The Best Game You Should NOT Play 

Finally a game that isn't ALL IN LE HEAD

Hi! I was actually the guy who did motion capture for Kane in this game. We did cutscenes and some in game-movements. One of the most fun shoots of my career. I had to lipsync to Brian Bloom, which also is a high point as a gamer as well. Love your work man.

Then Kane woke up and realized that the entire thing had been in his head and was an allegory for him fighting his demons

This shows the camera man is truly the most op character

All the ideas in this game are genuinely so cool and interesting it just seems like glitches and bugs messed everything up

The developers really tried. You can tell. I admire them for not making it a total cash grab and something interesting even if its still not overall good.

Pyro’s ability to make a widely seen 5/10 game seem like a 10/10 well written masterpiece is always going to be worth spending 2 hours watching

The guys who played Hsing (both voice and mocap) frickin’ killed it, I can’t get enough of his performance. Such a smug little monster, who turns the whole story on its head with just two words: “Shangsi’s daughter.”

Let's be honest Kane & Lynch were probably the inspiration for Michael & Trevor

The unceremonious death of Shangsi really underscored the game’s nihilism. Even a man as powerful as him isn’t immune to a chaotic and indifferent world.

Gotta say, the voice acting in this game is pretty damn good. For how shoddy everything else is, the VAs really gave it their all.

37:45 This is one of the many cases where Pyro's script-writing comes out to shine. He sets up the context and then the surprise that Kane and Lynch get is equally as surprising for us because it cuts into the middle of his sentence.

A remake of this game would be sick, especially if it was giving some true TLC

I absolutely love how this game feels like a snuff film. The blurring of the heads is just so god damn unnerving. I would love to see a horror game take advantage of it, making it feel like you're watching a leaked video on the internet.

the “lynch i’m here” line during the psychotic episode was oddly touching

- So, how do you like Kane and Lynch 2, Pyrocynical? - It's fucked, I hate it - Yeah, I love it too

8:43 For the record, just in case you're morbidly curious and still want to play Dead Men, it also has a GOG release with 0 DRM.

The surreal and quick ending also adds to the style of this game rather than a big climactic finish it just ends because this isnt a grand story its just an excerpt from these horrible mens lives

I unironically love the concept of the multiplayer. Rob a bank, store, etc. Everyone could work together and split the money. Or you can betray your team members to get all the cash. Either way, if anyone dies, they become a cop that tries to end the criminals run. It was kinda poorly executed, but I'd love to see someone give it another try.

I love that at 10:14 you use some music from cruelty Squad to accompany your statement "it looks filthy. it has this amazing visual style I've never seen in a video game."

seeing him use the cruelty squad enhancements as an example in 18:30 has a weird feeling rewatching this now

The secret ending: the characters figure out they are just figments of a dog's imagination, and the whole game takes place in le dog head

Absolutely loved the balls IO had at the time to make their characters just utterly repulsive humans rather than cool/appealing chads. This game was rough around the edges in every aspect and has a memorable uniqueness to it, despite the repetitive shoot/cover gameplay.

It is clear that there was not enough money, experience and time, but this is one of the most stylish gangster shooters - complete destructibility of the interior, the coolest plot, the atmosphere of a rainy dirty city in which they are trying to corner you.

Credit where it's due. I don't really KNOW the two characters and I don't really want to know them personally. But I do feel sympathy for them just trying to make ANY possible scenario work in their favour and constantly getting shit all over. And my heart breaks when I hear Lynch barely managing to keep it together. The storytelling is definitely the best part. Simple, but effective.

Here's what I think happened. The development team was told that they had a very short amount of time to create a sequel to a mid-received game, just as a cash grab. They knew that their game would be full of bugs with not a lot of time to test it or fix bugs, so they decided to focus on the story. They create a well written story with a clever aesthetic.

"I want this game to be more realistic" -Lynch being able to one-hand a LMG and fire it with barely any recoil -Kane surviving infinite gunshots, but being knocked out by a light elbow from Lynch -Surviving getting cut open in like 2000000 places -Surviving a helicopter crash -Probably more stuff but I haven't finished the video yet

This game really did the "the cameraman's the real hero for surviving all this" joke but played it completely straight, huh?

I love how 2 minutes in you can see that pyro has 75% of all achievements in "Tribal hunter". For those unaware Tribal hunter is a furry inflation game.

The fact that this game isn't all in the character's head makes me believe this entire video is all in my head.

