Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
File:Kane & Lynch.png
Developer(s)	IO Interactive
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Engine	Glacier Engine (heavily modified) with Havok physics
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Games for Windows
Release	USA: November 14, 2007 EUR: November 23, 2007 AUS: December 6, 2007
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	Single player, co-op, online multiplayer

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a cooperative action game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and gaming platform Games for Windows. It has been confirmed that movie studio Lionsgate has bought the rights for a movie adaptation.

The game is considered as something of a spiritual sequel to IO's previous Freedom Fighters due to many similarities in the game's control style, recruitment and management of the player's squad, overall gameplay, and use of its game engine.

Gameplay

Campaign

In campaign mode the player takes the role of Kane. While traveling to death row Kane is involved in a head-on collision and is kidnapped by members of a mercenary group called The 7. After being transported away Kane is taken to the remaining members of The 7 and is forced to retrieve a stolen amount of money that Kane is believed to have taken after betraying them in the Venezuela job or his wife and daughter will be killed. Lynch, a madman working for The 7 is assigned to watch Kane's every movement. The player will be able to play through 16 stages with Lynch by his side, also accompanied by other hired mercenaries. This action shooter game lets you play through the bank heist and a night club in Tokyo. The game takes a turn for the worst when Kane runs out of time and is forced to face The7 without all their money. Kane’s wife is killed by The7 but Lynch makes a move in time to stop The7 from killing Jenny, Kane's daughter. Now with revenge on his mind Kane gathers men from a list to get back at The7. Here the player is sent through the streets of Tokyo and the forests of Havana in search of The7. Eventually Kane is able to catch up with The7 with the help of Carlos, an ex member of The7. Kane is able to save his daughter but is now faced with the decision of running away with her and letting all of his men "burn", or go back to save his men’s life but at the risk of losing Jenny. Either way the game ends up on a sad note. Co-op mode is available in which the second player will assume the role of Lynch. Though almost identical to Kane’s style of game play Lynch has short bursts of aggression in which nearly all AI characters are police, some sporting an animal's head. He also usually comes equipped with a shotgun, whereas Kane typically carries a sub-machine gun or carbine.

Fragile Alliance

Fragile Alliance is the game's only online multiplayer mode, which consists of 4 maps: Hot Coffee, Late Night Opening, Withdrawal and A Walk In The Park or if you buy the map pack from the xbox live network the total maps is 8. The goal is to finish a several round match with the most money. Each round begins with all of the players as armed, balaclava-clad robbers, and players who have reached #1 and 2 of the leaderboard will play as Kane and Lynch, respectively, who are on one team with the goal of looting as much money or as many valuables as possible. Money can be picked up by standing near a white dollar symbol; the symbol will change to a gray color as that source of money gradually empties. Money can be used to buy better firearms and armour, there are three types of weapon packs: normal, heavy and special. Resistance is met in the form of armed AI controlled security guards and/or police officers. A player's money acts as a shield, but will quickly be dropped on the ground as the player is injured. To escape the level, a player must survive to meet a getaway vehicle. All players who survive without turning on their allies will split stolen money evenly.

If a player is killed, they will respawn as a police officer with the goal of stopping their former allies from escaping. Any loot that the robbers drop can be picked up by a police officer for a 10% finder's fee. If a player who has become a police officer is killed, they do not respawn and will only be able to observe for the rest of that round. Police officers do not split their loot with other players.

However, players are able to kill one or more of their allies, and in doing so will be labeled as a traitor. Traitors do not get a share of the rest of the team's loot but get to keep all of the money that they stole themselves; this enables players who have taken a large amount of money to score more points. Their normally white player name will turn orange, and they can not conceal their name as usual by crouching. Traitors can be killed by their betrayed allies for a reward which is not split with the rest of the team. When a player who is killed by a traitor becomes a police officer, they will be able to earn a revenge bonus for killing that traitor. When the round ends, a traitor becomes a normal member of the team again, though they will appear in a black shirt and start separated from the rest of the alliance for the immediately following round.

