Kane was ready to pay for his crimes. He was done. But then the prison transport is knocked over on the way to death row, and after barely making it out alive, he's confronted by his former mercenary buddies, the surviving members of the lazily named The7 – the brothers Beardo and Baldie. They have his estranged wife and daughter... and now he has to retrieve the loot that the other duo believe he stole from them on their final, and failed, operation. He comes back out of retirement to save his family, partnered with(well, he's there to make sure you do as you're told... why is it this plot wasn't used sooner? This is like Heat the video-game(well, different story), and yes, it's as awesome as that makes it sound) the psychopathic Lynch, who murdered his better half. You follow them for a couple of the worst days of their lives, and countless of people *will* be left dead in their wake. Every "Chapter"(note that you can only start at the beginning of those if you quit; while you are in the game, you can replay from the most recent "Scene", and those are frequent so you never have to redo a lot, and it autosaves) consists of you and him(and usually a team) carrying out an attack on a building(like a bank, corporate headquarters, a dance club, etc., and situations like a robbery, a hostage exchange, a jailbreak(!) and the like), get whatever objectives you have done, and get away in one piece. This is a third-person tactical shooter, a bit like a Freedom Fighters 2.0(which, in turn, was Red Dawn interactive). You can give the orders Follow, Attack target and Defend(the latter being directional), and you can not get through this by pretending you're Rambo of the sequels(especially in MP). Using and protecting the people there with you is vital(you can take out anyone else, and this supports grand crowds, similar to what they did in Blood Money), and you can pick up additional clips from them, swap weapons with them and bring bring them back from near-death using adrenaline shots(!), and they can do the same for you(don't rely on it too much, you'll overdose; also, this is highly psychological, with flashbacks and your guilty conscience haunting you as you lay there in what may prove to be your last moments). This is intense, action-packed and exciting throughout, and it never gets to be repetitive. It is also extremely short... I completed it in about a single day(and there's only three difficulty settings and no unlockables, if two memorable endings), and that was the day I helped my brother move out of his place. There is little to no HUD, and in general this is quite minimalistic(the keys are intuitive, you can sit right down and play this). No health-bar, you can't reload(it does it on its own) or tell how many bullets are left before it's necessary to, and anything not being "used" fades into invisibility. It is also pretty streamlined, and while I find this to be a troublesome current trend in this medium, this gets away with it impeccably well. Why, and am I being a massive hypocrite? Because the risk isn't gone, and it doesn't take control out of your hands(well, the rappelling, if cool, kind of is)... and no, silly person(why would you even ask that?). Yes, it's linear(let's be honest, that's a typical approach), still, it comes off as if you are set free in a regular, real-life location. The environment interaction is nifty, with cars blowing up and glass having remarkably poor lead-stopping abilities. There are rail-shooter levels, where you're in a car. You really get a sense that no one can trust anyone else(they second-guess each other constantly, and somehow it doesn't get to be irritating) in this world. The characters(with a cast mostly consisting of anti-heroes) have personality and backstories, though you don't remember them all. Still, this is genuinely emotionally engaging and affecting. The cinematography is great, and this is cinematic and visual, with fantastic graphics(all cut-scenes are in-engine or pre-rendered, and look amazing), gorgeous lighting, and beautiful gas, smoke, fire FX. This has a bad-ass score(all of the audio(including acting!) is marvelous) by Jesper Kyd. I have not tried multi-player(as I could not get it working... one time I tried it temporarily deleted my DVD-drive! There's supposedly a 2-player mode... I'm not sure it works for the PC, it asked me to connect an X-Box joystick...?), but the rule set definitely sounds excellent. You can double-cross your friends, and the idea is to get away with as much of the loot from a bank robbery as possible. Yeah, matches are probably short. Up to 8 players, and close to proper co-op. It's not terribly surprising, coming from IO Interactive, home of awesome, unique(-ish) concepts for games. You carry one gun and one sidearm, as well as two kinds of grenades(pineapple and "distraction" kind), and you use SMGs, shotguns, machinegun, assault rifles, pistols and a sniper(your enemies can use all the same ones, and that last-mentioned is one of the several stand-out challenging occurrences). You can also mêlée kill(anytime you're right by them, there's no "fighting"), with a blade in your hand that comes out between two fingers. This has one of the best cover systems I've tried, so easy and instantaneous to enter/exit, blind-fire and aimed(hold down right mouse button anytime), and such a wide use of the view(without leaving the safety) is possible, meaning you will hardly ever be caught with your pants down(I'm scowling at you, The Godfather: The Game! And Enter the Matrix! And many others). You can wound others, and then finish them off, like Contracts. There is a lot of brutal, disturbing content, bloody violence and strong language(no sexuality or nudity) in this. I recommend this to any fan of the genre and the concept(if you want to play a Michael Mann movie, this is one of the better ones). 8/10
Review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
