Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Impressions

Video Interview

Io Interactive's Jens Peter Kurup talks to us about all things Kane & Lynch.

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Toward the end of last month, Eidos and Io Interactive confirmed that a previously unannounced PlayStation 3 version of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is in development alongside the Xbox 360 and PC versions. A day or two later, representatives from both companies paid us a visit and brought the latest work-in-progress Xbox 360 build of the game to show off some of the progress that's been made since we saw it last August. We weren't allowed to get our hands on the controller during this visit, but we were still able to get a feel for how some of the gameplay has changed and is continuing to evolve.

The Tokyo Highrise level where our presentation got underway was the same one that we saw last year, but it was looking even better and, as soon as the action got started, it became clear that the gameplay has also improved. Disguised as window cleaners who are accompanied by three other guys, Kane and Lynch must rappel from the roof of the skyscraper down to a boardroom, get in through the window, retrieve a briefcase, and then escape to the street via the front door. But before they can do any of that stuff, they will need to deal with a handful of enemies on the roof.

According to Io's game director, Jens Peter Kurup, one of the key strategies in Kane & Lynch is positioning your colleagues in such a way that they attract the attention of enemies and, in doing so, afford you an opportunity to flank them. That's exactly what Kurup did on this occasion. He got the fight underway by tossing a tear gas grenade toward the unsuspecting enemies and then ordering all four of his squadmates to take up positions toward an area of the rooftop where they could attack the enemies from behind cover. The tear gas disoriented the enemies as they came under fire, so by the time they recovered their senses to return fire at Lynch and the rest of the group, Kurup—as Kane—was already well on his way to a position off to the side from which he was subsequently able to pick off the enemies no longer in cover behind a bullet-ridden helicopter.

During some sequences, the camera will reposition itself to afford you a more cinematic view of the action.

With the enemies taken care of and the small rappel point icon located, it was time for Kane and his crew to make their way down the front of the building. As they rappelled down, the camera automatically repositioned itself a couple of times to afford us a view of the great-looking city streets far below and of the boardroom window for which they were aiming. The only way to get in was to plant a small explosive on the glass, which took long enough for many of the room's occupants to take up defensive positions by the time the explosive detonated. After sending the rest of the group in, Kane followed and took up a position behind one of several pillars in the room. Most of the enemies were focusing their attention on the rest of the group, but one or two of them spotted Kane following them in and were slowly tearing apart the aforementioned pillar with a hail of bullets. Destructible cover is a common feature in Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, and it's one of a number of ways that the game encourages to you to keep moving when you might otherwise be content to camp in a good spot. The pillars in the boardroom aren't totally destructible, but it's possible to take enough chunks out of them so that anyone hiding behind them is exposed to some extent.

Kurup explained that you don't have to press any buttons to take cover behind objects in Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, you simply push toward one, and Kane will back up against it. You'll still need to use a crouch button to get down behind smaller stuff, but apart from that, moving in and out of positions of cover shouldn't be something that you have to think about too much. One of the control mechanics that you will have to think about is firing blind or on the move versus taking a moment to stop and take aim. Pressing the right trigger button will fire whichever gun you have equipped with reasonable accuracy, but you'll find that the gun's recoil has a noticeable effect on your aim, and if you're behind cover, you'll be firing simply by moving your arm over or around the object you're behind. If you hold down the left trigger button before firing, you'll switch to an over-the-shoulder view that improves your aim quite dramatically. But this also means you'll be poking your head out of cover, or if you're out in the open, standing still for a moment.