What Io Interactive do when they create a game franchise is create a media transcending franchise , Hitman was always begging for Hollywood treatment , as was Kane and Lynch , not surprising as Io Interactive write games the way great Hollywood directors make great movies , like the best blockbusters you are left to fill in gaps in script or forgive them altogether . Year on year summer box office returns show enough of us love Michael Bay films now don't we? The Hitman series is a sublime multiplatform franchise that carved its own niche in a crowded field of stealth em ups . Kane and Lynch , whilst completely misunderstood is an excellent step up from the action of the Red Dawn inspired Freedom Fighers .
Io`s Kane and Lynch series has character , 2 in fact , twisted and deep enough that many A list hollywood method merchants would love to tackle the roles , and they will soon if the film lives up to the poster.
By the end of the first game , you have lived and played through all your favourite Hollywood set pieces from prison riots out of OZ , the bank heist from The Dark Knight , the street battle from Heat with the police , complete with 3 piece suits and matching money bags, or the club scene from Collateral another Michael Mann reference ,to the end when you are taking on entire Latino republic armies Butch and Sundance style , its pure Hollywood. All the time coping with two totally insane protagonists along the way . We are not talking cookie cutter fps/third person shooter gameplay here , your characters are messed up which many reviewers used to the "it points the mouse and clicks the button and makes things go bang" game mechanics of many a souless game not able to cope with a game that tried to add a tinge of total insanity to its characters not to mention a lack of personal grooming.
You are not meant to like these characters they are anti-heroes! They have facial hair and bald patches , incurable drug habits and homicidal tendencies progressive enough that they are a danger to an entire nations armies.
In the 80s no one would have cared and Stallone and Arnold would have played them with perfectly missed comic timing and we would have had at least 4 sequels by now.....
But what you really need is a grizzled young Sinatra in wino method mode and David Carradine playing Kane and Lynch [a version needing much posthumous cgi work], knowing our luck we will get Stiller and Wilson although Tom Cruise could probably method both Lynch and Kane in the same movie!. Yes I know its Bruno and Foxx on the poster!
What makes every Io Interactive game a keeper is the accompanying Jesper Kyd soundtrack , hands up if you bought the special editions to get hold of the soundtracks? Jesper is simply the best video games composer on the planet. You know when you boot up an Io game its his music that completes the experience of being lost in another game world with atmosphere script and kudos that keeps Hollywood knocking on Io Interactive`s door
Hitman , Freedom Fighters , Kane and Lynch show sometimes style is far more than substance , give a little leeway to these games , tolerate their difference to the normal cookie cutter games you play and enjoy examples of gaming completely outdoing Hollywood at its own game , right my steam download has just completed and its time to get some Dog Days on.
Wanan people !
