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Today I visited London's Haymarket Hotel to spend an afternoon with the loveable rogues, Kane & Lynch. After being the first to arrive I sat down with Morten Heiberg (the Lead PC Programmer) for the project. I asked him a number of questions about the forthcoming third person shooter game, including some questions about IO Interactive's previous games and how they potentially influenced Kane & Lynch.
Being a big fan of the underrated Freedom Fighters which appeared on last generation systems, I was keen to learn if there were any similarities between the two games. Morten explained that the game was actually very much inspired by the former, but due to legal reasons, (changes in the company's ownership) the team were not able to make a direct Freedom Fighters 2 and so Kane & Lynch was a hybrid of that game. If you didn't play Freedom Fighters then maybe I am just ranting without being clear. The main onus of Freedom Fighters was the element of team based combat, which allowed the leading character to command a squad of fighters to do his bidding. It was this element that separated the game from the more recognized and solitary Hitman games. Players could order the squad into groups and send them forth into the fray. The squad could hold positions and generally would follow your character around the terrain. It was an impressive game and certainly a far cry from Hitman, despite sharing a similar art direction.
Kane & Lynch is very much a new game for the team and although it naturally shares similarities with previous games, there's a deep and enriching storyline interwoven into the gameplay. To begin, you have these two very different characters who each have their own demons to contend with. Kane, is a regular kind of chap with a military past that returns to haunt him in ways that are unimaginable, but perhaps better than the death sentence he is facing. Lynch on the other hand is a normal guy who has, how shall I say, mental issues. However with Lynch, there is certainly more than meets the eye as his general involvement in the game is somewhat shady right from the offset.
Kane is the character, players will be controlling in the single player portion of the game; with Lynch being controllable during the game's co-op mode. For single player only gamers, Kane is the main protagonist of which the whole story is based around. where do I begin? Kane becomes a mercenary working as part of a group known as The 7, after the tragic death of his son. A gun left in the Kane household is found by his son and after playing with it, like a toy...well you can picture the rest. Kane is no spring chicken, he was at a stage in his life where "one last job" to pay for retirement was his motivation. However the job which took place in Venezuela (South America) went wrong, and with many of The 7 taken out, Kane was supposedly a lone survivor who managed to get away with all the loot. However rather than live in peaceful bliss for the rest of his life, he is captured and sent to death row for execution.
Lynch on the other hand has a more shadowy past and again, like Kane, isn't young. He led a pretty normal life and was perhaps even a teacher. However Lynch suffers from these mental issues and after coming home one night to find his wife killed has left him clueless as to whether it was actually him who committed the act or not. Couple this with his madness and you have a character that seems on the very edge of sanity at all times. These incidents place the two characters together on death row and is the opening for the game. However with Lynch, there seems to be some deeper, goings on. For example, he is actually in the know about the fact that the remaining members of The 7 are planning to hijack the prison transport trucks, in an attempt to grab Kane so that he can lead them to the cash from the Venezuelan job. Kane's wife and daughter are kidnapped, as Kane is being held to ransom; "provide the recovered cash and your wife and daughter aren't killed". Something tells me that the death of Lynch's wife might have more to do with The 7 than it does Lynch?
Storyline aside, playing the opening level throws you in at the deep end and whilst you are given some cues as to what and where you have to do and go, you are tasked with escaping with the henchmen, working under orders from the remaining members of The 7. This takes you over dust carts, through a diner and a standoff with the ensuing police until you are able to getaway proper. It's a great introduction to the game and whilst things are pretty basic in terms of what you can do here, it's like playing out a cut scene.
The next level introduces more of the plot and is a tutorial stage proper, here you learn how to order a team mate to hold position or fire on selected targets. It's here where you learn how to rappel and even share supplies. Sadly the tranquility is short lived, as the cops are drawn to the practice shooting and again more gun slinging action ensues as you make your escape, once again.
