate it. But I'm glad they didn't because Kane And Lynch is not another clone off the factory workline. It holds its own with a dark gritty plot that doesn't care its true to life and how you don't always get what you want. It reaches out and appeals only to a few demographic of gamers. I love this game. Always have and always will.
I love the blend of combat and the characters are down to earth and human and not overly heroic or annoying or cheesy which is a big problem in most games these days.
