Despite a really fun multiplayer, the game is too short, and only manages to fix a few of the issues form the first one.
Story
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3 years after the Venezuela incident in the original game, Lynch has settled down in Shanghai, with a girlfriend called Xiu, and is involved crime organization, lead by Glazer. After being told about a high paying operation, involving smuggling guns to Africa, Lynch tracks down Lynch and asks for his help. However, on the day before the deal, things don't exactly go well...
Compared to the first game, there's hardly any story. Like Modern Warfare 2, things happen, and there isn't a lot of explanation, and though Kane & Lynch still remains likeable (surprisingly), the game doesn't manage to evolve the characters in anyway. Another problem is its creditability. Kane & Lynch ends up taking on a whole army or mob guys, which neither fits the game's style, nor the story. It doesn't add anything to the characters and it's ending is pretty bad too.
3.0
Gameplay
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The gameplay does see some tweaks to the gameplay. While you'll always have Kane with you, he'll pretty much act on his own, so you can't give him command him to go behind cover or stick with you. Thankfully though, he's not a stupid nutcase like your companions in the previous game. He can't die, but he's good at killing foes too, and it's a welcome change. The game also manages to upgrade it's cover system, making it much easier to take cover, instead of the system in the original, where you had to randomly walk up against a wall, and hope your character would use it as a cover.
The adrenaline shots are gone too. When you receive a certain amount of damage, you'll get knocked to the ground, when this happens, you can still shoot people and crawl back to safety. It actually works really well, given players a second chance, and online, it's something that everyone should be careful about.
There's no grenades in the game, so you'll have to make do with canisters and fire exchangers, to act as throwing explosives instead, in keeping in theme with the game's youtube feeling.
Speaking of online, Fragile Alliance returns once again. For people who don't know it, Fragile Alliance has a team of 8, acting like criminals, who have to make their way to a big safe or storage room, to steal money, and then escape with it. The catch here, is that everyone can basically stab you in the back (and vice versa), and steal your loot, though doing so marks them as a traitor. It creates some tension to the game, and it's actually a really cool idea, that I'm surprised to see that shooters haven't attempted to make a mode like this.
IO has been kind enough to add 2 other modes... well variations of Fragile Alliance. Undercover Cop mode has a player as the undercover cop, and it's his (or her)'s job to kill all of the criminals. And Cops and Robbers is pretty much self explanatory. 6 players are the cops, while the 6 other players are robbers.
The online mode is easily the best part of the game. It's addicting and the Undercover Cop mode is exciting and really fun to play. Sadly though, the online mode isn't perfect. It can take time to find some players to play against at times, and it also has its share of lag, though it's nothing really serious. Undercover cop can be a bit unbalanced though, as the same guy can be chosen to be the cop twice in a row (hell, it happened to me on numerous occasions), which makes it easier for the others to see through your cover. And like the original, the enemies will always have the same placement, so all it takes is a few playthroughs, and you'll be able to tell where each enemy is.
There's an arcade mode, which is essentially Fragile Alliance with bots instead of real players, and instead of 3 rounds, you see how many rounds you can last, before you die. It gets harder obviously, but it also gets boring, as there's never any real tension of your mates stabbing you in the back.
As for the single player, the difficulty has surprisingly risen, so some sections can get a bit too tough, as it seemingly appears that your enemies can take several shots more than you, before they die. You can take human shields sure, but they die in an instant, and everytime you try to take one, you mostly end up getting killed, so it's a bit useless. Beyond that, the game still haven't fixed the shooting mechanics. The guns lacks the punch that makes it entertaining, and it's still inaccurate as hell, unless you get one of those weapons the SWAT team uses. I really wish they would fix this issue, but apparently they haven't.
The game is surprisingly short too. The game is spread across 11 levels, but they can all be finished within 4 hours, which is really, really short. I was surprised really, when the ending credits rolled, and I said to myself "that's it!?". It's a bare bones campaign anyway, there's (maybe) only one or two really good moments, but that's about it. The multiplayer's pretty fun though, but that's about it.
6.5
Graphics
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The game isn't the prettiest kid on the block, but that's all because of it's new visual style. The game pretty much looks like it was shot by a small documentry team, or some amaturs making a film for youtube. It honestly fits the game really well, and makes it all seem more realistic, even when their taking on a army.
The camera acts like it's handheld too and surprisingly, it normally doesn't shake enough so you can't see what's going on. The camera does shake nausiantly when you run, but that can be fixed with the steady cam option.
The game looks good, but that's only because of it's visual style, because if it weren't for that, the game would only look average.
8.0
Sound
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Jesper Kyd isn't anywhere to be found, which is ok, because there's hardly any music at all. Instead, it's all been replaced by the ambience of Shanghai, and it does its work really well, making you feel you really are there. The voice acting is good, but the dialogue, while not bad, could have been written a bit better.
9.0
Overall
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Kane & Lynch 2 manages to fix some of the problems from the first game, but it doesn't really improve on it either. The multiplayer is pretty fun and has some clever modes yea, but at the end of the day, it makes you ask yourself, if that's all IO Interactive could really come up with. Sorry IO, hopefully you'll start focusing on Hitman 5 instead. At $60, Kane & Lynch 2 is only worth getting, if you want to play the multiplayer, but otherwise, it's one that should be rented.