Kane and Lynch: Dead Men review

In 2006, the creators of the popular Hitman series, IO Interactive, announced an action 3rd person shooter called Kane and Lynch: Dead Men. The game was pulled onto the Hitman engine, the graphics were slightly tightened up, the dynamics were added and almost all hints of stealth were removed. Kane and Lynch was released in November 2007 on PC and Xbox360.

I played at the start in full localization into Russian and at that time I was more than satisfied. I remember the dynamic shootouts, the variety of locations, the verbal skirmishes of the main characters, as well as powerful and very ambiguous endings. Yes, there are two of them here. I also completed the second part, but it did not evoke the same emotions and was quickly forgotten.

I decided to remember the past because of “Debriefing”, where in the comments Vasya and Max were repeatedly asked to debrief Kane and Lynch, and specifically the first part. It seemed strange to me then, because my memories were positive, and not only mine. A well-known gaming magazine then gave the game an 8.5 points, and comments on videos on YouTube and on the old man Playground are often positive.

I bought the game on Steam for 150 rubles, completely in English. There is no Russian and I was too lazy to bother searching for localization. There were no problems with startup, 16:9 screen proportions are available initially, all settings are turned up to maximum and there are no graphical.no artifacts or bugs were noticed.

Gameplay

In the main menu, choose how to go through the story campaign, alone or in co-op. In the second option, the screen is divided in half and if you have a gamepad, you can fight together. I went through it alone, so all my emotions will relate only to this version of the passage.

Difficulties in the game have been replaced with names of medications depending on their effect on the body. Mild – aspirin, moderate – codeine, severe – morphine. I was playing on morphine.

The game starts with a splash screen in which Kane writes a letter of repentance from prison for his daughter, whom he has not seen for 14 years. He decides to do this, as I understand it, only because he will be executed in the near future. But the execution is not destined to happen, because during transportation we are rescued from a van for transporting death row prisoners and we follow the saviors without explanation. Later it turns out that we were rescued by the organization “The Seven” (The7), of which we were a member, in order to demand back the debt, while threatening to kill Kane’s wife and daughter. Lynch is assigned to look after us, and they also promise him something in return. So we set off on adventures, including a bank robbery, a van chase from the police, a kidnapping in a nightclub, a shootout in a Japanese garden next to the freeway, a night construction site, organizing a prison escape, a raid on a skyscraper, Havana and some kind of jungle.

Guy with Long Hair – Lynch. Almost always carries his favorite shotgun. Artificial intelligence is completely described by the scene on the right in the screenshot. One shoots where necessary, the second aims at his ass. A third one tries to shoot the van.

Moving and shooting

From the first minutes you can appreciate the animation, character movements, shooting and cover system. Despite the situation, which hints at dynamics, I did not catch it there. We shoot a little, change location, then shoot again, run to the van and leave. They only let you shoot with a pistol and that’s enough to understand the mechanics. The weapon has recoil, but in precision aiming mode it has little effect. The cartridges hit the target at close range and scatter wildly at long range. You could give a plus for the initial shooting, but hitting enemies is not felt at all. Added to this is the useless artificial intelligence. Enemies are tied to their points by scripts, stick out at random, sometimes in open space pretend that they are sitting behind cover (hello, the children’s game “I’m in the house”), run out at you in packs, with their weapons folded, and sometimes they can’t see us at point-blank range or have their back turned. The hero can hide behind covers, but this is done very inconveniently. Firstly, the hero often refuses to stick to cover when needed, or, on the contrary, sticks to everything in a row. Secondly, the cover is often slightly lower than the position to which the GG can bend, so bullets continue to fly at us. You can shoot blindly from cover, but this is only relevant at close range. In the case of a small number of opponents and narrow corridors, you can use close combat. Well, in combat, we just knock out the enemy with one button.

The guys decided to relax a little, and one even tries to work out his abs. The screen also warns us that there are propane canisters somewhere nearby, but I didn’t pay attention. I don’t think any of them managed to explode.

Opponents and weapons

I divided the opponents themselves into two types – with and without a shield. All other differences are expressed in the re-skins of the characters and different weapons. By the way, enemies with shields are encountered only a few times during the game, but in general they do not pose any particular danger, you just need to insert a little more ammo or go around from the side. There are no bosses or particularly cunning characters in the game. There is a mini-boss helicopter, traditional for shooters of those years, and a couple of armored personnel carriers that simply stand still and are mowed down by three charges from an RPG.

Okay, everyone line up. Calculate for the first or second!

There’s not much to say about weapons. More or less standard arsenal. Pistol, shotgun, machine gun, assault rifles, sniper rifle, regular rifle, machine gun, grenade launcher, single shot RPG and grenades. A pistol is effective at medium distances, machine guns and assault rifles are basically effective at any distance, since the distances here are not too long. You will have to destroy the enemies on the towers with a sniper rifle or give the command to your partners, since snipers in most cases ignore them. The grenade launcher is effective against clusters of enemies, like regular grenades, and the RPG against armored personnel carriers and helicopters. This is a general description that would apply to any other shooter that has a similar set of weapons. I spent the entire game using only a standard pistol, which cannot be replaced, a machine gun and an assault rifle. On the last missions I had to use a sniper.

