Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

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

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a game developed by IO Interactive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Games for Windows. It is described as "a cooperative action game depicting a violent and chaotic journey of two men — a flawed mercenary and a medicated psychopath — and their brutal attitude towards right and wrong. Now, they must partner up as a mess of cash makes for hell on Earth." It has been confirmed that Lionsgate has bought the rights for the movie adaptation.

Characters

Kane

Real name Adam Marcus . Originally worked as a consultant for large companies that outsource work to other countries. His relatively normal life takes a turn for the worse when his two-year-old son Stephen finds his gun, shoots himself with it and dies. Two weeks after, Kane is unable to cope and seeing the blame put squarely on him by his wife, he skips the country. He becomes a mercenary, and after six years of putting his acquired skills to good work, he is contacted by a mysterious group known only as The 7. "A brotherhood of unlimited power," The 7 are looking to add Kane to their ranks. They promise him riches which also come with stringent rules. If those rules are ever broken, Kane is a dead man. He works for the mercenary organization for thirteen years. When their retirement job in Venezuela goes horribly wrong, Kane's entire team ends up dead (or so he thinks). He manages to escape with a fortune in diamonds. He flees, but the authorities catch up to him and he is sentenced to death. It is unknown where or how Kane got the distinctive scar running from his forehead, across his right eye down to his right cheek (Though it's possible that it had something to do with previous dealings with the Yakuza crimelord, Retomoto, because when Retomoto is killed, Kane makes the same cut across Retomoto's eye). It should be noted that Kane cares a lot about his daughter Jenny, knowing that he will die when he gets the money, but his daughter will be spared (see below). He has a good friendship with The 7 member, Carlos, since Carlos tried to have Kane's family saved.

Lynch

Real name James Seth Lynch (see game manual). A paranoid schizophrenic who made a blue collar living in a meat packing plant. He needs a large amount of prescription pills to keep his volatile nature under control. Lynch ends up on death row, after one of his 'blackouts' resulted in the brutal murder of his wife Anna. Soon after his 911 call, he went on the run (believing someone else had killed her) but was finally caught and sentenced to death. It is never clear if he is the victim of a set-up or that he really has killed due to his delusions.

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.

Gameplay

Campaign

The player will take the role of Kane during the game (Lynch is controlled by the AI, or by a second player in co-op mode). The game includes a split screen co-op mode. Gameplay uses the element of squad-based combat; squad members can be told to follow the player, move to and defend a position, and to attack specific targets.

Gameplay is largely based around armed combat. Players can swap weapons (pistols, shotguns, SMGs, and rifles) with allies and fallen enemies. Cover is used by approaching the corner of a wall or large object, and once in cover, players can step out and aim at opponents or fire blindly while only minimally exposing themselves to damage.

In addition to firearms, the game contains fragmentation, incendiary and smoke grenades.

Fragile Alliance

Fragile Alliance is the game's only online multiplayer mode, in which 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 (the top two highest-ranked players in the world will play as Kane and Lynch themselves) 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. 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 for the immediately following round.

A player's appearance in the game is influenced by their trueskill rank. Unlike Kane and Lynch's campaign mode, players can not sprint by clicking the left thumb stick. If a player feels they have taken enough money to become a target for potential traitors, they can drop some of their money by pressing a button (thus becoming less of a scoring threat.)

Critical reception

Reception to the game was mixed. As of November 30, 2007 on the review aggregator Game Rankings, the Xbox 360 version of the game had an average score of 70% based on 26 reviews. On Metacritic, the Xbox 360 version had an average score of 68 out of 100, based on 30 reviews. On Game Rankings, the PS3 version had a score of 67% based on 13 reviews. On Metacritic, the PS3 version had an average score of 65 out of 100, based on 14 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, which the Xbox 360 version fully supports.

Game Trailers awarded the game an overall score of 8.0/10, stating that although there are a few flaws in the game, the presentation as a whole made it "easy to recommend". It gave the story a 9.0, the design an 8.0, the gameplay an 8.1, and the Presentation a 7.9.

The Holiday 2007 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine gave the game an average of 7.2/10 rating. It was deemed good for its "great story, pacing, and variety" and was considered bad for absence of online co-op and poor aiming.

GameSpot controversy

Video game review website GameSpot gave Kane & Lynch: Dead Men a 6/10 rating. Reviewer Jeff Gerstmann praised the interesting multiplayer mode and the variety of scenery, while criticizing the poor AI, poor aiming and no online co-op. He was also one of the game's only raters to criticize the game's storyline and voice acting, which is widely considered to be the game's strongest points. He ended the review stating that he wouldn't recommend that people purchased this game. Though the actual reason of Gertsmann's departure was not officially stated, it is rumored that his negative review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men led publisher Eidos to pressure Gamespot into firing him.

References to other io interactive games

• In the IO video game Hitman: Blood Money, one of the after mission newspapers mentions Kane & Lynch, however the news article uses their real names, rather than their alias.
• 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, the obvious 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."
• One of the levels set in Havana is called "Freedom Fighters", a homage to the multiplatform game of the same name
• Check the rooftops of one of the levels for a fox statue. This represents IO's next game, a kid-friendly title.

External links

• Official website
• Preview at Eurogamer 2006-09-05
• Videos at GameSpot UK
• Kane & Lynch: Dead Men 'Sissy' Trailer
• Kane and Lynch: Dead Men Insider Video #3