Guide a reckless psychopath through Shanghai, destroy everything in your way and have a ball doing it.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, just like its predecessor wants you to know that you are a monster and your actions are unjustifiable, but also wants you to have a lot fun. Maybe it's the antithesis of Spec Ops: The Line. Maybe it wants you to have your cake and eat it too. The end result (for those who are aware of concepts like empathy and compassion) however, is still unsettling.
The artistic direction, with a couple of minor complaints is stunning. It is highly stylized, going for a guerrilla-cinematic approach. Lens flare, blood-liquid-dirt on screen, shaky-cam, depth of field, even pixellated censor blotches. It's gritty but beautiful. Digital Shanghai is really brought to life with insane attention to detail and beautifully composed environments and high contrast lighting. Strong characters, game sounds and music also contributed to make a powerful visceral experience, however I found the vocals were sometimes poorly mixed and unable to be heard over bg sounds - maybe a technical issue.
The actual gameplay could be paid more attention to. The snap cover system kind of sucks. You really should be allowed to move freely around a surface you're taking cover behind. Level design is great and often makes you think about your strategy. Besides that it is a fairly solid third person shooter with a decent variety of weapons and fairly challenging.
The story is minimal but very grisly at times. Easy to follow but a little too 'who gives a shit this is just a B-movie'. I knocked over the game in about 3 hours. For a sub $10 game (on sale) I have no problem with the length. It achieved what it set out to. 7/10. Easy to recommend.