Kane and Lynch: Dead Men

I don't know if this is dangerous grounds, but I'm going to do it anyway.

I just bought Kane and Lynch: Dead Men from Steam in a 50% off weekend deal. The price has always been the thing that kept me away from playing it, so I was quite happy to find it on sale.
Though the main thing that has always been my attraction, and something that meant it was inevitable for me to play the game at some point, was the fact that it has been made by Danish IO Interactive. So nationalism is something I also succumb to, at times.
But the mature and very modern setting was a part that attracted me too, and being a fan of Michael Mann's Heat made me even more interested in the game. It is a game closely coonected with the current American society. You seldom see games that choose a modern, socio-realistic setting. They're often closed games that do not really care about creating a detailed, realistic game world. Kane and Lynch sees the connection between society and story. As I wrote earlier. It is a mature game. Also in the sense of violence and foul language which have unfortunately become synonymous with the word "mature", but also in the sense that the game is directed to adult gamers. Not adolescent males who like to shoot limps off virtual characters.

But well, this thread/post is not about how great the game is, because it is not a masterpiece. It is more about how underrated the game is. A lot of reviews have complained about it being technically poorly implemented for the PC, which I must protest strongly against. The game runs and plays very good, at least on my PC. So if you have been reluctant to play the game because of technical uncertainties and a metacritic score of 66%, more because of the Gerstmann affair than the actual game, then you should not let yourself be betrayed. It is very underrated.

But neither is it brilliant. It is action, but good action. Until the last levels though. Most of the game is set in modern urban areas but the last part brings you to Havanna, Cuba and afterwards into the jungle. Quite a mistake and a let down. Kane and Lynch excels in its setting and environments, and a nature setting does not fit with it. The Cuban part is more IO Interactive's Freedom Figthers than Kane and Lynch.
The Tokyo levels are pure aesthetical pleasure though (taking into consideration you have PC specifications that are up-to-date). The Tokyo levels can be compared to the futuristic ambience of Deus Ex's Hong Kong levels.
But I cannot stress this enough. IO Interactive should not have let Kane and Lynch go to Cuba. And especially not included the gameplay element of scripts-drive-jeep-with-you-as-machinegunner in Cuba. Leave that to the Medal of Honor series.
But when said that the ending is weak then the beginning is also quite weak.

I didn't find the story that interesting though. The gameplay is good, contrary to reviews, and the environments are great. The game has some artistical traits too. It has a deeper layer and is not just your standard shooter with standard characters and a standard story. Especially the death scenes demonstrates this. They are quite beautiful. So is Jesper Kyd's soundtrack too.

oh, and not to forget the implementation of Games for Windows - LIVE. The menu interface of that hasn't even been accomodated to the PC. I don't know if this is the fault of Microsoft (this is my first GfW LIVE game) or IO Interactive. It looks like the X360 interface so my immediate thought is that Micorsoft is to blame. You can't even use your mouse in the GfW LIVE interface. If something is to be criticised about Kane and Lynch, then it should be that. And because of that I haven't tried the multiplayer yet, even though the multiplayer part (Fragile Alliance) looks interesting. You have to register your own unique gamertag and all the usernames I usually make use of have already been taken. Another very important part is also that I do not wish to support Microsoft's GfW concept. I prefer Steam or an open platform. Not the simplified and commercial concept that Microsoft has initiated. And I also strongly believe that the PC platform should be independent and not connected to a specific console platform (like the GfW platform and X360 are). Both for the PC's sake but also for Sony's and Nintendo's. It is unfair competition in my view. But this has nothing to do with Kane and Lynch, so I will just stop now.

I am going to replay it soon. Perhaps tomorrow. Probably tomorrow.

i agree for the most part, i picked it up for under 10 bucks and it was much better than i expected. the demo had turned me off. not a great game, but fun and it does some unique things, and i think the graphics are stunning. not as good as blood money, but way better than the more similar and overrated freedom fighters which spawned much of its gameplay. just about the perfect length too for a game like that, not overly short like alot of action shooter games.

I enjoyed it. I played co-op with my room mate which was a blast. The thing that bothered me most was the vertical split screen for co-op rather than the usual horizontal split.

