Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Interview

Pro-G was invited to IO Interactive’s upmarket Copenhagen HQ to take a look at the ongoing developments with violent shooter Kane and Lynch. Making the most of the opportunity, I sat down with Frederik Fusager, the game’s associate producer, in a room that looked suspiciously like a level from the game, to talk over their gritty criminal thriller.

Pro-G: Playing the game, I was immediately struck by the fact that the main duo of protagonists hate each other with passion, which is almost unheard of in gaming. How did you arrive at the decision to have Kane and Lynch despise one another?

Frederik Fusager: Well, first we sat down and designed the game, so first of all it was just a shooter. But then we started to make the character, which evolved into having two main characters. From the very beginning of knowing we had two characters we knew we should have this bad relationship, but we planned it to be something funny. However, quickly it evolved into this serious thing where these guys really, really don’t like each other.

Pro-G: So how important is that hate fuelled relationship to the game?

FF: We feel it makes a real difference to a computer game to have these two characters that are anti-heroes, and at the same time it gives you something new you have never seen or tried to work with in a game.

Pro-G: Both the multiplayer and single-player games are sizeable modes in their own right. Which one is the main element of the Kane and Lynch package, and how do they compliment each other?

FF: We made the MP to reflect the single-player criminal theme and the two lunatics: one a flawed mercenary and the other a psychopath on pills. To transfer that into a multiplayer we wanted to have some kind of a criminal game, but with more AI, and a concept that was something more than a regular capture the flag or king of the hill, so we have developed a team-based heist game that is also competitive – Kane and Lynch: Fragile Alliance.

Pro-G: How did you develop a balance between teamwork and competition in Fragile Alliance, and how does it work?

FF: It’s taken some time, and the rules are pretty complicated to get into, but once you get them I think that you have something much more brilliant and something new not seen before in multiplayer games. For many years we have seen this same kind of shooter game, just set in different worlds. I think Fragile Alliance spawned from the single-player idea of having not a military, but a criminal way of behaviour, and having an alliance built on a lack of trust. You work together in a bank heist shooter and have to get away however you can, together, or alone, maybe having killed your team mates.

Pro-G: And there is also a cooperative version of the campaign. How will it stand out from other co-op modes in typical shooters?

FF: When you play co-op as Lynch, sometimes you may forget to take his pills, meaning he will get hallucinations, where he will see things that aren’t real. For example, there may be some civilians walking by that appear to Lynch to be SWAT teams with guns, and they will start shooting at him. That might make you panic and say ‘oh shit, what is this?’ and start shooting. Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen Kane will see Lynch start shooting civilians.

Pro-G: How concrete are these hallucinations? For example, if Lynch thinks civilians are police firing bullets, can those imaginary bullets hurt him?

FF: He can’t be killed, but let’s just say he will feel the shots!

Pro-G: And is this cooperative game identical to the single-player game?

FF: Yes. Completely the same, and it is ‘jump-in/jump-out’, so if you have a friend visiting and you are playing one player, you can just click and start, even if you are already perhaps halfway through the game, and leave again, and the entire game can be co-operative.

Pro-G: It doesn’t take long to see the influence of the film Heat in the visuals, and the game has cinematic feel. Were crime movies a big influence?

FF: Of course we have seen a lot of movies and have seen a lot of different magazines. The atmosphere of Man on Fire was one of the things we looked into, and the film Collateral was a movie we really, really liked. Some of these things we borrowed from directly, and a lot of stuff is us wanting to create a world like that in the movies and thinking ‘how can we involve this in a shooter?’.

Pro-G: Kane and Lynch is quite bloody and violent at times, and full of offensive language. Are there worries it could suffer the same fate as Manhunt 2?

FF: Yeah of course we were worried about that, and it is definitely an 18-plus game, and the language is pretty rude, but we have of course looked into a lot of this side of things and we know that it is not going to be a problem. And if it is, it is something we will have to deal with at that point.

Pro-G: Do you think having Kane and Lynch portrayed as undesirable characters who hate each other has helped with regard to the censors?

FF: Yeah, that could have helped us a little.

Pro-G: And finally, what are you most excited about or proud of in the game?

FF: I really like Lynch! I think though, that the multiplayer part is something we are all really proud of, and I really do hope that people quickly get to know it, and I’m hoping this is going to be the next big multiplayer shooter people pick up, because it is so fast, so easy to learn, something you can do in lunch time. I really like Fragile Alliance a lot!

Pro-G: Thanks Frederik, and good luck with it.

FF: Thank you.