The Optimistic English Gamer - The Beginning.
With a wide variety of games to choose from, be it a RPG or a first person shooter, its easy to criticise the work. These graphics! This gameplay! This fucking level!!!! What I notice is that people find it hard to appreciate a game. I mean, ok, I am aware that some games are just awful. An example I hear you cry. Very well, Bubsy 3D, is horrific. I'm not going to go into it, but just search some gameplay footage and watch. You'll be amazed at how bad a game can be made. Anyways, digressing away from my point, I want to mention games which I think are underrated but deserve some attention for the work that has clearly been put it. Most of them you may have heard of but probably refused to play, or even started playing and thought,"Well fuck this! This ain't nothing on Bubsy!" But stick with me and I'll try and change your mind. Alright lets get started.
So we're going to start with this beauty. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men. This was released waaay back in 2007, the same year as Halo 3 and Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol! Kane and Lynch got some pretty mixed reviews, ranging from a 3/10 to an 8/10. Now just to clarify I'll only be covering the single player and co-operative (I kinda suck at multiplayer games). I actually played this when it first came out round at a mates house, but the controls felt so awkward to me and the graphics are just so so, I only played the first level. But that was a mistake on my part. I was naive and young! Then a few years later someone recommended it to me when I was on an achievement whore binge (who wasn't, am I right?!) So I put on my big boy pants and set to it. From the get go I was slightly frustrated at the graphics and controls, again, but I buckled on down and went head first.
I now fucking, love....LOVE this game. OK yes, the controls suck, but my God! This has one of my favourite story lines in any game! Nay, Maybe in any film! Not exactly a unique story but it is told uniquely. You play as Kane, who's in prison for being a badass (well...manslaughter) and meets a fine gentleman by the name of Lynch, who is bat shit crazy. He does, however, inform our protagonist of a breakout.
After completing your breakout with Lynch you're taken to a construction site where you meet "The 7"! Cue dramatic music! They say you've stolen some money and have to get it back for them otherwise they kill your wife and daughter.
So you end up going to do a bank job and this is where I fell in love with the game. It all seems to be going well but Lynch ends up going mental and starts murdering all the hostages. Now at this time I was playing it through with my brother and he was playing as Lynch. He started freaking out saying the building was overrun with the police and started shooting EVERYONE! When I came upstairs from the vault, all I saw was all floor decorated with the bodies of the hostages, so naturally I thought my brother was just goofing with me. The ball starts rolling and you end up having a shootout through the streets, much like the film Heat (if no-one has seen this, please watch it). The game channels you along but in such a way it feels as if the way you're going is your only option. The rapport that Kane and Lynch have is very fragile through this entire scenario. The developers obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and you can tell from the dialog. At one point you cut through a pedestrian area, and once again my brother starts just fucking up everyone!
"What the fuck are you doing?!!", I screamed at him.
"Can you not see all the coppers?!". When I look over to his side of the screen, Lynch is seeing everyone as a policeman and so my brother starts taking names. Once again, I love this solely for the reason that it gives the player an insight into why Lynch is absolutely nuts, and it manages to bring over that craziness from the single player into to the Co-op seamlessly. From this moment on, I forgot all the negative points about the game. I was so enthralled to see how the rest of the game would pan out from here.
Now without trying to spoil the rest, the story takes an incredible turn, and honestly I didn't expect it. This could be why I love it so much. It sucks you, the player, into the story, actually making you want to know whats going to happen and that's what a game should do. Entice the player into their world and I'm glad it did. Kane and Lynch are an odd pair but nevertheless you grow to love 'em. You end up in a wide variety of places, from Tokyo to Havana...and construction sites! Yeah!
The night club mission is awesome. Making you shoot your way out with civilians in the midst of it all, adding to chaos that already surrounds the characters. You start the mission by wandering through the club towards the managers office and its very well done. The player really get a feel for the environment and the change in atmospherics, from booty bouncing to guns blazing, seems to happen in an instance.
Even the ending (once again I'm trying my hardest to refrain from spoiling anything) has two different ways to be played out. Each one gives the story a different view (surprisingly) and after completing one of them I actually resented myself for the choice. The game in total is roughly about 6 hours long but its just right to convey the story across without being to long drawn. And just like the game I'm going to sum this up before it becomes the babbling of a mad man...more so than it is.
So there you have it. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, a truly awesome game. There's even a number two (Dog Days) where you play and Lynch and get to do a mission naked...if that's your thing. But aside from that fact the story in that is once again a masterpiece, it works as an experience that you will have a plethora of emotions for. So I implore you, random reader! To play both games. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and much like a book, you'll be incredibly happy but upset that the game had to finish.
Thanks for reading.
More to come in the future . OEG.
After completing your breakout with Lynch you're taken to a construction site where you meet "The 7"! Cue dramatic music! They say you've stolen some money and have to get it back for them otherwise they kill your wife and daughter.
So you end up going to do a bank job and this is where I fell in love with the game. It all seems to be going well but Lynch ends up going mental and starts murdering all the hostages. Now at this time I was playing it through with my brother and he was playing as Lynch. He started freaking out saying the building was overrun with the police and started shooting EVERYONE! When I came upstairs from the vault, all I saw was all floor decorated with the bodies of the hostages, so naturally I thought my brother was just goofing with me. The ball starts rolling and you end up having a shootout through the streets, much like the film Heat (if no-one has seen this, please watch it). The game channels you along but in such a way it feels as if the way you're going is your only option. The rapport that Kane and Lynch have is very fragile through this entire scenario. The developers obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and you can tell from the dialog. At one point you cut through a pedestrian area, and once again my brother starts just fucking up everyone!
"What the fuck are you doing?!!", I screamed at him.
"Can you not see all the coppers?!". When I look over to his side of the screen, Lynch is seeing everyone as a policeman and so my brother starts taking names. Once again, I love this solely for the reason that it gives the player an insight into why Lynch is absolutely nuts, and it manages to bring over that craziness from the single player into to the Co-op seamlessly. From this moment on, I forgot all the negative points about the game. I was so enthralled to see how the rest of the game would pan out from here.
"For the last time! Cut your fucking hair!"
Now without trying to spoil the rest, the story takes an incredible turn, and honestly I didn't expect it. This could be why I love it so much. It sucks you, the player, into the story, actually making you want to know whats going to happen and that's what a game should do. Entice the player into their world and I'm glad it did. Kane and Lynch are an odd pair but nevertheless you grow to love 'em. You end up in a wide variety of places, from Tokyo to Havana...and construction sites! Yeah!
The night club mission is awesome. Making you shoot your way out with civilians in the midst of it all, adding to chaos that already surrounds the characters. You start the mission by wandering through the club towards the managers office and its very well done. The player really get a feel for the environment and the change in atmospherics, from booty bouncing to guns blazing, seems to happen in an instance.
Even the ending (once again I'm trying my hardest to refrain from spoiling anything) has two different ways to be played out. Each one gives the story a different view (surprisingly) and after completing one of them I actually resented myself for the choice. The game in total is roughly about 6 hours long but its just right to convey the story across without being to long drawn. And just like the game I'm going to sum this up before it becomes the babbling of a mad man...more so than it is.
So there you have it. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, a truly awesome game. There's even a number two (Dog Days) where you play and Lynch and get to do a mission naked...if that's your thing. But aside from that fact the story in that is once again a masterpiece, it works as an experience that you will have a plethora of emotions for. So I implore you, random reader! To play both games. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and much like a book, you'll be incredibly happy but upset that the game had to finish.
Thanks for reading.
More to come in the future . OEG.
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