Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days Preview

There are times when I missed a game release. Actually, there have been many instances where I never realized a title arrived at retail. The original Kane and Lynch: Dead Men was a game I never played or read much into for the simple reason that I hadn’t jumped to the PS3 or 360 yet.

But when given the chance to see the title in its Alpha build, I jumped at the chance to get a look at the game, along with learning the history of these two characters.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days takes place in Shanghai where Lynch is a hired hand living with his girlfriend. When a final payday job comes his way, he contacts Kane who comes to Shanghai to complete this one last job. The game takes place over two days and from what I was told, the plan is to have players live through those 48 hours over a series of missions with a possible total gameplay experience around 20 hours for the average player.

The two levels I saw were a restaurant to alley chase level and a sweatshop assault level. Visually the game takes influences from the handheld DV camera and documentary style. Graphics had many filters running, creating haze and grain in the visuals along with “glitches” that added to the tone of the game.

Perspective is third-person over the shoulder that zooms in during cover. Since I wasn’t able to play the game yet, I watched as chaos and carnage first destroyed the restaurant that Kane and Lynch were eating at. A lot of the environment was destructible, wood panels splintered and glass shattered. The bar where Lynch was hiding exploded with debris as police tried to take the duo out.

In the build, animations weren’t optimized so some of the deaths of enemy NPCs were laughable and awkward. From the restaurant, the pair headed to the street, filled with stores and cars, all necessary to move forward. The lighting effects are impressive with street signs utilizing bloom lighting and the filters on the graphics really helped certain areas pop. A lot of the graphic touches aren’t even going to be noticed, but the amount of work put into the visuals at this stage was impressive.

I asked if the game was fairly linear, meaning could the street be approached from different perspectives. While I was told the game itself is linear, areas are open enough that different routes can be taken. The concrete jungle of Shanghai lends itself to constrictive and claustrophobic areas and added urgency.

The second level, Sweatshop, was a mission with a team of NPCs looking for a target in a building that was built like a maze. The level was filled with enemy NPCs who all carried mini-machine guns or AK-47s. Scouring through the building took time and careful planning. Even though Kane was assisting, the enemies focused on Lynch. Since this game is only played through as Lynch that could become annoying, though friendly NPCs are actually able to kill enemies.

The Sweatshop level ended with a massive two-story gun battle between Lynch and his team against gangsters who are trying to stop them. This fight alone took about ten minutes to complete because the tiered battle was difficult to maneuver in and find adequate coverage.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days looks impressive. Visually, it takes a different approach to how players will experience the title. With a focus on one character, the story should be more defined and using Shanghai as the setting should also prove to be interesting.

Since the game was still in alpha, there was room for improvement, but until I get my hands on the controls, I can’t say anything about that. But from what I saw, there’s a lot of potential.

Some features of the game that I didn’t see were:

Down Not Dead – choose between fighting wounded or crawl to cover
Online Co-Op
Fragile Alliance – A returning mode with new tweaks

Expect Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days in the Summer of 2010.