Review by: Jeff McAllister

Kane and Lynch, gaming’s proverbial odd couple, return in the sequel to their critically disappointing original from late 2007. This time set in Shanghai, as Kane is called in by his psychotic partner Lynch to help out on a job that is guaranteed to bring in oodles of cash. Before they can get to it however, Lynch needs to take care of a small job that turns into a huge problem and things go south with half the continent of Asia, including crime bosses and cops, in hot pursuit. Kane & Lynch 2 pulls no punches and is tonally darker and much more disturbing than the original, and it makes no bones trying to instil that into you as soon as it can. Less than five minutes after popping the disc in, you are shown a scene that is not for the weak and successfully aims to make your stomach turn, just to make sure you received the message loud and clear that they aren’t playing around this time.

The attitude of the game isn’t the only thing that has taken a step forward. The game boasts a totally revamped visual style that is similar to being filmed by a low quality video camera. Why the developers took this route is hard to imagine, but it – for some strange reason – works, and works really well. For anyone who has ever used a budget-priced video camera from your local department store or a less than useful cell phone camera, you’ll notice the game mimics the effects and adds a feeling of being embedded in the action as opposed to just playing a game. To go along with the poor visual camera quality, there is also a constant, vomit inducing, shaking to the camera – which can thankfully be turned off.

The narrative will keep you pulled in as things remain diverse and varied while the pair runs from objective to objective trying to get out of the mess they created. The gameplay steadily ramps up at an even pace until about half way through the game, when things start to go into overdrive and concurrently, and unfortunately, become very repetitive. The game suddenly takes a “Harley Davidson and The Marlboro Man” turn and for the last half of the game and it starts to become a little too monotonous with its endless wave after wave of enemies. The whole “clearing a room of enemies only to move forward to the next room, which is also full of enemies” gets tiring quick, especially when repeated ad nauseam, which is what you can expect to encounter right up to the rather quick and sudden finale.