If you are unfamiliar with the mode it mixes cooperative and competitive multi-player by forcing players to work together to collect the loot, but also keeping everyone on their toes in case someone decides to get greedy and try and steal from the other players.
IO has added a plethora of new modes as well as an offline version called Arcade mode where you can tackle this innovative take on multi-player with AI bots. These annoyances are not too terrible considering most levels are fairly short, but the execution definitely leaves something to be desired.įragile Alliance makes a return and is by far the best part of this package. Your friend can also not join your game mid-level. If your friend decides to drop out or gets dropped from the game, it is game over for you both. Sounds all standard fare, but the quirks really hamper the experience. Co-op play involves you starting a game, inviting a friend and selecting a chapter. It is worth mentioning that throughout the game you can only play as Lynch for the majority of the story. Once again though, it feels as if this mode was rushed for the sake of inclusion. Sure the campaign is short, but at least now you can play it online. The only exceptions throughout the campaign are a vehicle segment towards the end of the game, and the uncomfortable section where you are running around in the nude covered in box cutter wounds. There are no silly trinkets to collect or areas to explore this is a straight-forward shooter that never changes pace. Outside of a few missions there is not much variety within the game. But if you grow tired of tedium the campaign may not sit well with you. Actually the last few missions really felt like they were dragging because it was mindless moving from cover to cover without the thrill of some of the earlier encounters. In fact I felt the campaign was the perfect length for this type of game. Now as long as you know what you are getting into there is nothing wrong with a straight-up shooter now and again.
With Dog Days you spend most of your time roaming through streets, taking cover and mowing down bad guys. In Dead Men you were tasked with kidnapping a boss of a night club, performing a bank heist and even planning a prison break. My biggest gripe is that over the course of the extremely short campaign, I finished it in around four hours, the locales and objectives were not quite as diverse as the first game. Sure they are criminals, but you can’t help but like their in-game chatter. Kane and Lynch are truly a duo unlike any other. Once again I also really like the characters in the game. It reminded me of an episode of Cops where headshots are blurred out by pixilated blocks and explosions rock the screen complete with distortion and slowdown (on purpose of course). This is one of the most original ways to present a game I have come across in all my years as a gamer. However, once you get accustomed to the style it is absolutely engrossing. When you run the camera shakes around wildly making navigation a little tricky. The entire game feels like you are viewing it through the eyes of a cameraman following the duo around Shanghai with a handheld camera.Īt first it is kind of disorienting. What is unique to the way the single-player game plays out is the presentation. From here you transcend into a whirlwind of mayhem that spans two days of action that feels at home in just about any mindless action movie. An arms deal arises and who better to bring in to the mix but his old pal Kane. Lynch has ended up here and seems to be living a semi-normal life.
Dog Days offers a number of improvements over the original game, but with less focus on locales and a criminally short campaign, this sequel isn’t quite the upgrade we were hoping for.ĭog Days takes place over a 48-hour period in Shanghai China. When I heard IO was doing a sequel I had high hopes that they would fix a lot of the problems the original game suffered from, while still retaining all of what made the original such a unique experience. I really enjoyed the characters, the innovative online mode and most of all, the locales. I am admittedly a fan of 2007’s Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.