E3 2010: Kane and Lynch 2 Hands On

I've secretly been excited for Kane and Lynch for a few months now. Ever since they released that trailer that had them barging in on a naked couple, a few random cuts (and shaky camera movements later) they were chasing a naked and screaming woman down an alleyway.  The entire thing was designed to look like it had been shot with an old VHS camera. It was gritty and disturbing. Honestly, that one vision of chasing that woman down lasted with me for days, and today I was finally able to have some hands-on time with the game.

Those scenes from the trailer are actually fairly representative of the build we played today. Gritty reality is the key here and as you are playing the game it feels like you are watching a gritty, or unrated, episode of cops that is actually being filmed from the criminals perspective.  The French movie "Man bites Dog" comes to mind.

Colors wash out by design, shoot someone dead and their faces become pixelated as if they are being censored by some invisible FCC.  This is not game censorship, this is atmosphere, and it works extremely well.  Go into a sprint and the camera shakes violently as if you are viewing your character through the lens of a camera that is being held by someone who is running behind him.  It can be a little disorienting at first but design wise it was a brilliant move.

The scene starts with Kane and Lynch eating dinner in an empty Chinese restaurant.  They are simply eating in silence for about a full minute in a half. The scene is quiet. Until all hell breaks loose.

A swat team charges into the place firing away and you immediately have to take cover while shots ring out all around you and pieces of wall and shelving are torn to bits. The cover system works with a simple directional press on the left stick and hitting the X button. Its actually quite snappy and I found myself getting stuck far less than in other games. Your character has two ways to shoot from cover.  An aiming system that makes you pop out from behind the cover and an indirect aim which has you spray over the cover with far less precision.  Both systems work for different situations and I can see the use for suppression in many of them, especially since it looks like you are going to be outnumbered more often than not.

After clearing out the police you are sent down the back of the building where you come up to some hostages.  They are harmless and of course I shot one of them. Immediately the face of the hostage became pixelated.  I think someone was filming behind me while I did this.

After a few more police encounters you are taken to a main street where the hostage mechanic can be used to take pedestrian hostages to be used as human shields.  It works very much like  Gears of War actually but, at least in this build, I found it far better just to take normal cover since I simple just took too many hits while trying to make it work.

The few problems I noticed may be from the fact that this is an early build. Enemy AI was dumb as a rock. It was extremely easy to flank around them, while they still shot at your last known position, and shoot them down. Even after taking a few shots they never seem to respond to your new location.  Locational damage also seemed off and enemy responded to being shot with mostly canned responses which look especially odd in this age of well-running Natural motion technology.

The sound design was done quite well and the shooting felt good to the touch. Guns felt nice and heavy, rounds echoed off nearby buildings and getting hit with bullets felt extremely visceral.  Kayne and Lynch are very much normal people without the ability to soak up a ton of damage. Take a few hits and your character goes down. You can continue shooting from the ground or take the time to hit the X button and slowly get yourself up.  I saw nothing of health packs or even much regenerating health in this build...no word on if that will be added in later.

Visually speaking Kane and Lynch 2 is as raw as it gets.  It makes GTA4 seem comedic in comparison. If they can flush out and polish the mechanics, and add an engrossing story, this will certainly be a game to get.

-Joseph-