The first mission begins proper and it is a simple (or not) bank job which is to retrieve one of the suitcases in a vault. Here you have to meet a safe cracker, then head to the roof to gas out the occupants; followed by sneaking in, before heading to the vault to retrieved the goods and then escape. It begins well and at one point Lynch is tasked with securing some hostages in the lobby, whilst you (as Kane) get on with cracking the vault (during co-op the second player is tasked with the job of securing the lobby). You have limited control over the safe cracker and can order him to hold or open fire on targets you mark out - but your main objective is to cover him while he works at cracking the safe. Naturally cops and security head to your location and begin opening fire and chucking tear gas at you during this time - you can actually toss the grenades back at them, which is great, except some of them don gas masks! You are also able to perform more silent melee attacks at close range, which seemed pretty easy and sometime more effective than shooting, in some cases. I imagine the effect of melee kills is lessened on the harder difficulty setting, where taking cover, popping out and shooting before returning to cover will be a more effective strategy.
The AI seems to be fairly consistent but don't be expecting a lot of brains here, as they really are just fodder at this stage. Sure they will lean against a pillar for cover and peek out and shoot at you but for the most part are easily dispatched. I found the aiming to be a little over sensitive on the default setting and using the default from the hip view somewhat imprecise. Using the left trigger to focus aim certainly improved my accuracy and allowed me to go for clean head shots, but made the viewpoint more confined.
After the cracker manages to open the vault, there is another problem which requires the locked safes to be blown open, sadly this does not yield any results and so the escape portion of the mission begins. Here Kane meets up with Lynch where a massive lobby gun battle ensues until the cracker arrives in a van. The more open level meant the AI was able to not only steam through the door, and up the staircases on either side for elevated positions, but also some used riot shields and were a little tough to aim at considering accurate weapons weren't on offer at this point in the game. I played this mission both co-op and in single player and found that both times offered pretty compelling gameplay experiences. It's worth noting that if either of you are incapacitated, then the other can actually use adrenaline to put you back into the fight. However take too long and it's game over for both of you.
I played some of the night club level, single player and co-op and found that the mechanics remained the same, although in this case the swarming crowd made things very difficult to distinguish who was enemy and who was a fleeing party goer. What was a neat touch was the fact that security were distinguishable by their flashlights, held on their shoulders. The action starts off pretty standard fare but ends up with some mad moments that are intense and full of insane moments that did cause me frustration as Lynch was tasked with carrying a knocked out club owner, which meant it was my job to protect him and his cargo. Playing as Lynch, whilst similar to that of Kane, has a slightly different perspective on proceedings as he is prone to seeing things that make him go psycho and even make civilians appear as cops, giving him a slight edge in general maiming and killing. The screen warps and actually if you can stay in this state you do become the ultimate mad aggressor.
There's a lot of swearing in the game, and the banter is quite amusing; I guess it will make a nice live narrative as it gives further insight into the two very different personalities and unfolds more of the plot. I think gamers are going to have a lot of fun with the single player and with three levels of difficulty to mess around with, numerous missions and of course the team element, not only with Kane but with some of the other henchmen, means that it's not just a straight up third person shooter.
Graphically the game has it's moments, as the club level in particular looks pretty spectacular; however for the most part these aren't going to be looked upon as the best graphics out there. I guess this is understandable considering there is a lot of action going on, with numerous enemies rather than just two or three. The similarities with the recent Hitman Bloodmoney are quite apparent in this regard. There are effects such as bits of the scenery being smashed and broken when shot at, but predominately, the game is simply a fun arcadey shooter, which is what gamers should be focusing on.
