Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Review Remember Whac-a-Mole? Mole pops out of hole, bash with rubber mallet; mole pops out of hole, bash with rubber mallet; mole pops out... well, you get the picture.

Roadkill

I must have walked past the game a thousand times, but I only ever played it once. Like all Whac-a-Mole players, I think I smiled momentarily, in some bizarre infantile regression, as I chased the moles around the board. But then the game's inanity overcame me, and I continued to bash away only in a futile attempt to dislodge my 50p from it's all-too-secure resting place within the machine.

I vowed I would never play Whac-a-Mole again. And, until a couple of days ago, that promise remained intact. That was until I played through the six-hour campaign in Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

OK, so there are no plastic moles popping up and down in IO Interactive's sequel to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, but the gameplay is no less one-dimensional: enemy pops out of cover, shoot with gun; enemy pops out of cover, shoot with gun, etc, etc. Replace rubber mallet and mole with gun reticle and AI, repeat the mechanic over six hours ad nauseum, and the unflattering comparison with Whac-a-Mole is complete.

Fence his anger

Which is a real shame, as Dog Days' other qualities are exceptional. Its lo-fi shaky cam aesthetic, its depiction of sprawling Shanghai and, most importantly, its eponymous anti-heroes all deserve better than the lacklustre, repetitious central mechanic.