Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: IO Interactive
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Rating: M
Release Date: November 14
Genre: Action
Players: Multiplayer

Kane is a foul-mouthed professional gangster who was sentenced to death and Lynch is the hot-headed psycho gangster who is supposed to keep Kane alive. The dynamic between these two characters is the heart of Edios's new co-op shooter Kane and Lynch. Their story starts off with Kane, a member of The Seven crime syndicate; during Kane's final heist everything goes wrong and all the members of his team end up dead.  Kane sees his opportunity to make off with the diamonds; however, he is quickly caught and sentenced to death.

The game begins with Kane being transported to his execution, where he is saved by Lynch, another member of The Seven. The Seven also want their diamonds back and unfortunately, Kane lost everything after being captured. Therefore, Kane will continue to work for The Seven until he pays off the debt or his wife and child are dead. The Seven assign Lynch to guard Kane and to make sure he's doing what he is told, however, Lynch happens to be insane and constantly forgets his medication.

A story with this many 'howevers' should prove to be entertaining and it sets the appropriate tone for Kane and Lynch. You never know who is going to betray you at any moment, which is reflected in the Fragile Alliance multiplayer system. The story breeds instability and distrust and that's exactly what Edios wants.

Kane and Lynch might be some of the most developed characters in any recent video game, the dynamics between the characters were carefully engineered and manage to drive the game forward. Without the interaction between the two protagonists, Dead Men would be your run of the mill squad based shoot-em-up. The two characters are believable and their actions make enough sense for anyone to sympathize with them; they are making the best in a horrible situation and no suspension of disbelief is required to do so.

Reportedly the voice acting lends to the believability of the characters instead of making it painfully obvious that they are just polygon models with the voice of someone just looking to get their paycheck. While the character dynamics have been put at the forefront, the story seems to suffer from it. Initially, the story seems cliché; however, there's no telling what twists and turns are woven into the story. The story itself is told through cut scenes, but is also presented in the action.

The squad based action allows you to order your team around, while the player can press against walls and perform other action oriented actions. The game is mostly running and gunning with little else to do. Unfortunately, there is no online co-op mode which would have been amazing. However, the online mode does have the Fragile Alliance mode.

Kane and Lynch, meet Jekyl and Hyde

According to lead game designer Kim Krogh, "Fragile Alliance is a new multiplayer mode about manipulative game play; where co-operative or competitive gaming is a means to an end.","We like to say if you play Fragile Alliance like a shooter you will lose. But if you play it like a criminal you will win."

Fragile Alliance begins with everyone working together to get the job done; however, as the mission progresses it would behoove certain characters to turn against their team. This creates a similar tension to that of the main game, where there is always the danger of being turned on. Fragile Alliance mode allows up to eight players working together against AI opponents. At the end of each round the loot is counted and distributed and rankings are handed out; however, everyone splits the money and thus gaining rank becomes difficult. 

Gaining money requires that you crouch near a money point and allow your bags to fill; however, just crouching puts you in grave danger so you have to decide how much money is worth the risk. Buying weapons is another compromise, there are three grades of weapon packs: light, medium and heavy; with light packs being the cheapest, but having the weakest weapons and heavy being the most expensive, but containing the best weapons.

The most interesting feature is the fate of a dead member of the team; he becomes a police officer and is given the task of bringing his former teammates to justice. When a player turns on his team he is marked with a larger traitor tag that happens to be very visible, even through walls, unless the player is crouching, and the player that was stabbed in the back can easily find his killer and arrest him which will snag him a huge reward.

The Fragile Alliance mode makes Kane and Lynch more interesting than the run of the mill squad-based action games. There's a lot of potential for backstabbing, maybe as much backstabbing as a season of Survivor, but we bet Kane and Lynch is far more entertaining.