Kane & Lynch X360 demo

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 December, 2007

Up now.

One is a flawed mercenary and the other is a medicated psychopath, but that hasn't stopped Kane & Lynch from making their way to Xbox Live in demo form, having appeared on PlayStation Network earlier this month.

We left our Xbox 360 at home today because it's cold and we wanted to walk down the road with our hands in our pockets, so we can't tell you what's in it, but we can tell you that the description promises "hard-edged criminal action" in addition to "back-stabbing online", which sounds about right.

When it's assembled on your hard disk it will be occupying 520.04MB according to the fastidious Major Nelson, which compares favourably albeit irrelevantly to however big the other one was on PSN.

Anyway, you can learn more about Kane & Lynch: Dead Men in our Kane & Lynch: Dead Men review, where Kristan argues that it delivers on some counts, but not enough others to help it stand out from other "duck and cover" shooters like Gears of War and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Sir_TimAlot #1 4 years ago

    Man I wish demos came out before the full game as I was one of the silly fools who actually bought this game. oh the horror

  • TheDifficult3rdAlbum #2 4 years ago

    I rate this story: 6.0/10

    /is fired

  • penhalion #3 4 years ago

    Man what a sad game. This is annoying. Point of note. Crap games have their Demo released AFTER they go to retail.

  • bad09 #4 4 years ago

    At least they are brave enough to give a demo after all the bad press! I'll download it just to see if it is as bad as people are saying!

  • Vroom #5 4 years ago

    Don't you mean 'Up yesterday'

    ... I'm only sayin.... ;)

  • Johnson #6 4 years ago

    *edits TheDifficult3rdAlbum's post to "better reflect the score"*

  • seasidebaz #7 4 years ago

    surely hands would have been warmer from carrying 360 to work? they have the temperature of a nuclear reactor and don't cool down that quickly!

  • tobsen #8 4 years ago

    What about a PS3 demo? I still have hope left for this game.

  • kencleary #9 4 years ago

    Yeah very glad I played this demo. It destroyed any lingering thoughts of buying the game once it hit budget. It really is rubbish isn't it?

  • freeoscar #10 4 years ago

    The freedom fighters level was brilliant though (LMAO)

  • p00ntang #11 4 years ago

    Merry Xmas to all the game testers at IO.. And can someone tell me how 5 escaped convicts can jet-set around the world. Absolute rubbish.

  • dazzaman #12 4 years ago

    Got the PS3 demo so forgive the intrusion, played once and then deleted it.

    Wouldn't say it was utter rubbish but it's not far off. It doesn't seem to do anything new and the guys that follow you round have the AI of a jam sandwich.

    Interesting that Xbox and PS owners can finally agree on thing, a shit game is a shit game.

    But which console is it shitter on?

  • jlaakso #13 4 years ago

    It's not a bad game. I completed it happily despite there being lots of better games around. If you're into the whole Michael Mann aesthetic, there's a lot to like here. Storytelling-wise, it does very interesting things.

  • ParanoidZombie #14 4 years ago

    It's not that bad, but I'm a bit confused by the cover system: gears, r6 and graw all came up with a perfect cover system, but kane and lynch's doesn't work that well. Maybe I didn't understand how it works, but it's a liability and got me killed a couple times.

  • dazzaman #15 4 years ago

    I wasn't too keen on the swearing side of it, I'm no prude by any means but it seemed like they put swearing in as it was big and clever

  • Moogrose #16 4 years ago

    Thought i'd pipe in and say this game is brilliant, perhaps not the most polished - but i loved every second of the SP - and enjoyd the MP for what it was... people have been too quick to dismiss this one IMHO
    Edited by Moogrose at 19/12/07 @ 12:32

  • bad09 #17 4 years ago

    Well after finally playing this game I think I might actually pick this up (2nd hand at least). In my opinion (from the demo) it's actually not as bad as a lot of people are making out. Yeah, there are a few problems and there are better shooters out there but I've played at lot worse and it was quite fun. Also, like jlaakso said, if you're into Mann then there is a lot to like.

    A tip though, make sure you up the look and turn speed in the options it plays a lot better!

  • DFawkes #18 4 years ago

    In cases like this, wouldn't it be smarter to let Silver users get this at the same time? They already have an uphill struggle against bad reviews and generally negative coments in general. Then they forget to market it a lot and when they do, they get people fired for not being nice.

    Do they not believe Silver users have money to buy games? Although I'm sure it wasn't their choice, MS probably enforces it automatically, which is fine. I'm sure it won't affect sales anyway.

  • bad09 #19 4 years ago

    @DFawkes

    "Do they not believe Silver users have money to buy games?"

    Yes they do but they want to free up bandwidth for PAYING customers. It's now the price you pay for not paying for the service. I think it's fair, and it's only a week to wait anyway if you are so against paying for a online service. Just buy gold mate it's worth it. Come, join us online! Not everyone is a 12 yr old angry yank (you get even fewer if you avoid H3 online!).

