IO claims its team of designers has spent plenty of time studying the game's setting of Shanghai - apparently chosen for its rich mix of old and new architecture lending itself to plenty of places to hide - and, peering through the effects-heavy processing - Kane & Lynch 2 undoubtedly features a beautifully authentic, appropriately convincing game world, rich with life and character. That's until you actually get your hands on the controller though and suddenly it all starts to make sense. All that grain and the compression effects - most notable when your character takes a hit - simply makes what's otherwise an impressive looking game, an ugly mess. It's dizzying and disorientating trying to follow the action as a spectator as the camera pitches wildly across the playing field during cutscenes and sprint animations, and a little jarring as the camera switches to a far steadier over-the-shoulder viewpoint for its shoot-outs. It's certainly an interesting idea, although our first impression - as our IO rep plays through the first of two sequences from the game - is that it might be a little much. With the game employing all manner of tricks - from wobbly handheld cameras to compression artefacting - IO hopes to bring players into the action more than ever before. True, you can hardly call any of these 'innovations' in the field of third-person shooters, but it's indication that IO is more focussed on delivering a solid, proven base for its second instalment of the Kane & Lynch franchise, with the sequel's real point of difference being its much-publicised YouTube-inspired focus on immersive realism. That's combined with brand new additions to actual combat, including human shields and a throwing mechanism that lets you toss canisters toward enemies and detonate them in a crowd with a couple of well-timed bullets for some serious devastation.
Most significantly, Kane & Lynch 2 features completely revamped shooting mechanics, eschewing the first game's notoriously fiddly 'sticky' cover for a more traditional button-activated cover system that, from what we've seen, takes the guesswork out of encounters, making for a much tighter, more responsive experience. It's a fact that the developer is more than happy to acknowledge though and, before we even get the chance to see Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days in action during our hands-on time, IO is keen to highlight the areas it felt needed addressing most during development of its controversial sequel.
It's no secret that IO's original Kane & Lynch met with a, let's say, lukewarm reception on its arrival in 2007.
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