The goal of the demo level was to escape a building and get to safety (i.e. the level that looks a lot like the awesome gun fight sequence from the movie Heat). The fun part about the level is the number of people on screen at once. As you escape the building you have to negotiate dozens of people as they try to escape the building with you. Of course when you open fire on the cops at the entrance they panic making it even harder to take the cops out. Of course you can go cyclical and take out the civilians and the cops but I don’t think that would make Jack Thompson happy.
After you escape the building you have to work your way down the street. You have to work your way over a bridge and back down, taking out cops along the way. Once you clear the street you make your way to a bus station and that’s where the engine really shows its merit as there must have been over a hundred people on screen running away from the firefight. I did find out that the engine can support up to 900 people on screen at once
What I did learn about the game that wasn’t in the demo was your ability to control the rest of your crew. You can have them follow you, set them up to defend an area, or attack a particular target. It’s a decent system and adds a nice element to the game.
The other interesting feature of the game is that if you or any member of your crew goes down you can resurrect them by giving them a shot of adrenaline. Of course you can only do this a few time before they overdose and while it’s not the most realistic thing in the world it does add some nice gameplay values.
Kane and Lynch looks to be a fairly strong game but I still worry that the game is going to get lost in the game glut this year. Hopefully that’s not the case but time will tell how it works out.
