Kane and Lynch

[Oliath]

Around mid November, till end of Jan before the release of Burnout i was suffereing from a bit of a game drougtht.

It was the first weekend for a long time in which there was not a brand new Xbox title to take home with me on friday.... So i ended up convincing myself that i wanted to give Kane and Lynch a shot.

At first i was mortified. The controlls didn't work, the cover system was poor, the onine kept crashing and the AI are total morons that kept failing missions for me.

However... with a bit of time i soon got used to this games 'differences' or 'quirks' and have actually grown rather fond of it.

The single player story is refreshingly dark and its one of the first games i have played in ages in where the gameplay actually rings true to the character you are playing... its hard to describe... and its exaggerated even more in co-op.. but basically the game forces you to play in a way which actually develops the characters.

Co-op is the real gem of this game and sadly they didnt implement online co-op so you have to bribe a friend into getting used to the 'quirks' too.

The Kane character always spawns with a long to mid range weapon, whereas lynch always has a shotgun. This forces the person playing lynch to run out there into the thick of things if he wants to have any fun, meaning that you have to stay back and provide cover fire. This really plays well with their characters in the story and is great fun.

There are also some really impressive and enjoyable levels.

A night club level where you have to escape with Lych who is lugging a hostage on his shoulder.. while security guards are hunting for you with torches and pistols... Its great fun as you try not to harm civilians (for an achievement).. or on further playthroughs just think... F*ck it... and lob a nade into the dancefloor.

Also some quality shootouts and an awesome street level that is straight out of the mega shootout from the film HEAT.

And then there is the multiplayer;

Fragile Aliance.

This is a whole extra game in its self.

The idea is simple... each level is a kind of heist, be it a bank robbery, or taking down someone carrying lots of money.

Your online ranking is determined by how much loot you acquire in all the games you have played.

So you go in as a team. Grab as much money as you can (the amount you carry is indicated above your head) and then get to the extraction at which point all the money is divided equally among surviving members.

The great thing is that this is all there is to it. There are no rules. Your only objective is to get money. You can essentially win a match by having more money than the other mercs on your team (up to eight can play... and this is where it gets nice and dirty.

If you kill a team member you become a traitor. This is nicely indicated above your head. The downside of this is that the other mercs get an instant cash bonus if they take you out. The upside is that as a traitor you don't have to split any of your loot with the others.

When you die you come back on on the same side as the AI, be it a SWAT member, Bodyguard.. depending on the level you are playing. If you take out someone who betrayed you you get a nice cash bonus that you cannot loose even if you die...

You get more bonuses for each merc you take down and another one for preventing anyone from escaping with the loot.

You can also pick up dropped cash from people you kill and keep this too.. and its entirely possible to end a match with the most cash by just playing as a cop.

They can also choose to drop you 100k bunches to try and bribe you to help them out.

Remember though.. at ANY time you are free to screw them and take everything for yourself.

Due to the lack of rules, the game has some nice mechanics which kind of help to shape play very loosely.

For example.. the AI is pretty damned hardcore.

You NEED your other team members alive to get into the heart of the heist and get the most money out otherwise you will get taken out very quickly or not get to the extraction zone in time.

On top of this... when someone you just betrayed comes back as a cop... they want your blood... so you have even more pressure on you... especially if your other team members are now waiting for a good moment to take you out for being a traitor.

As a cop... its in your interest to let the mercs get as much loot as they can... because you cant pick it up untill they have dropped it... either by being shot (The mercs loot also acts as armour.. so each time a bullet hits them they drop ten grand) or when you kill them.

This means that if you are pretending to help them... its in your interest to wait untill they are carrying as much as possible before you take them out.... BUT they know this too... so you get some really tense moments and some amusing dialogue over the chat as you are both trying to convince each other that you are clean and have no bad intentions.

Sadly there are only four maps or heists... but i can honestly say that i have had SO much fun playing this online.. and each game is so different depending on who you play with.

It helps to get some dialogue going and encourage banter with people who join the game.

Its also quite fun working with friends. I have a mate from work who i play with sometimes... although our plans never actually work and we always find it far more amusing to take each other out.

If any of you guys actually have this then please add my xbox tag so we can work together... ahem... honest.

[Sambob]

Ive got to say that this sounds pretty fucking clever in multi, and im surprised that there hasnt been more of a big deal made about this.

In general i get more from the multiplayer mode in a lot of these games than the single player mode, and its really good to see thought put into the multiplayer games, although not at the expense of the single player (SHADOWRUN!!)

[Oliath]

Yeah i agree with that.

I think the negative press totally overshadowed anything good that this game had to offer unfortunately.

