all the way back in 2014, i had heard a lot about this game from different video game reviewers, usually with some video title like "the worst game of all time" which resulted in me finding a strong interest in the title. i would watch a lot of videos on it and found its reputation to feel a little weird, since at worst it looked generic. later that year i chose to play the first kane & lynch and i thought it was okay, it was a weird little third person shooter game but i ended up really liking it. i then chose to play the demo of kane & lynch 2 on xbox 360 since i wasnt willing to pay for the game, and again, i did not get why this game is as hated as it is. my interest in the series however promptly faded as i moved onto other things.

fast forward an entire decade, and as a result of a joking whim with a friend, we decided to play this game in full. over time, i had largely forgotten about my previous experiences with the two games and the impression of "worst game of all time" sat again in my mind, choosing to believe i just "didnt get why it was bad" as a kid.

the game quickly struck me with its horrible gunplay, nauseating camera and weird (albeit really cool) aesthetic. shooting at people feels no different than shooting at nothing, its hard to even tell when youre actually doing anything half the time. the game feels extremely obtuse and uncomfortable to play. i sneeringly said "this is all meta kino, kane & lynch 2 is a violence bad masterpiece" not thinking too much of it.

yet the more i played, the more my sneering comment just felt like it was coming true. the sheer grotesqueness of the game, the edginess of the dialogue, with its endless and excessive swearing and shouting, it all just clicked in the chapter where kane and lynch run around butt ass naked. i realized that, completely in spite of how intentional or unintentional it may be, this game made me feel the exact same way as i did when i first played drakengard 1.

after the aforehand mentioned chapter, i found myself entirely engrossed in the game. i couldnt find it in myself to mock it anymore. my friend and i almost found it funny at just how seriously we both started taking it at a point. realizing the entire plot starts from a single woman being killed by our protagonists, one who is unnamed, and doesnt have a single scene beforehand. the death that feels completely weightless from the perspective of both our psychotic protagonists, AND the violence numbed player, one typically inclined to find themselves playing a shooter game like this.

there is no such thing as a weightless death. the sheer amount of dissonance between the significance her death has, and the significance felt across the entire game are worlds apart, and defined entirely by how normalized violence and killing had become in gaming (and media as a whole) at that point in time.

in conclusion, kane & lynch 2: dog days is a meta kino violence bad masterpiece. it effortlessly communicates its message through its gameplay and aesthetic alone. my 10 year long journey with this duology has randomly been brought back into my life at a time when i can appreciate it for what it is.

kane & lynch 2: dog days is an ethnic masterpiece.

angry joe gave this game a 3/10 though so idk if i can keep liking it. most of my opinions are shaped by his so i cant really think anything else :/