I'm a man of little patience. Amongst those who know me, I am notorious for my short attention span and my inability to 'see things through 'til the end'. However, there have been certain games that challenge this character trait (flaw, even) most of which make my top five. I am of course referring to those extra special games that warranted multiple replays. There is one game in particular that I have always felt a special connection with - IO Interactive's Freedom Fighters. It wasn't the most popular game, so I made damn sure to push it to every willing soul that I could find. Freedom Fighters often came up in my 'forgotten classics' or 'underrated gems' conversations and I simply assumed that it would forever remain only in those forms. However, it would seem that the announcement of IO's latest game; Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, has brought the Freedom Fighters fans out of the woodwork, due to the games' shared team gameplay mechanics. The simplicity of the team controls, placed solely on the face buttons of your pad, made Freedom Fighters a joy to play, one that was greatly assisted by a tongue-in-cheek parody of the US/UK War On Terror and invasion of the Middle East.
From what we've been shown so far, It would seem that little has changed as far as the gameplay is concerned, if you look closely you can even see that IO have retained the same Icons that appear above teammates' heads, indicating what order they are currently undertaking. Needless to say, I have been very excited about Kane & Lynch for some time now, for reasons that run much deeper than it just reminds me of Freedom Fighters. The very first thing that struck me about K&L was it's aesthetic. Very few games manage to put forward a distinct style without the use of unique graphics, much in the same way that Jet Set Radio's impact was greatly assisted by its cel-shaded goodness. There have been many comparisons made between K&L and Michael Mann's movies, namely Collateral and Heat. Mann is easily one of my favourite Directors, for too many reasons to list here. But to sum him up, I would simply say that he infuses action with a little bit of class. His direction is reserved, yet dynamic, stylish, yet realistic and exhilarating without being overwhelming. From the in-game footage, it's visible that Kane & Lynch takes its cues from Mann, giving action that little bit of class that makes it more than your average tactical shooter. Kane & Lynch promises to combine arcade-like, dynamic gameplay with a slightly gritty aesthetic and engaging storyline that raises it above so many of its peers. I'm not proclaiming it to be the next Gears Of War, not for the masses anyway, but personally, this seems like a game I have always been waiting for.
With the Hitman series also under their belt, IO do not make a habit of disappointing the gaming public. The two title characters bring with them the promise of varied gameplay, giving a distinctively different experience depending on which of the two you get saddled with. Lynch will only be playable through co-op, but his medicated psychopath character should deliver a more frantic and unpredictable style in which to tackle the missions. His mood swings and uncontrollable behaviour should place an added challenge into the player's hands. Certain details seems less than concrete at the moment, with the publishers keeping quiet about multiplayer. What I am hoping for is online co-op, because to my horror, not so long ago I remember reading a developer interview that suggested that co-op would be offline only. This seems to dumb to be true though, so I'm going to stay optimistic. We can look forward to Kane & Lynch being released this Winter, on XBOX 360, PS3 and 'high-end' PC's. As always, check Gametrailers for some amazing in-game footage (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21608.html) and a pretty standard interview, which is basically just some guy from Eidos reciting the Press Kit(http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21670.html).
I call Lynch.
Also worth checking out is a brilliant K&L fansite which has doen nothing but moisten me for months on end. (http://kanelynch.edome.dk/)
The Faux-Bot
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