A player's appearance in the game is influenced by their TrueSkill rank on the X-Box 360. Unlike Kane and Lynch's campaign mode, players can not sprint. If a player feels they have taken enough money to become a target for potential traitors, they can drop some of their money (thus becoming less of a scoring threat.)

Development

For the development of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Jesper Kyd was brought in to write the musical score for the game, having already written score for the Hitman series and Freedom Fighters. The single player was originally going to have online co-op but was dropped at the last minute and limited to offline due to time restrictions and difficulty. Director Jens-Peter Kurup said that Scarface and Unforgiven were inspirations for the characters. The game was originally going to revolve around only Kane, with Lynch acting as a side-kick. But as the development went on, they decided to include Lynch in the story also. Martin Guldbaek, the art director for the game, said that for creating each of the locations, the team went to Los Angeles for photo shooting. They combined this with concept artwork to create "locations that matched the character's mood and perspective". Anders Poulsen is the lead character artist. According to him, he wanted to make characters "like no other". Kane was the first character to be designed, but was very different from his final appearance. (He was minus the scar on his face, and originally smoked a cigarette.) When Lynch was bought in, it added more "life" to Kane's character.

Plot

Adam 'Kane' Marcus is traveling to death row after being convicted of crimes he committed in Venezuela. Another death row inmate, James Lynch, hints of a mid-destination breakout unbeknownst to Kane. Their truck is involved in a head-on collision and an unknown group of mercenaries set them free. It quickly becomes apparent that this isn't a rescue, but a kidnapping. The two are taken to a shopping mall still under construction. Here it's revealed that the remaining survivors of the botched Venezuela job, The7, are behind the breakout. They plan to take revenge on Kane for leaving them to die and taking the group's 'retirement' reward. They make him an offer; retrieve the stolen item in three weeks or his wife and daughter will be murdered. Even if he's successful or not, he will still be executed. Lynch acts as a watchdog, reporting in to The7 (now only four; The villianous Older Brother who is the leader, the psychotic Younger Brother who is Kane's nemesis, Carlos who is Kane's best friend and quiet sociopathic killer Mute) on Kane's movements.

Kane and Lynch, along with old friend of Kane's (an unnamed safecracker), break into an LA bank to retrieve the item locked away in safe deposit box. Lynch becomes more erratic as the operation goes on, while Kane finds that one of the boxes has one of the cases, the others don't, leading him to believe that the original owner retrieved them. Lynch finally snaps and kills everyone upstairs. After a shootout with the police, the group escape the bank, where Lynch reveals he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is low on medication. After a protracted pursuit, Kane and Lynch escape in on a subway train and leave his friend and getaway driver to die. They head to Japan to find a Yakuza boss named Retomoto, the man previously assumed to have the reward. Kane plans to kidnap his only lead's daughter, Yoko, in hopes of a fast and easy exchange. Kidnapping her in her own night club, he drives her to a park in exchange for the cash. The plan is going well, but Lynch suffers another delusion and kills Yoko, in the midst of Retomoto's attempt in striking a deal with Kane; Yoko in exchange for assistance against The7. Upon hearing of his daughter's demise, Retomoto launches an attack on Kane, who manages to escape with Lynch.

With their three week deadline up, Kane heads back to LA in an attempt to renegotiate with The7. Lynch questions his decision, while Kane retorts that he's a dead man too; Lynch denies this, in that he has already made a deal for his survival and even a position within The7.

Inside a shallow hole within a construction site, Kane's plead for extra time lands upon deaf ears, as The7 prepare to execute him. Right before Kane's eyes, his estranged wife and daughter, Jenny, are kidnapped by The7 to make good of their promise, the execution of his family. He has a letter to give to Jenny and pleads with Carlos for more time and to let his wife and his daughter go, to no avail, but instead promises that they will be buried somewhere nice. The Brothers and Carlos depart for Havana while Kane's wife is executed by Mute, and Jenny is pushed by her into a hole. In turn, Lynch lunges at one of his captors, serving as a distraction while an enraged Kane beats Mute to death with a shovel. As The7's reinforcements arrive, they continued to defend Jenny from further waves of attacks. After the coast is clear, Kane gets Jenny to flee the scene.

