Lynch’s unhinged, psychopathic 50% of the titular double pack attempts to offer an alternative take on the usual third person shooter fare we get shoveled down our necks. On some levels it succeeds, mostly due to the way Lynch himself is portrayed: the pacing is as quickfire as most gamers could stomach, the dialog rich and engrossing and the gunplay, surely the biggest draw in a game like Kane and Lynch 2, works well: bullets feel punchy, destructive and painful, aiming is deliberately loose and ammo, for the whole, is plentiful. From the player’s point of view, at least, it fits the persona of a man on the edge.
But Dog Days isn’t a tactical shooter – rather a head first freefall into the story’s forty eight hours of increasingly ridiculous and almost entirely unpredictable plot twists. What starts off as a simple hit for the gangster duo rapidly descends into a full-blown war with the player continously feeling overwhelmed as the legions of dumb, scripted cannon fodder flood in from every entrance. For something that’s happy to push at the boundaries of psychosis and tease with an omnipresent sense of madness, the juxtaposition of formulaic bad dudes and a certain numbness at yet another round of easily dispatched goons is jarring.
Of course, IO Interactive’s third person shooter is exactly that, and whilst the story’s exposition takes some interesting turns it’s entirely happy to let the action tread familiar paths. I’m not expecting every game that hits the shelves to have a fourth wall so unbreakable the immersion is kept intact throughout the entire game but I am starting to wonder when titles like Dog Days are going to try something a little bit different. Checkpoints, chapter breaks and respawns are commonplace in videogames (and entirely necessary in some) but maybe it’s time for something fresh for the genre to come along and really shake up the foundations. It’s been a while since the revolution.
I’m talking about borrowing ideas from the likes of Heavy Rain, where death is final and conclusive, the story taking a new arc each time a principle character meets their maker. By way of example Kane, it appears, is invulnerable, merely taking a step back whenever a shotgun round finds its way to his chest – the player, naturally, has no such luck, although a brief pause from the storm is usually enough to recharge your health; another genre staple. I’m not saying all games should resort to single life scenarios but when a game tries so hard to be distinctive with its visuals it’s a shame that everything else seems so text-book. Enjoyable, sure, but hardly innovative.
I like Dog Days’ aesthetics, I think the shaky cam and the way it tears, blocks and filters is a brilliant idea and helps engage the player during the game’s most frantic moments. It’s like watching a home made YouTube video before the high definition version has finished processing. But the game still resorts to age-old principles despite being so inventive with the graphics, and when there’s true innovation out there (in the shape of Limbo, Flower et al) I’m just a little bored by the lack of progression with certain genres, those that seem happy enough to serve up the same gameplay we’ve been playing for decades, albeit with fancy new effects on top.
Will it ever change? I doubt it, and whilst Kane and Lynch’s second adventure teases us with deep characterisation and clever graphics, serving up gameplay we’ve seen dozens of times before doesn’t quite cut the mustard.
Mick939
Love the game, as for not tactical try it on co op extreme
skibadee
thats what I’m doing with Crazy_Del its nuts.
wuntunzee
did this last night, spent a 1/3 of our playtime on the last 2 shootouts of the last level.
Crazy_Del
skibadee and I are hoping to complete it tonight we had a wee go on multiplayer with 3v3 but 2 left so it was me and skibadee against 2 and oh boy how good are we. We (I cannot help it) owned them xD we make a good team as for co op some levels were hard and some were Ok! we are using text chat to plan out the attack, but imo I quite like it. It’s fun for me and really hard aswell. See you online tonight skibadee or is Kane xD
wuntunzee
text chat is probably the way to go with this game mode. swearing down the mic every time they blindfire headshot you can get a bit disparaging.
djdustb
Was this artical aimed solely at K&L2 or is this just one game too many for you of this type, seems a weird article for me to critise this game. It was never going to be ground breaking and I don’t think it has been sold that way. I see it as just an extension of the first story and that is all I was after.
I feel there are certainly more games that claim to be cutting edge and offering something new that offer nothing or the sort.
GeneralJeeb
What’s most disappointing to me is how straightforward this game is. You run, shoot, run a bit more, shoot more, run back, shoot again. The brilliant missions from the first game are nowhere to be found, no bank jobs, no prison breakouts, which is really a shame, cos for all it’s flaws, the first K&L was in my book a much better game.
Mick939
Yeah this was a gritty desperation tale
Eldave0
The most fun I have had from a game this year so far. The gritty style and storyline had me and a mate of mine hooked on it. The way the camera shakes and distorts as the preverbal hits the fan and bullets come flying towards you from every angle adds to the tension of each fight entirely… particularly if you play it on extreme! ;)
The multiplayer modes are a refreshing change from the standard team deathmatches also
Vaile23
can’t believe the first got a sequel tbf.
Seventy2
It’s still in the wrapper.
But the demo intrigued me and I could do with some gritty to go with my pixelated head-shots.
I have high hopes and I must agree with djdustb, this is an good, but oddly targeted article.
retro_
Completed the SP on Normal, will do it again on hard. Great game, love the whole Shanghai grimy street level thing. IO have the balls to be different, hardcore, focused and non stop. Great game, Co-op with a mate is also great, haven’t done enough Online to comment but what I have played was quality.
Lots of hate for K&L2 on sites like Eurogamer, it’s good to see TSA members are a bit more sophisticated and open.
PriceKitty
Haven’t played the actual game off the disc, but the demo to me was very uneventful and unexciting.
DrNate86
I thought from the demo that the style meant the game felt fresh, really fast paced and gritty. It is ultimately a 3rd person team shooter, resident evil 5, army of two, uncharted co-op, none of these present different storylines if one of your characters dies. It wouldn’t work in a game where you are meant to play it with a friend, if they had to stop playing if they died. I thought the biggest problem with this game, judging by reviews, was the criminally short single-player.
wuntunzee
I didn’t find the bullets to be punchy, painful or destructive, which is my primary problem with the game, but Io Interactive’s pedigree hasn’t proved that it can do solid, weighty, meaty games, so I wasn’t expecting much. I dream of a day when an enhanced Euphoria physics engine comes as standard.