"Hey, that looks just like the firefight from Heat," I proudly exclaim. One of Eidos's main PR handshakers leans in to tell me a faux secret.

"That pretty much is Heat," he smiles. "These guys are big fans of that movie."

That's hardly the only Hollywood crime movie that gets a nod in IO Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (published by Eidos). When the walking red-headed punchline from Gamezone.com asks about the bandage over Kane's nose (he's one of two anti-heroes that give the title its name), the producer points out it's a reference to the classic Chinatown, but the flighty kid has already Aspergered his way to his next distraction: "Could I get a picture of these benches?" he asks, pointing to the glass-topped pulpits in Eidos' viewing room that have been filled with fake cash, cocaine, and ammunition. "I'd like to show them to the gamers of the world."

Kane & Lynch's calling card is not its gameplay, which is easily-digested stuff, looking a fair amount like Hitman or any other third-person shooter. Instead, IO Interactive is trying to tell a realistic, if hyper-stylish crime story, starring two amoral sociopaths, evoking the work of Hollywood directors like Michael Mann and John Frankenheimer. That the player controls two wicked anti-heroes who gladly slaughter bystanders and punch women in the face if it serves their needs is only surprising in how legitimately disturbing their actions feel when so many games before have been accused of being "murder simulators" or worse. Kane & Lynch makes Grand Theft Auto look like the cartoon it is.

Which is not to say that it's all violence for violence's sake. (Although I suspect there will be several legitimately gory moments in the game that are there just to induce cringing.) Instead, it's clear IO is trying to tell the story of two men who place their personal ambition above all else. The characters, devoid of any sympathetic qualities, have the heft of realism that most games sacrifice when they try to provide a justification for their criminal protagonist's action. I had to nuke that orphanage because twenty years ago my wife was passed over for promotion.

Of course, Kane may have a sympathetic backstory after all; I only saw a few minutes of gameplay. I hope not, but even if he ends up being, you know, human, it becomes clear from the in-game patter between the main characters that the balding, greasy Lynch is an unrepentant, selfish cock. He's great.

Other sections of the game will bring back the gameplay from IO Interactive's sadly under-appreciated Freedom Fighters, making it easy to deploy a small squad of henchman to—say—rappel down a skyscraper to blow through the plate glass of a boardroom, punching a dagger into the face of an enemy chairman. I played Freedom Fighters all the way thought, which is pretty high praise from me. The combination of its light tactical gameplay and a mature, harsh backdrop could be a very potent tonic. –Joel Johnson

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