• Posted July 25th, 2007 at 08:21 EDT by
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We’re all psychopaths. At least in Kane and Lynch: Dead Men for the PlayStation 3. In Kane and Lynch, an unlikely pair of a blemished mercenary, Kane, and a medicated schizophrenic, Lynch, is forced together on a violent and chaotic path seeking redemption and revenge. The story of Kane and Lynch is clearly a very important beginning to a new long term franchise, and IO realizes that the storyline they have in the palm of their hands is genius. Kane is the main character that you'll take the role of when you play the single player game. Ever since his son shot himself, Kane has mentally been in ruins. His life falls apart most noticeably after he receives a severe reprimand by his wife, who blames him for the whole incident. Kane becomes a mercenary and while in South America with a group called “The 7”, things go wrong after a secret ambush and everyone dies but him. He escapes with a fortune in diamonds, but Lady Justice doesn’t let him sleep for long as he is soon sentenced to death. Lynch's life wasn’t what you could have considered normal, unlike Kane. He’s held many jobs, all of which he lost due to severe schizophrenia that requires extensive medication. One day he wakes up after a blackout and finds his wife dead. He isn't even sure he did it, but that doesn't stop a jury from sentencing him to death otherwise.

The two unlikely partners meet one day at a perfect place. On a bus to death row that ends up never reaching its destination. Kane is beaten and eventually kidnapped by The 7, the same group who stop the bus. Lynch is surprisingly hired on by the mercenaries to watch Kane and make sure he gets their fortune back. Luckily for Kane, he won’t die due to a group who became suspicious about his newly acclaimed fortune. A schizophrenic doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of a person you’d be friends with, but Kane has no reason than to comply because in addition to his mission, his wife and daughter are kidnapped, barely hanging on. We here at PSU were shown two levels. One comprised of a night club, and another one of a major bank heist.

There’s one key thing you notice in the PlayStation 3 version that’s specifically different from the other console’s version when the two enter the night club. The lighting is better, and the textures look more refined. As you surface the area, everyone is dancing to the nice techno beat. The lighting was very dramatic with plenty of cascading light through the front window and truly brought an aesthetic depth to the game. The most apparent thing in Kane and Lynch is that there are a lot more people on screen. Most importantly, they truly act like a crowd. You don’t simply walk and people start panning away from you. You'll have to shove your way through, and have a little feel of not only women, but men while you turn sideways to squeeze into openings. But don’t be too aggressive and run your way in, or people will get pissed. The newest thing that we saw in this level was the interaction of our main criminals and the other criminals (the guards) is that the guards inside are wary of the two gentlemen. If they go in there’s guard near the doors, but it’s all dynamic. If you walk in once, they won’t be in the same place, and they’re always near any possible exit. Finding yourself getting charged at and yelled “YOU TWO!” at, is nothing out of the ordinary. Luckily, you can take him out with your hands or a gun directly, but that will attract too much attention. Or, for a spin, IO Interactive has decided to heavily incorporate the characters of Kane and Lynch to the game. Kane might react more skillfully, with the player choosing how things will be done. Lynch is more of a wildcard. If he sees a guard coming, and he’s pissed as it already is, he’ll crack a person’s neck, shoot them, twist their arm, kick their knee in, or charge them and give them a good beating. When a guard approached us, we took out a gun without anyone noticing, and ... (continued on next page)