MULTIPLAYER
I certainly think the co-op has the biggest potential and lasting appeal of the game as it should offer hours of entertainment for trigger happy gunslingers in either system link, splitscreen or via Live. However the multiplayer mode, offers a whole new ball game and something that is different to the norm. This mode of play is called Fragile Alliance and is, just that as it tests the resolve and will of your team mates. Rather than opt for the traditional adversarial type set up that we are all too familiar with, Fragile Alliance offers a co-op experience like no other. The rules are pretty simple as we were allowed to play two different levels. There's really no need to go into too much detail regarding the actual levels, bar the fact that one was set in a large Japanese type garden and the other a city bank. The general onus of the game is as follows:
You start off with an a team (min 4, max 8) and collectively it's up to the team to collect, cash, drugs or whatever from various points on the map. You collect these by merely standing next to dollar signs near say, a cash register for example. Now as an 8 man team your job is hampered by numerous spawning AI henchmen, cops or whoever, who will actually put up a good fight and can kill you in a few well placed hits if you are unfortunate and underpowered. Your job as a team is to collect as much money and then escape to the extraction point. Now here's where it gets interesting. At any time, players can actually kill each other and what's more, are in fact encouraged to do so. However there is an element of balance, due to the fact that it's nigh on impossible to complete the mission as a solitary unit. Also, those who are killed by either AI or fellow team mates respawn back into the game as the opposition (cops in the case of the bank level, Yakuza in the case of the garden level). If they are killed for a second time, then they have to wait until the round ends. When you respawn back in, you are still able to retrieve cash dropped by fallen attackers.
As a team any money that is gained is shared equally, and so between rounds you can upgrade (choosing three different levels of upgrade, which cost varying amounts of cash) your weapons and armor for the next round. However, The idea and winner is actually decided but who has the most money at the end and this is where the competitive element comes into play. Now to increase the amount of cash you (as an individual) have, if you kill others on your team you can steal their cash and make a break for it. You are then marked as a traitor (your name appears in bright orange) which means not only are fellow team mates going to easily target you in subsequent rounds, but the AI will also focus a little more on you as well. What is an incentive here for teammates to kill a traitor, is the fact that they, then get extra cash if they kill you; more so if the person the traitor killed previously gets revenge. The leading player or those who are rich are also marked more prominently (darker balaclava) making the temptation for other players to go for a sneaky kill, even greater. Having more money has the bonus of offering you a shield as such, which is chipped away (dropping money) as you are shot. As an alternative you are able to drop money as a decoy and then attack foes distracted by it - neat!
It all sounds rather complex but actually is quite simple and we were informed that the sneaky players might just save their treacherous ways right up to when they are literally feet away from the extraction. I found it pretty hard just trying to fight the AI let alone dealing with treacherous teammates and I can already see that there will be rooms full of gamers setting no traitor rules, just so they can have a decent pop at the AI. The rounds are pretty fast and so there isn't much scope for taking your time due to the max time limit, per round being 7 minutes and the minimum (more intense) being a mere 3 minutes. The maps of which there will be 5, offer several pathways and I suspect more could be added as DLC at some point.
There's also some neat additions to the package where the top two players in the world will actually appear as Kane and Lynch respectively. For lesser ranked players, your skin changes depending on your True-Skill ranking, which means there's certainly going to be a lot of bragging rights in the game.
In closing, I think Kane & Lynch offers a fair amount of diversity in it's package, especially with regards to the multiplayer game. I thoroughly enjoyed this mode and can see that there's a lot of scope for some entertaining team ups and back stabbing. However, Like Saints Row, which also offered similar unfamiliar experiences, will it have the lasting appeal of the more traditional game types we all love and hate? I wonder if the element of frustration caused by being killed by team mates at the start of rounds or near the extraction will make the game too much for some; and will matches simply degenerate into mass killings at the game's spawn points where everyone then becomes a cop with no-one left to kill?
Either way, it's going to be the will of the Live gamers who decide how the game plays out, and it will be interesting to see what the outcome is. In regards to the single and multiplayer game, I do fear that the timing of release November 14th (US) and 24th (EUR) isn't going to win the game any favors, as many players are still going to be hooked on Halo 3, or will be getting to grips with Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect or Assassin's Creed. In my view it would be a shame to pass up on such an interesting game and therefore advise that beyond first person shooters, adventure and stealth; Kane and Lynch: Dead Men is going to be well worthy of your time for an all out, no nonsense shooting game.
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