A game that is the product of that early Xbox 360 push towards everything being co-op. Loads of dull objectives - defend the guy, protect the moving thing, hold the point - which are always more palatable with a friend but so is being held hostage and I don't fancy that as a good way to spend my time either.
There's some cool ideas here that could use further exploration. Lynch's madness sometimes turning NPCs into enemies when playing in two player mode, while Kane sees them as the cowering innocents that they are and a picture-in-picture pop up when a sniper is lining up a shot on your head is a really useful tool for getting into cover but also ramps up the tension and chaos brilliantly.
The shooting feels stiff and unsatisfying and the cover system is basically a fucking coin toss as to whether it works or not and it is fair to say that Kane and Lynch just doesn't really FEEL good to play, which is ultimately is what condemns this one to the trash pile.
It's a real shame though because the characters, setting and atmosphere the game sets in the first half is absolutely fantastic. It's grim, gritty and never paints the protagonists to be anything more than horrible arseholes. They've basically aimed for a Michael Mann-esque hard boiled action thriller and, when it all clicks together during the prison break and sky rise building heist and subsequent shootout through the Tokyo streets, it's absolutely brilliant stuff.
However, some bright spark decided to turn the second half of the game into a fairly by the numbers military shooter and all of the aforementioned problems are suddenly emphasised massively. You're thrust from these excellent thriller movie staples which drip with tension and atmosphere and end up in some generic cover shooter with shite controls, leading to loads of frustrating deaths and tedious shootouts where you're just waiting for lads to pop their heads out from behind walls.
There's about an hour of a good game in Kane & Lynch. Unfortunately the six or so around it mean that hour just isn't worth the hassle.
There's some cool ideas here that could use further exploration. Lynch's madness sometimes turning NPCs into enemies when playing in two player mode, while Kane sees them as the cowering innocents that they are and a picture-in-picture pop up when a sniper is lining up a shot on your head is a really useful tool for getting into cover but also ramps up the tension and chaos brilliantly.
The shooting feels stiff and unsatisfying and the cover system is basically a fucking coin toss as to whether it works or not and it is fair to say that Kane and Lynch just doesn't really FEEL good to play, which is ultimately is what condemns this one to the trash pile.
It's a real shame though because the characters, setting and atmosphere the game sets in the first half is absolutely fantastic. It's grim, gritty and never paints the protagonists to be anything more than horrible arseholes. They've basically aimed for a Michael Mann-esque hard boiled action thriller and, when it all clicks together during the prison break and sky rise building heist and subsequent shootout through the Tokyo streets, it's absolutely brilliant stuff.
However, some bright spark decided to turn the second half of the game into a fairly by the numbers military shooter and all of the aforementioned problems are suddenly emphasised massively. You're thrust from these excellent thriller movie staples which drip with tension and atmosphere and end up in some generic cover shooter with shite controls, leading to loads of frustrating deaths and tedious shootouts where you're just waiting for lads to pop their heads out from behind walls.
There's about an hour of a good game in Kane & Lynch. Unfortunately the six or so around it mean that hour just isn't worth the hassle.