Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is trapped in an old kennel.

DISCLAIMER: THIS REVIEW DOES NOT EVALUATE MULTIPLAYER MODE DUE TO LOW PLAYER POPULATION.

Dogs Days tells a particularly simple story about two criminals getting in way over their heads, or at least it would if the gameplay didn't involve the duo slaughtering their way through hundreds of street thugs, police officers, and professionally trained soldiers. Players take control of Lynch who is living in Shanghai with his girlfriend Xiu. His "friend" Kane has just arrived to take part in a business deal Lynch is helping to organize, but joins Lynch in a shakedown that goes south when their mark goes on the run leading to a chase and shootout in the streets. After accidentally killing the girl their target was on the run with, the man kills himself, leaving the two confused as to what just happens, but they proceed with the business deal. Everything spirals from there as attackers descend on them from all sides and don't stop coming until the end of the game. The story K&L2 tells isn't particularly deep and the game hasn't got a single likeable or interesting character to its name. It's events reach levels of insanity that can only possibly happen when the characters are utterly encased in the thickest levels of plot armor imaginable, and the game ends to abruptly that it almost feels you can see the exact moment the money ran out or release day arrived.

Kane & Lynch 2 is an incredibly basic third person shooter that's as shallow as they come. A basic and bare functional cover system, two weapon loadouts, painfully inaccurate weapons, and the ability to grab enemies as meat shields that don't really seem to shield much at all. In fact enemies seem to be programmed with instant kill bullets if you get within close proximity of them, just to make sure you can't abuse the fact that pressing a button on them at close range instantly grabs them without a struggle. Explosive containers can be picked up, thrown, and then shot. That's it. That's the entire game, followed by hundreds of enemies spamming you until the credits roll. The cover system is so bad that on harder difficulties, you're better off just standing around corners and using the broken crosshair system to shoot at enemies who can't shoot back at you. Also the game has co-op if you enjoy suffering with friends.

Arcade Mode is a strange waste of time where you and a handful of AI controlled criminals take on jobs that involve collecting money and then fighting your way to the escape point. The more money you collect, the higher your score and you can very slowly rank up to get access to better starting weapons. As a round based game mode, you just replay the same level again and again but enemies become more lethal with each new round. Your teammates can be killed to take their money but this will flag you as an enemy to the rest of them, and they can open fire on you if you don't have what they deem to be "enough money" for some reason. Though this at least allows you to return fire with consequence. It's not very interesting and you'll be hard pressed to find anything about it fun.

This could have been Dog Days' one saving grace, but the dev team lacked either the courage or the resources to commit to it. As a third person shooter, the game's camera and visual style is intended to mimic a 2000's camcorder, as if a cameraman is following the duo through their misadventure. Light from the sky is washed out with bloom and light sources cast rays across the camera lens which can be dirtiest with dust, water, and blood in the heat of combat. Sprinting causes the camera to bob heavily as if the cameraman is dashing to keep pace with your character. Explosions or other visually noisy effects will cause the bitrate to fail and produce visible checkerboarding of the pixels. But the game doesn't go far enough. It still has a HUD that completely destroy's the "cameraman" aesthetic. The camera itself still controls exactly like any over the shoulder camera would. For every noise that actually sounds like it's being recorded by a cheap camcorder microphone, the majority of the game's noises don't and the soundscape is often filled with nonsense "mental" atmosphere that feels like it belongs in a horror game, not the mean streets of China. Environments are actually incredibly detailed and lavishly produced but character models, especially their animations, fail to match. The game's presentation is at its best when no humans are on the screen. It's got a large share of bugs but most can be fixed with a reset of the game. However beating it causes the game to crash right after it registers the level being completed. Fortunately, you don't miss anything but the credits when it happens.