    Speaking of online that it another aspect that interests me in this game, turning on your teammates must be funny as hell! Has anyone here played the MP?

  • SomaticSense #20 4 years ago

    Was looking forward to this demo, and was fully expecting it to suprise me and be a fun if unpolished action title, a worthy purchase at Gamestation's £23.

    But oh no, my god it's bad. I've had concerns about it ever since the first gameplay footage was leaked on Youtube, as it looked like it played exactly like Hitman with all the good non-shooty stuff taken out (Hitman was awful if you decided to just gun it through all the levels). But the demo was worse than I thought it would be.

    Everything I've heard about the cover system really didn't do it justice........ it's far worse. Kane goes up against cover as and when he bloody well feels like it, and it goes a long way to breaking the game by itself. That's without the terrible gunplay which feels completely soulless and uninvolving, you shoot and they fall down. The controls were awful as well, with the lack of a controls screen to bring up at any moment (just the opening loading screen exclusively for those with photographic memories) really not helping at all.

    The only positive I could take from it, was the voice acting was ok. Everything else in the demo, and I mean everything was utter shit and way below standard. IMO, it's not an average game (going by the demo obviously), it's a broken and poor one.

  • tufty #21 4 years ago

    @bad09

    Actually, delaying a week is a benefit for Silver users in this case. By the way, I "pay" for Live through all the adverts they shove at me - oh, don't Gold users get them?

  • bad09 #22 4 years ago

    @tufty

    That's harsh mate I really didn't think it was that bad!

    As for the "adverts", we get them to but I don't see the big deal, I actually like the little "ads" they tell me of new stuff on live and accessories. What's wrong with a little awareness of what's on offer for your own console? Lets be honest here it's not commercial advertising in the real sense just a little nod to what you can get for it. As long as it doesn't go too far and we start seeing adverts for non-360 related items!

  • Cyclone #23 4 years ago

    Have the game on the PS3 and while it's not brilliant, it definitely is a good, solid game. Eurogamer's 7 was spot on.

  • Moogrose #24 4 years ago

    @bad09 - the MP is great fun- that said - unlike something like GRAW i can't take more then a couple of hours worth at a time since there are only 5 different locations (scenerios) to play - and the enjoyment of the MP is really dependent on the folk you're playing with, even more so than most other games, as initially you work as a team, and the whole point is to get the most money - so being a traitor is ultimately part of the experience, although some people will go off on you for having the nerve to play in that way...

    I've had some great games though, some with folk even giving you compliments for choosing such a perfect time to become a traitor and getting away with all the loot! its class, if also unpolished.

    if you enjoy the SP - you'll enjoy the MP, basically.

    EDIT: Some truly shocking mistakes... the little ones i left in :)
    Edited by Moogrose at 19/12/07 @ 14:30

  • bad09 #25 4 years ago

    Thanks Moogrose sounds like a laugh! I'll probably wait for a 2nd hand copy (from the sounds of it there will be a few copies around!) but I will pick this one up now.

    Still got to get AC first though!
    Edited by bad09 at 19/12/07 @ 15:05

  • Al_Swearengen #26 4 years ago

    @tufty

    Are you seeing proper commercial ads or just the standard XBOX LIVE promos? As I recall there is an 'Opt-out' setting in your Account Management section on the dashboard. I'm pretty sure that relates to 3rd-party marketing. Not sure if that option is available to Silver users though. Worth checking out though...

  • tufty #27 4 years ago

    @Al_Swearengen, thanks for the info, I shall look into this.

    @bad09, I was teasing, and actually haven't played it yet (because I am silver ;-)

  • bad09 #28 4 years ago

    So tufty, are you silver because you don't want to pay or have other consoles to play online or are you not bothered about online play?

    Like I said to DFawkes - come on, join the gold side you know you want to! Seriously you silver guys are missing out on so many great multiplayer games!

  • hokuto_no_rob #29 4 years ago

    Remind me in a week when I can actually download the damn thing.

  • DFawkes #30 4 years ago

    @bad09

    I go online all the time, and it is good most of the time - I'm especially loving Team Fortress 2 at the moment. I just thought it'd be a good chance for some positive spin, such as "Eidos Open Doors To Silver Users!".

    I know MS wouldn't allow it, but it'd wouldn't hurt sales. I don't mind waiting to play demos of critically acclaimed games like Burnout - it's only fair to get a bit extra from the service. But the next trip I go to buy a gme, I'm not buying a game that is generally considered garbage, that they wouldn't even let me try out first!

    Not that that's a bad thing, there are plenty of good games out. It just seems Eidos don't want my money for this game. I quite liked the Hitman demo though, which I downloaded instead, taking up bandwidth anyway.

    I'm curious, has the delay improved speed in the first week? I know they used to be plagued with slowdown and random stopping, and if these had been cut out I'd be more likely to go for Gold.

    My point is the delay is fine by me. Unless it's really as bad as reviews claim, in which case maybe they should extend the delay to everyone :p

  • orenishii #31 4 years ago

    Mass Effect has better combat then K & L and thats a bloody RPG!