History VideoGame / KaneAndLynch

* ContinuityDrift: While the games function well as standalone stories, tying together both games' stories, the multiplayer, and the story of ''{{VideoGame/Hitman}}:Absolution'' will turn your brain into a pretzel. For one, Kane and Lynch are spotted a few times in the town of Hope, with Kane's nose broken, probably placing the events of this part during the period where before Kane and Lynch break the various "dead men" out of prison...despite the fact that the events of the first ''Kane & Lynch'' game are supposed to happen some time during ''Hitman: Blood Money''. As if that's not enough, the multiplayer mode of the second game follows the expats and ostensibly takes place during the events of the singleplayer game according to the descriptions of various buyable weapons...including events that take place ''after'' [[spoiler:Kane and Lynch kill the expats]]. The duo are also shown organizing the heists in Shanghai seen in multiplayer in various promotional videos for the Fragile Alliance mode, which they're never shown doing in the singleplayer story. For added fun, the ''Hitman'' games are among the DVD cases shown in a video store after the restaurant shootout, leading to a sort of weird one-way MutuallyFictional. Needless to say, the MST3KMantra is in full effect here.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Kane and Lynch's exploits are reported in newspapers in [[VideoGame/{{Hitman}} Agent 47's]] adventures and the duo make cameo appearances in ''Hitman: Absolution''. Less applicably, Agent 47 can be seen on posters in ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' and copies of ''Hitman'' are found in ''Dog Days''.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The reason for the game existing- IO wanted to go back to Hitman and make ''Absolution'', scheduled for a 2009/2010 release date, but Eidos decided that Kane and Lynch would be a big franchise and ordered them to make it- some fans say that Dog Days is [[TheyJustDidntCare bad on purpose]] because of it.

[[ForegoneConclusion Everything]].

Its sequel, ''Kane and Lynch: Dog Days'' was released in late August 2010. After a TimeSkip of 3 years, the plot focuses on the pair reuniting in Shanghai to oversee a black market arms deal. What initially seems to be an amiable if tepid rendez-vous between the pair quickly escalates into a mounting crisis that threatens to either destroy them or the city itself. [[ItsAllAboutMe And we all know which one]] ''[[AntiVillain they]]'' [[ItsAllAboutMe will choose...]]

* [[AntiHero Anti Heroes]]: Kane is a borderline Type IV/V because at the root of it what he really wants is to rescue and reunite with his daughter. He was plenty rotten before, but in the game's narrative he has an understandable and sympathetic motive. Lynch is more of a straight-up VillainProtagonist, depending on how sympathetic you are to his obvious mental illness; by the time the sequel rolls around he's a bit more likable.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Both of the protagonists have this in spades. We learn more about Kane's past than Lynch's, but you can get a pretty good summary of both if [[AllThereInTheManual you go to the official site.]]
* DespairEventHorizon: Things will always go from bad to worse for the duo. The best example would be [[spoiler:the part where Kane's wife is shot in front of him. He freaks out and beats the shooter to death with a shovel.]] You can also count the part in the boat ending [[spoiler:where Jenny supposedly dies,]] or the short, purely auditory flashback in which Lynch finds his wife murdered and breaks down.

* DoubleCaper: The bank robbery in which [[spoiler:only half the money is obtained]] leads to [[spoiler:the kidnapping of Retomoto's daughter in an attempt to get the other half.]] Might even qualify as a Triple Caper, since [[spoiler:the catastrophic failure of the hostage exchange eventually leads to the raid on Retomoto's office tower, where they finally get the remaining money back...but not for the original reason they needed it.]]

* DuelingGames: ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' was announced and released around the same time as the original ''ArmyOfTwo'', and had a similar premise (Automatic Cover-Based ThirdPersonShooter set in a DarkerAndEdgier version of the real world with emphasis on [[CoOpMultiplayer Co-Op play]] between [[GreyAndGreyMorality snarky and morally repugnant protagonists]]). By odd coincidence both games had sequels set in Shanghai, although ''Dog Days'' was announced several months after ''Army Of Two: The 40th Day''.

* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: Kane beating a man to death with a shovel for [[spoiler:shooting his wife]]

* FourPointScale: [[GiantBomb A Gamespot editor was, rumor has it, ''fired'' over panning this game hard, while they were running ads on the site.]]

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kane is [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex Shepherd]], [[AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes Captain]] [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 America]] and the [[Film/FantasticFour Silver Surfer]], and Lynch is [[SilentHill Dr. Michael Kaufmann.]]

* RealIsBrown: Both played straight and averted in the first game (the dance club had a lot of blue and green, while the Havana missions were mainly brown). Likewise in ''Dog Days'' you get to see all the technicolour shinyness of Shanghai's nightlife as well as the dull browns and grays of dock warehouses and apartment blocks.

** The achievements you get for making the choice [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this in a subtle way. The achievement for getting one ending is 'Damned if you do', and the other is 'Damned if you don't'.

* ShootTheHostage: Unfortunately, Lynch does this in a psychotic episode and makes [[FromBadToWorse a bad situation even worse.]]

* TheStoic: Kane seldom lets his temper get the better of him, but [[UnstoppableRage when he does...]]

* TheCaper: The multiplayer mode is a violent and bleak take on this trope. The cops are almost as bad as the robbers, and innocent civilians frequently get caught in the crossfire. The second half of a match will often devolve into a tense three-way tug-of-war over the cash between the [[CorruptCop cops]], the [[PragmaticVillainy robbers who just want to get out alive with the money]], and [[{{Greed}} robbers hell-bent on killing their teammates in order to get as much cash for themselves as possible]].

* DownerEnding: ''Dog Days'' concludes with [[spoiler:Kane and Lynch hijacking a commercial airliner full of innocent people and using it to escape Shanghai. Kane has failed to make a single dollar over the entire horrible affair to help Jenny, and Lynch has had his new life destroyed by the death of Xiu and the betrayal of his boss Glazer. They are both likely to have become the most wanted men on the continent as a result of the sheer magnitude of their crimes, meaning they might not even be able to land the plane even if they escape China. On top of all this, the two of them are now baby sitting an entire plane of hostages, and Lynch has an ''incredibly'' bad track record when it comes to hostages... [[AxCrazy Especially while under stress.]]]]

* EvilBrit: Played straight by Glazer. An influential gang leader in the Shanghai underground and business associate to Lynch, [[spoiler:he betrays the protagonists to Shangsi to win favour and wash his hands of their actions. When he attempts to help them in reconciliation, one of Shangsi's snipers messily [[YourHeadAsplode ventilates his noggin.]]]]

* IncrediblyLamePun: In ''Dog Days'', the final opponents fought in the game are a pair of dogs. Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation mocks this in his review of the game.

* NoEnding: [[spoiler:''Dog Days'''s "end".]]
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Kane and Lynch unintentionally murder the daughter of the most powerful man in China, Shangsi. He decides that in lieu of this the best tactical choice is not to have them arrested, their car bombed or their food poisoned. Instead he decides to send the entire Shanghai police department at them in a bloody vendetta that tears a large part of the city apart, and eventually dispatches fully armed soldiers and attack choppers.]]

* StuffedInTheFridge: [[spoiler:Xiu]]

** Lynch even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this later on [[spoiler:in Shangsi's tower]] by pointing out that two white guys with automatics ''will'' stand out quite a bit in Shanghai. This is mainly because by then they have raised five flavours of hell, and even average civilians would be in on the manhunt.

* WhyDontYaJustShootHim?: Played stunningly straight by Shangsi. [[spoiler:After pursuing the boys all over Shanghai with hundreds of police officers operating under orders to shoot to kill, they suddenly decide to apprehend them rather than kill them, then escort them across the city in a military grade transport helicopter ''without even restraining them''. Which gives them the chance to steal said chopper and directly assault Shangsi's office. WhatAnIdiot.]]

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kane is [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex Shepherd]], [[AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes Captain]] [[MarvelVsCapcom3 America]] and the [[Film/FantasticFour Silver Surfer]], and Lynch is [[SilentHill Dr. Michael Kaufmann.]]

