action button dot net's bottom line for kane & lynch 2 dog days reads "a game whose only verb is kill". i think that applies for dead men as well.
was thinking about kane & lynch games in relation to Rockstar's protagonists. Rockstar typically present you with a character who is equally as psychopathic but in K&L there's no personality to these men whatsoever. no attempt at humour, nothing that undercuts just how truly awful and devoid of humanity they are.
take michael and trevor in GTA V. they are basically kane and lynch but for the mass market. trevor in particular is "edgy" he's "crazy" he's "in your face". he runs around his underwear and causes general mayhem. lynch on the other hand is just genuinely crazy, and angry all the time. the game doesn't really portray him as a clown even though he so easily could be written that way (because he has a funny mullet and glasses and says wacko things).
kane has a family, like michael, and is coded as the "professional one" but kane's family hate him, want nothing to do with him. he abandoned them. he has no witty repertoire or any personality at all. he's a stone cold criminal and murderer. and a traitor and a liar and just an all around piece of shit even if he's dressed like an money manager.
Rockstar games can't help but clutter their "gritty" and "serious" michael mann inspired crime games with wacky side characters aimed at 13 year old american boys. i appreciate that kane & lynch plays itself straight and direct. it's a closer look into the face of evil even it, too, is not quite michael mann either.
i think dead men lacks the genuine romanticism and beating heart of mann. it's not about the professionalism of crime either, in fact it's about the complete opposite - the chaotic. but i think it does skew closer to mann's work. dead men features a scene right out of Heat (in fact, it kinda has two as i'd argue the opening prison break is similar as well) just as GTA IV and V do. basically the infamous LA shootout scene. in GTA IV that's all set piece and scripted. in dead men it's pure chaos. no enemy markers. terrible weapon controls (although great, heavy sounds, the noise the M4 makes in this is great), it really does capture some of the myth of Heat even if it feels completely by accident.
this game also features a club scene right out of collateral including handing kane the same melee animation as tom cruise's hitman vincent. funny this is from the developers of the hitman games yet feels more violent and meaty than any of the hitman games i've played (everything post-blood money, so not a great sample).
i've kind of rambled. this is a good game. it's oddly beautiful at times, much like dog days i think it has some really nice architecture and beautiful dusk skies and night scenes. it's not as daring or committed to an aesthetic like dog days, which in turn to me winds up feeling like a remix of everything in dead men now that i've played it, but it nevertheless has an unmistakable quality too coupled with a cold level of violence that feels unmatched today. they just don't make games like this anymroe.
was thinking about kane & lynch games in relation to Rockstar's protagonists. Rockstar typically present you with a character who is equally as psychopathic but in K&L there's no personality to these men whatsoever. no attempt at humour, nothing that undercuts just how truly awful and devoid of humanity they are.
take michael and trevor in GTA V. they are basically kane and lynch but for the mass market. trevor in particular is "edgy" he's "crazy" he's "in your face". he runs around his underwear and causes general mayhem. lynch on the other hand is just genuinely crazy, and angry all the time. the game doesn't really portray him as a clown even though he so easily could be written that way (because he has a funny mullet and glasses and says wacko things).
kane has a family, like michael, and is coded as the "professional one" but kane's family hate him, want nothing to do with him. he abandoned them. he has no witty repertoire or any personality at all. he's a stone cold criminal and murderer. and a traitor and a liar and just an all around piece of shit even if he's dressed like an money manager.
Rockstar games can't help but clutter their "gritty" and "serious" michael mann inspired crime games with wacky side characters aimed at 13 year old american boys. i appreciate that kane & lynch plays itself straight and direct. it's a closer look into the face of evil even it, too, is not quite michael mann either.
i think dead men lacks the genuine romanticism and beating heart of mann. it's not about the professionalism of crime either, in fact it's about the complete opposite - the chaotic. but i think it does skew closer to mann's work. dead men features a scene right out of Heat (in fact, it kinda has two as i'd argue the opening prison break is similar as well) just as GTA IV and V do. basically the infamous LA shootout scene. in GTA IV that's all set piece and scripted. in dead men it's pure chaos. no enemy markers. terrible weapon controls (although great, heavy sounds, the noise the M4 makes in this is great), it really does capture some of the myth of Heat even if it feels completely by accident.
this game also features a club scene right out of collateral including handing kane the same melee animation as tom cruise's hitman vincent. funny this is from the developers of the hitman games yet feels more violent and meaty than any of the hitman games i've played (everything post-blood money, so not a great sample).
i've kind of rambled. this is a good game. it's oddly beautiful at times, much like dog days i think it has some really nice architecture and beautiful dusk skies and night scenes. it's not as daring or committed to an aesthetic like dog days, which in turn to me winds up feeling like a remix of everything in dead men now that i've played it, but it nevertheless has an unmistakable quality too coupled with a cold level of violence that feels unmatched today. they just don't make games like this anymroe.