Kane and Lynch: Dead Men™

A flawed, ugly mess that somehow sticks in your brain like a 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. Play it drunk. Or don’t.

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men was never alive to begin with.

DISCLAIMER: THIS REVIEW DOES NOT EVALUATE MULTIPLAYER DUE TO SERVER SHUTDOWN.

Story

A rushed mess. Players take control of a criminal on death's row by the name of Kane who has committed an unspecified crime. During his transportation via armored car, one of his fellow inmates warns him to cover his head as the vehicle is crashed and a massive firefight breaks out. A large number of mercenaries have been hired to rescue Kane, but this rescue is short lived when he's brought before a group of a few men calling themselves The7. They allege that Kane betrayed them and stole something from them and give him a few weeks to retrieve for them what he stole or they'll kill his wife and daughter. The fellow inmate from the truck introduces himself as Lynch and explains that he's in charge of keeping on eye on Kane and helping him to retrieve what he stole. What he stole is never elaborated on. Why he betrayed them is never explained. Who they even are is barely touched upon. From there, the story happens largely only because everyone in the story is stupid, and their stupid illogical actions propel a bare bones plot that somehow goes from hostage taking and bank robberies to full on third world revolutions by the end. None of it is good and the cast hasn't got a single likable character among them. The ending presents one of two possible endings both of which are insanely abrupt when they arrive.

Gameplay

The game is little more than the skeleton of a third person shooter with samey unsatisfying weapons, single button melee insta-kills, brain dead enemies that line up to die in droves, a barely functional cover system that's often more trouble than it's worth, and incredibly basic squad commands. Sometimes you'll do a turret section as you move from empty linear level to empty linear level. If you want to share you misery, local co-op allows you to torture a friend.

Presentation

K&L isn't a particularly pretty game. Everything feels rather washed out most of the time but there is at least a decent level of graphical fidelity on character models and environment work. Animation is just decent enough to get the job done and little more. Particle effects are unimpressive save for the way light sources interact with rain. The soundscape is beyond barren and the few times the game does deign to grace your ears with music, it doesn't hit any particular mark of any kind.

A great classic TPS. Very stylish

Really not that bad, but there are some weird bugs that make the game a pain to run smoothly on modern systems.

TL;DR - cool story concept, but missed potential.

I played it back in 2007 and wanted to see if I can enjoy it today. Man, this game did not stand a trial of time. I wish I could give it thumb up for being one of the few rare games where you play not just a "bad" guy, but overall believable bad person, alongside even worse person... However, the potential this story had was lost entirely halfway through.

For example, first 10 chapters are more or less logical - it was leading somewhere and there are even bits of chatter to expand the characters. But starting from chapter 11 it just tries to be Battlefield Bad Company non-stop till the end and fails miserably. New characters are not expanded in any way, both Kane and Lynch are barely talking, and it loses the spark it had in the beginning. It is is as if they lost their story writers. As if this is a preschooler's spin-off of the first 10 chapters that were left unfinished by original authors. Like seriously, I wish writers kept Kane's and Lynch's business suits and kept them in the urban city rather than taking the direction they did.

Starting from chapter 11 the fights become annoying because game spams enemies at you, often with barely any proper cover or options for maneuver. Don't get me started on a part where you have to shoot down two BTRs and a helicopter, this is plain stupid and unrewarding. Companion AI is effectively useless and only serves as a way to heal you. You have to push forward yourself.

If you don't completely suck at shooters, you'll reach chapter 14 in perhaps 4 hours, so chapters 14 to 16 will take you maybe one more hour at most, with last one being optional (depending on your choice at the end of previous chapter) - and oh boy, I will surely skip it this time, because being a bad person is better than suffering through the unrewarding nonsense.

There is no point in complaining about shooting mechanics and graphics - both of which are bearable - because underdeveloped story simply takes away any joy you have in the beginning.

I rate it! An old game that is now clunky with issues around GFWL but the gameplay holds up fairly well. It's age does show around limitations in level design and AI behaviour but the gun fighting is still satisfying, at times challenging especially at higher difficulties.
Hopefully the updates needed to move on from GFWL are done soon and it can be back on the store.

I wish the Kane & Lynch series would make a comeback someday!

Rating not applied:

I hold a soft spot in my heart for this game as one of the first things I played on seventh generation of console gaming (Xbox 360). The aesthetic and concept are still very appealing though the game play is janky, if not outright broken. Final mission is a complete pain, but if you can play through the game at least once I recommend it.

EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE

I red a review when this game released that said its duration was lacking.
I've been playing this game for the last 15 years.
They also said the graphics were bad and the shooting and cover mechanic didn't work.
After years of experience with cover mechanics, now I see this game was ahead of its time.
The cover mechanics work, the shooting is imprecise because is trying to be realistic and the ragdoll physics of the enemies are better than most of the hyperstilized design of modern games.
The graphics are also very good and the different set pieces are spectacular even for 2025 standard.

8/10 - Left 4 Dead but still alive.

Dead Men has a strong atmosphere (gritty, clearly inspired by crime movies), a pretty dark storyline with a cinematic flair, focusing mostly on Kane and Lynch's troubled relationship, good dialogue/banter, and some decent action set-pieces. On the other side, the combat's clunky, the movement's a bit cumbersome, the shooting is pretty generic, 3rd person cover-based and the AI is pretty dumb, detracting a little from the enjoyment. Plus, it's hard to empathize with the 2 protagonists, as both are miserable men with no real redeeming qualities, but this also sets the duo apart from other protagonists.

Overall, it's a mixed bag, and if you don't have any nostalgia for it, you'll probably not enjoy the game that much. That being said, it holds a pretty special place in my heart, as it was a janky yet enjoyable experience, and I'll probably return to it someday.

I tried hard to like it but the game forces you to hate it

Chi non mette questo gioco nella propria top 20 non ha il diritto di parlarmi

Don't waste your time or money on this incredibly clunky game.

3.5/10

Bad controls + mouse movement,
uninteresting levels nothing worth to look at,
bad combat and ragdoll with bugs,
f-up story which isn't interesting as much.

But coop works :) Still, not sure who would play this bad game w/me.

В игре есть интересные идеи, но общее качество игры ниже среднего.
ИИ врагов хромает. Враги плохо реагируют на окружающие события, могут просто стоять как вкопанные. Союзники же могут настреливать вам в спину либо же идут на убой под пули.
Стрелять в игре неприятно, Разброс пуль в игре такой же огромный как в Hitman. Большинство пуль летит куда-то в мимо противников. Укрытия работают через раз и не хватает кнопки на прилепание к укрытию.
В игре есть сюжет, но нет раскрытия персонажей и локации будто подобраны к готовым ассетам.

NOPE

this game sucks ass

Played this on ps3 when it came out so I have a special place in my heart for it.
It's a bad game but I love it even for all its faults

Oh they were dead alright.

Please add sex with Big Tiddy Goth Chicks

A childhood game. And it's good, I recommend everyone to play it.
You only need to play the highest difficulty, another level completely changes the gameplay to a simple run of levels.
Game for Windows Live is a piece of goat shit, dried on the road. Just skip all the warnings, it will work anyway (saves too).
It's always funny to see when NPCs get shot, and then in the cut-scene they walk around with bullet holes in their heads.
I like that the heroes are not supermen and they have problems because of crime. A sad story about life in a gangster group. The mission in the bank reminded me of PayDay. I really like the shootouts, although almost everyone says that you should shoot at the center of the sight, NO, the environment is also nicely destroyed. I did not understand the moment when they went to Havana to hide, but immediately began to fight there, wat.
A great game for its time.
I would like achievements in the game.

The recommendation is basically because I can't choose a split option. The gameplay is kind of terrible and doesn't feel good, but the story and characters are certainly interesting. I wish this had either been made better in the first place, or that a high quality reboot could be possible. I think you could take these two games, start over, and make something really intense and great.

As for the game we got, I think it's ultimately average at best.

Had a weird glitch where both left trigger and left bumper would aim the gun. And some other glitches. Otherwise this is a fun game.

underrated game but a masterpiece

no

At the time of this review, the game is unavailable for purchase on Steam.

The first in what sits as a duology, thanks to public outcry against actual backdoor criminal pay-offs to virtual 'hired guns' in the entertainment industry -- 'Kane & Lynch: Dead Men' is a watershed experience of a 3rd person team tactical shooter.
Even without the sadly-spotty co-operative mode, this ultra-violent, globe-trotting criminal caper boast a Hollywood-tier narrative & same such performances that accompany the breakneck action when things get personal for our protagonists.

The aforementioned co-operative mode is likely this game's biggest draw in the year 2024.
While getting it to stay stable & connected over the internet is virtually impossible thanks to horrible netcode, it does sport a functional split-screen experience that allows a 2nd player to join in using a controller. So if you're couch-locked with a comrade within arm's reach, this is a good title for you.