Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
North American cover art
Developer(s)	IO Interactive
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Distributor(s)	Square Enix
Composer(s)	Mona Mur
Engine	Glacier Engine with Havok physics
Platforms	Cloud (OnLive) Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360
Release date(s)	NA August 17, 2010 AUS August 19, 2010 EU August 20, 2010 JP 20100826August 26, 2010
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a 2010 third-person shooter video game developed by IO Interactive, published by Eidos Interactive under Square Enix for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the sequel to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.

Announced in November 2009, the game was described as having a new visual style inspired by documentary films and user-generated content. According to the press release, "every aspect of the game has been designed to deliver a fresh perspective to the words 'intensity' and 'realism'. A pair of teaser videos accompanying the announcement present game footage from a distorted surveillance camera perspective. Dog Days was presented from Lynch's point of view.

A single-player and multiplayer demo were released on the PlayStation Network on July 21, 2010 and on the Xbox Live Marketplace on July 26, 2010. A demo was released on Steam on July 27, 2010.

Gameplay

Players in the campaign mode of Kane & Lynch 2 take control of Lynch who is backed up by Kane (except in the last mission, where the player takes control of Kane). The online enabled cooperative mode allows one player to take control of Kane. Players can carry two of any weapon they can grab from dead enemies, but unlike the previous game cannot swap weapons between allies. Players can take cover through a button press. While still having regenerating health, players can also get knocked down, though are able to immediately get back up. During single player missions, allies are invulnerable and cannot be given commands, making it unnecessary to look out for them. Unlike Dead Men, the PC version does not support split-screen co-op.

Multiplayer

Fragile Alliance returns along with two new variant modes (Undercover Cop, Cops & Robbers). The returning mode still has a group of players attempting to grab as much money as possible while escaping police forces and possible traitors. Undercover Cop follows the same fashion while a randomly chosen player must prevent the team from escaping. Cops & Robbers has a group of player controlled police officers going against the criminals still planned to grab money and escape.

The end of each match will allow players to buy new weapons from their heist money.

There is also a single player variant called Arcade where players must accumulate as much money as possible for high scores while surviving increasingly difficult rounds.

Synopsis

Setting and characters

Dog Days has players control James Seth Lynch for most of the game (the second player in co-op is Adam "Kane" Marcus). After the end of the first game the pair part ways. Lynch starts a new life in Shanghai with a girlfriend named Xiu, working for a crime organization led by English-born ex-pat Glazer. When Glazer tells Lynch about a plan to smuggle guns to Africa, Lynch calls Kane for aid in return for a split in the deal. The money would not only help them retire but also benefit Kane's estranged daughter Jenny (who survived the events in Dead Men).

Plot

Immediately after Kane arrives in Shanghai, Lynch forces his friend to help on an errand: threatening an informant named Li "Brady" Lung. The plan goes badly and a chase through gang territory ensues. After shooting a number of gang members, the pair corner Brady and his girlfriend in a wet market. A quick firefight ensues, and Kane accidentally shoots Brady's girlfriend. Brady calmly commits suicide.

The next day Kane and Lynch talk to Glazer about the smuggling operation, but their limousine is ambushed by Brady's gang. After a firefight on the highway and through the streets, they are told the leader of their attackers is a crime lord named Hsing. Kane, Lynch and Glazer's mercenaries raid Hsing's sweatshop headquarters and capture him. During interrogation, Hsing reveals the girl Kane shot was the daughter of an exceptionally high-ranking Politburo official called Shangsi, and that anyone friendly with the two men is effectively open season. Upon hearing this Glazer's men turn on Kane and Lynch, who are then forced to kill their former associates in order to hide the truth from Glazer. They then escape the police and Hsing's gang.

Lying low in a restaurant for a couple of hours, Lynch tries to call Xiu and tell her to meet him so they can flee Shanghai, but she doesn't pick up. Suddenly a Chinese SWAT team arrives. Kane and Lynch kill the policemen, then race to Xiu's apartment as she must also be a target. Discovering her apartment complex has been taken over by Hsing's men, the pair fight through the building, and find Xiu being held at gunpoint by Hsing. Kane suggests they kill Hsing immediately, but fearing for Xiu's safety Lynch knocks Kane unconscious and surrenders.