Boss helicopter to the studio!

Get ready to blow back.

The game has a destructibility https://grand-mondial.co.uk/mobile-app/ system. Car windows break, tires go down, pieces fly off columns that are being shot at. At the same time, the wheels do not visually go down, this is played out by the sound and a slight descent of the car.

Partners and Neutrals

One of the features of the game is partners with whom you can exchange weapons and give commands. Initially, there is only one partner – Lynch. He runs around, shoots, heals us, we treat him if everything around is more or less calm. Running out of ammo? Your partner almost always has a supplement. Constant verbal sparring adds to the atmosphere. I think in co-op it shows its best side, but in solo it’s a dull AI that constantly gets stuck somewhere at the beginning of the map. Sometimes I had to go back to the beginning of the level to kick him to the point. Later in the game there are more partners, but this does not make it any easier. To switch between them you need to use the Tab+Shift combination, but usually there is no time to do this. By the way, about points and the save system. Checkpoints are scattered very often, so if you die you don’t have to start the level over again or go through some large section. Usually throws out literally a minute or two before death. But if you leave the game, you will have to start the level again.

Somewhere here the team is already assembled. The indicator in the upper right corner shows that there are already at least four of us.

Despite the fact that from the very beginning of the game we are thrown into battle, we are already shooting and leaning against cover, after that they still give training. Here we are taught to exchange weapons with a partner. A useful feature that I have never used because there was no need for it.

There are also neutral NPCs in the game, the essence of which is simply to walk around until shooting starts or the hero runs close enough so that the NPC begins to run away in panic or simply crouches and covers his head with his hands. This behavior is quite normal, if not for the fact that some NPCs remain calm during a tough firefight until we actually run up point blank. Sometimes the animation does not work and the NPC remains standing like a pillar with his arms spread to the side.

Honey, is it just me or are you a log??

At the disco level, during a shootout, visitors panic and begin to circle around the dance floor without trying to run out of the club. From a technical point of view, this is more or less understandable, since all the characters are locked in a limited space, although it was possible to make a separate room into which NPCs could run. And one more thing. If there is already panic on the first floor, then you can see how on the second floor people continue their dancing.

Graphics and sound

Visually the game does not shine, especially during the day in an urban environment, but it tries to flirt with light and shadows. If you look away from the firefights and look around, there are very few objects in open spaces. Basically, apart from box houses and cars standing still, there is nothing else. There are also excellent levels here. For example, a Japanese garden, storming a skyscraper and construction. The garden has well-placed spotlights, the overall color scheme is green and blue, but the hut has red lanterns that contrast with its surroundings. The level at the construction site is preceded by a well-choreographed cut-scene during the night rain, and the unexpected appearance of enemies at the end of the level evokes respect. I’ll give it a plus for the interface, since it doesn’t distract from the process, showing only the most necessary things. There is no map in the game, but you can call up a compass, which disappears from the screen after a few seconds.

In some places the game produces excellent frames. Most often at night. Isn’t this Japanese garden next to the highway beautiful??

The soundtrack is very faded. The opening theme is not bad, but otherwise there is almost no music, or it is so neutral that you don’t remember it. It’s especially a shame for the chase stage, in which there is no music at all, although it could have made it a little more dynamic. There are ambient sounds, but they seem few. This results in an atmosphere that seems dead and unrealistic. When the shooting subsides, there is a feeling of deathly silence.

Mizuki Night Club is the only place where you notice the music. And this is quite natural, since this is a nightclub. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t here either.

Halfway through the prison level I lost all sound. Rebooting didn’t help, so I had to finish the game like this. At the next level the sound appeared. The reason for the bug is unclear to me.I can assume that the rest of the game had bugs with music or sounds, hence my rating.

Mechanics or lack thereof

Before the game was released, at exhibitions the developers constantly showed the same level with a descent down a skyscraper on ropes. And even in training they tell us that you can rappel. Here there is an anticipation of verticality in the levels. Steep descents on ropes with a burst through the window in the manner of special forces, then we shoot everyone, take what we need and go down further on the same rope, then a chase, explosions, the car turns over, we crawl out, everything is pale on the screen, we shoot back with all our might, our partner drags us… But this does not happen. The rope is scripted, we only use it to descend. You can’t shoot while you’re hanging, and you can’t knock out an enemy quietly either. And in fact, the whole purpose of the rope was to demonstrate that very level at gaming exhibitions. It’s a pity.

The same descent straight from the game show.

There’s nothing left of stealth here either. There will only be a few moments with him, but usually all stealth ends after killing the first enemy, no matter in close combat or with a pistol with a silencer. Otherwise, this is a level with a sniper rifle, where you need to shoot enemies on towers and, in fact, that’s all.

Still the same level. The work with shadows and light is excellent here.

