Last night I finished the first Kane & Lynch with a friend. We played it all in splitscreen co-op, I think in 3 or 4 sessions.
While it isn't a terrible game, it has so many flaws and problems that make it seem like one. For example, you never know where you're being shot from, since there's no HUD marker to show that. This may sound realistic at first, but it's infuriating when you're being surrounded by 20 or so enemies and have no idea where to run, because some asshole you can't see is showering you with bullets from who knows where.
Another thing we didn't like is that there's no way (that we know of) of changing the screen division from vertical to horizontal. The game is locked in the former, and it gives you an extremely narrow view of the world. Being able to see upwards and downwards is much less important than having peripheral vision to the left and right, but apparently someone didn't get that memo. The camera also tends to get blocked by everything, be it bushes, teammates or even the other player. There was a particular on-rails sequence near the end where Lynch (I always played as him) was riding shotgun on a jeep, with Kane on a mounted machinegun in the back, standing up. Not only did both characters have the worst aiming angle I've ever seen in any game (basically Lynch was unable to shoot anything that wasn't at dead center from his position, which meant I couldn't do
anything at all during that part), but my vision was also obscured by my friend if I tried to look to the right. Pure genius: make the game splitscreen so each player has a separate camera, but also make the other character block you anyway, rendering it useless.
Of course, what would be of an average-at-best game without some frustrating and annoying moments? The on-rails section that I just mentioned was but one of said moments. Escort missions, having to defend another character, being attacked by 100045.3 enemies at the same time, this game has it all. Coupled with some unskippable cutscenes and the worst checkpoint system this side of the galaxy (which are pretty much always located before said cutscenes, meaning you'll get to fulfill your dream of watching every cutscene 35 times when you respawn), it makes for a creamy and delicious shit sandwich that will leave your mouth full of that rotten smell. I can't remember how many times I must have screamed and cursed in frustration and anger (making me the worst neighbor ever, and my neighbors the most tolerant ones), but it was unbelievable that something as simple as placing the checkpoints
after the unskippable cutscenes was missed by the devs. Or better yet, don't fucking have unskippable cutscenes!
Let me tell you about the story: there's this guy who was sentenced to death, and he escapes. Then someone sents another man to watch him while they do something, and the guys start killing other people and then the former man's family appears and bad stuff happens and then you die and you die and die again and OH MAN THE UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES SO MUCH PAIN SOMEONE PLEASE KILL ME NOW. But yes, I didn't understand any of it. Is it my fault? Could be, but I don't care whose it was. Now I feel forced to read it on Wikipedia if I want to understand what happened.
There was also a strange glitch once where Kane (my friend) was hurt and then we both died. After respawning he was stuck in "hurt mode", which are some 3 or 4 seconds that happen after your partner heals you when you're down, where your character is grabbing his belly in pain and walks slowly, unable to run or act like a proper action game character. It was annoying, because it took him too damn long to traverse the level, and we kept dying and he had to walk all over again. He couldn't heal me either while he was like that, so I was left to die a few times. Eventually he was wounded, and when I revived him he went back to normal, but it was ridiculous that the game would preserve that state in the checkpoint in the first place. That's supposed to be temporal, not permanent.
All in all, a pretty
meh game. Only play if you have a friend by your side who's willing to embark on a journey to Crappyland with you. Playing it alone seems to me to be the quickest way to Suicidefield, and I'm sure you don't want to go there. The loading screen progress bar is a line of coke, which was funny the first time and completely ignored all the rest.
It seems I was harsh with this game, and yet I'd say it's objectively better than what little I tried of the sequel (first 20 seconds of the story mode) on the sole basis that this one has local co-op, and that one doesn't. As we were hurting for more mediocrity after beating K&L1, we fired up the sequel, and we couldn't find said option. A quick Google search told us that it isn't available on the PC version, so all the myths about the Master Race have been rendered invalid and now I'm totally gonna buy a Commodore 64 to play it there in great 0.0009 FPS 320x200 16 colors splitscreen co-op.
But I am too! You should have seen me on WoW. I was like the worst GM on the entire Crushridge EU server. And by far! Oh the happy days when I dropped out of university to play 10+ hours a day, still remaining one of the worse player around.
Letting alone how to combat (I don't know really, and of course is the main part of the fun of playing DS, so it would be unfair to explain it), after something like 20 tries against the gargoyles I noticed some common patterns.
First and less important: when they spit fire together my framerate take more hits than my character in game. But I assume if you are here you should have a better PC than mine, so it doesn't apply to you.
Second: you just have to kill the first one before the second one reach you. Considering the second appears when you pass half HP of the first, it means that somewhere near 51% of its HP you have to hit hard no matter what (worst case scenario: you die. so basically it's average case scenario
). At that point, go near it and try a 3+ combo (I beat it with a halberd+3 fast attack only) if you can. This way you should be able to avoid it flying away, killing it before the second gargoyle is able to get near you.
If you have both gargoyles around it may get messy, because I didn't know which was the first one, so I didn't know who to hit first.
The second gargoyle is actually easier, because you just have to get near it and roll around avoiding fire. It's slow and it's super clear when it's starting an attack.
My character is pretty weak, so there's no way I'll take half of the first gargoyle's life bar and kill it before the second one reaches me. But I gotta try anyway.
I don't think you are suited for these type of games Rionaa
I couldn't agree more.