My only real complaint with it is that there is no online co-op.

Other than that.. once you play for a while, the controls adn cover system make sense and the aiming is very accurate despite what people have said about it. Its just very different from what they are used to.

[Hendo]

I really want this for the multi, it sounds fucking immense.

I reckon by now there should be enough second hand copies going cheap so I'll pick it up and shoot you for the loot....er, I mean, help you out online with it.

[Oliath]

Lol

They are working on some new DLC for it too :-)

Get it and we can get rich together....

[Hendo]

Partners for life!

[Sambob]

Hendo wrote:

I'll pick it up and shoot you for the loot.....

Something tells me this is not the first man hendo has offered to 'pick it up and shoot you for the loot'....har!

I think that i will maybe try to get this on my gamecard of wonder if its cheap.

[illdog]

Actually, that does sound good, if only i had the time to play more online.

[Hendo]

Started playing the single player campaign last night.

I'm not that far through it but it's not too bad so far. The basic plot has been revealed as why Kane got broken out of death row, and why Lynch is with him. It all seems ok but some slightly wonky controls and the odd texture glitch makes it nothing special, but nothing too bad so far. I guess I have to wait for the Havana section, which is meant to be close to game-breaking.

[Oliath]

Nah man its not that bad.

Its just a bit tough thats all.

Its actually a pretty good fun level.

But also... DOH!!

I litterally sent my copy off after selling it on ebay on friday!!! You shoudl have told me you were getting it and we could have done some FA together.

[Oliath]

New trailer for the free 'Dope Bag' DLC that is coming soon.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/channel/1UP%20Show

It actually looks REALLY good and has made me want to pick up the game again. Might have to grab it if i see it on the cheap.

[Hendo]

Not worth opening a new Online topic about it, but I downloaded The Dope Bag maps and played Fragile Alliance for the first time yesterday with a couple of GTM guys and a friend of one of them (you need at least 4 people to play) and if it was just those matches that I played then I would be heavily down on it as a great idea but poorly implemented with shocking amounts of bugs and glitches...

...until I went back later on and played with randoms and it was fine! And then Sam joined me and I hosted a room and got a couple of randoms along and went achievement hunting. The poor matches I played must've been down to one of the guys connections because there were zero bugs and it works really well.

Apart from the dodgy controls (same as the main game) it's a lot of fun and a pretty original idea. Shame that all the Gamespot/Eidos bollocks dented the game, as Fragile Alliance does deserve a look at.

It's hardly gonna rival CoD4, Halo 3, etc. but it's an interesting take on multi. And the maps were free! And extra achievements for those that care.

Anyone who has it and wants a match just let me know and we'll organise a bank job.

[Oliath]

You know what Hendo!!

Seeing you playing on it has made me want to go pick it up again. Its cheap now too and i have gamestation vouchers... might have to do that some time this week...heh heh.

Would be really fun to play through them with someone i know too and polish off a few more of the achievements.

You think you will be playing it for much longer?

[Hendo]

I'd reckon so!

I'm really very impressed with the fact that the multi sounds interesting on paper but it actually works just as well in practice. It's a shame though that it suffers from the same problem as the main game which is that the controls are a bit poo.

[Oliath]

Yeah lol... i remember it being ver 'quirky'

So are there still many people playing online? Does it take long to fill a room and stuff?

[Hendo]

It can take a while to fill a room, hence why some lad added me to his friends list purely because I was playing it for a few days and he was desperate to achievement whore on it, and very few people were playing it even with free maps!

[Hendo]

Finally decided to fire this back up today to try and finish it (was still stuck in Havana) but the save file was corrupted.

So, started from scratch but in co-op. Got half way and my co-op partner decided it was too tense for him so now I fear I may have to start from scratch again. Oh well.

[hinn888]

the game is rather hard by yourself i think, especially that truck bit... how many times i tried..

Id never bought the game coz it seems like another hitman, not like its a bad thing but im gettin bored with stealth.

I did love the storyline and the artwork on the special edition box tho.

[Hendo]

Strange thing, I finished this but I'm still playing it, in single player picking some achievements I missed and doing Fragile Alliance for fun. Well, when you can find enough people.

It's still a great idea for multi, shame about all the other shit that went down about it. It did deserve a kicking though, I've never had such a rough ride on the easiest difficulty setting before.

[Oliath]

LOVED this game.

I really enjoyed playing through it co-op with my flatmate and even my girlfriend enjoyed it.... just a shame they didn't put a bit more polish into it.

The multiplayer was a genius idea and something that i would love to see more fully developed and fleshed out. Probably some of the most fun i have had on live when playing with a mate trying to work out if he is planning on screwing me over or not lol.