Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a 2007 third-person shooter video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive in North America and PAL regions, and Spike in Japan, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The mobile phone version was developed by Kiloo and published by Eidos Mobile.
The game was received with mixed reviews, and spawned a sequel, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. As of January 11, 2008, the game has sold over 1 million copies.
Gameplay
In campaign mode the player controls Kane. The player is accompanied by Lynch, and sometimes other hired mercenaries. Co-op mode is available, in which the second player controls Lynch. Though almost identical to Kane's style of gameplay, Lynch has short bursts of aggression in which he hallucinates nearly all non-playable characters are police, some sporting an animal's head. Lynch carries a shotgun and a revolver as side arm, while Kane carries an assault rifle and standard pistol, though it is possible to swap weapons. Additional weapons such as grenades, sniper rifles and carbines can be picked up, which can be swapped between allies. The player can take cover by standing next to a wall, and can blindfire. While having hired mercenaries, the player can issue orders such as follow, move to a specific position, or attack.
Fragile Alliance Fragile Alliance is the game's online multiplayer mode, which consists of four maps: Hot Coffee, Late Night Opening, Withdrawal and A Walk In The Park. A free-to-download map pack released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live provides four additional maps. The goal is to finish a several round match with the most money. Each round begins with all of the players as armed, balaclava-clad robbers. Money can be used to buy better firearms and armor. Resistance is met in the form of armed AI controlled security guards and/or police officers. A player's money acts as a shield, but will quickly be dropped on the ground as the player is injured. To escape the level, a player must survive to meet a getaway vehicle. All players who survive without turning on their allies will split stolen money evenly.
On the Xbox 360 and PC versions, a player's appearance in the game is influenced by their TrueSkill rank while playing ranked matches. Players who have reached TrueSkill rank #1 and #2 will play as Kane and Lynch, respectively. Unlike Kane and Lynch's campaign mode, players cannot sprint. If a player feels they have taken enough money to become a target for potential traitors, they can drop some of their money, becoming less of a scoring threat.
Plot The game opens with a voiceover of ex-mercenary Adam 'Kane' Marcus (voiced by Brian Bloom), reading a letter addressed to his daughter Jenny. Kane is traveling to death row after being convicted of manslaughter. Another death row inmate, James Seth Lynch (voiced by Jarion Monroe), lets on there will be a breakout. Their truck is involved in a head-on collision by a group of mercenaries. The two are taken to a construction site, where they are confronted by four members of a gang of criminals called The7, led by The Brothers and their henchmen Carlos (a close friend of Kane) and Mute. They accuse Kane of stealing money from them, and reveal that they have taken his wife and daughter hostage. Kane is given three weeks to retrieve the money or his wife and daughter will be killed.
Kane and Lynch are dropped off at an abandoned mall, where they are given supplies and a vehicle. However, police officers arrive and the two are forced to shoot their way out. Later, Kane explains that he did not steal from The7, but knows who did, and where they hid it. Kane and Lynch rob a local bank where the money is being kept. Only half of the money is in the bank's safe, but Kane believes he knows where the other half is. Meanwhile, Lynch, who is revealed to suffer from mental illness and periodic episodes of violent psychosis, blacks out and kills all of the hostages after his medication wears off, forcing Kane and Lynch to shoot their way out and flee in a van. Losing the police in the subway after the van crashes, Kane informs Lynch that they need to go to Tokyo to retrieve the other half of the money.
In Tokyo, the pair go after Retomoto, a Japanese crime lord, by kidnapping his daughter Yoko as ransom. While Kane is negotiating with Retomoto over the phone and despite Retomoto even initially offering an uneasy alliance against The7, Lynch accidentally shoots and kills Yoko while trying to stop her from escaping. Kane, Lynch, and The7's hired guns then proceed to escape from Retomoto's hitmen. Kane is furious with Lynch, but he realizes that they are out of time and must return to The7 with only half of the money.
Lynch reveals to Kane that he made a deal with The7 to betray Kane in order to ensure his survival as well as a position within The7, but he is also betrayed and knocked unconscious at the construction site where Kane and his family are to be executed. The leaders of The7 deny Kane's plea for additional time, after which The Brothers and Carlos depart for Havana, leaving Mute to carry out the executions. After being brought to the construction site along with her daughter, Kane's wife expresses her disgust with Kane, but Mute executes her before he has a chance to answer her, even though The7 promised to let Kane speak with her. Regaining consciousness, Lynch attacks his kidnappers while an enraged Kane beats Mute to death. Kane and Lynch then protect Kane's daughter Jenny from The7's reinforcements as she cries over her mother's body.
