01.15.08
Kane & Lynch
So I played Kane & Lynch with Casper yesterday. Unfortunately the dunce forgot to bring a second controller, so we had to take turns in singleplayer. I’ve ordered a new controller today so it won’t happen again, but because we didn’t have one yesterday, I can’t write about the co-op. Yet.
In SP, the game is… alright. It’s not bad, it’s just not very good either. PC Gamer gave it 60-something in their review of the PC version, and this seems fair for the Xbox version too. Thanks to the usually terrible credibility of game reviews, 60 seems like an awful score, but when you think about it, it means a slightly above-average game, which is what K&L is. Compounding the issue, I’ve been playing nothing but fantastic games for months - Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, The Witcher, Mask of the Betrayer, Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, etc. It’d be like watching Die Hard 4 after months of nothing but film classics - an otherwise decent film will seem embarrassing in comparison.
Kane & Lynch has some issues. First of all, the camera positioning is very awkward. You get used to it after an hour or so, but the camera is way farther to the left of your avatar than it should be, making you seem strangely detached from the action, and sometimes complicating the controls. Secondly, as has been mentioned in several reviews, the cover system is crap. Gears of War probably had the best cover system I’ve experienced, where a button press would lock you into position behind cover. Mass Effect comes close enough to that, where moving up against an object will reasonably reliably make Shepard snap into cover behind it, but it’s not quite as good as Gears’ system because your movement tends to break you out of cover if you’re unlucky. Kane & Lynch has the same problem as Mass Effect and is further haunted by annoyingly unreliable cover detection, making it a lot harder than it should to snap into position.
Finally, the snipers. Who thought it would be fun to take me out with a single shot to the head if I stand still too long? The appearance of a sniper scope in the bottom left corner to warn of the impending danger helps diminish the problem, but snipers can still be a huge pain in the ass, even on the easiest difficulty. It can also be damn hard to hit anything because of the weapon recoil and general inaccuracy. This seems almost like a leftover from the Hitman series, but the recoil that raises your aim with every shot, forcing you to lower your crosshairs manually as you shoot, is almost a too realistic touch that seems out of place in an action game - you’d expect to find it in games like Hitman or Deus Ex where you’re not meant to charge forward into the action, but hectic action is what K&L is all about, and the recoil almost sabotages that.
Still, it managed to be an overall reasonably entertaining game, and I especially enjoyed the night club level full of civilians, reminiscent of New Orleans from Blood Money, and I look forward to playing the game in co-op.
Nicholas said,
January 15, 2008 at 17:44
I agree with your points about K&L, though I’m almost done with it (it’s not a long game, I just haven’t played it much) and I can’t remember the cover system causing me to get screwed over or anything, though I guess it is pretty finicky.The plot’s been generally enjoyable and I liked the playback-audio-from-previous-scenes thing during your death/near death.
Jonas said,
January 16, 2008 at 00:04
The plot was alright so far, my only gripe is the writing, which is kinda… juvenile. The audio flashbacks were indeed very very cool and mood-setting