http://www.amazon.com/Kane-Lynch-2-Days-Xbox-360/dp/B0023CBY4E
A couple weeks ago I decided to finally grab Kane & Lynch 2. I hopped on Amazon, then Amazon proceeded to tell me that I already had bought it back in August. Looking up at my shelf, I saw that they were correct. Oops.
Anyway, the game is now $9 and I figured I would remind everyone that it exists.
I played through the first half a couple of weeks ago, right before getting my Wii U. Got distracted by said Wii for a bit, then came back to KL2 last night and ran through the second half. At $10, I give it a solid thumbs up. It runs at a bit lower resolution than normal, but it also does a pretty good job of holding it's 60fps goal. I am now sad that IO went back to 30fps for their latest Hitman game. The handheld camcorder effects are well executed, the world is rendered to an excellent level of grit, and Lynch is a character that you hate to love. The gunplay is solid, but the AI that you use those guns on is pretty lame. There are also some very solid moments that I'm sure I will remember for years to come, unlike the throw-away, generic campaigns included in things like Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 2. Overall, it's a fun, concise game that is worth the XBLA price that it now sits at. As I said back at post #8, it should have launched as a $40 title. Looking at the leaderboards for the Arcade Mode, I am ranked at #20,000 after a single run. That puts my estimate for number of sales well south of 100,000 copies, which is a pretty miserable commercial failure.
As an industry, the big publishers really need to figure out how to build a market for games like this that are of lower budget and shorter length. There is a giant gap between $10 XBLA games and $60 AAA titles that needs to be filled with new-release product. Kane & Lynch 2 would have fit there perfectly back in 2010 at $30-40. Now, it's $10. Give it a try. You'll get your value out of it.
