This feels like someone ineptly copying the homework of Fallout New Vegas with no comprehension of how game design actually works. The writing is incredibly boring, the combat for the first couple hours is just melee against nothing but wild animals bum rushing you, it takes forever to find a gun if you're not specced into a melee build, level design often hides crucial paths in the literal darkest places on screen, the plot isn't interesting in the slightest and it crashes constantly so good luck if you aren't quicksaving every 5 minutes. The core gameplay of Fallout 4 is irredeemable garbage and this crash riddled disasterpiece does nothing to fix it. One would think that after the hilarious implosion of Fallout New Vegas: The Frontier, people would have learned to stop expecting anything from these delusional Fallout total conversion mod teams. But no, they keep wasting their time and yours. How many man hours were wasted on bringing this completely miserable content to you? Who knows. Don't even justify their delusions of worthiness by tainting your hard drive with this atrocity. If you actually enjoy Fallout 4's gameplay, you are the target audience for this miserable mod and I'm wasting my time writing this review.
If Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was the Watchmen of third-person shooters, then Dog Days is the genre's Funny Games. A visceral deconstruction of modern game design down to its barest elements that never ceases to indict both the characters and the players themselves for their complicity in the escalating carnage. Aesthetically, this game is unmatched. Mona Mur's absolutely brilliant drone soundtrack complements every scene of the game, producing an all out assault on the senses that couples with the grimy, pixelated DV imagery to produce a sheer sensory overload that fully embodies the chaotic post-noir storytelling this game sets out to achieve. This game is UGLY. It revels in in it. You're either Lynch or Kane. One of you shot that girl. Neither of you will take responsibility for it, just like Kane never took responsibility for anything in Dead Men. You're going to kill everything in your path and you're going to do it with predominantly mass produced chinese knockoff firearms. You will miss a lot. You will treasure the opportunities you get to wield an accurate assault rifle or a good shotgun. This is a game about sublime, perfect failure, a swiss watch of consequences building to an absurd climax that must be experienced to be understood. I cannot recommend this game highly enough.
Probably one of IO's most deeply misunderstood games, unfairly mired in controversy generated by reviewers too stupid to grasp that the characters in the game aren't supposed to be likeable or aspirational. Are there problems with the game? Absolutely. The Cuba segments are a clearly rushed meatgrinder where you'd absolutely be forgiven for dropping the difficulty to easy or exploiting the unlimited resurrection mechanic in co-op. But those who stick with it will be rewarded with one of the most unforgettable plots in videogames. I do not make the comparison to Watchmen lightly. In the way that Alan Moore delved into the broken psyche required to produce a costumed vigilante, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men unflinchingly examines what the life of a videogame protagonist would actually be like. These men are monsters, emotionally dead, only alive when they're taking lives. Everything they set out to do fails, and their attempts to dig themselves out of the situations they created only bury them deeper in blood. Good intentions are meaningless, family is a death sentence, and betrayal is inevitable. There's not going to be a happy ending here. But what an ending it is, with a devastating payoff no matter which route you choose. Is this most "enjoyable" game? No, but it's not really supposed to be. IO would perfect this aggressive approach towards the player with Dog Days, which strips the Kane & Lynch formula down into a brutish, nasty and short assault on the senses, by comparison to which this game feels slightly weightless by comparison. But the writing and performances in this game stand far above any shortcomings the gameplay experience may present. If you're at all interested in gaming as a storytelling medium, this is one of the most fascinating works the shooter genre has produced.
