Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days wears its violent badge of dishonour with pride. It’s a tale of greed, betrayal and revenge. It even says so on the box. While we’re not ones to indulge in PR buzzwords, it’s difficult to ignore just how central these narrative pillars are in everything that happens in Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days. But did the Dog Days storyline leave us wanting to exact our own revenge on its writers? Read on to find out.
Read the rest of our Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review: Multiplayer
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review: Gameplay
For a series that has you hot on the footsteps of its characters through thick and thin throughout you’d think developer IO Interactive would have attempted to make them a little likeable. But no. Kane and Lynch are two of the most detestable individuals you’ll ever have the pleasure (or displeasure) of playing as. They’re vile, single-minded, murderous convicts embroiled in gangland activity whether they like it or not – though you imagine they wouldn’t have it any other way. But that’s all part Kane and Lynch’s morbid rogue appeal.
Just as in the prequel to Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days, Dead Men, the dirty duo find themselves in deep trouble throughout. But no matter their predicament you’ll still struggle to feel totally sorry for them, even when they’re stripped down and bloodied from a few flesh cuts short of a thousand and struggling to survive after being tortured. Having to play as a man, Lynch, who thinks nothing of civilian collateral damage, or killing cops (albeit bought cops bribed by gangster overlords) does that to you. But should you care? Heck no.
This outing finds Kane and Lynch, who were supposed to have undertaken an arms deal, up a rudely named creek without any steering implements after it all goes wrong. A bullet-driven bloodbath ends in the daughter of Shangsi – Shanghai’s most dangerous ‘businessman’ – accidentally being shot and killed. The death of the criminal overlord’s daughter sets off a disastrous chain of events that never quite lets up.
Before long both Kane and Lynch have a bounty placed on their heads, and even those close to them aren’t safe from danger. When allies start turning on them things get even worse and they must find any way they can to get out of danger.
To natter further would be to spoil things. There’s little in the way of complex narrative in Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days, but what little there is, is fast-paced throughout, with each event leading onto the next with no pause for breath in between.
Predictable as they are, the twists and turns in Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days play out well enough to at least make you want to find out what happens next. Most of the time you’ll find yourself doing the same things over and over as you shoot, take cover and shoot at baddies some more.
There are some standout moments – a gruesome scene midway through being the game’s first, as Kane and Lynch find themselves running through Shangai with somewhat fewer clothes than when they started. Another, involving a helicopter late on is the only real attempt at a story-driven set-piece, as Lynch mans a machine gun turret. Not that the nature of events calls for many set-pieces, with most of the action calling for you to get from point A to B on foot, leaving little room for logistical diversions.
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days story won’t make you think, nor will it give you time to pause and take it all in. It’s relentlessly paced and unashamedly so. Its story won’t win any awards for being original, but it doesn’t pretend to be. It’s very well executed. But with around only eight hours worth, we just wish there was more of it.
Read the rest of our Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review: Multiplayer
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days review: Gameplay
