Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Review
For two guys who debuted as Dead Men back in 2007, Adam "Kane" Marcus and James Seth Lynch are in pretty good shape. Kane's nose is no longer broken, Lynch's medication is keeping his inner psycho under control, and their gritty second outing improves upon the first in just about every way. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days looks better, sounds better, and plays better than its predecessor, and while its story mode clocks in at an all-too-short four hours or so, a handful of other modes are fun to keep playing for a while after the credits have rolled. Kane and Lynch still aren't characters you're likely to empathize with, but shooting up Shanghai in their company isn't a bad way to spend a dog day afternoon.
The first thing you can't help but notice about Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is its aesthetic. The entire game is seemingly played from the perspective of an invisible drunk who, armed with the world's worst camcorder, has decided to follow protagonist Lynch everywhere he goes. The shakiness of the camera is optional, but other effects such as compression artifacts, lens flare, and lights smearing vertically across the screen are mandatory. You might initially find this visual style quite distracting, but because the treatment is always consistent, it doesn't take long to get used to it. Opting to keep the shaky cam switched on can make the game a little more challenging in spots because it interferes with your aim, but other than a few cutscenes in which the camera sways for no apparent reason, its movement is very much in keeping with your own and with your surroundings. And, invisible cameraman theories aside, it makes sense that your view and your aim would be a little compromised when sprinting as fast as you can or getting knocked to the ground after taking a bullet--both of which you spend a lot of time doing.
That's right, in Dog Days you spend a lot of time getting shot. It's unavoidable. The push-button cover system works well for the most part, and you can do all of the usual blind firing and leaning out to take your shots, but your enemies are smart enough to flank you when the opportunity presents itself. And, more to the point, they're quite handy with the weapons they're carrying. Furthermore, enemies can and do use cover in much the same way as you, and they even mix up the ways that they lean out so that resting your crosshair where their heads popped up a second ago rarely means you're ready and waiting the next time they try for a shot. When you combine this mostly good enemy AI with the fact that you're almost always greatly outnumbered--not to mention that many of the objects you take cover behind are realistically destructible--Dog Days poses a decent challenge even on its default difficulty setting, which is the second of four available.
If you take too many bullets, you fall to the ground where, rather than having to wait for another character to rescue you as in the first game, you can crawl back into a relatively safe spot before getting back on your feet and, where possible, straight into cover. This "down not dead" mechanic makes for some memorable moments as you lie on your back shuffling away from and shooting at enemies, hoping that the game's regular color palette will return to replace the bright red tint that bleeds onto the screen every time you're shot. Enemies aren't quite as smart on their backs as they are on their feet, but, like you, they're able to defend themselves and, if you don't finish them off, to get back to their feet. Remember how the psychotic, AI-controlled Lynch used to unload shot after shot into enemies who were already dead in the first game? In the second, you might catch yourself doing exactly the same thing--just to be sure.
For the most part, playing as Lynch is really no different from playing as Kane, which a second player has the option to do in either online or split-screen cooperative play. Lynch is a slightly more interesting character to play through the story as though, not only because he's the one leading the charge this time out, but also because as his motivations become overwhelming, you occasionally hear him struggling to contain his psychotic tendencies either by talking to himself or by letting out an angry roar. The other downside to playing as Kane is that you can't always trigger or even view cutscenes properly, and in online play, you're more likely to experience lag than the player who's hosting the game. If it weren't for the lag, which is occasionally bad enough that it makes aiming at animation-skipping enemies frustratingly difficult, online co-op would definitely be the best way to play through the story mode. Levels are usually designed in such a way that two players can work together to flank enemies by taking slightly different routes through them, while the co-op-only ability to revive each other (as well as a number of doors that require two grown men to open) encourages you to stay close.
Regardless of whether you play through the story mode solo or with a friend, you're in for an entertaining though short-lived and largely repetitive ride. There are really only two or three action sequences in the game that stand out as being different and memorable, but the gunplay is good enough throughout that when the story struggles to hold your interest after the first couple of chapters, you still won't be in a hurry to put the game down. Dog Days is played at a much more frenetic pace than its predecessor, in part because you no longer have to concern yourself with giving instructions to AI buddies or managing the arsenals of other characters. You're never pitted against a clock, but there's always a sense of urgency to push forward because that's where your enemies drop weapons and ammo when you kill them. Ammo is rarely in such short supply that you're likely to find yourself unarmed, but it's also not so plentiful that you can afford to camp in a sweet spot for any length of time. The promise of better weapons and more ammo, combined with the enemies who often show up ahead of you when you move to retrieve them, does a good job of pulling you through each level. And on those rare occasions when you might be unsure of where to go next, you can simply tap the D pad and have the camera point you in the right direction--assuming you're in an area where the hint system is available.