15:55 Kinda sneaky to have a game with 2 endings that both make you want to pick the other one. It's an interesting way to extend the playtime of your game lol

I haven't watched Pyro in years. He's dropping over an hour long full analysis videos of both popular and unpopular games. I gotta respect how much work goes into these especially with the editing.

I love that shangsi died by lynch because I think he finally really genuinely decided that he didn’t want anymore jobs. He wanted that to be his last job whereas Kane never truly could have given it up

honestly as someone who had a father who was a big drug dealer and went to prison a lot, he's been locked up again recently lol, the whole writing to ur kid multiple times and the multiple apologies for continuing to fall back into crime is very much real.

I think the easter egg of Kane being in prison writing to his daughter is a reference to the first game as he looks way younger and he's on a prison bus (assumingly being transported to the big house before his execution) compared to the much older version of Kane you see in dog days. So Hitman probably takes place before the events of Dog Days

This games story is actually fantastic and brutal, i felt like i was playing a movie from start to finish. no other game really has that consistent feeling though it's entire run time. If it was polished and given a bigger budget it would probably be one of my favorite campaigns in a game ever.

Cameraman just following them and probably being hunted too while 100% silent is a complete gigachad moment

Im shocked I did not see a comment about this but in 29:10, Tommy gets killed kicking the door down instead of opening and checking it just like how Lynch would, so if Tommy was not there, Lynch would have been shot dead in that doorway as a result of his aggressiveness.

1:19:44 "a critical shortage of ADHD medication" is the best phrase I've heard all week.

I like games that are extreme violence like this. Not “extreme violence” like Doom or Mortal Kombat where there’s tons of gore and killing, but games that are gritty and oppressive to the point of putting a disturbed pit in the player’s stomach as they play. Something that shows such a sad grey underbelly of society that is rarely spotlighted in entertainment media. Such a brutal level of realism that the viewer doesn’t even really want to acknowledge that it exists in reality. It’s rare to see media take on these themes because of how it puts much of the audience off, but when done right it provides one of the most immersive and emotional environments one can see in films or games. Kane and Lynch might not be a good game all together, but it absolutely nailed the oppressive atmosphere and theme of the criminal underworld and how it affects people.

The concept of everything being filmed from a camera is a decent concept, especially for a videogame. You know what would be incredible, a game where you play as journalist wearing go-pro and investigating a warzone, collecting footage, navigating your way through the carnage and interviewing soldiers and civilians. Like a survival horror, you don't have any means to defend yourself and so you have to rely on stealth and running to progress. the grainy footage, the inconsistent audio quality and blood splattering on the camera, could add to gritty realism of the game.

This was a super experimental game, especially for the time. If it was an indie studio it'd be praised.

Another neat detail is that the muzzle flashes on some guns are caught at different stages, either first coming out of the gun or residual with the light not touching the muzzle anymore. Although if they wanted full realism, the flashes would only appear within horizontal strips to mimic shutter speeds.

I remember downloading this game’s demo around its’ release date and staring at the menus for like 10 minutes straight thinking that graphics can’t get any more realistic

I really like what the death of the camera man adds. You've been seeing through him the whole time, and he has been with Kane and Lynch the entire time, but they hijack the plane still only thinknig about themselves, taking the airplane and leaving the camera man to die

This game was a fever dream on acid when I played it as a teenager. The Shakey camera and VHS tape filter hurt my eyes.

I like to think that in this game, you don't take the POV of the cameraman. You follow a POV of a Shanghai Police or Interpol op, trying to find Kane and Lynch themselves through footage after becoming public enemies.

Having heard about what it's like, I played this whole game in one sitting really drunk on rum. It honestly made it even more of a confusing nightmarish experience, 10/10 gaming moment.

The Bullpup SMGs used in the restaurant firefight in chapter 4 are used essentially by the equivalent of SWAT teams in China. Considering how much death and destruction they've wrought, you don't need to be corrupt anything to sic these guys on Kane and Lynch. This is just what would realistically happen.

