The name fits it all. Shank 2 is quite the game to lose blood from your fingers from.
THE ENEMIES
Aside from the story, Shank 2 has a lot of enemies. From midget cannibals, attractive tribal chicks, and even animals. Shank 2 brings a lot of variety in enemies. Each doing something different and having a new tactic of killing them faster. The tribal girls can seriously bust-a-nut. They are fast and evasive. And annoying when they just swing their sticks around! The small human cannibal midget guys are pretty annoying too. They tease you to swing at them then just hop back to evade your attack. Then they jump on you and do some pretty bite lip-biting. In other words they start biting your face. There are many more enemies in this game but overall the AI opponents are fairly smart and difficult.
THE GAMEPLAY
Shank 2's gameplay is very addictive. You can chain together hits and turn them into combos. Slice an enemy one or two times then throw them up into the air, throw a knife at them and then jump and grab them again. There are so many combos possible in the game and completing them make the kill even more satisfying. The way you move the right stick while pushing an attack button controls which way Shank will attack his opponent. For example if you pull the right stick down and push triangle (or Y for X360) Shank swipes upward with his secondary weapon and sends your enemy into the air; allowing even further combination of attacks. Plus you have far ranged weapons, so why don't you use that shotgun of yours and shoot the enemy right after you fling him into the air? It's great fun seeing your character throw bodies all over the screen as if they were rag dolls.
REPLAYABILITY
Shank 2 has a short story but satisfying and challenging with bosses at the end of each level. Though with the short story comes a great survival mode called...well..."Survival". It isn't an exciting name for the game mode but it is what it says. You have 3 bombs to protect as hordes of enemies rush in to try and fuse them. There are 30 rounds and each round ends after you defeat every enemy. There is also a shop that allows you to buy items to help you survive the enemies. Like vodka (which is the health in the game), turrets, hogs, nukes, and more. These definitely help you depending on the situation you are in. Survival is definitely my favorite in the game. I don't even know how many hours I've spent with it and it's three levels with my brother.
Another thing that adds replayability is the character unlocks. Doing certain things in story, survival, or both earns you a new character costume which has different attributes used in Survival mode. For example Classic Shank has +10% health while another character might have +150% Heavy Weapon damage but a decrease in some other attributes like speed. There are a decent amount of skins to unlock all with different looks, specialties, and ways of unlocking them. This adds a whole bunch of replay to the game.
FINAL THOUGHT
Shank 2 is simply a great arcade game. It's never been more satisfying tossing enemies around at each other, performing submissions, blasting their heads off and just have plain o' fun shanking peeps. The boss fights are challenging and each one brings something new to the way of killing them, there are many different scenarios and level backgrounds, and plenty of enemy types to annihilate. Survival mode adds a great and addictive replayability to the game and is a great way to spend time with a friend for great team play combat. The graphics aren't bad and the gameplay is fun and, like everything else in this game, addicting. I actually want to hop on my PS3 and play this game right now! Overall, I got this game for free and I can't argue; I got a great game that I am willing to pay $15 for. If you're looking for an addictive, combo-mashing, body tossing game, then this is the game for you. Buy it, play it, and regret not buying it sooner because this game is still one I play at least twice a week after owning it for 3 or 4 months.