I agree that the settings were great minus Cuba. The mature nature of the game gave it a favorable touch.

Isn't this the game where the reviewer from from Gamespot got fired for giving it a less than stellar video review?

Yep, Gerstman was fired right after he gave it an unfavourable review, not sure if it was strictly because of the review though.

I agree with most of what's been said in this thread, it's a pretty good game. I think a lot of the bad reactions it got was because people went in expecting a Hitman game, when all IO wanted with K&L was to make an enjoyable, fast paced action game (at least that is what I did ). Personally I was kind of disappointed when I first played it, the first area is pretty bad; railroaded and clean-scrubbed streets, with lots of painted-on doors, etc. It's nothing like the interactive, multi-path, amazingly made Hitman levels. It stays that way throughout the game, but some of the levels and environments are so interesting (the Tokyo levels are exceptional) that you don't really care. I didn't really mind the Cuba part (Asbjoern, it seems like you lumped the Venezuela levels in with this, which I agree would make it horrible), mostly because it is short, but like all of the levels it just gives an impression that it could have been so much better if they had just opened it up a little, Far-Cry style, made it less linear, and fleshed them out; the Cuba levels last part consists of storming a huge public building, which turns out to contain nothing but a corridor with a room at the end...

The Venezuela bit at the end is pretty boring, the railroading is especially obvious in the jungle, and the action is a weird mix between forced 'stealth' and diablo-like mowing down of enemies, and the driving scene is indeed really bad.
I generally don't like mini-game-like stuff like that, and though the getaway drive earlier in the game was enjoyable, it just feels unnecessary and contrived.

It feels a little too short; it has a limited amount of different environments, and in the end it doesn't feel like it's satisfactory completed (kudos on not having a happy Hollywood ending though , not that it is exceptional or anything, but it is 'different' from most PC-games).

In conclusion, it can't really hold it's own against the Hitman games, but compared to other like-minded quick-and-easy shooters, like Stranglehold it's a pretty decent game.

i don't know why people would be expecting another hitman game, i think the people who were disappointed were actually the ones who were expecting freedom fighters 2, which has much more appeal to the youths than a more strategic game like their hitman series. while the south american levels were maybe not the best levels and the driving part was silly, i liked the very last level (if you make the 'choice') and like MaskedMan said the cuba level was better, arguably the most strategic part of the game having to deal with so many allied and enemy men.

Are you sure the jungle levels are in Venezuela, MaskedMan? I don't remember Venezuela mentioned other than when we are told that The7 was "left to burn" in Venezuela by Kane, and this is why they are after him. Wikipedia says this:

The remaining group fight their way through the Cuban jungles and drug operations, managing to locate The Brother's base of operations.

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But well, Venezuela or Cuba, it doesn't really matter to me. I disliked both the Havanna and jungle levels. All the previous settings have been a mixture of modern, urban, high-tec, business and financial settings, so when going to a poverished country it didn't fit the general game and it took away much of the excitement. Much of what made Kane and Lynch great. They could have gone to Europe instead. High culture would fit the setting of business and modernity, but poverished countries and jungles do not.
And that you had to fight armored vehicles and helicopters with RPGs in Havanna were just as unnecessary and unoriginal as the jeep scene. It is not what Kane and Lynch is about either. Leave that to Freedom Figthers.

But I shouldn't be criticising it so much, when I really enjoyed playing it. It just had the potentional to be so much more. I don't know if the analogy of a flawed diamond is too much to attribute Kane and Lynch, but the game is definitely close to that category.

And a shame with the lost online co-op mode.

Asbjoern said:

But the mature and very modern setting was a part that attracted me too, and being a fan of Michael Mann's Heat made me even more interested in the game. It is a game closely coonected with the current American society. .

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What is the connection between K&L and Heat? I'm also a fan of Heat, it's one of the best crime dramas ever made imho.

Heat.
Kane and Lynch.

(Lingual explanation: Men in suits escaping the police under a wild gunfight in the streets of a contemporary American city, whilst having a black bagpack across the shoulders.)

Is this an advertisement for black backpacks ?

Oh, don't forget to mention that the bags (in both cases) are holding large sums of cash taken from a bank.

Oh, I see.