Dog Days, and by relation Dead Money, are both games predated by the notion of violence: Dead Money taking it for granted, a cruel necessity of the genre and it’s inspirations, Dog Days as a meditation of violence entirely, a framing device for something that is less a compelling narrative and more a dive into the commodification and acceptance of violence in digital spaces. Two unfixable men dive headlong into bloodshed for less-than-stable reasons, one fueled by a half-assed savior complex, another locked into this life through violent psychopathy, both completely unfit to fill any sort of heroic role.

Stylistic violence is the bread-and-butter of shooters, so having Dog Days specifically focus on such an abrasive art direction is a very hardline choice. Breaking apart from its contemporaries, the violence isn’t glorified, nor is it treated as some absolute evil that is done by cruel men. It just… happens. The game, in that sense, takes a lot of its stylistic inspiration less from films and games, but more from accident compilations on LiveLeak and BestGore. Keeping with that tone, everything reflects the kind of videos you’d find on the cursed, blighted side of the web: blown out colors leaving darkness in monotone and searing in bright neon signs, artifacting and corruption over any abrupt action, cameras shaking and audio clipping mercilessly as firefights escalate, and particularly gruesome shots are covered in mosaic by some unseen editor. It’s a game where low-resolutions and frame rates are ideal: anything to fit the grainy, lo-fi nature of online video in the late 2000s.


The mechanics do a bit of the lifting to sell the nihilistic vision, for better or for worse. Dog Days doesn’t feature interesting mechanics, satisfying gameplay loops, or, really, any systems worth pointing out. Mediocrity is the name of the game, further showing how the violence on screen isn’t enticing, dramatic, or worthy of excitement. That does mean the game is not very interesting to play for it’s short four hour run time, but I suppose that’s part of the point. The game exists as more of a vibe experiment than an actually entertaining game, and on that it works amazingly.

Kane and Lynch live on deals written in terms they refuse to understand, inked in innocent blood, signed with bullets and bodies. Over the course of ten hours, between two separate games, the only language the pair are fluent in is that of pointless violence, where cruel men and the victims they amass pop into view, cause pain, and see their own life cut short. Mechanically, stylistically, narratively, the life that Kane and Lynch follow is never portrayed as anything less than meaningless, a series stupid games with stupid prizes. Somewhere between bumbling incompetents and ghoulish slaughterers, no one questions their choices, for questioning them would imply any sort of control, a desire to change, ideas incomprehensible to the middle-aged menaces. Wherever they go, people die.

Neither game is great, but the series as a whole is interesting. The short length of Dog Days alone, along with its low price in most places, should be enough of an excuse to at least experience the aesthetic work on display.