Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Total letdown"

I was eager to get my hands on K&L2, like its predecessor it is tough at times, infact most of the time now. But one thing really let me down.

It was the censoring, now many may say its part of the "TV show look of the game", but there is no cameraman supposed to be there unless you consider the player to be the cameraman then sure, but bottom line is the censoring in the game is way over the top. Even to the point where you get shot, I don't mind some sort of visual effect - blood on the screen, screen gets a bit darker for a second or any other similar effects, but to effectively block out most of the screen it does remind oneself of badly encoded video's in their blocky glory.

So this serious flaw to the side, what about the gameplay? It is good, the story entices you in from the start by "talking to a guy" which ends up something much worse and the situation gets worse every map you encounter.

The AI is very very tough, it will find ways to ruin your night easily, so do not rely on staying in cover in one spot for too long as the NPC's will find a way to flank you. Infact they are clever enough to know if your behind balsa wood they will shoot through it at you.

Aiming is good for most of the game, you can use the right mouse button to manually aim, but the automatic aiming is good too, some weapons have good auto aiming at long distances while others like the shotgun is best at close ranges, as long as you move the mouse in a particular viewpoint you should be able to shoot ok, but thats more likely to get you shot up pretty badly.

The graphics are good and modelled well, but the textures are not up to scratch and look a bit dated, but most of the scenery is destroyable which will show much love to Nvidia users with Physx in full flow.

The game is short, but as par for most PC games it is designed to be run alongside various future DLC packs, but the maps and scenarios will present you a hefty challenge even on the easiest level.

Overall it is a well designed game, but with the serious flaws of the censorship it detracts from the games main appeal to gamers, the violence, and you will be left wondering why Lynch being ripped to shreds with a knife and seeing the scars is allowed to be seen and limb shots etc are not. Unfortunately IO Interactive have fallen short and seemed to have devised the censor system to appease the complainers.

I gave it a 5.5 for the AI, Story and the feel/immersion of the game, but it lost points on the obvious flaw and shortness.