If they did a remake of this game i truly believe it would be accepted very well the story seems pretty good and the gritty handheld aesthetic is awesome and unique

18:36 This man put a teaser and we didn't even know it

The thing is that both games had cool ideas. The first one was an interesting twist to the classic buddy cop story and the second one had a cool art direction. With a better budget and (a lot) more polish, they could’ve been cult pulp games. Thankfully, Deadly Premonition scratches that itch

Kane and Lynch 2 is actually one of the many documentaries on the career of the extradimensional being known as "The Cameraman." He has been everywhere, and filmed everything. And even while he never directly interacts with those he films, his ability to film has made those in his camera's views into legends. But one must consider his own power if he is able to film such amazing feats that no normal cameraman could ever hope to keep up with.

i love how hes walking around physically in pain from the air hitting the cuts as he moves and the rain nice lil detail

I think it's fairly obvious that Michael and Trevor from GTAV were stolen from this

The style of the game and how frantic and grimy the entire experience is, unlike other cover shooters, hell even horror games, the entire premise and tone of the game makes the player feel like a victim, casualty, or a bag, a expendable stray that can be stabbed, shot, or be p*ssed on in a dog eat dog world.

Hearing Chinese adult contemporary music being played over a violent fever dream is probably one of the best things

R.I.P cameraman you will never be forgotten

1:24:37 Bro got Lynch to join Cops & Robbers 💀

I still think that the execution scene from Kane and Lynch 1, when his wife gets killed and Kane just absolutely snaps is one of the best instances of GENUINE anger voice acted into a game to date. It's not a seething anger or resentment, it's just explosive and raw, to the point of Kane not even listening to what's being said around him as he caves a man's head in with a shovel, repeating the same words over and over until he snaps out of it.

For anyone asking, the thumbnail was changed due to Pyro initially running an event in his server for a new thumbnail as it wasn't grabbing enough attention. The competition was scrapped for the current one that one of his editors showed him.

33:25 Funny thing is Nolan North has voice acted for most if not every Halloween character/thing that can speak in tf2 Lol Like there was a joke that anytime Halloween arrives Valves calls for Nolan to voice

My favorite part of this game was when at the end, kane said to lynch, "you know lynch, this really has been our dog days."

They really need to give this series another chance. I'm thinking a reboot would capitalise on the potential that's clearly there.

The camera effects, especially the pixelating of head shots really added to the raw, nasty vibe of the game. Loved it's atmosphere as it was so unapologetically dark...which is refreshing! Glad you mentioned Lynch's mumbling he occasionally does during shootouts, especially later on as stress levels increase as it still highlights his fragile mind and that the whole "psycho outbursts" aspect in the previous game wasn't forgotten. Always nice to see videos praising aspects of this game. :)

This was a massive nostalgia trip. Damn.

dude i felt like this game has true potential if only the creators put time and blood, this would’ve been crazy, the entire aesthetic of it is just soooooo good

Just by how gritty the story and aesthetics are, I wish we could see a third game. This game actually made me feel uncomfortable at times. The story allowed for so many gnarly set pieces. I love it. No matter how terrible the gameplay is. The story and dialogue kept me invested. So many good games with good gameplay almost feel mindless because the story isn't triggering any real emotion outside of "sad" or "content." It just makes the game be highlighted in very specific sections, "That one sad moment" or "When you finally reached the goal." Kane and Lynch had more than just those moments even through gameplay. Im glad the developers of these games tried to make you feel uncomfortable and grossed out. We need more games like that.

After hearing that the game is 4hrs long, I paused the video, went and got the game and finished it. I'm surprised it's got such bad reviews- sure the shooting is shoddy but the game is very unique in the risks that it takes. 10/10 would want a sequel.

I remember my cousins had this game on their Xbox 360 and that I could never get past the second level. Now, after watching this, it kinda makes me want to play the game again considering how cool the visual style, aesthetic, story and writing are

58:07 listen for the Wilhelm scream when they push him out of the ‘copter. Smh.

Holy shit, a game where a shotgun actually functions like an actual shotgun. They don't just become completely ineffective 30ft from the muzzle, they'd be useless if they did. I mean you can even get rifled shotguns and use slugs, which are just a single 1oz hunk of lead for a projectile instead of a bunch of smaller ones. I don't know what the max effective range is but I wouldn't be afraid to take 50-100 yard shots with a long 12 gauge that has decent sights using slugs. More practiced shooters than I am would almost definitely be accurate more than twice that distance with the same gun. Edit: 2 seconds of research, Jerry Michulek put rounds on target at 325 yards with a 12 gauge slug. Your average person won't come close to that, because Jerry is a living legend, but it's possible.

I doubt it's intentional, but Kane's comment of "don't do anything irrational" to Lynch right before the sniper section really reinforces the idea of how so much bloodshed could've been avoided if there was any level-headedness between the two

That outro montage is probably my favourite out of all the ones you've done. Amazing work.

