Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

A good story is the main point about Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. The camera is fuzzy, a highly crowded environment wants to be discovered, the sound is breathtaking and the difficulty is extremely high. Nice, but limited to hardcore gamers.

If you are looking for action, difficulty and a good story with lots of politically incorrect humour, this is your game.

Kane and Lynch 2 is a definite improvement over its predecessor, but it still has some flaws. The cover system is still clunky and the singleplayer campaign is definitely too short. Still, the game has a great style. It's movie-like, with a charismatic leading pair of characters, original online modes and the added treat of the co-op campaign. It could've been more, but as it is, it's just a pretty good shooter.

Despite its linearity, Kane & Lynch 2 offers memorable action sequences. There's a true visual identity, very efficient for conveying a brutal, ugly, reality that really captures our attention. Io Interactive was able to correct its original game, in order to deliver a visceral, life-like follow-up.

Better than the first title, but due to lackluster visuals (lights above can even leave visible bars on the screen), erratic AI, and the frustration level enhanced by foes that never miss and guns that suck, it still falls shy of the "must-try" plateau.

You´ll either love it or hate it but there are things about Kane & Lynch 2 that won´t make you forget it. The graphics are refreshingly unique, the characters shine like dark diamonds out of the mass of your-average-videogame-hero and the story will shock you. But please, do not talk about the gunplay, ever.

The Story may end a bit disappointingly and the level design is far from flawless, but nice gameplay-ideas and (above all) a great multiplayer-experience help to keep this game from being completely unworthy of your time. In fact: as soon as you go for the multiplayer-features (coop!), this game definitely has its moments.

This sequel is, clearly, leaps and bounds over its predecessor.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a good game for those that are tired of the classical shooter games. It's not the best game out there but it will guarantee you a lot of entertainment filled hours.

Has nearly all of the same gameplay flaws as its predecessor and as such doesn't really represent any kind of step forward. [Issue#196, p.86]

I wish the game had focused more on interesting locales and elements like the first game, although the improved combat is definitely appreciated. If you loved the first game Dog Days is worth checking out. The online package is worth the price of admission alone, but if you are only interested in the single-player portion you may be better off with a weekend rental.

The duo is great in this game just like before, but the game is way too short. The graphics are quite unique because of the rough camera and the censor and the voice-acting is genius. The gameplay is fun, but it isn't great. Besides of the singleplayer there is also a coop feature and a pretty funny multiplayer.

Kane & Lynch 2 is as much an online grudge generator as it is a video game. [Issue#51, p.120]

While it's an improvement over the first game, Kane & Lynch 2's high production values and streamlined focus are overshadowed by its thudding repetition, narrowly linear design, five-hour campaign and hugely unappealing protagonists. It's still a decent shooter, but it's definitely not for everyone.

In summary, Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is a missed opportunity.

The single player campaign is one hell of a rat-race that will have you on the edge of your seat, many times in disbelief of what you just seen on the screen. However, no matter how gripping this bloodbath tale becomes you can't dismiss the fact that it is just too short when stacking up to other mainstream action titles.

Despite great visuals and an artistic direction I've personally enjoyed, the game reveals a poor single player campaign and an entertaining multiplayer that, unfortunately, won't probably last more than a week. With more attention to details, this game could have aimed to better results. At the moment is just one of the many 3rd person shooters where you have to cover and fire at the extinguishers.

The other main problems with Dog Days (besides the limitations of its ambitious visual style) are its length, its threadbare story and its realism identity crisis. Dog Days is a decent game by a talented developer, but it's still weighed down by these flaws. [Oct 2010 p.74]

With all its faults, Kane & Lynch 2 can be a reasonable game.

Outside of the story it tells, how it tells it, and the interesting conceit of its multiplayer modes, Dog Days is just a passable third person shooter.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is one of the most visually unique titles I've ever played, glossing over a fairly by the numbers third-person shooter. The deranged duo's return is worth experiencing and is far more accomplished than its predecessor, but the gameplay on offer still doesn't match the quality of the characters IO has created.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a quite superfluous action game. Except for its interesting multiplayer and "amateur video styling", the second adventure of these two dangerous criminals promises much more than it actually delivers.

Although an improvement over the original, Dog Days - like its predecessor - is a game of two halves: a disappointing single-player somewhat rectified by enjoyably innovative and strategic multiplayer modes. We wouldn't have too many problems with the duration of the campaign if Dog Days packed every hour full of unforgettable moments, but as it stands it quickly degenerates into the chasm of forgettable, derivative Gears clones.

