Stylistically, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is like all your favorite colorful candies packed into one thickly coated wrapper. Thick, because at times it’s hard to see beyond the game’s ulterior motives. There’s a lot of flavors and visual flare (such as the fact that the game looks like it’s being filmed on a Sony Handycam) in Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days that overwhelm the senses. This is even increased by the engaging audio that mainly consists of the ambient sounds of Shanghai to the sudden shifts of profanity and multitudes of gun blasts. I do kind of miss the style of sweeping music that the first game had, but the new gritty, minimalist style works here and it does make you feel a bit more immersed in the world. Though sometimes, these well placed and executed devices mask the fact that the game wholly consists of run ‘n gun shooting. I commend IO Interactive for making such an immersive game that truly shocked and disgusted me. Developers of games going for realism as a feel should look at this game as a fine example of how engaging the player in moments of pure adrenaline and scenes of intense horror and filth gives the game verisimilitude.
Yet on the other hand, it’s hard to ignore that the game at times doesn’t feel like a game, but rather an exercise in blast that, cover there and blast that again. This gameplay works for a majority of the game and is done well, but gamers will not question their actions as it’s clear from the sadistic story that Kane & Lynch have no other options. The sense of direness and escape is present and strong, but there is nothing that breaks up the gameplay. There is however one major action set piece towards the latter third of the game that is quite stunning and fun, but the sequence is too short and peaks the action without really staying there in terms of what is epic. This in turn makes the game feel a little underwhelmed. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with the ending to Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, but it just kind of ends and you’re left sitting there wondering if your sixty dollars was well spent. IO Interactive has successfully created a game that feels and plays like a movie, but at the expense that it lacks the kind of depth and re-playability that us gamers love to engage in.
Shanghai is simply a beautiful mess of bright lights and graffiti
The level of detail and atmosphere is something IO Interactive should also be applauded for. It’s easy to tell how much time and effort went into the effectiveness of the aura of the game and how that creates a realistic world. The environments of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days incorporate a perfect application of color. Between the bright lit streets of Shanghai to the dark and dingy sweatshops, the wide range of color palettes used throughout the game genuinely allow the player to feel their surroundings and put it all into context. This is a very important aspect to any game and Dog Days certainly nails the feel of Shanghai in every miniscule detail; making it stand out as one of the more engrossing games out there without having to be extremely pretty graphically.
There are a handful of multiplayer modes with really fun and interesting concepts. The mainly advertised mode, Fragile Alliance throws you in a randomly selected map with fellow robbers. Your goal is to kill all the cops that get in your way and make it to a van getaway while making the most money during the heist. The catch is that you can betray any of your teammates during the heist and if you survive you can in turn make more money, but once you do this, you are labeled as a traitor and it’s not an easy task staying alive once the rest of the team knows of your treachery. If you die as a traitor, you don’t respawn and have to wait until the round is up. If you die by getting killed by a traitor or cop, you respawn as a cop and fight the robbers during the same match. This concept is great on paper and some rounds really feel hectic and like madness, but that’s its biggest fault as mainly you’ll find yourself getting killed by a traitor the moment before you hit X to get into the getaway van or just at the start of the round by someone angry at you for betraying them in a previous round. The other modes are basically just slight variations on Fragile Alliance’s central theme, one being a simple Cops and Robbers mode, and the other being an Undercover Cop mode where one player on the team is randomly selected as the undercover cop who has to stealthily execute the robbers during the heist.
The unlucky and inseparable criminal masterminds
Verdict:
Unfortunately, these modes aren’t enough to really hold my attention for more than a half hour to an hour at a given time. I could never see it becoming a game in my regular online rotation. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love this game. Kane & Lynch is one of the coolest criminal duos to ever hit video games and there is so much I love about the aesthetics and atmosphere, but it’s hard for me to recognize this as a video game that is soaked in depth. In essence, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is the best gritty, Hollywood crime thriller to come out in years, but it’s trapped in a video game’s body. Further more, the game never gets out of that shell with its lack of versatility and the way it never really challenges the player with anything else than effective shooting and covering. The campaign is a blast even though it only lasts about 5-6 hours. The game truly shines during moments where the shooting and atmosphere meld together, creating sights and tensions that one must see and feel on their own. You’ll understand what I’m talking about when you’re battling on a disorienting and car infested highway, only to take cover in a parking garage where only more cops and dogs are on the attack. IO Interactive has truly created some amazing action set-pieces with Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, but once the experience is over, it’s over.
Score:
out of 5
-Eric Egavian
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