Kane & Lynch: Dog Days

The titular pair of criminals move to Shanghai for a new beginning... but can they turn over a new leaf?

We'll be honest up front - we're being clever with that whole new leaf schtick up there.

The reasoning is Kane & Lynch was a game we really wanted to like (which we seem to get a lot). It had fresh feeling characters, a wonderfully gritty take on LA crime rarely seen outside of the pages of crime fiction, and borrowed heavily from one of favourite films of all time: Heat.

But, for all that, it simply wasn't a good game. And it was pretty poorly received, too (and we won't even go into the whole GameSpot thing - well, not right <i>here</i> anyway), so the reasoning behind the sequel is kind of odd. Thus, the decision to move the game's setting to Shanghai is not only a new beginning for the characters, but for the franchise as well.

But does the gamble pay off?

So ronery
Dog Days' single player is the usual crime epic. As the game starts, Lynch is living in Shanghai with his girlfriend (and, really: how desperate does a girl have to be before a sociopath like Lynch starts looking attractive?!), and is about to meet up with his old pal Kane, who's coming in to town to be a part of brokering an arms deal. The catch-up is meant to be simple, with more effort put into organising a local dinner than keeping on top of the bodycount.

But that would be boring: before you know it, you're hip deep in a gang-war, for which it turns out that Kane is partly responsible.

Setting the game in Shanghai is bold, but in terms of level design and variety, it pays off huge dividends. From sllick neon streets of the city's ghettos, to the sprawling freeways that link it to the rest of China, it looks wonderful. And as lawless places go, Shanghai, despite a rich veneer of modern success, it's pretty up there.

And, as Tom Stratton, the game's Associate Producer, from IO Interactive said when we asked why the move, "It's the only place where someone like Lynch makes sense. He can be in the open there and no one cares."

So, yeah - reason to never visit Shanghai No. 247.

That's the setting and story side, but the gameplay is, to be brutally honest, still reminding us a lot of the original. A lot of the combat seems entirely arbitrary - either the game's hitboxes expand and contract randomly to add 'challenge', or there's something seriously wrong with IO Interactive - which would be odd, given the second Hitman game is still one of our all-time favourites. Similarly, while sometimes all it takes to drop a mook is a round to the get, you can other times empty a clip into someone's shiny noggin and they'll just grin and blow you away with a Skorpion.

It certainly didn't help that our preview time was spent on a PS3 - and we hates the PS3 controller, Precious!

On the other hand, Dog Days introduces some nice new touches. Cover works really well, and when you get shot now you crawl along until you can find yourself in cover, and then get up into it. There's a lot more destruction possible with the environment, too, though this isn't overdone. That bank heist feel from Heat is still there, too, and if IO can firm up the game's ballistics, we'll be excited.

Gang-fight!
Technically speaking, Kane & Lynch's multiplayer has always been tied to the legacy of its single-player - it's well thought out and clever, but also glaringly problematic in terms of actual accuracy and any real sense of immersion.

There's a co-op, which sees you taking on the task of beating the single player game with a mate, plus the usual heist-based games that either call for nerves of steel as you and a mess of other robbers go after the big score, or call for... well, nerves of steel as you and a mess of other robbers go after the big score (but with an undercover cop along for the ride!).

They are fun, and still unique in gaming. But also need far, far better hit mechanics.

As was said often during our hands-on time, we were looking at alpha-level code, so hopefully a lot of more polish will see this excellent story and intriguing characters finally matched up with a game worthy of them.