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So Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is actually pretty good
Legba
He did.Registered User regular
He did.Registered User regular
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. To say it got mixed reviews would be an understatement: GameTrailers gave it an 8/10, NTSC-uk gave it a 3/10. And then there's the whole Gerstmann controversy that added more fuel to the fire. In the end, Kane & Lynch got a reputation for being a pretty crappy game.
Undeserved? I think so.
Yes, at times it's both difficult and unforgiving, but that's not always a bad thing - in fact, we frequently hail that in other games. And Kane & Lynch have plenty of save spots, you'll never have to repeat more than the last 3-4 minutes when you die. Which you will. Frequently. The game doesn't give you much slack in making mistakes; but try another route, and for God's sake don't forget to move your team around, and you'll make it through. Honestly, the unforgiving nature of the game makes your eventual victory all the more sweet.
Yes, there's a lot of swearing, and the main characters are a couple of psychopaths. But shooters as a genre embraces mass-murdering hard men; Kane & Lynch just makes the characters aware of the amount of people they murder. As for the swearing, to read some of the reviews you'd think that every other word in the game was blue, but I found the dialogue to be roughly consistent with my own, and I'm not exactly a sailor. Remember kids, hyperbole is a four syllable word; that's equivalent to four fucks.
So setting aside the critical reception, what does the game present?
Great characters, story and dialogue. Kane, Lynch, and their assorted henchmen are anti-heroes. These are not nice men, and their chatter reflect that. Tell your guys to run somewhere they don't want to and they're not afraid to call you an asshole. I hesitate to call the radio chatter between your companions and yourself banter, because that would seem to indicate that it's somehow friendly. Sometimes it's funny, but you know these guys don't like each other much. It just happens that they like the guys you're killing less, and they've been promised a large amount of dosh for murdering them. Regardless, the interaction is great, and apart from a few fudges, the plot is believable. Don't worry, you'll be too busy murdering police officers anyway.
Realistic-ish gun battles. Okay, no. Not really. It's movie logic all the way. But there are small touches that make it interesting. For instance, if you run out of ammo, one of your team mates will pipe up and let you know that he's got a spare clip for you. So run over to him and restock. But they don't have unlimited amounts, and sooner or later they'll run out and you'll have to scavenge from the battlefield. Even better, your cohorts run out of ammo themselves, and throughout the game you'll see them sporting a variety of gear as they pick up new weapons. I was never more aware of the stupidity of NPCs with infinite ammo than after playing this game.
Tense gameplay and great level design. From the superb Tokyo nightclub level, where you have to spot the guards among the crowd of dancing ravers before they spot you, to the opening cinematic of the prison break, to the dénouement in a South American village, the game teems with interesting levels and tense gameplay. The bank heist is an early highlight, but hardly the only one.
Online gameplay. ... Yeah okay, I haven't actually tried this yet. I'll give it a go when I get home tonight. It does promise to be somewhat unique in that there are rewards for turning on your fellow heisters - and rewards for offing people who do. So I'm intruiged, but can't actually rave about it yet.
Anyway, the point is, Kane & Lynch got a bum rap, but it's a far better game than its reputation allows. If you can find it on the cheap, it's well worth a play-through.
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Personally, the swearing wouldn't really bother me, I've always felt that IO always did a great job with creating really seedy criminal environments, which would be very appropriate for a game like Kane and Lynch.
And I loved Hitman.
You are entitled to be wrong.
Of course, you are just as entitled. We are talking about personal preferences, right? Are you planning on doing this to everyone who comes in the thread with something negative to say?
Nope, I just felt like saying it this once.
Was I wrong? :P In any case, JohnDoe, I apologize for my snarky response and welcome you to let everyone know why you didn't like the game.
also, even I've given up hope since the game shipped with all kinds of bugs and there has been zero patches for the PC even though Eidos kept saying there would be one.
