Your health bar is more like Halo 3 in that it recharges over time, but you have to take cover once you take too many hits in order to recover. Dying doesn’t mean the end, though. Lynch of your other crewmates can give you an injection of adrenaline to bring you back from the brink, but too many too soon and you’ll die from an overdose. Likewise, you can “resurrect” your crew with similar injections, but they too can be killed by an overdose.

Outside of those features, though, is where Kane & Lynch stumbles. For one, most levels are pretty much the same: Kane and Lynch get themselves in a situation that requires them to mow through anybody in their way, whether that’s in a bank, nightclub, construction site, or any other locale that we’ve already seen before. It’s fun the first time, but it gets real stale and boring about the third or fourth time through, though.

There are some issues with game play, too. The cover feature is a little similar to Gears of War, but feels very clunky. Often times, I’d either find myself latched onto surfaces I didn’t want to be taking cover behind, or not taking cover when I needed to be. Likewise, shooting is a bit of a hassle. I guess it’s supposed to be more realistic, but I’ve fired a real gun, and it’s nowhere near as hard to aim as it is in Kane & Lynch.

However, there is one level in particular in co-op where Lynch starts hallucinating that is actually quite impressive. I explicitly state co-op because you really need to play this level with two players to get the whole effect.

Things once again take a turn downward in the graphics department. Cut scenes tend to look fine, but in the actual game itself… they don’t seem up to par. It’s not hard at times notice jaggies or issues with textures that makes the game seem a few years older than it really is. These are things that the developers should have blatantly noticed and touched up, but I don’t know why they didn’t.

Even though we’ve been graced with a wonderful story, the actual spoken dialogue isn’t so great. Every other word out of a character’s mouth, especially Kane and Lynch’s mouths, seems to be an f-bomb or some other cuss word, to the point that it’s just ridiculous. I know they’re career criminals, but that doesn’t give you a license/excuse to go crazy with the swearing, guys.