* ContinuityDrift: While the games function well as standalone stories, tying together both games' stories, the multiplayer, and [[spoiler:the story of ''{{VideoGame/Hitman}}:Absolution'']] will turn your brain into a pretzel. For one, Kane and Lynch are spotted a few times in the town of Hope, with Kane's nose broken, probably placing the events of this part during the period where before Kane and Lynch break the various "dead men" out of prison...despite the fact that the events of the first ''Kane & Lynch'' game are supposed to happen some time during ''Hitman: Blood Money''. As if that's not enough, the multiplayer mode of the second game follows the expats and ostensibly takes place during the events of the singleplayer game according to the descriptions of various buyable weapons...including events that take place ''after'' [[spoiler:Kane and Lynch kill the expats]]. The duo are also shown organizing the heists in Shanghai seen in multiplayer in various promotional videos for the Fragile Alliance mode, which they're never shown doing in the singleplayer story. For added fun, the ''Hitman'' games are among the DVD cases shown in a video store after the restaurant shootout, leading to a sort of weird one-way MutuallyFictional. Needless to say, the MST3KMantra is in full effect here.

** The7 are established to be more evil than the protagonists by [[spoiler:betraying Lynch]] and being willing to kill Kane's wife and daughter. Of course Kane is in this predicament in the first place because he betrayed The7, Lynch killed his wife and later ends up [[spoiler:killing Retomoto's daughter]].

There's a movie in the works, with BruceWillis signed on as Kane and ''[[WTHCastingAgency Jamie Foxx]]'' [[RaceLift as Lynch]].

* DoubleCaper: The bank robbery in which [[spoiler: only half the money is obtained]] leads to [[spoiler: the kidnapping of Retomoto's daughter in an attempt to get the other half.]] Might even qualify as a Triple Caper, since [[spoiler: the catastrophic failure of the hostage exchange eventually leads to the raid on Retomoto's office tower, where they finally get the remaining money back...but not for the original reason they needed it.]]

** [[spoiler: Actually, the sequel reveals that Kane's daughter is alive and estranged from him. She is not as dead as you think.]]

** Subverted in ''Dog Days''. [[spoiler: After Hsing murders Xiu in front of him, Lynch simply tackles him to the ground and uses an armlock to asphyxiate him. Lynch does however stare directly into his eyes as he expires.]]

* FromBadToWorse: Kane's life seems to be made of this. [[spoiler: His son shoots himself with his dad's pistol, he goes off to become a mercenary, a job goes bad, his comrades supposedly die and he goes to jail, he's broken out of jail only to be taken to his (not dead) comrades, stuck with a schizophrenic watchdog, and forced to find the money from the failed job to save his family, he gets half the money only to find out that his former associate Retomoto took the other half, he almost negotiates to get it all back until Lynch fucks it up, his wife is killed in front of him, his former friend Carlos betrays him, and depending on what ending you get, he either saves his daughter, leaves everyone else behind, and proves that he's a traitor, or saves the men in the church (one of who dies and one who ditches him) and gets stuck on a boat with a dying Lynch and his (probably) dead daughter.]]
** [[spoiler: Actually, ''Dog Days'' reveals that Kane's daughter is alive and estranged from him. This is probably the one positive part of Kane's life.]]

-->'''[[spoiler: "YOU SHOULD! HAVE LET! ME TALK TO THEM!"]]'''
-->'''Kane''', ''[[spoiler: while beating Mute to death with a shovel]]''
* RaceLift: Lynch, the white schizophrenic, is played by Jamie Foxx, a black actor, in the movie.

** [[spoiler: Are you going to abandon your men or risk your daughter's life to save them? Either way, ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption you]] [[DownerEnding lose]]''.]]

* ShaggyDogStory: Accused by some people of being this. May be justified- after all, [[spoiler: if you didn't take the helicopter and get the Consequence ending, your daughter is shot down right before you escape, when the whole game focused around you saving her.]]

