Gamernode: Previews - Hands-on: Kane & Lynch multiplayer

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Yes, you should complain that Kane & Lynch's engine makes online co-op a pipedream, because the co-op is fantastic. In fact, it's integral to the Kane & Lynch experience.

After some hectic and laugh-inducing Fragile Alliance gameplay, Carlos from Shacknews and I tackled the co-op mode. Unfortunately, he took Lynch.

Why's that unfortunate? Simple: in this game, Lynch is an entirely different perspective. With his psychopathic problems (and several DSM definitions) plaguing him, Lynch obviously shouldn't see the world like a normal person, and IO made the game reflect that. At times, your perspective of the world around you will change. In the most blatant example of what we saw, that involved Lynch seeing things as something they weren't, leading to a lot of chaos. (I'd tell you more, but then I'd be spoiling it, and I'm only an ass in Fragile Alliance.)

That's partly why playing co-op is essential to the full experience: you can't play as Lynch in single player. You won't understand when Lynch does something that to him, it doesn't seem like a bad thing at all. In fact, we didn't know that until it Jennie Sue pointed out that in co-op, Lynch sees things differently (which is what led to the impromptu co-op session).

I've talked in the past to people about how frustrating it was having so many games feature only online co-op, and how I missed the good ol' days of every game having splitscreen. Kane & Lynch provides the splitscreen, but they left out the online.

What is there is a blast, though. It's more fun (and more frustrating) playing co-op, and in my mind is a much superior experience. You may curse or swear when your partner keeps dying because he thinks he's Dirty Harry (there's cover for a reason, Carlos!) but overall, it's just more fun blasting through the game and killing people with a friend.

In case you were wondering, the squad-elements of the game are also present in multiplayer. Rather than have both people issue commands simultaneously, Kane is able to transfer "ownership" of a squad member to Lynch; whomever "owns" the squad member(s) can command them as if it were single player.

Between co-op and Fragile Alliance, Kane & Lynch's multiplayer is fairly solid. Unfortunately, the lack of online co-op is a big blow to the game if you don't have any local friends to play the game with. Without a party system (I didn't notice any, at least) the online may also suffer from griefers, and will likely always result in someone trying to take out people on the team instantly every time. We'll have to wait and see, though. Perhaps with all the other huge titles coming out this month, the crowd that purchases Kane & Lynch will be infinitely more mature than I when it comes to Fragile Alliance.

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