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When Io Interactive first thought up their newest intellectual property, Kane and Lynch, they felt it was going to be the beginning of a great franchise, and would be remembered by gamers.  Unfortunately, Kane and Lynch was remembered, but for all the wrong reasons.  Review controversies and poor reviews left Io Interactive baffled.  They were taken aback by the criticisms and the poor reception by the gaming community to this new franchise.  After two and half years, Io Interactive has decided to take the wraps off of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days and Aeropause.com was lucky enough to head out to Square-Enix headquarters here in Los Angeles, California for a look.

As I sat through sections of two levels in Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, I was greeted with the words of “gritty realism”.  Gone are the days of thinking of a game being a huge spectacle, at least in the eyes of Io Interactive.  It is all about bringing a sense of reality to gaming.  Kane and Lynch 2 from every aspect of its development plans to keep it mired in the foundation of real life.  Gone are the huge musical scores and super, stylized cut-scenes.  In their place are YouTube like loading screens and a handicam action point of view that would make the director of The Bourne Identity grin from ear to ear.

Just a warning to our readers, but we are going to spoil a bit of the end of the first Kane and Lynch here, but it needs to be said in order to set up the plot in the sequel.  If you want to keep yourself surprised, skip past the next paragraph.

Kane and Lynch 2 takes place 3-5 years after the first game in the series.  Since the first title had two different endings, Io Interactive decided to make the ending where Kane’s daughter survived canon for the series.  This helped set up Kane’s motivation in the sequel, and shaped the premise of how both characters reunite.

If you have not seen any of the recent press releases for Kane and Lynch 2, you will now play the role of Lynch in the sequel.  Lynch is a guy whose heart is in the right place, but unfortunately, suffers from severe bouts of psychopathic rage and delusions which cause him to do some crazy shit.  However, Lynch has found his way to Shanghai, China, where he has settled in with a woman that keeps him sane.  He has also kept up a steady cash flow by pulling small time jobs for an Asian crime outfit.  However, a huge score comes up for Lynch and his crew, and he decides to enlist the help of Kane to pull off the job.  This ends up being the job that Kane needs so he can quit the criminal lifestyle and live in a happy existence with his daughter, who he is trying to make amends with.  The one other item that we were able to pry out while handling our presentation was the fact that the story takes place over a couple of days, never leaving our characters.  Think like a season of 24, where every point of the story takes place over a contiguous period of time and you will understand the concept that Io Interactive is going for story wise.

At this point, we got to actually see a couple of the levels in the game, and a few changes immediately became apparent.  For one, the game is played as if a cameraman was following the action.  This keeps in line with the theme of realism.  The whole time the game was presented, there were filters on the screen that made it look like all the action was viewed through a taped presentation.  Film grain, lighting effects and more give Kane and Lynch 2 a distinctive look.  I was told that this was done to present the new direction that was happening in Hollywood, with more directors going for an “on the ground, shaky cam” approach to capturing a scene.  This is a game for the YouTube generation, complete with loading screens having that YouTube buffering circle as they load.  It was a bit much to take at first, but after awhile, I truly did feel like I was watching a continuous scene of action as if I was in the midst of it happening.  So far, the graphics are a bit rough, but I was told that it is currently in alpha, with new elements still being added as we were looking at the current build.

The first level we looked at was a sequence in a restaurant, which spills out into the streets of Shanghai.  The action was fast and frantic in the restaurant, with our two protagonists shouting out the locations of enemies.  Lynch was also starting to go into a psychosis moment, as he had not taken any of his medicine as of late.  One new mechanic that has been implemented into Kane and Lynch 2 is the knockdown.  When you still have a good chunk of health but get hit by a volley of gunfire, you get knocked down, and you have to crawl to cover in order to get back up.  During this crawling, you can still shoot, but you are far more vulnerable until you can find cover.    As the action spilled out into the streets, I noticed that up to this point, there was no real background music to speak of.  Instead, it was all ambient noise of the street.  As you moved from car to car, killing dozens of cops, you hear the drone of people on the street, screams, and even electronic devices as they blare out from storefronts.  It was funny, because as I watch the scene, the bank robbery scene from Heat played through my head, and I remembered that the same mechanics were used.  No music.  No score.  Just gunfire and screams, as you bark out commands.   And I still felt bad for the cabbie that got caught in the crossfire and ended up eating a ton of lead as I took cover behind his vehicle.  You will be missed generic cabbie number four.

Our second level that we looked at has us invading a sweatshop owned by a man named Hsing.  Another new mechanic was shown here, which is the hostage grab.  At any point in the game, you can grab a civilian, and use them as a human shield/hostage.  With a hostage in tow, you can only use a pistol or other single hand weapon, but the shield can eat up some damage before they are dropped.  Also, you can just decide to execute a hostage, just to prove a point, or because you are a sadist like me.  More of the streetcam came into play as we busted through a door, and hit a hired gun right in the face, point blank, with a shotgun blast.  Instead of seeing a bloody mess, we get a blurred image, as if you were watching something on the evening news, edited for your viewing comfort.  I thought it was a neat little touch, but there was no word whether the filters and blurring can be turned off.  My feeling is that it would take away from what Io Interactive is doing with Kane and Lynch 2 if it is allowed, but I can see some having issues with the motion sway of the camera, or the fact that some like to see bloody stumps where heads might have been.

I did get a chance to find out a few other useful items about the co-op and multiplayer aspects of Kane and Lynch 2.  First off is that co-op is now fully available in either online or offline modes.  This was a glaring hole in the first Kane and Lynch title, as it only supported local co-op, which can be difficult when you are playing the game on a PC.  The Fragile Alliance multiplayer is coming back as well, complete with more levels, more options, and more playable characters.  Not much else could be said about the multiplayer, with the exception that there will be no way to play as the two main characters in the multiplayer.  This was something that could be done in the first game, but only if you work your way up the leaderboards.

So far, I have to admit that I like what Io Interactive is doing with Kane and Lynch 2.  There was a great story, and a unique multiplayer mode the first time around that got lost in muddy graphics and controversy.  This time around, the new presentation style looks far different than a lot of other titles on the market, and focusing on Lynch adds a new dynamic for the player, as he is never fully in control of his faculties.  Some may have already written off the franchise, like I had before coming to the current preview, but I am willing to give the game a chance.  The two main characters are very interesting, and if a full featured product is delivered, I think gamers could be surprised.  And the wait is not too far off, as Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is scheduled for a Q2 2010 release on PC, Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3.   I would also like to say thanks to Square-Enix and Io Interactive for inviting Aeropause.com to look at the game.  We will have more coverage leading up to the title as it is released.