I just completed Kane and Lynch, and I must say it's one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had. It plays like Hitman: Blood Money except strip away the stealth and the strategizing, leaving only the shooting aspect to be the sole focus, which makes it already doomed to be a disaster. But Kane and Lynch manages to outdo itself in its ability to make me miserable to the point of straight up crying during the final chapters.

One of the major issues is the abysmal accuracy of the guns, which I initially tolerated for the first few chapters. It's baffling to have such poor accuracy in a third-person shooter where you're supposed to be an experienced mercenary. Additionally, the game's cover system is outright schizophrenic. There were countless moments when I expected to take cover in a spot, only for Kane to refuse to snap into position. It's equally frustrating to watch my teammates repeatedly walk into a hail of bullets, forcing me to constantly revive them. However, if you happen to get revived more than twice, You'll overdose and die. An "realism" aspect that was really needed in a game where you genocide the fuzz and the population of Cuba.

If the intention behind Kane and Lynch design was to immerse players in a miserable and chaotic world, mirroring the psychology of its two protagonists, then they certainly succeeded. I found myself appalled rather than enthralled by the Inner psyches of Kane, the neglectful sociopath, and Lynch, the character who seems to revel in unpredictability for the sake of being 'le random xd.'

I've had enough, Goodnight.

I have an odd relation to the first Kane & Lynch. When I first played it on the PS3, I absolutely HATED this game. Everything felt so clunky and not precise. I couldn't hit ANYTHING with these damn weapons and wasted a lot of ammo, but the PC-version is miles better. Writing wise, IO Interactive tried hard to catch the vibes of Reservoir Dogs or Heat, but it falls mostly flat. But I really need to say, that I dig the downward spiral this game goes... even though the ending is pretty shit. A tale of two detesting human beings, who just fuck up all the time and even jump into a Guerilla War, which reminded me from the mechanics a lot of their previous game "Freedom Fighters".

As interesting as the vile eponymous characters are, little can save Kane & Lynch: Dead Men from the mediocrity, if not outright terribleness, of its entire package. Gameplay is banal and tedious, even on the easiest difficulty; the narrative twists Max Payne, Trainspotting, and Tarantino into baffling nonsense to justify Kane's search and later rampages (although the cooperative mechanics driving Lynch are intriguing in a way Kane's never is); technical aspects are wholly deplorable with AI and graphics seeming antiquated for 2007; and, in comparison to its sequel, there's just no style to this game to warrant a playthrough to segue into Dog Days. There's worse games out there for sure, but Dead Men isn't really trying enough to not be deemed amongst them.

Really interesting game, not the best by any mean or capacity but interesting enough to keep you hooked through it's story. It's a well made movie-like experience with a great variety of locations and scenarios. The atmosphere feels opressive and dark at times. The Japan levels were the best in my opinion. Something strange I recalled is that the characters just go from one side of the world for another in a matter of just seconds? it helps to keep the pace of the game but come on, it feels kind of lazy.

Both protagonist make a good couple, one being sane and the other being a psycho. One is selfish, the other one is loyal and so one. The best of both worlds and it works Both are deeply flawed on their own way.

Why is just "Decent" then? Well, the gameplay cannot be more tedious for a shooter. The cover mechanic is not associated to a specific button for some ungodly reason and it's just does it by itself when you are close to a wall. The shooting itself feels janky to say the least, the bullets spread like crazy and you don't much options for a more precise weapon such as a rifle or sniper through the game. Sprinting is non-existential, it last less than 5 seconds if you are lucky and the sprint isn't like a huge difference from walking either. The Team mechanic is a mixed-bag it can serve on some specific ocassions but most of the time you ended up killing yout target before your team does most of the time.

Most of the unique mechanics to this game don't flesh out that much really through the journey. Stealth is close to non-existent, specially in the Jungle levels when there is an incentive to use it. You will ending up shooting everyone without consecuence anyways.

Conclusions: Interesting game, but it's not much of a fun ride, but it doesn't need to be it either. And by the end, you will ended up empty.