Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a cooperative action game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and gaming platform Games for Windows. It has been confirmed that movie studio Lionsgate has bought the rights for a movie adaptation.

The game is considered as something of a spiritual sequel to IO's previous Freedom Fighters due to many similarities in the game's control style, recruitment and management of the player's squad, overall gameplay, and use of its game engine.

Plot

The game opens with a voiceover of a letter addressed to a girl named Jenny which is being written by her father, Kane. Kane is traveling to death row after being convicted of crimes he committed in Venezuela. Another death row inmate, James Lynch, hints of a mid-destination breakout unbeknownst to Kane. Their truck is involved in a head-on collision and an unknown group of mercenaries(Later revealed to be the games antagonists the 7) set them free. It quickly becomes apparent that this isn't a rescue, but a kidnapping. The two are taken to a shopping mall still under construction. Here it's revealed that the remaining survivors of the botched Venezuela job, The7, are behind the breakout. They plan to take revenge on Kane for aparently leaving them to die and taking the group's 'retirement' reward, and ignore Kane's claims of innocence (Kane says to The7 he did not know they were still alive however The7 ignore this). They make him an offer; retrieve the stolen item in three weeks or his wife and daughter will be murdered. Even if he is successful, he will still be executed. Lynch acts as a watchdog, reporting in to The7 (now only four; The villainous Older Brother who is the leader, the Younger Brother who is Kane's nemesis, Carlos who is Kane's best friend and quiet sociopathic killer Mute) on Kane's movements.

Kane and Lynch travel to a bank in order to try to retrieve two brief cases with an unknown item inside of both. However, when they get to the bank vault, there is only one. This prompts them to then travel to Japan to try to convince Yoko - the daughter of Japanese crime lord Retomoto - to help them retrieve the other brief case. This goes horribly wrong when Lynch loses it and shoots Yoko, claiming that he couldn't get her to stay still, killing her and gaining the ire of her father. After escaping Retomoto's men the game skips forward to the end of Kane's three week deadline.

Kane heads back to LA in an attempt to renegotiate with The7. Lynch questions his decision, while Kane claims that Lynch is a dead man too; Lynch denies this, in that he has secretly made a deal for his survival and even a position within The7. However they betray Lynch as well, and knock him out. Lynch awakens and feigns unconsciousness while watching Kane inside a shallow grave at a construction site; Kane's plea for extra time lands upon deaf ears, as The7 prepare to execute him. Right before Kane's eyes, his estranged wife is executed. The Brothers and Carlos depart for Havana while Kane tries to talk with his daughter, who is pulled into the hole. In turn, Lynch lunges at one of his captors, serving as a distraction while an enraged Kane brutally beats Mute to death with a shovel while screaming, "You should have let me talk to them!". As The7's reinforcements arrive, Kane and Lynch defend Jenny from further waves of attacks and a large mining truck. After the coast is clear, Kane tells Jenny to flee the scene and to continue to run no matter what.

After burying his wife, Kane decides to finish off The7 for the sake of his daughter's safety. Kane reluctantly allows Lynch to join his cause, after Lynch explains his own wife's murder and his supposed inability at that time to save her. With the help of the mining truck, they manage to break through a prison wall, inciting several prison riots and, most importantly, perform their goal of breaking out a group of 'dead men'(people who went against The7 in the past and were in turn disowned) from prison, forming their own band of ragtag convicts to challenge The7. It is during the breaking out of Shelly, one of the convicts, that the murder of Lynch's wife is brought into doubt, with Shelly suspecting Lynch of killing his own wife, which Lynch denies.

Kane starts his revenge by returning to Japan, killing Retomoto in his own company's boardroom, and retrieving back the missing briefcase he was looking for. The contents are never revealed. Through a fight out of the office complex and Japanese police officers out at the streets and into a bus terminal, the group finally manages to escape in another van.

Days later, Kane, Lynch and their 'dead men' - Thapa, Rific and Shelley - follow The7's remaining members to Havana. Apparently, it is mentioned from Kane, that The7 reap financial benefits from assisting sides in civil wars, with Havana supposedly the last job needed for their retirement. There they find themselves caught up in an on-going civil war. Throughout the battle in the war-torn streets, Kane constantly assures the group members of rewards beyond even their retirement needs. They eventually track down Carlos, Kane's only friend in The7, who tells the group that he too has been betrayed by The Brothers after the Havana operation fell apart. Thapa deserts the group abruptly, with mistrust of the promised payment and the impromptu alliance formed with Carlos. The remaining group fight their way through the Cuban jungles and drug operations, managing to locate The Brother's base of operations. Over radio chatter, it's revealed that Jenny has been kidnapped by The Brothers and is being held hostage. Serving as a distraction, Carlos decides to detonate a mine at the entrance of the base, but fails and is captured by The Brothers. Kane and Lynch then overhear the Brothers speaking to Carlos over their ear piece and hear him being murdered by the younger brother because he "shouldn't have listened to Kane". With the assistance of Rific and Shelly, Kane and Lynch manage to storm into the building and find Jenny in a courtyard, which is set up as an ambush by The Brothers. While The Brothers are distracted, Kane manages to shoot the mine left undetonated beside Carlos' corpse, killing the older brother with the resulting explosion. However, the younger brother manages to escape with Jenny amidst the confusion.

