Shank 2 Has a Release Date, But Does it Have a Following?

Word of a sequel to the 2D action-brawler Shank has been around for awhile now, and it's finally been given a release date of  February 7th. But while we were really impressed with the early views of the original Shank way back at PAX 2009, the full game left me somewhat unimpressed and fairly frustrated.

Don't get me wrong. I love me a good brawler, but quite a few of Shank's levels -especially boss fights- traded good fight design for overly beefy and overbearing encounters. Not just hard with a short window available for success, but just hard for the sake of wailing on the player as much as possible.

Because of this I never finished Shank, and it left such a sour taste in my mouth that I'm not so sure I'm ready to get on board for Shank 2. And it's a bit of a shame. The Shank series does have a lot going for it in  terms of cooperative play, fantastic character design and basic fight mechanics that, when stringed together, produce some fantastically deep results.  Add to that a nice Mexican Cinema aesthetic and the entire package should be rounded out beautifully.    If Klei Entertainment can bring that sort of love and attention to the enemy encounters, especially those pesky boss fights, they may just turn me around.