In one mission we need to quietly pass through a checkpoint so that the opponents do not have time to light a signal fire. At the same time, behind your back is a team of 5 dummies, and next to it is a tower with dudes behind stationary machine guns. I tried 10 times to pass quietly so that no one would notice, but it always ends in the same thing – shooting absolutely all the enemies and simultaneously searching for a runner with a signal fire. Here I really got burned, because there are no normal shelters there, there are enemies on all sides, it’s dark and you can’t see the runner. The situation then repeats itself one more time, but manages to piss me off considerably. In this case, one of your partners is wounded, but in a shootout you simply don’t have time run to it and start again.

A few words about moving between missions. During breaks during level loading, you can hear small scenes of conversations between characters, but they often do not explain anything and are then repeated a little differently at the beginning of the mission. In fact, all missions start suddenly. Here we are there, then suddenly in another place. No cutscenes, no planning or gathering, no introduction. The developers decided to leave a lot behind the scenes and it does not benefit the game.

The production shots here are good. I wish I could remember the names of those three guys.

Characters and motivation

Very little is known about the characters. Kane is a criminal and former member of the Seven. He has a wife and daughter, whom he has not seen for 14 years due to the death of his young son from careless handling of weapons due to Kane’s stupidity. Even less is known about Lynch. He exhibits uncontrollable attacks of aggression, which is replaced by amnesia. During such an attack, he killed his wife, for which he went to prison.

What kind of “Seven” are they, what were their goals, what did Kane take from them, what’s in the suitcases we’re hunting for?? Why, at the end of the game, did I remember only one name of the members of the Seven – Carlos? The game doesn’t give any answers to all this.

There are also prisoners from whom we are assembling a team. They all have their own scores to settle with members of the Seven, but they don’t tell us about that either. Perhaps some little things flash by, but since conversations take place during firefights, you simply miss them. Kane lures them with the fact that everyone will receive a lot of money from the Seven after killing them.

Kane’s motivation is clear. My wife and daughter are hostage, so we need to return everything and prevent their death. Lynch was promised something, but I never caught what.

As the game progresses, things don’t go as planned for the heroes. Either Lynch starts killing in a fit, or Kane does stupid things, which the developers themselves notice through Lynch’s lips.

Speaking of Lynch attacks. They happen only twice per game, after which he becomes a good boy and generally a more sensible person than Kane. It’s unclear why it all ended, did the pills help or was it a miscalculation in the script??

"I’m getting too old for this". My thoughts and the name of the mission completely coincided at that moment.

As the story progresses, Kane commits a couple of illogical actions in a row. First: when we try to return the second case, but everything goes wrong, Kane decides to go to the seven empty-handed, which leads to quite logical consequences. This can be rephrased as: “Let’s wait and see what happens”. Second: immediately after this, Kane saves his daughter and sends her home or somewhere else in a taxi. At this point, Lynch remarks that this was not a good idea. Subsequently it will turn out that way. There is a third one, but it depends on the player’s choice. There’s also a dude who helps rob a bank. At a certain moment, he realizes that Kane staged a raid on the bank to open his own cell and is shocked by such stupidity. On the other hand, Kane cannot just show up at the bank and ask for the contents. Firstly, he is a prisoner on the run, and secondly, the seven or someone else can follow him.

Kane and Lynch: Suicide Squad, this is a B-movie, an action thriller from the early 90s about dashing shootouts, simple motivation with a straightforward plot and no pianos in the bushes. The villains are known in advance, and so is the goal. How it will all end is also predictable. The chemistry between the characters ends in the second third of the game. It’s definitely not a bad game. There is a variety of locations, there are new mechanics like the same rope that simply wasn’t twisted, chatty characters and, in some places, well-designed levels like a skyscraper or a construction site. Beautiful shots also slip by. A space stylized as a Japanese garden under a bridge, a disco and again a skyscraper. But this is frankly not enough. The last third of the game is monotonous and boring. There are simply more enemies, partners are more of a hindrance than a help, and the locations are gray and unclear. The 4-hour timing here even saves unfinished mechanics and prevents you from getting too tired of the monotony. Come after work, turn off your head and gulp through without going into details.

If you look back at 2007, then the port of Gears of War was released, in which the system of shelters and shooting was perfectly implemented, and the detail of the levels was an order of magnitude higher. Excellent Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Halo 2, Crysis, CoD: Modern Warfare and Bioshock came out with adequate shooting and plot. Partial destructibility was implemented in Stranglehold and much better than in Kane and Lynch, even though the game itself is a tricky one. I note that IO Interactive did not develop anything other than the Hitman series and the Freedom Fighters game until 2007, so the above shortcomings can be attributed to a lack of experience.

Still, the game had great potential. Rework the shooting, strengthen the plot through backstory and cutscenes. Implement training and equipment of the team, interaction with it. Bring in some proper stealth, work with sound and dynamics. Then maybe it will be a masterpiece. For now it’s 6 out of 10.

I just wanted to play that same game from 2007!

After writing the review, I came across news about the dismissal of Gamespot journalist Jeff Gerstman for a bad review of the game, which he wrote despite the contract between Gamespot and EIDOS. Review still available on Gamespot. I probably would have been fired too.