First Drake’s and now Kane & Lynch - Chris Burke has been getting all the good jobs recently. Here he is with his thoughts on K&L.
Eidos’s anticipated third-person shooter is on its way, and ThreeSpeech is lucky enough to have been playing it on PS3 to the exclusion of things like family, social life and work. You play primarily as Kane, a hard-case ex-Merc and trained killer who’s managed to upset his former bosses, an enigmatic bunch called ‘The Seven’, by stealing some loot from them. Now they’ve sprung him from prison and they’re holding his wife and daughter hostage until he recovers it. To keep an eye on him, The Seven have assigned Lynch, a man on some serious medication to keep him from going totally psycho – which he does quite a lot, with murderous consequences.
The first level involves Kane being busted, along with Lynch, from a prison van, and having to shoot it out alongside the heavily-armed mob that have sprung him. It’s a tense and chaotic shoot-out with the cops, climaxing at a donut shop, that sets the pace for the rest of the game. From there, after a cut-scene with The Seven and an introduction to your minder, Lynch, you’re into a deserted shopping mall for a bit of tutorial time.
Combat is straightforward, right and left triggers to aim/shoot, with some handy melee tricks, and grenades. You can make use of cover, of course, and blind-fire or take more time to aim from cover. You’re going to be in a good many shoot-outs with multiple enemies, so it’s good practice. Health can be recovered by getting behind cover and waiting until your screen stops being red. If you should die, however, Lynch or occasional other team members will try to reach you and give you a shot of adrenaline to revive you. You can only do this once per shoot-out, however, or you’ll OD and have a heart-attack.
Kane’s next task is to rob a safety deposit box in a bank where he believes the loot is stashed. Naturally, the robbery goes wrong, providing the opportunity for a hostage situation and shoot-out with the cops that’s like playing all your favourite heist movies. It’s Dog Day Afternoon, Reservoir Dogs and Heat all rolled into one, an intense, action-packed chapter as the cops attempt to storm the bank. You have to cover all windows, throw back smoke grenades etc as Lynch goes nut-nut and starts shooting the hostages. At this point, handily, you’ve got another bank robber on your side, the safe-cracker, and you have to watch his back too. He’s also on hand with an adrenaline shot should you need it.
Once Kane and Lynch are out of that sticky situation, via a car chase where you and Lynch are shooting the pursuing cops from the back of a getaway van, you’re bound for Tokyo and a nightclub run by a former girlfriend of Kane’s. Still chasing the elusive loot you need to trade for Kane’s family’s lives, the desperate duo must now kidnap her to trade with her gangster dad. And this sets up what must surely be one of the best videogame sequences of all time.
Having knocked out Yoko, the club owner, Lynch has to carry her out of the busy nightclub while you, as Kane have to take care of the heavily armed security that are on high-alert around the club. The club is busy, full of punters happily dancing to pounding techno. It’s dark in there, of course, and your way is half-lit by strobing disco lights. The bouncers are carrying torches, so can be spotted pushing their way through the crowd towards you. Once they’re on you, they’ll start shooting Lynch first, so you have to stay close and protect him and Yoko. And this is where it gets really clever.
If you take down the bouncers using melee, or you’re accurate with your shots, the punters will be largely oblivious to what’s going on. However, if you fire into the crowd wildly, or deliberately target the punters, you’ll start a panic and everyone will stampede towards the door. There are several levels to the club, so it’s quite a feat to get to your escape point on the roof, but absolutely brilliant fun. And really that’s just the tip of the iceberg, the action doesn’t let up, and there’s plenty of hours of it to be had. It’s a pretty linear storyline, but you’ll have so much fun playing it you won’t mind.
The graphics throughout are lovely and the animations smooth, with a decent amount of background detail. The AI is impressive too, so you can’t simply work out your best way of tackling any level and stick to it, they will always respond differently, and quite cannily. The dynamic of the two main characters is an interesting one, too. Just when you think you’ve got things under control, Lynch may flip out and bring more heat down on you. It’s entertaining, original and the best third-person shooter on the PS3 so far. There’s online play promised for 4-8 players, too, where the aim is to steal as much money as possible from a bank and successfully make your getaway.
Kane & Lynch is out in time for Christmas, so get writing to Santa now.
I’m keeping an eye on this one, sounds good and a possible replacement for The orange Box that previews suggest is totally broken, no doubt thanks to EA’s coding expertise !!
Comment by Neil — Nov 23, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
From those images above, reminds me of Hitman
Comment by JohnSketch — Nov 23, 2007 @ 12:54 pm
“It’s entertaining, original and the best third-person shooter on the PS3 so far.”
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course. I just have to say I strongly disagree with this statement.
Where’s the negative comments? Oh, this is a preview, so you wouldn’t write negative comments? But positive are ok?
This is so shady it’s embarrassing. It looks like something straight from the PR department, and most gamers will probably call foul on this one.
K&L is nothing like Hitman. I bought K&L just because of IO Interactives previous work on Hitman: Blood Money which I really loved. But this game went gold far too soon in my opinion. It’s clear that IO Interactive wasn’t given time to perfect the game, as this is something of the worst they’ve produced in years, and it really makes me sad.
Threespeech, if you’re going to try and post a neutral preview on a game, then make it neutral. Otherwise, you’ve got to provide negative comments together with the positive, otherwise it’s just another PR stunt.