Kane, Lynch, and Xiu are brutally tortured by Hsing in a bathroom. Believed dead, Lynch is dumped in an alleyway. When he regains consciousness he kills Hsing and saves Kane, but is too late to save Xiu, who has been raped and killed. Both Kane and Lynch are naked and badly lacerated with box cutters, but they still escape into the city, fighting their way through another SWAT team in the process.

After finding clothes, the pair arrive at Glazer's arms-deal in a shipbuilding complex, naively hoping Glazer hasn't heard about their problems. Glazer does already know the truth about Shangsi's daughter's death and orders his men to kill them – but Kane and Lynch manage to annihilate the gang and corner Glazer, who begs for mercy and reveals that he has a plane that can be used to leave Shanghai. He is then killed by a military sniper, who they realize was sent by Shangsi who has used Glazer to entrap the pair. After fighting through many PLA soldiers and policemen, Kane and Lynch board a freight train leaving the area, thinking they're finally out of trouble. However the train is stopped and they are captured by the military.

While being transported by helicopter to meet Shangsi, Kane and Lynch hijack the vehicle, use the onboard weapons to gun down other helicopters, and force the pilot to land on Shangsi's skyscraper. They slaughter security and destroy much of the building before confronting Shangsi in his own office. Impressed by their skills, Shangsi offers them a pardon in exchange for serving as his employees. In revenge for Xiu's death, and fearing betrayal, Lynch kills Shangsi out of hand. Kane is distraught, realising they now have no chance of redemption or mercy in China.

Some time later, Kane and Lynch sneak into the Shanghai International Airport in order to fly Glazer's private jet out of the country. However, the authorities are alerted and after shooting their way through several areas of the airport they find the jet partially dismantled in a hangar. With no other choice, the two are forced to flee on to the runway, police hot on their heels, and hijack a commercial airliner heading for Balzar, Ecuador.

Development

Soon after its release, 3 packs of downloadable content (DLC) were made available to download on all platforms. This included a weapons pack, multiplayer mask pack and 3 new multiplayer maps. As a preorder bonus, one of the three DLC packs was given free of charge depending on which retailer it was purchased from. These items are only available in either Multiplayer or Arcade game modes.

Audio

The Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days original soundtrack was composed by German composer Mona Mur and originally released 8 February 2011 by Punchdrive, the album was then cancelled due to rights problems. It was re-released 9 March 2011 on a new label, Mad Villa. Mur was hired to create complex ambient soundscape layers generated from real city noises, vintage synthesizers, guitar amplifiers and unusual software. " EMI Music Publishing Scandinavia, Dynamedion created 23 authentic-sounding Asian tracks for the game and recorded vocal talent singing in Mandarin backed up by a number of musicians performing Chinese instruments including percussion, shakuhachi, fue, violin and pipa.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PC) 65.38% (X360) 62.85% (PS3) 61.42% Metacritic (PC) 66/100 (X360) 63/100 (PS3) 62/100 Review scores Publication Score Eurogamer 4/10 GamesRadar 7/10 GameTrailers 8.1/10 Giant Bomb IGN 7/10

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days received mixed reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PC version 65.38% and 66/100, the Xbox 360 version 62.51% and 63/100 and the PlayStation 3 version 60.87% and 62/100.

Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb scored the game a 3/5 stars appreciating the visual style and the multiplayer modes. He criticized that the short single-player completion time and providing only six multiplayer maps (with some available through pre-order) might not be enough to warrant a full price purchase. Gerstmann also scored the Xbox 360 version 2/5 stars after experiencing a major bug where the game locks up for seconds when using the shotgun after extensive play.

Jim Sterling, Reviews editor for Destructoid, placed it as #1 on his list of "The Shittiest games of 2010."

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of The Escapist's Zero Punctuation, named it the worst game of 2010, calling it "A game that killed its franchise so thoroughly the only acceptable sequel will be a box containing nothing but an apology letter and some chocolates."

The producers were sued at a court in Beijing for "vilifying" the "Chinese people".

Sales

In its debut week, Kane & Lynch 2 went to number one in the UK all-format chart. In its second week, the game dropped to number two on the UK all-format chart despite sales increasing by a third. After less than one month on sale the game dropped out of the Top 10 of the UK all-format charts.

Kane & Lynch 2 has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

External links

• Official website