Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days review
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days sees the violent criminal duo of Kane & Lynch return in an over-the-top violent sequel to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. It’s non-stop action all the way as the pair find themselves in Shanghai with little choice but to run for their lives in a story of revenge and betrayal. Stephen Ebert finds out if it’s a worthy sequel.
The good
The story of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days centres around two criminals, Kane & Lynch whom suddenly find they’ve been branded as Shanghai’s most wanted after getting on the wrong side of the city’s most dangerous “businessman”. It’s a plot that lends itself perfectly to non-stop action.
Your entire time in Dog Days is spent shooting at bad guys, then shooting at them some more, before occasionally taking cover from the ensuing hail of bullets constantly arrowing towards you. It’s relentless at times, giving you little time to pause for breath, with a multitude of enemies firing at you from all angles, even flanking you should you take too long to dispatch them.
For Kane & Lynch’s second outing developer IO Interactive has gone for a reality TV style aesthetic influenced by YouTube. The result is a jerky over-the-shoulder amateur documentary camera perspective that judders all over the place as if Kane & Lynch are being trailed by a wobbly cameraman. Explicit gore is pixelated for added authenticity. It’s an effect likely to divide many but for the most part it’s pulled off incredibly well, giving Dog Days it’s own unique look and feel. Thankfully motion sickness sufferers can turn the wobbly camera effect off by diving into the options and enabling “Steadycam”.
There’s a noticeable, if not rather slight improvement in the fluidity of the controls, most notably in walking, running and ducking down behind cover – just as well, as that’s what you’ll spend a lot of your time doing.
The original title did away with the usual multiplayer modes in favour of a mode called fragile alliance, that has teams attempting to escape from a robbery with a substantial wad of case. Developer IO Interactive was rightly praised for trying something original. Now Fragile Alliance returns, along with other modes such as Cops and Robbers, where one team plays as the cops attempting to stop a heist and the other faction attempting to get away with $4 million. Undercover Cop works on the same premise, except one player is designated as the Undercover Cop, lending an element of suspense and intrigue to multiplayer matches.
The bad
Dog Days suffers from one of the biggest problems found in its predecessor – sluggish aiming. During gameplay the screen will at times be flooded with enemies. So it’s unfortunate that aiming precisely at them takes longer than it should, say for headshots, or aiming at explosives into the distance.
Though exhilarating during the odd moment, trading fire with the enemy 24-7 can get repetitive. What should be the highlight of the game is also a negative point, as aiming at enemies, ducking down and trading fire once more feels samey before long. It also takes enemies forever to die. Enemies can be pumped with heavy machine gun fire from closer
With all the non-stop action there isn’t a lot of substance story-wise. As a result it’s quite possible to clear the game in just over six hours.
The bottom line
In gameplay terms Kane & Lynch: Dog Days is a mild improvement on the original, but it’s still severely lacking. Fans of the original would find some joy, but with a repetitive campaign lasting little over six hours, Dog Days isn’t quite the must-have thriller it was hyped up to be.
