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Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Preview for Xbox 360 (X360)

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Preview for Xbox 360 (X360)

Dead men walking

In a recent news release, Eidos has announced and given initial information about their upcoming game Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, which is set to entertain Xbox 360 owners in the Spring of 2007. Dead Men is a third-person action title that is currently in development by IO Interactive who is best known for their work on the Hitman series. The mature rating that this game is sure to get is where the similarities between these games cease. Dead Men will be a fast paced action game that has nothing to do with stealth, but will instead focus on firepower and controlling a squad of up to twelve mercenaries.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men screenshot

In Dead Men, there are two main characters that the story revolves around, Kane and Lynch. Kane is an intelligent, ruthless, and calculating mercenary and Lynch is a medicated (hopefully) and often mindless psychopath. In the single player game, you will play the role of Kane. To progress in the game, you will have to learn to cooperate with Lynch and other hired cronies. Of course, how do you cooperate with a man who has nightmarish blackouts that cause him to pop pills like they are candy? During the game, you will be able to give commands such as attack, move to, and mimic to Lynch and the other members of your group. That isn’t to say that Lynch and company necessarily have to obey you. At times throughout the game, Lynch may ignore your commands and even go berserk and start trying to kill anything and everything in his vicinity. Players will have to keep a watchful eye on Lynch during missions, looking for erratic behavior to keep him from going haywire during crucial situations.

Dead Men will also allow you to team up with a friend and play split-screen cooperative through the game’s single player game. Split screen cooperative mode will be a selectable option at the beginning of every level so you will be able to play some levels alone if you wish while allowing a second player to help you through any of the game’s levels that you might need the added help in. Having a friend control Lynch may be the only way to keep his psychotic episodes at bay. Each player will be in control one of the main characters and will initially issue orders to half of the accompanying mercenaries. Players will also be able to swap and reassign the mercenaries once the level starts.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men screenshot

IO Interactive wanted this game to be more action oriented and less menu based than their previous Hitman franchise. One of the ways they achieve this is by making your mercenaries act like walking inventories. If you think you’ll need a rocket launcher later in the level but don’t have room to carry it yourself, just make sure to take a mercenary who has one. At the point in the level when you need the rocket launcher, you can trade a gun you have for their rocket launcher as long as that mercenary is still alive. This is an interesting aspect of the game that adds a welcome level of strategy to the game’s missions.

There will also be a multiplayer mode included in this game. Unfortunately, IO Interactive hasn’t fully disclosed what to expect from the multiplayer mode yet but they did give some specifics. This mode will consist of up to eight players in three to four minute matches. Four multiplayer maps will come included with the game and you can expect to see more surface on Xbox live after the game’s release.

Features:

  • Play through the game’s involving storyline in either single player or split screen cooperative.
  • Control a squad of up to twelve hired mercenaries.
  • Swap guns with your hired mercenaries during missions.
  • Multiplayer mode that allows you to play with up to eight people.

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