* CrazyPrepared: [[spoiler: Apparently the office workers in Shangsi's skyscraper have rocket launchers quick to hand just in case an unmedicated lunatic in a chopper starts strafing them with a heavy machine gun.]]

* DownerEnding: ''Dog Days'' concludes with [[spoiler: Kane and Lynch hijacking a commercial airliner full of innocent people and using it to escape Shanghai. Kane has failed to make a single dollar over the entire horrible affair to help Jenny, and Lynch has had his new life destroyed by the death of Xiu and the betrayal of his boss Glazer. They are both likely to have become the most wanted men on the continent as a result of the sheer magnitude of their crimes, meaning they might not even be able to land the plane even if they escape China. On top of all this, the two of them are now baby sitting an entire plane of hostages, and Lynch has an ''incredibly'' bad track record when it comes to hostages... [[AxCrazy Especially while under stress.]]]]

* EvilBrit: Played straight by Glazer. An influential gang leader in the Shanghai underground and business associate to Lynch, [[spoiler: he betrays the protagonists to Shangsi to win favour and wash his hands of their actions. When he attempts to help them in reconciliation, one of Shangsi's snipers messily [[YourHeadAsplode ventilates his noggin.]]]]

* FireForgedFriends: By ''Dog Days'', Lynch seems to have warmed up to Kane, and even refers to him as "an old friend", though Kane doesn't show anything more than customary politeness to Lynch initially. [[spoiler: While it'd be a stretch to ever call them ''friends'', Kane is rather sympathetic following Xiu's death and they stick together to get out of Shanghai]].
* FiveStagesOfGrief: [[spoiler: After Xiu's death Lynch goes from incoherent babbling to homicidal rage to overwhelming despair, then resets back to normal. It's possible that he's falling into another schizophrenic episode due to stress, but it's hard to tell.]]

* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: Hsing. When Lynch loses consciousness under torture he has him tossed into the trash, without finishing him off or even binding him. Minutes later an angry naked schizophrenic collapses his trachea.]]

* NoEnding: [[spoiler: ''Dog Days'''s "end" is... polarizing to say the least.]]
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler: Kane and Lynch unintentionally murder the daughter of the most powerful man in China, Shangsi. He decides that in lieu of this the best tactical choice is not to have them arrested, their car bombed or their food poisoned. Instead he decides to send the entire Shanghai police department at them in a bloody vendetta that tears a large part of the city apart, and eventually dispatches fully armed soldiers and attack choppers.]]

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: The deal Kane & Lynch reunited for in the first place falls through, and the majority of the game is the two of them just scrambling around trying to get out of Shanghai, ending the moment they manage to catch a flight (AKA hijack a plane) out of the city.]]

** Lynch even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this later on [[spoiler: in Shangsi's tower]] by pointing out that two white guys with automatics ''will'' stand out quite a bit in Shanghai. This is mainly because by then they have raised five flavours of hell, and even average civilians would be in on the manhunt.

* WhyDontYaJustShootHim?: Played stunningly straight by Shangsi. [[spoiler: After pursuing the boys all over Shanghai with hundreds of police officers operating under orders to shoot to kill, they suddenly decide to apprehend them rather than kill them, then escort them across the city in a military grade transport helicopter ''without even restraining them''. Which gives them the chance to steal said chopper and directly assault Shangsi's office. WhatAnIdiot.]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaneandlynch.jpg
[[caption-width:430:Crossing the DespairEventHorizon since 2007.]]

** Though there are [[ZeroPunctuation some reviewers]] who believe that it worked [[GoneHorriblyRight too well.]]

!!The first game contains the following tropes:

* FunnySchizophrenia: Painfully, painfully averted with Lynch and his insanely depressing life.

!!The second game contains the following tropes:

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kane is [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex Shepherd]] and the [[Film/FantasticFour Silver Surfer]], and Lynch is [[SilentHill Dr. Michael Kaufmann.]]

