Review: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

Io Interactive is widely known for their fantastic ‘Hitman’ series but they also produced the underrated and widely ignored ‘Freedom Fighters’. Whereas ‘Hitman’ was a mixture of stealth and quiet assassination, ‘Freedom Fighters’ was a guns-blazing squad based shooter fighting the Red Army as it invaded America.

‘Kane & Lynch: Dead Men’ is almost like the next generation version of this in terms of gameplay. In fact one of the later levels knowingly name checks it predecessor as well as providing some reminders. However, for all the similarities in terms of gameplay the plot and the general atmosphere of the game could not be any more different.

Few games match the levels of violence and quantity of swearing featured here. Swearing can be mentioned in the same breath as violence simply as there is so much. Every second word almost. In fact, it quickly comes across as unnecessary and forced, when the characters can come across as unsympathetic and hard-edged without the obligatory insert-swear-word-here scripting simply from their actions in game.

Io Interactive throughout the ‘Hitman’ series have always had a knack for having the weapons involved feel like you’re firing them. There is heaviness to them, in that you can almost feel the recoil and the impact of each bullet. This is to their credit as with every gunfight in ‘Kane & Lynch’ you really get caught up in the violence – a body arching away after a quick fire of a machine gun, parts of a wall disintegrating as you aim just a bit too far to the left. There's just something about guns in Io games that make you appreciate that what you’re firing is a weapon.

As mentioned, you will not come away with any sympathy for the Kane or Lynch by playing this game. Kane – a mercenary responsible for the deaths of thousands and ultimately the destruction of his own family, Lynch – a psychotic who murdered his own wife. But by having such characters means you don’t question the tasks they have to undertake. If you must kill everyone to get out of a situation then you do it, it’s what you would expect of the characters.

Add to the mix a fantastically bleak score by Jesper Kyd (again from the ‘Hitman’ series), some fantastic set-pieces such as abseiling down a Tokyo office building before shooting your way out, breaking into a prison and eventually joining a massive military coup. The Tokyo nightclub easily brings comparison with the New Orleans Mardi Gras level in ‘Hitman: Blood Money’. Enjoy these and it’ll help you to overlook the games faults.

Like ‘Freedom Fighters’ the squad mechanics don’t always work and on occasion in ‘Kane & Lynch’ frustratingly so. Watching groups of men vital to the completion of a level running straight into a line of fire, constantly getting in the way of your own weapons and, worryingly, while you lie dying watching your AI-controlled squad mates trying to save you but getting confused by an object in the way and simply running on the spot.

However, the faults aren’t enough to stop ‘Kane & Lynch: Dead Men’ from being an enjoyable, yet slightly depressing experience (thanks to the storyline) with some fantastic sequences that Io will find hard to top.