Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

The one thing that really comes to mind when I think of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is wasted potential. This game really could have been good. It basically boils down to a somewhat Max Payne-esque tale of revenge, betrayal, and unlucky circumstances. I'm a sucker for this type of game, so I thought maybe I could look past the negative reviews and enjoy what Kane and Lynch had to offer. Unfortunately, I found that there were just too many flaws for me to have fun with this missed opportunity.

To start off, the game really does have a decent premise. Both the main characters, Kane and Lynch, are flawed convicts whose personalities and interactions make for some really interesting situations. For a little while this alone almost had me enjoying the game. But truthfully, they didn't utilize this nearly to the extent that they could have, and they also never really delved into our protagonists' backstories enough to give us a strong emotional connection to the events in the story. The plot, while starting off fairly strong, also started to devolve toward the end. I remember one segment in particular where I was suddenly whisked off to a distant country without even so much as a cutscene in between. Oh, and it also included a pretty obnoxious "moral choice" at the end, which I found to be pretty poorly implemented and not satisfying in the least.

I don't usually like to mention graphics in reviews, because it's not something I focus on a whole lot when judging games. But I do have to say that the graphics in Kane and Lynch are particularly sloppy and severely lacking in polish. The character models are muddier than you would expect from a game coming out when this game did, and the explosions don't look too "hot" either. However, this didn't bother me as much as I'm sure it does some people. In general, this is just another aspect of the game that gives me the impression that not enough time and effort was spent developing it.

But despite anything else the game does right or wrong, the gameplay mechanics are without a doubt the worst part of the game. Featuring a sloppy cover system, very loose gunplay, atrocious friendly AI, and an awkward automatic reloading feature, what more could you really ask for? I can't count the number of times that I cursed my partner for darting out into the open, only to be promptly gunned down. Then it would be my job to run out there and heal him back up after dealing with all the enemies myself. I mean, it wasn't a tremendously challenging game, but babysitting artificial teammates is flat out annoying. The combat just lacked polish, just like everything else about the game. I couldn't help but get very clunky vibes as I jogged around firing at the incoming waves of opponents.

In the end, I did hate Kane and Lynch: Dead Men. But luckily it only took about four hours or so to beat, so it wasn't nearly as painful as it could have been. I'm just disappointed that the game didn't get the proper attention it needed to succeed. It really could have been right up my alley if the finished product hadn't been so unpolished and its strengths so underutilized. I would say that hopefully they got their act together with the second game, but I haven't heard many good things about that one either. Damn you, IO Interactive. Will you ever listen to criticism?