After burying his wife, Kane decides to finish off The7 for the sake of his daughter's safety. Kane reluctantly allows Lynch to join his cause, after telling him of his wife's murder and his supposed inability at that time to save her. With the help of the mining truck, they managed to ambush the prison security, incite several prison riots and, most importantly, performed their goal of breaking out a group of 'dead men'(people who went against The7 in the past) from prison, forming their own band of ragtag convicts to challenge The7. It is during the breaking out of Shelly, that the death of Lynch's wife is bought into dubious doubt, with Shelly suspecting Lynch of killing his own wife, which Lynch denies.

Kane starts his revenge by returning to Japan, killing Retomoto in his own company's boardroom, and retrieves back the other missing briefcase he was looking for. The contents are never revealed. Through a fight out of the office complex and Japanese police officers out at the streets and into a bus terminal, the group finally manages to escape in another van.

Days later, Kane, Lynch and their 'dead men' - Thapa, Rific and Shelly - follow The7's remaining three to Havana. Apparently, it is mentioned from Kane, that The7 reap financial benefits from assisting sides in civil wars, with Havana supposedly The7's last job needed for their retirement. There they find themselves caught up in an on-going civil war. Throughout the battle in the war-torn streets, Kane constantly assures the group members of rewards beyond even their retirement needs.They eventually track down Carlos, Kane's only friend in The7, who tells the group that he too has been betrayed by The Brothers after the Havana operation fell apart. Thapa deserts the group abruptly, with mistrust of the promised payment and the impromptu alliance formed with Carlos. The remaining group fight their way through the Cuban jungles and drug operations, managing to locate The Brother's base of operations. Over radio chatter, it's revealed that Jenny has been kidnapped by The Brothers and held hostage. Serving as a distraction, Carlos decides to detonate a mine at the entrance of the base, but fails and gets captured by The Brothers. Kane and Lynch then overhear the Brothers speaking to Carlos over their ear piece and hears him get killed because he "shouldn't have listened to Kane". With the assistance of Rific and Shelly, Kane and Lynch manage to storm into the building and find Jenny in a courtyard, who is set up as an ambush by The Brothers. While The Brothers are distracted, Kane manages to shoot the mine left undetonated beside Carlos' corpse, killing the older brother with the resulting explosion. However, the younger brother manages to escape with Jenny amidst the confusion.

Meanwhile, Rific and Shelly are pinned down while trying to secure the airfield (The Brothers' means of escape). With the assistance of a driver from the resistance that Kane was helping in the aforementioned civil war, he and Lynch manage to hitch a ride and chase down the plane before take off. After Kane manages to shoot down the pair of the plane's engine, he confronts his old nemesis, the Younger Brother as he holds Jenny hostage at the cockpit of the sabotaged plane. Kane approches the scene, as the Younger Brother sprawls on his knees in pain, both Kane and Lynch shoot him to death. Kane rescues a traumatised Jenny; who hates her father's betrayal of everyone, from leaving his grief stricken family to his double-cross of The7. Rific and Shelly call for help, but Kane doesn't care, trying his best to ignore Jenny and Lynch's pleas. At a helicopter pad, he has to make a choice whether to save his men or escape with his daughter.

In one ending, Kane boards a helicopter with Jenny and leaves the remaining men, including Lynch, 'to burn'. Jenny resents her father's actions.

In the canon ending, Kane and Lynch head to the surviving mercs' position. Kane takes Jenny with him, despite Lynch's apprehensions. They're too late to save Rific and Shelly feels betrayed, despite the rescue attempt. As they escape to the pier, Jenny is shot and supposedly killed by a guard (This enemy is scripted to be invulnerable until he assumably kills Jenny). Kane carries her body, in denial of her death. Shelly loses his patience and attempts to escape, leaving Kane, Lynch, and Jenny behind. Kane and Lynch finally escape together with Jenny's body on the last boat. Lynch ends up getting shot in the shoulder, while Jenny is presumably dead. As Lynch tells him to deal with his mistake, Kane whispers to Jenny about the letter he tried to send to her. A sequel has been announced by Eidos Interactive.

