Kane and Lynch 2 differs heavily from the 2007 game. Jesper Kyd's gloomy music is gone (a shame, since I rather liked it), the camera system is radically different, and the partner system has also been done away with. This time you play as crazed psychopath Lynch, a man so anti-social he'd make Al Capone run and hide. Or at least he used to be. In this game Lynch is on his meds, and his edge is blunt. So he's basically just a generic run and gun anti-hero. What a wasted opportunity.
The story opens in Shanghai where Kane arrives to help Lynch with a lucrative opportunity. Before we can make sense of anything further two important people are dead and the anti-heroes are getting the blame. A battle rages across several locations as Kane and Lynch desperately try to escape the city. That's it as far as plot goes. No big twists, no innovative narrative techniques. Just kill, kill, kill. You get to play as Kane in the last level, but for the bulk of the game he's just a background character helping you blast away at the legions of bad guys filling the screen.
The story mode can be completed in about four hours. The game gives away trophies like there was no tomorrow, but...the majority of them are for online play. I have to be honest, most of the game's lasting appeal and scope comes from the various online modes (which I have no interest in). It's primarily an online game with a story mode shoehorned in as an afterthought.
I have faith the franchise, Kane and Lynch are terrific characters, but for their third outing the developers really do have to deliver an EPIC game for the ages and not a cheap quickie trading off a mediocre brand name.
Graphics A Sound A Gameplay B Lasting Appeal D+