Though Dog Days wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I enjoyed its arcade approach. Unfortunately, the design and breadth of content don't come close to justifying the price.

Dog Days ultimately feels less like a typical crime shooter, and more like a player-directed version of the Crank movies.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a homage to the YouTube generation, creatively 'shot' like a B-movie. While its presentation is enough to turn some heads, the mediocre gameplay and lack of level diversity keep this game from having any lasting appeal.

This gritty cover-based shooter is better than its predecessor, but as a package, it's light on content.

The game does have its moments and it's definitely an entertaining game, but at times the game still feels broken. Missions in the main campaign do nothing innovative, and the rest of it is simply "duck, cover, and kill."

A stylish, violent but awkwardly executed cover shooter. [Oct 2010, p.90]

Its most striking ideas don't fulfil their promise, and its successes are etched by pervasive minor flaws. The towering, terrifying city, and the lens through which it is shot, drag you onwards through the game's lesser parts, but you sense that the real crime in this whole bloody escapade is that it doesn't live up to its dark flashes of imagination.

A visceral, action-packed experience that makes players embody its characters and sink into its virtual reality. With mostly standard pulp-action shooting, though, the game is high on style and short on substance.

If your preference is single-player or co-op, Dog Days' lack of personality (both in the characters and on the battlefield) results in one of the blandest shooters out there. Given how little the story matters, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck could have been swapped in as the protagonists and I probably wouldn't have noticed.

As it stands, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days proves to be the perfect weekend rental. In that weekend you can plow through the campaign with a friend in an afternoon, and get as much as you want out of the multiplayer.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days suffers from many issues. Everything from choppy gameplay to bland character design plague what could have been a semi-decent title. Simply put, these are definitely dog days for Kane & Lynch and after this sequel, let's hope they stay dead men.

If I was rating this game on concept alone it would have high marks, but sadly in terms of execution Kane and Lynch 2 battles the line of mediocrity and mediocrity wins out.

Could have been an improvement from the first, but fails to win anyone over.

It'd be a really cool game that would actually be pretty easy to recommend if there were a little more to it. While there are definitely aspects of the game that are very much worth seeing, the game's lack of content (and potentially severe Xbox 360 issue) make it tough to recommend as a full-priced purchase.

A really well written story, enjoyable dialogue and somewhat fun multiplayer is the only thing that makes Kane & Lynch 2 bearable. Other than that, the action is broken, the AI is really bad and the graphics feels outdated. This is only for fans of the first game.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is an interesting beast because it really shouldn't exist. Outside of a unique art style it brings nothing new to the genre and does little to improve over the original game, which I might add, was far from a good game.

The Youtube-style presentation is a success, but the rest of the game is just plain mediocre. The story is boring and the action feels far too generic. Might be worth buying for the coop.

It is not a game that you play to enjoy the single-player story--or even, for that matter, the offline mode. If you can reconcile yourself with that, though, the multiplayer "Fragile Alliance" mode is incredible fun and incorporates a dynamic that I wish others developers would try to imitate.

It has a couple interesting things going for it, like the unique camera style and look, but the actual gameplay is pretty bland an uninspired.

In hindsight, Dog Days' brevity may be its greatest attribute, as the story is a series of unsatisfying plot resolutions topped off by a ridiculously abrupt and unimaginative ending. [Oct 2010, p.76]

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days has no redeeming qualities and isn't even worth a rental, unless you were into the first game and want to see where the story has progressed. Really, though, even then, there is not enough in here to warrant paying $60, or even $40.

Despite its intriguing but flawed multiplayer suite, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is one of the most underwhelming shooters of recent memory.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a formulaic third-person co-op shooter that fails to meet the grade. Where the game does try to be different, it frustrates gameplay and pulls the uniform score downward.

Quotation forthcoming.

As a sequel to a game with potential, Kane and Lynch 2 falls flat on its face and down a hill. Some good ideas are buried under atrocious design flaws.

The action in Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is weak, without impact and uninteresting. Not very fortunate when the game revolves around action. The game can be played through in just about four hours.

This is easily the worst IO Interactive game to date- and if they foul up the next Hitman I am going to cry.

This doesn't fix the flaws of the original it simply finds more to keep them company, in a game that's as banal and repetitive as its protagonists' vocabulary.