Read this review in the style of a hollywood blockbuster voiceover man!
Kane & Lynch :Dead Men is a third person action adventure from IO interactive. It can be played fully co-operatively in split screen (not online I’m afraid) where each gamer plays as either Kane or Lynch. When playing as Kane (as you do in the single player mode), you play as a flawed, traitorous mercenary. If you are lucky enough to play as Lynch, you play as a medicated psycho who regularly blacks out, only to wake up to find everyone around very dead!
roller coaster adventure of revenge and extreme violence
In single player, as I’ve said, you play as Kane, a mercenary who worked for an organisation called The Seven. You start the game in a prison truck being transported to another prison, Lynch is in the truck with you. In proper Hollywood movie style the van is hijacked and you and Lynch are rescued by masked men and forced to go on the run (not that you need much persuasion to pick up a dead cops weapon an start unloading copious amounts of lead into the pursuing law enforcement officers).
Cue a roller coaster adventure of revenge and extreme violence. This game plays a lot like a Tarantino flick, fast action, ultra violence, witty dialogue and lots of swearing (this is one game that justifies its 18 certificate). In fact the first few set pieces remind me a lot of Reservoir Dogs, without the colour coded names. Later on the game takes on a Michael Man style of filmmaking, when the action is transferred across from the good ole U S of A, to Japan. Featuring a set piece based in a nightclub that plays like it’s been lifted straight outta the movie Collateral. Great Stuff. This is the second game this year to play like a Hollywood movie, the first being the stunning Stranglehold. Both games are one action piece after another and while the main gameplay feature of Stranglehold was the slo-mo Tequila time. Kane and Lynch utilises co-op gameplay and some squad based action.
The AI of your teammates can be a little suspect at times later on in the game. At first they seem to find cover and when you get shot too much and collapse to the floor, one of your team mates will come to your rescue with a pulp fiction type adrenaline hit via a hypo. For some reason on later levels, they seem to go AWOL when you need them most (while talking a helicopter gun ship). While this can be very frustrating, this is the only thing that stops this game getting a higher score (and the lack of online co-op). Talking of online, the Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode is certainly different from the norm. Deathmatch or capture the flag. This is not. Up to 8 players can compete on the same team, as a group of bank robbers, and the winner is the one who escapes to the getaway driver with the most loot. The twist is that you only have two lives, if you are killed by the police, you become a cop for the rest of the round, if you kill a team member & nick their loot, then you are marked as a traitor for your other team mates to see, and a bounty is placed on your head- Sweet!
Being the 360 version you may want to know about the achievements, well one in particular made me smile, showing that IO interactive have a sense of humour. With a nod towards one of their other franchises one of the achievements is gained for getting ?47? headshots! Which reminds me, ?How cool is the trailer for the new Hitman movie!?
The Bad: No online co-op and AI goes a bit astray on later levels
Silver Y Award