GAME REVIEW: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men for Xbox 360

By Lex Eskobar “The Game Bud”

You’re on your way to face the death penalty for all the wrongs you’ve committed. You tied up your loose ends and even wrote an apology letter to your daughter for never being there for her. You think to yourself, “I guess this it.” There is nothing left to do but get from point A to point B and die quietly. Oh if only it were that easy…

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men starts off when you, Kane, are explosively “rescued” from the prison transport that is delivering you to your final residence before death. From the minute the game starts you are thrust head first into a hail of gunfire and chaos. As bullets whiz by you and the action ramps up, all you can do is go with it. There is no time to stand still.

The gun fighting action in this game is intense and can only be compared to some of the craziest shootouts to ever appear on the big screen. First movie that comes to mind is Michael Mann’s Heat (particularly the memorable shootout in the street that takes place after the robbery).

Once you escape the police, you find out that the only reason you’ve been “rescued” is because a crime organization known as “The Seven” feels you have stolen something of theirs. It only gets worse from there. The members of The Seven inform you that they have your ex-wife and your daughter – yeah, the one you had a nice hand-written letter for – and if you don’t get what they want the two of them will be executed in front of you. To top it off, The Seven has assigned a baby-sitter to you.

Meet Lynch, a psychopath who needs to stay heavily medicated in order to keep himself calm and non-violent. What a day to run out of medication. As the game progresses, you are thrust into gunfight after gunfight and the action is more frantic with every passing level.

The controls are really good and feel very natural. The game has elements of a squad-based shooter but only minimally. Telling members of your team to attack, move ahead or stay close is pretty much it. If you wanted to you could play the whole game without issuing a single order, but I don’t recommend it. The music is very appropriate for the game and only plays during certain moments. The sound is great and the graphics are pretty sweet.

The game supports a co-op mode but only split screen. Why you can’t play the campaign online baffles me. Even lacking an online campaign, the game is still sweet. The online multiplayer isn’t really a death math but is actually a co-op robbery game for up to eight players. It’s called “Fragile Alliance” but I figure I will let you find out why.

This game hasn’t gotten the best reviews but I have to admit that when I am stoned this is one of the few games that has kept me coming back to play the single player more than once after completion. The story is basically a really gritty R-Rated film and the entire presentation of the game is really engrossing when blazed out of your mind.

I’m giving Kane & Lynch: Dead Men 4 out of 5 pot leaves. At the very least, I believe it warrants a rental.