This game hurts
The game uses a constant 'shaky camera', effect to mimic realism, the thing with that is that you can't stare at it for long periods of time before your eyes start to hurt really bad. I turned the 'steady cam' feature on almost immediately but you are still left with the constant flashes of light bloom and strobing. The game goes grainy constantly. All of that wasn't even the main issue for me. The game constantly goes out of focus to mimic amateur camera work and after ten minutes of that my eyes literally start to hurt.
I've never struck this with a game. I've played other games that mimic bad camera work like 'manhunt', but they did it in such a way that it didn't affect your enjoyment of the game.
The effect of all this is that I havent finished the game yet and i wont be able to for some time because i can only really play it 20 minutes at a time. What im going to have to do is play Dog Days at the end of a gaming session after playing another game.
This thing is....they did fix alot of issues from the first game. The biggest was that they assigned a cover button and made it consistent rather than just walking up to cover and hoping you'll stick to it eventually.
Kane & Lynch has an odd reputation. People have been fired for giving the first game a bod review and to be honest I saw that review and it was right on the money..and to set the record straight I don't like the guy (you all know who he is) who gave that review....he came across as a bit too concieted and self-important but never the less he was right about the first game.
Despite all those failings I liked the first game.
I wish I could get into this game (Dog Days) more but it literally does hurt to play.
I don't understand IO (the makers). They keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with these games. I can see alot of talent and hard work in these games. I see games that could be exceptional but are ruined by bizarre game-play quirks that are done on purpose.
Things like the bad camera-man trick should have been exposed as a failure in play-testing. The game was great already, it didn't need the horrible camera effects...they are constant and irritating like a fly buzzing around your head that you just can't swat.
I could have dealt with it if it was just the campaign that had those effects but they have kept them for multi-player and you cant switch them off, effectively ruining multi-player for me.
I'm hoping someone will develop a 'hack' or patch for the pc version to fix the visuals because I really want to play this game without developing a migraine.