Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Complete Edition

I remember the idea of the interlacing, camera jiggle, deliberate mosaic censorship of violence and nudity and the harsh lens flare was often brought up as detriments to the game. Maybe I've seen way too many crime movies but it felt less jarring and sickening and more intriguingly grounded: like a found footage movie of a series of gun fights. This feel of realism is present in the patented bullet spread, the really beautiful and subtle terrain deformation when you blast a surface with buckshot or automatic fire, and the fact that explosions are sometimes deliberately garbled as the peak volume goes beyond whatever cheap microphone is supposedly recording the action. I love it: it's very unique, creative, and immersive! As for the story, it's the same cloak-and-dagger underworld yarn as the last Kane and Lynch game but I challenge you to find another game featuring an overweight balding anti-hero with severe mental difficulties. It's less John Woo and more Cops does Shanghai. The writing is terse and feels natural. Even the swearing only really ramps up in high stress situations, like Kane and Lynch themselves are trying desperately to crawl out of their seedier past, but they just keep getting pulled back in. I had one weird problem where a level loaded without sound and a completely white screen. I had to restart the game a day later, but after that it worked fine so I'm not sure what happened there. Also one star goes for the sheer randomness. You don't feel like a SWAT team guy so much as a regular joe fighting odds you really should not survive so you are constantly getting pelted from enemies you can't see but can see you and shoot you with pin point accuracy. It's a little frustrating at times when you get killed but you're not sure by who and not even sure what you should have been doing, and sometimes you can get lost (although there is a hint key thankfully). Solid, gritty, grungy, and even beautiful at times. Well recommended.

Campaign co-op and Online MP modes are greyed out in the main menu. Tried multiple fixes but nothing works. If anyone knows a fix, let me know!

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is less of a game and more like an interactive movie. You really ought to know this going in, because otherwise I think your money is better spent elsewhere. That being said, Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is a self-contained sequel to Dead Men that completely changes it's tone and presentation into something far more sinister, gritty, and effective. Whereas Dead Men was a bombastic crime thriller, Dog Days is CCTV footage of a gang execution. This change is for better and for worse. The game-play hasn't improved much from the sequel. You'll still be shooting and nothing but, minus squad mechanics in favor of an improved cover system. However, instead of globe-trotting while committing heists, you're stuck in the slums of Shanghai. Instead of a firm camera behind Kane's shoulder, you're looking over Lynch's shoulder as a real cameraman would, with all the visual and aural distortions that implies. When you're sprinting, the camera shakes to a nauseating degree. Explosions and certain guns peak and blow out the audio to an almost painful degree. The camera even floats around during conversations or sits still when there's no action, just like how a real camera would. Kane and Lynch's adventure in Shanghai feels like something we shouldn't see. If you don't appreciate that idea, however, you're going to hate this game. The game is somehow shorter than Dead Men, has a notoriously divisive ending, and doesn't really fix any issues from the first game. The darker tone - including a larger emphasis on horror, oddly enough - may be too much for some in combination with the game's visuals. Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is a game that I find really fascinating. Visually, I can't think of anything else that commits to it's style as much as this. There's a concept here with a ton of potential. If you can look past the game's issues, I think you'll find something special. I wouldn't blame you for passing on it, though.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is an interesting game to say the least. The style, atmosphere and some of the scene are straight out of a snuff flim. Only some. Oh, and the VA is excelent, it feels real. The story is way simpler than Dead Man (Kane & Lynch 1). The trailers seem to shout for something bigger, but it just ends up in nothing more than a "I did an oopsie, with the wrong people". There is no weight in the story, it just happens and it keeps going without you knowing why. The action is constant and it never stops, which can be a good and a bad thing, you can get bored of it pretty fast. Good thing they improved by a ton the gameplay compared to Dead Man, it feels way better and the controllers feel responsive as well. Though the gameplay has been tweak, the enemies are as dumb as the first game if not worse. The gunplay isn't much better either, in fact it sucks. The worst offender here is the recoil and the absurd bullet spread, are they afraid of the crossfire or something? It never goes where it supossed to. This was already a problem with the first game but here it feels it is multiplied by 2. There are some positives though, there's a button for cover! it works just fine and as expected. This game reminds me a lot of Max Payne 3 and what The Last of Us 2 is, a constant depressing ride through rotten landscapes and gross scenery. For what? For nothing, just to be grotesque and shocking. In fact this game is quite dumb, and pointless at the end of the day. There's no message or something to think for, it's just an 4 hour experience. The ending cuts short fast, like if the budget dissapear that very last second, cuts to black and credits. This game is not for everyone, not that it is utterly playable or too gory for some people. It's just that the overall feel is pure style over everything. If you delete the camera filter you get at best an average shooter like the first game but worse in everything but the gameplay.

It's a dumbed down, even more linear version of the preceding game. No grenades, no giving commands to crewmembers, can't swap/manage weapons of crewmembers, knockdown/revival system is gone. Most weapons are hilariously inaccurate, as usual. At least the death/checkpoint system is relatively snappy, and a bit stylistic. And shaky camera is enabled by default, TURN ON STEADY CAM IN CONTROLS (that's a weird place to hide that type of option). I know it's part of the game's aesthetic, but it's stupid regardless. I made the mistake of turning it off the last literal 5 minutes of the game. Also, cartoonishly abrupt ending, even worse than the first. It has it's good moments, but not a ton of them. Wish the first game had additional polish. Even without more polish, it's still a bit better than the second game. Still don't know why they got IO to make 2 big dumb third person action shooters. That's not really their forte. They excel at third/first person stealth games, AKA Hitman.