Kane buries his wife and decides to finish off The7 to ensure his daughter's safety. Kane and Lynch free a group of "Dead Men" from prison: Rific, Thapa, and Shelly. These men had been wronged by The7 and join the duo to get revenge, although Shelly expresses resentment at working with Lynch, who he recognizes; he reveals that Lynch may have killed his own wife. Before flying to Havana, they return to Tokyo and kill Retomoto, reclaiming the rest of the money to finance their war with The7. In Havana, Kane keeps everyone motivated with promises of payment as they track down The Brothers and Carlos. Kane informs Lynch that The7 profit from assisting factions in civil wars, with Havana supposedly the last job needed for their retirement. They find themselves caught up in an ongoing civil war, joining the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and battling The7's forces that are attempting to stage a coup d'état. They find Carlos, abandoned by The Brothers. Kane recruits him, but Thapa abandons the mission as a result.
The Dead Men fight their way through the Venezuelan jungle, and locate The Brothers at their compound. Shelly demands the payment that Kane claimed he would get for helping him. Carlos tells Shelly and Rific that there is plenty of heroin in the village that they can take as a compensation. Carlos then volunteers to go on ahead and open the gates with an explosive, but vanishes once inside, making Lynch think that Carlos lured them into a trap. However, Kane and Lynch discover over Carlos's radio that The7 have captured Jenny again. They discover Jenny unharmed, along with Carlos's corpse. They suddenly get ambushed by The Brothers and their mercenaries, but manage to kill The Elder Brother. The Younger Brother, however, manages to escape with Jenny and attempts to take off in an airplane.
Kane and Lynch follow in a car and disable the plane's engines before killing the Younger Brother. Jenny then pulls a gun on Kane and blames him for her mother's death. Kane tells her that whether she hates him or not, he will get her to safety. Kane is then given the choice of rescuing Rific and Shelly from the village church, where they are pinned down by The7's mercenaries, or escaping with Jenny and leaving them to die.
If Kane boards the helicopter with Jenny and leaves Rific and Shelly to die, Jenny will resent her father for leaving his men and tell him that she hates him. They escape in the helicopter, leaving Lynch.
In the other ending, Kane chooses to rescue Rific and Shelly, who are trapped in a burning church towering over a village. Kane and Lynch are too late to save Rific, but Shelly is still alive. As they escape to the pier, Jenny is shot, and Kane carries her body along. Shelly loses his patience and attempts to escape on a boat alone but appears to be killed by an explosion, although his boat is seen leaving the pier. Lynch is shot as he escapes on an undamaged boat with Kane, while Jenny's status is unknown. The boat drifts slowly with the river, while Kane holds Jenny and whispers to her about the letter he tried to send her.
Development For the development of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Jesper Kyd was brought in to write the musical score for the game, having written scores for the Hitman series and Freedom Fighters. IO Interactive also brought local musicians Peter Peter, and Peter Kyed to do additional work on the score. The two were known in the Danish film industry for their work on Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher Trilogy and Valhalla Rising. Kyd arranged the soundtrack and handled the main theme and recurring pieces for the game, while the Peters worked on the music for each mission.
The game was originally going to revolve around Kane, with Lynch acting as a sidekick. But as the development went on, they decided to include Lynch in the story.Information retrieved from Kane & Lynch Inside Video #1 - This can be viewed via the Xbox Live Marketplace Martin Guldbaek, the art director for the game, said that for creating each of the locations, the team went to Los Angeles for photographs. They combined this with concept artwork to create "locations that matched the character's mood and perspective".Information from Kane & Lynch Insider Video #2 - This can be viewed via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Anders Poulsen was the lead character artist. According to him, he wanted to make characters "like no other". Kane was the first character to be designed, but was very different from his final appearance. When Lynch was brought in, it added more "life" to Kane's character.
The game went gold on October 31, 2007, making the release date a full 10 days earlier.
Kane is voiced by Brian Bloom and Lynch is voiced by Jarion Monroe.
Downloadable content Downloadable content was made available for Kane & Lynch on April 17, 2008, entitled "The Dope Bag". This contained four new maps: Clean Cut, Hooker's Trail, Flying High, and Hasta La Vista, plus adding 250 Gamerscore for the Xbox 360 version bringing the total to 1250.
Audio The Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Original Soundtrack was composed, arranged, and produced by Jesper Kyd. Danish musicians, Peter Peter and Peter Kyed, who are most known for their work with Nicolas Winding Refn's earlier films, including his Pusher trilogy, and his Netflix series; Copenhagen Cowboy. While the soundtrack was never released physically or digitally, certain pieces of music can be found on YouTube. The special edition of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men contains a bonus disc with six tracks.
Mobile phone adaptation The mobile shooter runs players through 38 levels across five different scenarios, such as a bank or nightclub mission. Players control one of the men while the other follows, offering cover and support.
Reception
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men received "mixed or average reviews" on all platforms according to video game review aggregator platform Metacritic.
GameTrailers stated that although there are some flaws, the package as a whole made it "easy to recommend". On the other end of the scale, NTSC-uk called the game "a sickly mess of a game with the multitude of negatives undermining every positive".