Meanwhile, Rific and Shelly are pinned down while trying to secure the airfield (The Brothers' means of escape). With the assistance of a driver from the resistance that Kane was helping in the aforementioned civil war, he and Lynch manage to hitch a ride and chase down the plane before take off. After Kane manages to shoot down the pair of the plane's engine, he confronts his old nemesis, the Younger Brother as he holds Jenny hostage at the cockpit of the sabotaged plane. Kane finally kills the younger brother in a shootout on the plane. Kane then rescues a traumatised Jenny; who hates her father's betrayal of everyone, from leaving his grief stricken family to his double-cross of The7. Rific and Shelly call for help, but Kane doesn't care, trying his best to ignore Jenny and Lynch's pleas. At a helicopter pad, he has to make a choice whether to save his men or escape with his daughter.

In one ending, Kane boards a helicopter with Jenny and leaves the remaining men, including Lynch, 'to burn'. Jenny resents her father's actions.

In the other ending, Kane and Lynch head to the surviving mercs' position. Kane takes Jenny with him, despite Lynch's apprehensions. They're too late to save Rific, but Shelly is still alive. He feels betrayed, despite the rescue attempt. As they escape to the pier, Jenny is shot and possibly killed by a guard. Kane carries her body, in denial of her death. Shelly loses his patience and attempts to escape, leaving Kane, Lynch, and Jenny behind. Kane and Lynch finally escape together with Jenny's body on the last boat. Lynch ends up getting shot in the shoulder, while Jenny is presumably dead. As Lynch tells him to deal with his mistake, Kane whispers to Jenny about the letter he tried to send to her.

Gameplay

In campaign mode the player takes the role of Kane. The player is able to play through 16 stages with Lynch by his side, at times accompanied by other hired mercenaries. Co-op mode is available in which the second player will assume the role of Lynch. Though almost identical to Kane’s style of gameplay, Lynch has short bursts of aggression in which nearly all AI characters are police, some sporting an animal's head. Lynch carries a shotgun and a revolver as side arm, while Kane carries a sub-machine gun and standard pistol. Additional weapons such as grenades, sniper rifles and carbine rifles can be picked up. The player can take cover by standing next to a wall, and can blindfire outward. While having hired mercernaries, the player can issue orders such as return fire, move position or stop shooting.

Fragile Alliance

Fragile Alliance is the game's only 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 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, and players who have reached TrueSkill rank 50 and 30 will play as Kane and Lynch, respectively. 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.

A player's appearance in the game is influenced by their TrueSkill rank on the Xbox 360. Unlike Kane and Lynch's campaign mode, players can not sprint. If a player feels they have taken enough money to become a target for potential traitors, they can drop some of their money (thus becoming less of a scoring threat.)

Development

For the development of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Jesper Kyd was brought in to write the musical score for the game, having already written score for the Hitman series and Freedom Fighters. The single player was originally going to have online co-op but was dropped at the last minute and limited to offline due to time restrictions and difficulty. Director Jens-Peter Kurup said that Scarface and Unforgiven were inspirations for the characters. The game was originally going to revolve around only Kane, with Lynch acting as a side-kick. But as the development went on, they decided to include Lynch in the story also. Martin Guldbaek, the art director for the game, said that for creating each of the locations, the team went to Los Angeles for photo shooting. They combined this with concept artwork to create "locations that matched the character's mood and perspective". Anders Poulsen is 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. (He was minus the scar on his face, and originally smoked a cigarette.) When Lynch was bought in, it added more "life" to Kane's character.

The game went gold on October 31st 2007, making the release date a full 10 days earlier.

Downloadable Content

Downloadable Content was made available for Kane & Lynch on April 17th 2008, entitled "The Dope Bag". This gave out 4 new maps, plus adding 250 Gamerscore for the Xbox 360 version bringing the total to 1250.

Sequel

A sequel has been announced by Eidos. It is a working title and has been given a TBA release date.

Film

A film adaptation is in the works from Lionsgate. The script was written by Kyle Ward who also penned the upcoming film Fiasco Heights which is being produced by Platinum Dunes for Universal. Bruce Willis is unofficially signed on to play as Kane in the film, and Billy Bob Thorton is rumored for the role of Lynch. Filming is scheduled to begin later this year.Simon Crane, a stunt coordinator on films including Stardust, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Troy, will make his directorial debut. Variety magazine has reported that the plot involves Adam 'Kane' Marcus and James Lynch retrieving a stolen microchip.