I was absolutely obsessed with this game's presentation the minute I saw the reveal trailer. Downloaded all of the other trailers, bought the soundtrack on release, used that "noise complaint" hotel menu scene as a wallpaper for a few months. I already knew the game wasn't the best after playing the demo, but playing through it with the mindset of it being more of an "experience" and not an action game was one of the most memorable experiences I had in gaming.

I love what this channel has turned into from a “leafy clone” to a deep analysis on great games Petscop 2

its scary how in a lot of cover based shooters it is more effective to not use the cover system but instead just hug the wall i assume this is because all of them design the ai to fight you while youre in cover so playtesting doesnt catch those weird exploits

45:46 le funny voice crack aside, that's real and visceral. I am madly in love with someone...and at times am extremely guided by emotion at times, if i saw her die, not just hearing of her die but viewing it... i couldn't imagine the sounds I'd make

1:04:55 "no more deals"

That fucking cut at the beginning of chapter 4 (37:32) is honestly one of the best transitions I've ever seen in a game. This game is equally as genius as it is braindead, and I love it

Money for Lynch's hairline fund. Incredible content as usual Pyro. Thanks for delivering on both the very well made analysis and recent PyroLive stuff. Thanks mate. Been around since like the 2016 era XD LMAO

I appreciate how Pyro left jokes for viewers that can understand Chinese while also doing a little trolling At 39:55 the Chinese words mean "my asshole itches" but the English subtitles say "TO ACCEPT IS FREEDOM" lmao P.S. Idk if Pyro will see this but I am from Hong Kong and I may be able to help with translating Chinese, Putonghua, or Cantonese in future videos :) Keep up the good work!

39:50 - the adjective form of contempt is "contemptuous", someone who has contempt for you. if someone is worthy of contempt, they are "contemptible".

2:16 oh jesus why did that feel like hearing a foreign language you took 4 years of in high school but never used again in your little town until someone showed up and word-dumped in front of you.

Such a family friendly game, can't wait to show this to my kids!

I want to point out that Gerstmann probably would have given the game a lower score but gamespot had a rigged scoring system that always favored bigger budget games. The reviewer would score parts of the game in a vacuum. Graphics, Sound, Music ETC. The different scores were weighted differently though. So naturally more "realistic" and gritty brown games would get a higher score and things like music and sound would get a bump on the score since bigger games had better access to professional voice acting and studio equipment inflating the score. If a game had extra features like multiplayer even if it sucked would inflate the scores. The reviewers didnt got a 100% say on what the score was, they had to arbitrarily plug numbers into the nonsense algebra equation and when the score got back they had the option to add a "reviewers tilt". Which is the closest to control over the score they had where they could wack the score up or down a single point depending on if in the final score it actually represented their feelings on the game.

Guess it goes to show you can have fun doing anything if you see it from the right lens. For someone at the time it was a worse version of other games it was being compared to at the time, but now we've got the hindsight of knowing what gaming would later become and appreciate aspects of the game that at the time we took for granted. Consistent writing and style direction, interesting multiplayer mode, and the odd magic of terrible mic compression

This game is one of the best examples of a game that should’ve just been a movie or a tv show and pyro molding this experience into a watchable format does this game a beautiful justice that it really didn’t deserve beyond the concept of the game itself.

We need to get this game remade, with updated character appearances, even more high detailed landscapes and world building, better ragdoll and gore mechanics, better game mechanics and a better squad/buddy mechanics that if you're playing single player, your able to command Kane what to do, explore more of the stealth mechanics, make the game a little bit longer than 4 hours. Overall, I love this game, for how unique it looks.

So glad to see this game still getting some light over 10 years later. Sure, mechanically, the game is average at best. But the way it does it's atmosphere and aesthetic is unlike any game I've seen, even to this day. That feeling of utter raw grittiness combined with an unsettling world really carries this game from something forgettable to something that deserves notice a decade on.

since the thicc pyro incident, pyrocynical has been dropping more clues, like the one at 2:00

Watching this again I heared a cruelty squad song at 10:25. Could possibly mean he was working on that vid since then. Crazy.

Gotta say I actually really respect they went so gritty with this game, it was a risk and it definitely turned a lot of people off. For those who get it, it’s a ultra violent heist/underworld story that ties in beautifully with the early RU-vid age. Not every game has to be super slick where you play a hero, crime is dirty and people get hurt. No one wins and this game perfectly captures that.

Seriously, Pyro’s reviewing skills have to be too notch. He could legitimately make Hunt Down the Freeman sound good with enough effort.

