Kane & Lynch: Dead Men/YMMV

8.8: Both games, particularly the second, have received extremely polarizing reviews.
Alternate Character Interpretation: Depending on the player, both Kane and Lynch can be seen as complete monsters, sympathetic jerkasses, villain protagonists, tragic villains, or anything in between.
- In Dog Days the entire plot is initiated by the two of them attempting to broker a large arms deal with an undisclosed African client. They could be assisting either dictators, insurgents or freedom fighters, and that much interpretation is left up to the players. Of course they both make it clear that it's just business, but the moral repercussions are left open.
Broken Base: Dog Days did this to fans of Dead Men, splitting up the fans evenly among those who thought that the improved game mechanics didn't make up for a flimsy story and an incredibly short length, and those who thought that the improved game mechanics made up for all of Dog Days's flaws campaign-wise. Pretty amazing, considering that the fans of Dead Men didn't need all that much to be happy.
- There's also the matter of whether or not Jeff Gertsmann really was fired for giving the first game too low of a score.
Crowning Moment of Awesome: The entire E3 trailer for Kane and Lynch 2.
- Dead Men had an insanely awesome trailer too. It was the best part of the game.
Crowning Moment of Funny: In one of the promotional videos, Lynch angrily flips off an attacking helicopter while inside a ruined office building.
Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Near the end of Dog Days, when Kane leaves a message on Jenny's answering machine, telling her he's done with his awful career, and he'll be coming to see her soon. Crosses into Bittersweet Ending territory at the end of the message, since Kane's time is rather short. ("But sweetheart? If... if you don't see me, I want you to know... I love you.")
Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: A major issue with the series is how both Kane and Lynch are generally unlikeable characters that are hard to care about, with their enemies being no better.
Ear Worm: The guitar riff that was used in all the trailers and TV spots for Dead Men is just catchy as all hell.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Thapa is rather popular with the fans for some inexplicable reason, since he doesn't have many lines and leaves the team early.
- Probably because he leaves the team early and isn't a major part of the game.
Epileptic Trees: There have been a number of insane fan theories, ranging from somewhat plausible to ridiculous- The 7 murdered Lynch's wife, the second game is mostly happening in Lynch's head, Kane and Lynch knew each other before the first game but Lynch forgot, and so on.
Fridge Brilliance:
- A recurring complaint about Dog Days is that some types of enemies, specifically cops and soldiers, seem to be able to take far more damage than the player characters before being knocked down/dying. This makes sense, of course, when you realize that cops and soldiers wear body armor, something that criminals usually don't have easy access to.
- In the in-game intro video, Xiu pronounced Lynch's name as "Ling Chi" - sounds similar to the Chinese word of "flesh slicing" - the torture execution which she and Lynch suffer later.
Fridge Logic: How exactly did the boys escape Shangsi's skyscraper? All of the choppers were down, the building was on fire and collapsing with them at the top, and the whole building must have been completely surrounded by the police.
Hell Is That Noise: Dog Days eschews a traditional pumping action game soundtrack for atonal, bass-heavy, and intensely creepy background music during especially tense and violent firefights. The fight against the Shanghai military across the warehouses and trainyards has a particularly unsettling background score composed of high-pitched squealing and queasy, low bass noises.
High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The unrelentingly bleak tone of the games, especially the second game and its squallid environments, can be a little chilling at times.
It's Short, So It Sucks: The other major complaint against Dog Days. Most gamers can finish the single-player mode in a single four-hour sitting.
It Was His Sled: The torture and subsequent nudity sequence is in Dog Days is fast becoming this. Reviewers will happily exposit about it without care for spoilers at least.
Jerkass Woobie: Both Lynch and Kane, to some extent.
Moral Event Horizon: Mostly depends largely on your view of the characters. Best example so far would be at the end of Dog Days the boys resort to hijacking a commercial airliner full of innocent people in a desperate bid to escape Shanghai, after murdering well over a hundred police officers, shooting down several helicopters, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage, being indirectly (Or directly) responsible for the deaths of countless innocent civilians and having made most of the city descend into chaos. It was a busy weekend.
Most Annoying Sound: In the sequel: "Don't ever underestimate me!"
- With "cock-suckin' pussy motherfuckers!" in a close second.
Scrappy Mechanic: Taking hostages/human shields.
So Okay It's Average: This seems to be the critical consensus on the series.
Special Effects Failure: In both games, the way the characters lips move when they speak in-game (not during cutscenes) is just pitiful (think Quake 2-engine era). Even if you don't count Half Life 2, most modern games have at least competent in-game character lip syncing animation, at least for major characters. These games just go with having their mouths open and close like fish.
Spiritual Licensee: Several critics (and players, as noted in the Shout-Out section above) have noted the first game's similarity to the films of Michael Mann, specifically Heat and Collateral.
- The second game is a close to a Cloverfield video game as you can get without having a giant monster.
Tear Jerker: Too many to count- Kane and Lynch both have some of the most tragic, depressing lives ever. Notable mentions include Kane's wife being shot and him beating the shooter to death in rage (YOU SHOULD! HAVE LET! ME TALK TO THEM!), Lynch's breakdown (in an audio-only flashback) as he finds the body of his dead wife, Jenny's death in the Damned If You Do ending, and Jenny telling Kane that she hates him in the Damned If You Don't ending. What a depressing game.
That One Boss: A lot of people were so frustrated with the Behemoth in the Reunion level that they stopped playing altogether. Not without reason, given it's a tiny target in a moving object with only a few seconds to spare.
That One Level: The Havana levels (Freedom Fighters, El Capitol) were a huge spike in difficulty from the previous levels. Justified in that you are now fighting a trained military compared to the cop/warden/security/criminal mooks of the previous levels.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Possibly The 7. Sure, they're horrible people who have captured Kane's daughter and wife and plan to kill them, but the only reason they did this is because Kane betrayed them and caused the death of quite a few of their members.
The Woobie: Unbelievably, Dog Days sees Lynch become this to a degree. In the wake of Xiu's murder and his own vicious torture, he is suddenly overwhelmed with despair and sits, naked and bleeding, and starts weeping. Occasionally during the rest of the game he can be heard whimpering in firefights, and even wails in despair when the odds turn against them. Which is often.
What the Hell, Casting Agency?: We're not kidding, a caucasian Psycho for Hire is indeed being played by a black guy.