Has critical and commercial failure spelled the end for the Kane & Lynch series? According to Eidos president Ian Livingstone, it hasn't. He believes that the characters of Kane and Lynch are just too good to kill off, and we have not seen the last of them.
"We haven’t made any announcements about Kane & Lynch going forward, but we all know that Kane and Lynch are two amazing characters who have a lot of brand equity," he says. "Kane & Lynch 2 clearly had a Marmite effect on people.
"You either loved it or hated it. Some people liked the juddering camera, home video style. Others absolutely hated it. Some loved the characters. Some didn’t like the characters. But it’s artistic, thrill-a-minute instant action stuff. I thought it was a great game, but I can understand people might not have liked it."
I don't think it's quite so black-and-white as Livingstone paints it. For example, I love Kane and Lynch as characters, I just hate the shitty games that IO Interactive puts them into. I loved the concept of Dog Days' juddery camera, I just hate how the game's three-hour campaign gave me a headache because of it.
I agree that Kane and Lynch as characters have serious potential, but I don't think that potential will be met with IO at the helm. Sorry, but Dog Days demonstrated that they just can't hack it anymore.
Eidos: Kane & Lynch "will not disappear" [Eurogamer]
Contest:
9:00 AM on 12.02.2010 | 
On the upside, i feel that Dog Days is one of the more aesthetically interesting out of the realistic games made in recent times. I think they got that spot on!
Game was good I thought, just too short.
The first one had better story and situations you are put in, though. And better characterization. But that's the difference of the art styles between the games.
I hope they do a really solid game the third time, or do something as good as the second one on PC but for lower price than the normal one.
Biggest flaws of k&l have been gameplay issues and shitty settings for the characters like the war part in the second half and all of k&l 2
Uhh... you shoot the people on the dump truck, then you shoot the people that show up. It wasn't really complicated.
Don't ever try and play something like Hexen, you're brain would explode.
but the game was keek.
Like Jim says, the characters are great; it's just that they get lumbered with bad stories and average gameplay.
@Evergreen: The first one sold over a million copies, believe it or not. That's why they wanted a sequel. Bad reviews don't always mean bad sales.
The Marmite effect is when people either really like something or they really hate it with no one sorta liking it . It's named of the spread Marmite (http://www.marmite.com/).
scrap the notion of playing as them, instead, you're job is to hunt them, you are a fuct in the head bounty hunter with a weird obsession for candlestick holders and scales/weight measuring devices.
they both have metaphoric meanings that shine late into the game that work into puzzles or something.
I'm not defending the game, i just came to the conclusion that, surprisingly, the game playes and feels much better on PC, than consoles. But, i guess, that won't get you to try out the PC version -_-
I don't think it's IO's fault. Publishers still get a lot of say in how the game is gonna look and feel. Well, maybe, it wasn't publisher's fault. Look at first Kane & Lynch. It was brilliant, IMO. As well as most of the Hitman games. And, yes, I still look forward to next Hitman game more than everything else. Let's see, if they can outdo themselves yet again.
That is, if they do another Hitman game, which is my favorite game series ever. Or, one of the best. *khm* Thief *khm*
Ah, well I played the PC version so the controls were pretty standard.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/hitman-5-out-xmas-2011-at-the-earliest
And I agree with Thief... Now that Warren Spector has put down the Mickey Gloves it's time to get back into some Thief business.
http://eidosmontreal.com/en/games.html
So there is a Thief 4 in the works. Nice.
Pretty much wraps up any comment I would have made.
I wasn't the one with the Thief and Hitman comments:)
And knew, that both Thief 4 and Hitman 5 are in works. Doesn't make the fact less awesome, though:)
Let me guess, you shot your way through in Hitman?
I was a sneaky mother fucker in hitman, i love stealth games and I still thought it was shitty. Nice idea, some nice settings, but clunky as hell and irritating to play. I'm surprised that it has such a big fan base.
had no problems with how the stealth missions played since the first Hitman, seriously.
shooter missions were stupid, sure. I still have bad memories of Columbia missions in the first one
I've always wanted to like both franchises but the game engines are fuggin' terrible.