The other thing I like about the game is how essentially there's nothing really redeeming about the main character, you're not some guy forced into the shady side of life by circumstances but who's really a good guy kinda thing going on. I think a lot of people don't like that aspect though.
It's got to be said, I played it on the 360, and while it was a bug-free experience, I have no idea what it's like on the PC. I'm pretty sure there was a mandatory update on the 360, but those are so common place these days that I didn't think much about it.
I don't mind that it is a downer. It's just kinda...over. It felt like I still had half a game to play through.
Ditto. I was kind of surprised, but man... When I get home, I'm going to try for an ending where
The thing that I found interesting about the difficulty on the last few levels was that some places were really hard, but if you just tried a few different approaches, there were ways of just breezing through those same sections. I got a sense of achievement just from finding the right tactic, which I really enjoyed. I'm not going to make a Megaman comparison, except I think I just did, didn't I?
Could have been worse - it could have been Assassin's Creed. :P
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What are you smoking
i was looking for a game about two utter bastards who hated each other going on heists and shooting cops and being bitter old anti-heroes out of their depth
but no, it's shit
looks shit
plays shit
story is shallow and bullshit
there were some flashes of great ideas (nightclub, the bank, the donut shop) but shooting felt bland and terrible and what the fuck? i'm in cuba? why am i in cuba? i thought this was HEAT: the game?
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50403
Best defence piece on the game I've seen.
I can't say I notice much difference in shooting from game to game; it's usually point and click, and if I can hit things I aim at, I'm happy. I guess by that definition then the shooting was bland, but then that's true the vast majority of shooting games.
Also: You were pissed off because the game had a different story from what you expected? o_O
That's a really good article. I've got to say, I didn't have any issues with the kickback, but now that it's been mentioned; yeah, there was a lot of kickback. I just accounted for it by aiming lower and letting the burst take them out.
I think this pretty much sums up the mechanical aspects of the game:
That's a large part of what I enjoyed. Each combat is a bit like a puzzle, and you have to play it smart and use your team, otherwise you will die. It's not so obvious in the early levels, but absolutely essential in the later ones, which I think is why some people felt like there was a sudden brick wall in their path. But once you cotton on to the squad-based aspect, it's really enjoyable.
Also, I wish I'd had an experience like the female cop; that sounds really awesome. Instead, I just killed everyone and moved on. I did hear a few people plead for their life, but my cold murderous heart held no pity for them.
alot of people cant even get the game to run and I had a problem where every single time I played I had to load an in-game level, switch to hardware sound, reload the level, switch to software sound and reload the level again. all in order for the sound not to have a horrible fucking reverb going on.
Oh whaaaaaaat. So dumb. I mean, one of my friends DOES have a 360 controller, but split screen is stupid. My intention of eventually buying this has now become a "maybe."
As for the controls on the 360, I had absolutely no problem with them. I can't comment on other platforms, but the 360 was a pretty solid experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling it the game of the century, but it's a much better game than it's reputation lets on.
From what people say, it sounds as if it's not worth recommending on the PC, but I got my 360 copy for £10 and thought it was excellent value for money.
Interestingly enough the game did sell over 1 million copies, (although a big marketing push must have helped) so I don't see why you think they'd be telling I/O to back away from the game (although the DLC was a bizarre choice)
And personally I think the PC version is fine and recommended. But I never seem to have the technical issues that other people have.
Played through on co-op with a friend and we had a blast.
The only thing in the entire game I didn't like was how you ended up in a war. The jungle section and the war in the streets and fighting a helicopter just seemed so out of place. Everything was awesome up to that point though.
From what I've heard people say, it's the opposite; the console version got mediocre to bad reviews, whereas on PC a lot of the issues weren't really present.
Eh, I played a good amount on 360 and never saw a glitch or anything.
click the thumbnails
I'm actually kind of annoyed they made this instead of Freedom Fighters 2. Well, I guess I have no idea if this was made at the expense of Freedom Fighters 2, but damnit, I want that game to exist!
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