Kane: Professional Killer. Lynch: Homicidal Maniac. They both love long walks on the beach and shooting people in the face.

Yeah, this isn’t a kids game. Kane and Lynch, is the new franchise from Eidos, and I got to get my hot hands on the single player storyline last week in San Francisco with the other members of the Gamercast Network.  Edios payed my full way there and back so I could bring to you, my look at the single player campaign, or at least the first four or five levels.

Why is it fun to be Kane or Lynch? You mean, besides the fact that they escape from prison, rob a bank, have multiple shoot-outs with the cops, and have a total disregard for all authority. What else is there? There’s nothing like reliving movie moments like the street shoot-out in Heat and that, in a nut shell, is the appeal of Kane and Lynch.

Read more after the jump!

What sets this game apart from other offerings this Christmas is the storyline. The story is the driving force in this game. Except in the first level… Instead of a long cut scene to open the game, there’s about a minute and a half snippet before the action starts. As the game goes on, you learn more of the back story, not just through cut scenes, but through Kane and Lynch’s reactions during game situations.

The interaction between Kane and Lynch during moments of downtime gives you a break and a little humor (at least I thought so). There’s one point where you’re in a high speed chase, shooting at cop cars out the back of a van and Lynch starts to wig out. Nonchalantly, Kane starts to scold him while he simultaneously hurls grenades at the pursuers. Pure gold.

What about your crew? Your crew is pretty solid in the A.I. department.  They’re not the slackers some early reports indicated. The bad guys aren’t pushovers either.  I’d compare them to a zombie horde, you mow them down and they just…keep…coming. They use cover and they know no fear. Their persistence almost makes you feel bad for them. Almost.

It’s a certainty that you will go down due to the enemy fire, unless you playing on easy. This isn’t a Rambo style shooter where you can survive in a hail of gunfire. To be honest, the A.I. isn’t the most accurate that I have seen, but they’ll mess you up with the sheer volume of fire. The A.I. seems to know that it has accuracy issues and it compensates by the amount of bullets that it sends your way. The only exception to this rule is the civilians who run through the exchange between you and the cops. Their stupidity requires that you put them down. Darwin would be proud.

The gun recoil is very realistic in this game. Pistols and shotguns are highly accurate but hinder the amount of fire you are spewing at the NPCs. Machine guns of every type are very hard to shoot, especially from the hip. You aren’t going to hit anything shooting from the hip. In my opinion, this made it fun and more movie-like. Each mission I used up hundreds of rounds and it kept the adrenaline level high.

You still have to use some strategy, not to the extent of GRAW, but slightly more than RB6 Vegas. You have your crew that you can select individually to perform move and attack manuvers wherever  and whenever you want. This is where the ally A.I. kicks in. Unlike Gears of War or Halo, they’re actually helpful. There’s actually an achievement if you can go through a level using only your crew to take out the NPCs, without firing your weapon.

Your allies are pretty good in Kane and Lynch.  They not only actually kill the enemy, but they’re the ones that revive you with a shot of adrenaline when you go down. I did notice that if you sent them on a suicide mission to a location that left them exposed, they would refuse. It’s in these small touches where you see Eidos did a good job with the AI. Your crew is more than cannon fodder since they too must survive the missions for you to succeed. So keep them alive, keep them close, and try not to piss them off.

In one level I stabbed a security guard and shot another in the face with my pistol. David Bamberger, Senior Marketing Manager, asked me how I felt about that and all I could say was, “It felt great!” He had a huge grin on his face. Damn it’s good to be bad. I however had to start the mission over because I wasn’t supposed to shoot the guard. Damn.

The strong story and fun, but challenging gameplay makes this game stand out amongst the Christmas fodder. Kudos to Eidos for creating something that was truly unique.

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