Video Game Review: ‘Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days’ Has Bite to Go With Bark

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CHICAGO – The ultra-violent third-person shooter “Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days” wins points merely by the developer’s refusal to pull any punches when it comes to visceral, pitch-black action, but a few frustrating elements continue to hold the franchise back from what it could have been. Like a lot of recent shooters, everything that works about “Dog Days” is off-set by something that feels underdeveloped. It’s an entertaining shooter for hardcore fans of hardcore action but it won’t breakthrough beyond its target demographic.

Video Game Rating: 3.5/5.0

Very rarely have you played a shooter level like the one in which a near-death, butt-naked Lynch is limping through a Shanghai mall and picking off oncoming enemies with his trusty firearm. “Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days” definitely wins points for brutality, if you’re into that kind of thing. In fact, the Chinese Board of Tourism may want to file a complaint because the game makes Shanghai look like the deadliest, dirtiest, grimiest, just-plain-awfulest place on Earth.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days
Photo credit: Square Enix

The city is the only setting for “Dog Days” and the game opens with Kane’s arrival, shortly followed by all Hell breaking loose after the death of a very important girl. From there, the player takes the role of Lynch (or co-op split-screen or over Xbox Live with both characters active) as he and his buddy Kane simply try to escape.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days Photo credit: Square Enix

The deadly pair is followed by what feels like a reality show cameraman, creating a handheld feel complete with pixilated violence and nudity. It can be disorienting but I quickly adjusted to the unique visual style. Hundreds of cops, security guards, and other bad guys descend upon Kane and Lynch around every corner. The game is a repetitive series of cover, shoot, run, repeat. The player carries two guns at all times, regularly swapping them out or picking up ammo from fallen enemies.

A majority of the gameplay consists of room-clearing sections. In other words, you walk into a warehouse, abandoned building, food court, etc. and take cover until all of your enemies are dead and then you move on to the next set-piece. Except for one bit from a helicopter late in the game, it is a strikingly repetitive affair. There are no upgrades to weapons, no collectibles, not even any grenades (although some well-placed fire extinguishers and gas cans make for some fun boom time). The lack of variety to gameplay is frustrating but the shocking brevity of the title — the single-player campaign shouldn’t take you more than four hours — alleviates some of the repetition.

Now, there will still be some frustration. The targeting system is a bit of a mess with a reticule that seems inconsistent and weapons that don’t feel quite right. Why is my shotgun my best long-distance weapon? Why is my handgun more efficient than my automatic weapon? The general firefights of “Kane & Lynch 2” feel somewhat arbitrary. And be prepared for some shockingly resilient enemies. Several times I would nail a guard with what I thought was a killshot only to see him get up like he had been bitten by a mosquito and keep fighting. And other times, I’d barely aim and take out a room. I don’t mind difficult targeting, but inconsistency is a problem.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days Photo credit: Square Enix

The game is also a bit glitchy. In the aforementioned food court, I was hiding behind a seat and watched an enemy skulk across the room to hide behind the seat opposite me. When I got up to introduce him to my boom stick, he was gone. Later in the same session, I watched an enemy flicker back and forth until he too disappeared. With a game so focused on “you vs. enemy” these are unacceptable glitches.

Despite the title’s repetitive nature, frustrating targeting, and the occasional glitch, I have to admit to viscerally enjoying a large portion of “Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.” It’s far from a perfect game, but it’s all about expectations. If you know the single-player campaign is more of a brutal fight than a complex journey then the get-in-get-out nature of it is likely to be less frustrating. Jump in and prepare to get shot a lot while you massacre hundreds of poor guys just trying to do their job. Don’t expect a story of the caliber of “Modern Warfare 2” or other landmark shooters, but that doesn’t mean this guilty pleasure can’t be entertaining on its own terms.

Of course, for many people, the single-player campaign will merely be practice for the multi-player experience, which is admittedly deeper and more interestingly developed than most titles. Four modes enhance the SP experience and are likely to be played long after you’ve either grown bored with or completed the campaign.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days Photo credit: Square Enix

The most interesting mode is “Fragile Alliance.” In it, the player takes the role of a criminal about to commit a crime. After taking out a few enemies, you’ll steal something and head for the escape vehicle. However, so will your partners in crime. Want to waste the guy next to you and take his money? Feel free, but you’ll be branded a traitor and become an instant target. The balance of teamwork and greed is clever and well-designed.

“Undercover Cop” plays off similar themes of trust among thieves as one player is assigned the title role. He’s not allowed to take out any criminals until after the heist is complete, so a combination of stealth and survival skills are required to win the mode. “Cops and Robbers” is a pretty standard multi-player shoot-out. Finally, “Arcade Mode” allows the single-player to practice his “Fragile Alliance” skills on his own with an increasingly difficult series of missions. Not only is the mode good practice but it earns the player upgrades and weapons which can be carried over to multi-player.

With several multi-player modes, the very-clever Arcade Mode, and an entertaining-if-flawed single-player campaign, “Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days” delivers modest entertainment for a few days. The problems arise only when one considers the wealth of exciting titles on the horizon that are likely to overshadow this average release. It’s not a bad game, but just being “not bad” in the crowded marketplace of 2010 may not be enough any more to distinguish this mutt from the rest of the pack.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com