Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Review

Nearly two years since the first installment, the duo of Kane and Lynch return for the Dog Days of summer in the IO Interactive developed sequel. Dog Days bears little resemblance to predecessor and that, in its own respect, is a good thing. It’s a standard fare third person shooter that offers a unique shakycam presentation and immerses you within a world that is utterly devoid of these things called morals. Should you run into Kane & Lynch on the streets, its fair warning that you should start running…fast.

Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days
Developer: IO Interactive
Price: $59.99
Platform: Xbox 360 [reviewed], Playstation 3

Beginning with Kane & Lynch 2’s singleplayer, the duo come together for an arms deal that, as expected, goes terribly awry. The rest of the game is spent trying to make amends and fight the assorted thugs and vigilantes in your path. Here, little mention is made of the duo’s past but implies that time has passed since their last encounter. Character development really isn’t central to understanding that these two guys are gun-wielding psychos on a mission of vengeance. Yet this mission is forestalled by begrudgingly apparent flaws found in its design. The storyline campaign can be completed in five to six hours and there are no incentives for replay sadly leaving me to confirm that there’s simply not enough variety to be had.

In essence, consider Dog Days to be a titular example of a cover based third person shooter. It contains all of the elements – the stop and pop gunplay, blind firing, unnecessary long corridors – but amplifies many of the annoyances I have with the genre. The linear style progression, objective to objective oriented nature of the game really hampers the potential for high-octane action. Instead, most of the time spent is moving from cover to cover, fighting waves and waves of enemies of the same variation, and proceeding to the next objective. The gunplay is apt but since it’s limited to carrying two weapons, there isn’t much of an option. You’ll also have the monotony of scrounging around for ammo if you waste enough clips. The enemy to bullet fodder ratio is kind of unbalanced here. The foes you’ll encounter are also keen on flanking your position if you stick around too long but as long as you keep them within distance the survival chances are high.

The multiplayer of Kane & Lynch 2 fares better with a selection of cooperative play and competitive multiplayer modes. The singleplayer campaign can be competed with a friend but with no drop-in, drop out option, the accessibility here can be improved. The whole create a lobby, invite a friend, and waiting thing could be streamlined. Rather, the competitive play available is worth checking out. ‘Fragile Alliance’ returns for more chances to betray your teammates with seven other players who are also likely to do the same unto you. ‘Cops and Robbers’ is the regular team deathmatch mode. My personal preference is ‘Undercover Cop’, where the game randomly selects a player at the beginning of the match and tasks them with eliminating the other teammates without getting caught. Fragile Alliance and Undercover Cop, in particular, provide the most random fun given that you will have to expect the worst from both opposition and your team to prove successful. All six maps provided are recycled across multiplayer.

Although, Kane & Lynch 2 feels kind of uninspired on the gameplay front, the presentation itself shines through. It’s intentionally bad, like low compression quality YouTube videos bad. But it serves to portray a gritty documentary style perspective, not obtained if you turn off steady cam. The color separation, MPEG compression, pixel artifacting, and lighting bloom really stand out as a way to flesh out the narrative pieces, especially in-game cutscenes, and high intensity shooting action within the game.

The Final Word
In the end, Kane & Lynch 2 does have a unique presentation that I really adored but the rather bland gameplay feels like an all too familiar cover based third person shooter, ultimately weighing down the overarching experience. It’s a sequel to what one reporter described as, an ugly, ugly game, and it takes no liberties in providing you with a short but gritty, realistic experience.

MonsterVine Rating: Average – 3 out of 5