I never played this, but I think it’s my favorite aesthetic I’ve seen in a game. I love this “dirty hallucinogenic urban hell” vibe taken to such extremes. Gotta give it a go. I’m a sucker for weird vibes.

Bro, thank you for talking about Kane and Lynch, I used to play this with my dad and my best friend when we were younger! This video brought back so many memories, I was actually really sad for Kane and his relationship with his daughter, I bought the second game to play with my dad but we were both really disappointed with it. I don't know if you'll see this but thank you for the nostalgia and memories!

Can I just say, "No More Deals" is an excelent cutscene and its inclusion in the narrative is fantastic. Lynch's delivery of that line is sublime in how *dead* he sounds. That is the sound of a man who truly, definitively has nothing left, who is completely fucked in every way imaginable and is familiar with every angle and brand of lube imaginable. It also kind of ties into the fact that all of the duo's problems has been the result of them trying to make deals and get access to deals and endure something in order to make a deal and persue the avenue of deals and it just does not WORK. The fact that the moment they decide to stop fucking around and trying to make things work, they only have to go through one more mission to "escape", as much as you can escape a completely batshit situation like that. Anyway, back to the cutscene... I think Lynch shooting Shangsi is probably the single smartest thing Lynch does in the entire game. Purely emotionally driven, but who knows what Shangsi could or would have done to them? It's possible that Shangsi saw what Kane and Lynch were capable of and thought, "Maybe I can turn this around, maybe I shouldn't fuck with these guys anymore". But even then what's to stop him from using them for years, then sending them to a black site to be tortured for decades or just fucking killing them? Lynch shooting him was a complete "Enough is enough" moment. It fits that Kane doesn't get it, and ultimately neither does Lynch. They're both pathetic wastes of skin who 100% deserve to die and deserve little but scorn, as horrible as their lives and suffering are, and neither of their reasoning for anything they do is good or sound. The fact that they're marginally better than torturing drugslinging murdering gang slavers is a tough sell, especially when - As seen in this video - They quite literally kill by the thousand. The fact that Kane tries to make the deal ultimately shows that Kane knows nothing and has learned nothing. Has he ever considered just getting a fucking job as a cashier? I'm sure he has anger issues, but he'd probably have a better chance of starting a new life there than with this shit. What possible chance does he have of being left alone after all this, let alone reconciling with his daughter? Did he think that bringing Lynch up to the guy that had his girlfriend tortured, raped and murdered - Lynch, who frequently descends into hysteria due to his mental illness, who has been relentlessly gunning his way through the fucking tower - To agree to strike a deal with him? If I told you the cause of all your problems was tied to a chair and was waiting for you to come over and shoot him, and there was a loaded desert eagle on the table waiting for your arrival, you wouldn't refrain from shooting his bones to pieces one limb at a time just because he opens by offering you his penthouse. No. No more deals. I want to close by saying that... Lynch is a surprisingly compelling character. The right mixture of vulnerable, coarse, ugly, harsh, evil, pitiable and broken that I can't help but feel bad for him. I don't think Lynch really deserved this, he was actually seemingly getting better, things were on the up and up until he shot some asshole's daughter. I want to feel for Lynch. But that's the thing - I don't feel for him. His journey, his misery, means nothing and never has and never will. Dog Days is an exercise in futility that accounts not for rest or respite. I have seen works that bother me more, like Spec Ops (what tends to bother me in general is not the depravity or the violence or the suffering - but instead the descent that results from these things and the depths we sink to sometimes not even of our volition, and let's just say that Kane and Lynch mainly descended in mental stability more than moral) but I don't think there is a work that stays at this level of pure malice and misanthropy. It is potentially the edgiest game I have ever seen (in a good way) and there is genuinely nothing satisfying about the experience - Other than watching this lovely video. Thank you for making it Pyro, I never thought I would be this engrossed in the criminal version of a train wreck. This game is fucking miserable, and I'm glad I watched it (not played it) to completion. "FUCK-"

The game had me pulling hairs out from half of the shoot-outs but the atmosphere and "2nd-person" view of the game was legendary. The intro still gives me chills to this day.

The Campaign two Battlefield 4 reminds me of this game a lot. Not just the general setting of China, but Murphy's law. Tombstone (The Seal Team You Play As), constantly faces obstacle after obstacle. Everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. It's a theme they build the seven chapter narrative around, even noting it in the art book. Every step they encounter unpredictable chaos, destruction and death. So much death. It's hard to tell whether their terrible luck is a result of the situation their stuck in, or if their own actions are their downfall.

55:30 where might I find this polite young mans contact information