Why did Kane & Lynch hurt so much?

#2 It was hyped up with strong preview coverage

"Taking control of two out-of-their-minds assassins and tearing the world a new one sounds like one hell of a videogame"

"The more we learn about Kane %26amp; Lynch, the more impressed we become"

Both of these quotes were penned by GamesRadar writers, and if you dug up snippets from other gaming publications over the past 12 months it'd be a similar story. See, no matter how many people would like to believe the opposite, us games journos don't want games to be rubbish.

We never burn effigies of upcoming releases, praying that they'll fail. We love games, and we want every single one to be like discovering a perfect pearl inside a huge gaming oyster, offering a new and exhilarating ride. But previews are a tricky business.

"We're confident Io Interactive and Eidos will iron out all the kinks"

Yes, we really were confident. All previews are written while the game in question is still umbilicaly tethered to the development team. Things can change very quickly between preview code and the finished, shop-bound version. We loved the idea behind Kane %26 Lynch. We still do.

The party-goer packed club level was astounding when we first laid eyes on it, and the idea of a game encapsulating the sharp, violent impact of the best of Michael Mann's filmography (inspirations from Heat and Collateral are clear) was a really exciting prospect. So of course we thought the niggles could be fixed, and the problems resolved.

And with the amount of coverage and magazine cover splashes that Kane %26 Lynch received over the past year, it's clear that other journos felt the same. Kane %26 Lynch has lots of great ideas, plenty of neat touches. It's just not the full-throttle, relentlessly-exciting, solid and irritation-free experience that we hoped and hinted that it could be. Which, we guess, makes it all the more difficult to take. Sorry about that.


#3It's a major, triple-A release for Eidos

Kane %26 Lynch is Eidos' big Christmas release. The momentum behind Tomb Raider Anniversary has slackened off, and other than the pretty dependable PC/Mac performance of Championship Manager Eidos has nothing else but IO's shooter to fill out the folder marked "Christmas Hits".

So, obviously,Eidos is understandably peeved that its big big Christmas title, designed to hoover up the cash of the desperately consuming masses, hasn't hit the vein of success that was expected - both commercially and critically.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games. 

Latest in Action
Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector Naoe squatting next to butterfly on tree
How to complete the Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector quest
Batman: Arkham Knight
Rocksteady's rumored single-player Batman game is in development for PC, PS5, Xbox, and "the next generation of consoles"
The Last of Us Part 1
The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann wanted to make sure the first game "was complete" because "I wasn't sure they would ever let me direct a game again"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
Naoe looks over at a dense, lush, green forest in Assassin's Creed Shadows from a viewpoint
Getting Assassin's Creed Shadows on PS5 and Xbox Series X was all about adding "dynamism" to the open world, but the devs seem most proud about the trees
Naoe and Yasuke walk in the sunset in a screenshot from Assassin's Creed Shadows
Following Assassin's Creed Shadows controversy, Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director says "every big AAA game could be better," but players shouldn't be mad "just because some dude told you to"
Latest in News
Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive uses magic in closeup screenshot
Despite fans begging for Tifa, Final Fantasy 16's Clive is "significantly more popular" than any other Tekken guest fighter
Spider-Man 4
There might be an obvious reason why Tom Holland's Spider-Man wasn't announced for Avengers: Doomsday
Patrick Stewart in X-Men
Marvel fans are already theorizing how Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and James Marsden's X-Men will be integrated into Avengers: Doomsday
Daredevil: Born Again episode 6
Daredevil's Charlie Cox isn't in the Avengers: Doomsday cast list – but Marvel fans have an idea about how he might still show up
Simu Liu in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Simu Liu had the best reaction to Shang-Chi’s announcement for Avengers: Doomsday, but fans think it's "criminal" there hasn’t been a direct sequel
Robert Downey Jr. during the Doctor Doom announcement at Marvel's SDCC 2024 panel
There may still be some big names missing from the Avengers: Doomsday cast list, but Marvel teases that "there's always room for more"