Kane And Lynch 2 – Demo Impressions (PS3)

 

I seem to be in the minority in considering Kane & Lynch: Dead Men a thoroughly enjoyable game. Sure the controls were dodgy but the story and characterisation held my attention right through the game.

So it was with general excitement that I fired up the demo. In fact I hadn’t been this excited for a demo since Battlefield: Bad Company 2 last year.

As you may or may not know, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has been made to look like you’re watching the entire thing online. It’s like playing through a documentary that someone is making on a handheld camera.

This gives the game a very interesting feel compared to everything else out there at the moment.

So, let’s start with the single player portion of the demo. You are straight into the action, controlling Lynch and shooting your way out of a restaurant in Shanghai alongside Kane.

The controls felt quite loose but the shooting seemed to be fairly accurate, at least at close range. There is certainly a satisfying thud as your bullets hit their target, especially with the shotgun.

Once you get out of the restaurant it’s into the alleyways and out onto the street as the battle spills all over the place.

Kane & Lynch 2 seems to favour a mixture of run ‘n gun and tactical play. If you continually rush out into the open you’ll be taken down and I suspect your AI (or human controlled) partner will need to cover you at times ala Army Of Two: 40th Day.

The demo isn’t long – around 15 minutes – but it certainly gives you a taste of the game. Kane & Lynch 2 is set to be a Marmite type of affair… you’ll either love it or hate it.

As for multiplayer, the wonderful Fragile Alliance mode is back and they have fixed the problem of people just shooting you from the off by not starting the round proper until 5/10 seconds in.

Essentially a heist mode, the idea is you get in somewhere, each pick up as much money as possible then battle past the police to the getaway van. After that all the money is totted up and split between the 8 of you. If you all survive…

And it’s not just the police you’ll need to worry about – your own team can turn on you in an attempt to get a bigger share of the cash. They will then be marked as a ‘traitor’ to the rest of the team and they have to decide whether to let them live or kill them.

If you want revenge you respawn as a cop trying to stop the escape so you’ll have your chance 😎

Makes for some tense matches as you just don’t know who to trust.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is a definite buy for me. I can’t wait for both the single player and multiplayer. It’ll certainly be something fresh to get our teeth into over the summer.

Kick Ass – Review (Film)

Kick Ass tells the story of Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a teenager who wonders why no-one wants to be a superhero anymore and decides to try to be one himself.

Based on Mark Millar’s comic this is a dark and violent, yet humorous, look at the superhero genre.

After a freak incident Dave is left with no sense of pain and he uses this to help craft the persona of Kick Ass. A hero who is cleaning up his neighbourhood.

Alongside the action part of the story plays Dave’s ‘romance’ of Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca), who thinks he’s gay and treats him as a friend. This leads to some fairly obvious but pretty funny scenes as Dave uses the situation to his advantage.

In the mix are also Red Mist (the genius Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a superhero wannabe who teams up with Kick Ass, and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz) – a father/daughter combo who are the vigilante real deal.

There was some controversy over Hit Girl as she is a violent, sweary character despite being a child. I can see where the complaints are coming from but the character is supposed to have been trained by her father to be like that and whilst I agree they may have overstepped the mark in some respects the film does not attempt to hide any of this.

If you watch the trailer you know what you’re in for and should be prepared for lots of swearing and lots of violence.

For me this was Nicolas Cage’s best role in years, as he nailed the Big Daddy character and lent him a broken quality that made you feel for him.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse, as ever, is brilliant as Red Mist and he delivers some of the stand out moments in the film. The Mistmobile is certainly a sight to behold 😆

The story is standard comic book fare but the characters have believable qualities and the casting is spot on.

Overall then a film that, for me, lives up to the hype for a change. If you aren’t easily offended and don’t mind violence and bad language (even from an 11-year-old) then sit back and enjoy – Kick Ass is one hell of a ride.

Rating: 9/10