* InterfaceScrew: From the first game: Whoever controls Lynch in co-op mode gets to see one of his psychotic episodes first-hand. Specifically, it's the part where, in single-player, Lynch opens fire on hostages for no apparent reason. Lynch claims they were attacking him, which you, or whoever is controlling Kane, clearly saw that they weren't. The person playing Lynch will actually see the hostages being rendered as police officers firing guns at them.

* ShallowLoveInterest: One common criticism is that Xiu has roughly 10 lines, exists for little other reason than to provide motivation for Lynch, and [[spoiler:gets StuffedInTheFridge]] just to top it all off.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Kane and Lynch's exploits are reported in newspapers in [[{{Hitman}} Agent 47's]] adventures and the duo make cameo appearances in ''Hitman: Absolution''. Less applicably, Agent 47 can be seen on posters in ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' and copies of ''Hitman'' are found in ''Dog Days''.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Kane and Lynch's exploits are reported in newspapers in [[{{Hitman}} Agent 47's]] adventures and the duo make a cameo appearance in ''Hitman: Absolution''. Less applicably, Agent 47 can be seen on posters in ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' and copies of ''Hitman'' are found in ''Dog Days''.

* ItGotWorse: Kane's life seems to be made of this. [[spoiler: His son shoots himself with his dad's pistol, he goes off to become a mercenary, a job goes bad, his comrades supposedly die and he goes to jail, he's broken out of jail only to be taken to his (not dead) comrades, stuck with a schizophrenic watchdog, and forced to find the money from the failed job to save his family, he gets half the money only to find out that his former associate Retomoto took the other half, he almost negotiates to get it all back until Lynch fucks it up, his wife is killed in front of him, his former friend Carlos betrays him, and depending on what ending you get, he either saves his daughter, leaves everyone else behind, and proves that he's a traitor, or saves the men in the church (one of who dies and one who ditches him) and gets stuck on a boat with a dying Lynch and his (probably) dead daughter.]]
** [[spoiler: Actually, ''Dog Days'' reveals that Kane's daughter is alive and estranged from him. This is probably the one positive part of Kane's life.]]
** Also, according to [[AllThereInTheManual Lynch's interrogation files on the official site]], his life got progressively worse within the span of a few months.
*** Team Io seem to be attempting to make this series the TropeCodifier in this field.

* ShootTheHostage: Unfortunately, Lynch does this in a psychotic episode and makes [[ItGotWorse a bad situation even worse.]]

** Less deadpan when [[ItGotWorse things start going wrong]].

* ExecutiveMeddling: The reason for the game existing- IO wanted to go back to Hitman and make ''Absolution'', scheduled for a 2009/2010 release date, but Eidos decided that Kane and Lynch would be a big franchise and ordered them to make it- some fans say that Dog Days is [[TheyJustDidn'tCare bad on purpose]] because of it.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Kane and Lynch's exploits are reported in newspapers in [[{{Hitman}} Agent 47's]] adventures and the duo make a cameo appearance in ''Hitman: Absolution''. Less applicably, Agent 47 can be seen on posters in ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' and copies of ''Hitman'' are found in ''Dog Days''. The duo appear in cameos in ''Hitman: Absolution".

Not to be confused with ''Sleeping Dogs'', which was formerly ''TrueCrime: Hong Kong''.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Kane and Lynch's exploits are reported in newspapers in [[{{Hitman}} Agent 47's]] adventures and the duo make a cameo appearance in ''Hitman: Absolution''. Less applicably, Agent 47 can be seen on posters in ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' and copies of ''Hitman'' are found in ''Dog Days''. Kane himself appears in a cameo in ''Hitman: Absolution".

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Kane and Lynch's exploits are reported in newspapers in [[{{Hitman}} Agent 47's]] adventures and the duo make a cameo appearance in ''Hitman: Absolution''. Less applicably, Agent 47 can be seen on posters in ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' and copies of ''Hitman'' are found in ''Dog Days''.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: Kane and Lynch's exploits are reported in newspapers in [[{{Hitman}} Agent 47's]] adventures. Less applicably, Agent 47 can be seen on posters in ''Kane & Lynch: Dead Men'' and copies of ''Hitman'' are found in ''Dog Days''.