Reception

As of 10 Jan 2008 SCi Entertainment and subsidiary Eidos announced that Kane and Lynch: Dead Men has sold over 1 million copies at retail since its mid-November launch. The game received mixed reviews upon release. As of December 5, 2007 on the review aggregator Game Rankings, the Xbox 360 version of the game had an average score of 67.5% based on 42 reviews. On Metacritic, the Xbox 360 version has a metascore of 66 out of 100, based on 41 reviews. On Game Rankings, the PS3 version had a score of 65.8% based on 19 reviews. On Metacritic, the PS3 version has a metascore of 64 out of 100, based on 23 reviews. One reason cited for giving the PlayStation 3 version of the game a lower score is the lack of voice chat during the online mode, a feature the Xbox 360 version supports.

GameTrailers awarded the game an overall score of 8.0/10 (Design, 8.5; Story, 9.0; Gameplay, 8.1; Presentation, 7.9), stating that although there are some flaws in the game, the package as a whole made it "easy to recommend". On the other end of the scale, import-centric site NTSC-uk gave it just 3/10 calling it "a sickly mess of a game with the multitude of negatives undermining every positive".

Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded the game a 7.2/10 rating, saying it had "great story, pacing, and variety" yet complained about the absence of online co-op and poor aiming.

GameSpot gave it a 6.0, noting that "Characters and storyline do everything in their power to drive you away from the game". Soon after the Gamespot review, the author of the review, Jeff Gerstmann was fired from his position. Rumors circulated that his dismissal was a result of external pressure from Eidos Interactive, due to the undesirable rating of the game. Both Gamespot and parent company CNET stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review.

Following the Gamespot controversy, the games' official website was accused of lying as it presented graphics effectively communicating that the game had been awarded perfect five star ratings by various publications which had in fact granted only relatively mediocre scores. Some of the criticism leveled at this was the inclusion of preview quotes "being paraded around as reviews".

The Australian PC games magazine PC Powerplay gave the PC version of the game an 8/10, "Excellent", citing "great dialogue", "impressive locations" and "satisfying action" as highlights while criticising its length and the final act of the game, suggesting it "loses ambition" compared to the earlier parts of the game which "[took] some pages out of Mann's notebook".

Soundtrack

Main article: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Original Soundtrack

References to and from other IO Interactive games

• In the IO video game Hitman: Blood Money, one of the after mission newspapers mentions Kane & Lynch's escape from the prison van, referring to them as Adam Marcus (Kane's real name) and "Mr. Little" (presumably Lynch).
• There is also a reference in another Blood Money newspaper, where a small side advertisement shows a hardware store holding a weekly special on a push dagger, one identical to Kane's.
• In the 'Hitman: Blood Money' level "A Vintage Year" there are several portraits hung around the mansion house. Some are concept art for both the 'Retemoto Tower' and Cuba levels.
• In the background of a promotional poster for the game, there is an insurance advertisement featuring Hitman's Agent 47 with the captioning "Is death sneaking up on you?"
• The game's Achievements in the Xbox 360 version contain two references to the Hitman franchise, one being that there are 47 achievements. There is also an achievement called "Headmaster", which requires the user to show his skill by scoring 47 headshots.
• Narrating one of the TV spots for the game is David Bateson, the voice actor who played Agent 47 in the Hitman series.
• In the multiplayer mode "Fragile Alliance," there is a level called "Late Night Opening." One of the stores in this level is "Mr. 47's Menswear." Also on the same level, the elevator music from Hitman: Blood Money is played in the background.
• There is a reference to Hitman Contracts in the streets of Tokyo.
• The name of the game's 11th level, "Freedom Fighters", is an obvious reference to one of IO's previous titles of the same name.

Film Adaptation

A film adaptation is in the works from Lionsgate. Recently, Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton are the latest rumored to star in the film as the main protagonists as of November 2007, but nothing new has surfaced since then.

Sequel

A sequel of the game has been announced by Eidos. It is a working title and has been given a TBA release date.poop

External links

• Official website
• Kane & Lynch Fansite
• Peter Stacks Blog