Best third person shooter on PS3 so far? What about GRAW? Ratchet & Clank?
Comment by Insane_Rooster — Nov 23, 2007 @ 1:29 pm
yeah, this reads like a sony sponsored “preview”.
gives you a runthru about how the game kinda plays but with no word of if it’s good or not.
then throws some random and strange compliments at the end.
then suddenly it’s the best third-person shooter on the PS3 so far?
eh?
Comment by d33p — Nov 23, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
I haven’t played it, but all the reviews I’ve read of this have been really disappointed by how this has turned out. Hopefully a demo will be on PSN at some point so more people can make up their own mind.
Comment by Matthew — Nov 23, 2007 @ 2:21 pm
Still no news on the PS3 eye. Are Sony ignoring you as well as us, threespeech?
Comment by Dan (BBRodriguez) — Nov 23, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
@ Dan - As soon as I have it you know its yours… Its on the list!
Comment by Three Speech — Nov 23, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
I know threespeech, I must sound like a whining idiot and I’m not questioning your integrity. It’s just this lack of communication from sony is turning into a real pain in the arse. They must know when they will be releasing their own products and we know the bloody things are ready to ship.
Comment by Dan (BBRodriguez) — Nov 23, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
It got 5/10 in the latest Official PlayStation Magazine. These are some of the comments:
“Measured by the gap between pre-release hopes and ruinous finished game reality, Kane & Lynch has to be one of the most profound disappointments of recent years.”
“What we’ve ended up with is an inconsistent, unnecessarily unpleasant and at times technically broken letdown, from the makers of Hitman.”
“Shooting from cover is plagued by clipping issues. Even when you have your sights trained perfectly on a target, pull the trigger and you’ll often find your bullets impacting uselessy on the scenery by your ear.”
“…it’s not much to look at, full of low-detail backgrounds, PS2-grade textures and a bland, industrial colour scheme.”
“Throw in an exploitative split-choice ending, both paths of which cheat you out of any kind of satisfying resolution, and you have a truly unhappy experience. First time around, I chose the option I knew would end the game quickest. I’d just had enough - playing was making me miserable…”
Comment by Paranoimia — Nov 23, 2007 @ 3:23 pm
lol.
“official” playstation magazine = “playing was making me miserable”, 5/10
“semi official” Three Speech where they “hope to create an environment that is balanced” = “best third-person shooter on the PS3 so far”
time to check yourself 3speech, dangerous ground…
Comment by d33p — Nov 23, 2007 @ 4:38 pm
it’s a journalists opinion and maybe he likes it!!!
Comment by dubster — Nov 23, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
It’s just got 7/10 on eurogamer….
Comment by paul5 — Nov 23, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
@d33p and all - He is an independent journalist with an independent view point and he stands by his review. I’ll try and get him on to answer your comments. TS.
Comment by Three Speech — Nov 23, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
Hey, it’s subjective. I really like what I’ve seen of the game - the first few levels, as I said. I personally think the Hitman games should be prefixed with an ’s’, so it just goes to show. Anyone want to remind me of another great PS3 3rd person shooter?
Maybe it’s time to stop whingeing at ThreeSpeech and get excited about the console you’ve got? Just my opinion…
Comment by Chris Burke — Nov 23, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
looks stupid, terrible premise and not up to par graphics. i thought these games were suppose to stretch the graphics engine of the ps3 not bore it to death. overall -10 out of suck.
lame
Comment by Chase — Nov 23, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
Just to clarify - my previous post regarding the OPM review was only intended to indicate that the Three Speech review isn’t necessarily biased in favour of the game simply because of any ‘official’ connections to Sony.
It seems to me that it’s unlikely that they (Sony) would try to influence this review towards the positive, when the official print magazine has slated it so badly.
The TS reviewer may well genuinely like the game, but all I know is that it’s now off of my wishlist!
Comment by Paranoimia — Nov 23, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
was quite excited bout this one… a demo’d be right up my alley!
Comment by benjamin — Nov 23, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
The reviewer must have had a different copy of the game to other reviewers. Not one reviewer other than Threespeech has said the AI is impressive!!!
What’s the score Threespeech? Your integrity is not looking too hot right now.
Comment by Zoidy — Nov 23, 2007 @ 7:29 pm
yeah. I was actually looking foreword to this game as well, solely because the Hitman games were so awesome. But after these bad reviews I’m beginning to wonder. A demo would definitely be good so we all could see what it’ like for ourselves
Comment by Miguel — Nov 23, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
yeah. I was actually looking foreword to this game as well, solely because the Hitman games were so awesome. But after these bad reviews I’m beginning to wonder. A demo would definitely be nice
Comment by Mike — Nov 23, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
so what integrity means agreeing with other media. don’t talk shite……
Comment by Hubert X — Nov 25, 2007 @ 9:09 pm
what with NFS:PS being bland and too easy, the freezing issues in AC, this awful C+L smokescreen of a review and the many many delays with other games i have very little faith left in the PS3, it promised great games for this xmas and to be honest we have had very few decent titles all year. there were a couple of gems, no wonder i’m still playing PS2 games on the thing.
i only hope CoD: Modern Warfare doesn’t suck balls.
Comment by mobiletone — Nov 26, 2007 @ 9:59 pm
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