‘Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days’ creative but short

Lynch wakes up in an alley drenched by rain. His naked body is covered in cuts. Not just cuts. Slices. He was sliced, neck to feet, then knocked out and left for dead, nude and bleeding on filthy pavement.

But he wakes up, and his first thought is: I gotta save Kane. He finds his buddy in a nearby building, also naked and sliced. Lynch saves him from death by twisting a bad guy's neck. Then together, they go looking for clothes and guns in the drizzly streets of Shanghai, between glittery neon storefronts and boxy white cars.

Do not pity these anti-heroes of "Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days." Kane and Lynch are murderous thugs. Their drug deal went awry. A well-connected victim got shot. Now Kane and Lynch are on the run from justice -- so they kill cops, mobsters and passers-by who get in their way, in restaurant kitchens, airport hangars and shopping malls.

You play most of this sequel as Lynch, a beefy bald-on-top guy. "Dog Days" is a pretty good shooter. I definitely dig its thrust, as it's presented with a real story (of two scumbags), gritty dialogue (although I can't hear it, sometimes) and a memorable cinematography and editing style (a TV procedural type of mise-en-scene).

That is, the camera angle is quite shaky. Imagine if you actually ran through the streets of Shanghai with a documentary cameraman running behind you. This game gives us that camera's point of view.

This is a good "cover" shooting game. You're constantly hiding behind cover (walls and refrigerators and such), while shooting at baddies.

That leads me to two complaints: A) the guns aren't greatly effective, so you might shoot someone three times in the head without killing them; and B) these bad guys are loyal morons, because even while bullets are entering their bodies, they insist on sprinting toward you.

Maybe the reason those dumb henchmen keep rushing at you (causing their own certain death) is because they're angry. And it's understandable they're angry -- since you shot them three or four times in the face already! Are they dead? No. They're incensed!

Most of us fans of shooting games can overlook such a flaw, since it's not uncommon in shooters. The real concern here is "Dog Days" is a short offline adventure. I finished in six hours or so.

You can get bonus replay value out of the online multiplayer and cooperative modes. But I don't love the competitive multiplayer. You portray cops and robbers in heist situations. In one mode, if you get shot as a robber while trying to grab loot, you get reborn as a cop. What?

As for those of you who don't want to see full frontal men, know that when Kane and Lynch are nude during that bloody scene I described, the screen pixelates their privates, if not their rears, not that Kane and Lynch mind their own onscreen nudity. They're too busy killing cops to care.

("Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days" by Eidos retails for $60 for PS 3 and Xbox 360 -- Plays fun but short. Looks cool. Moderately challenging. Rated "M" for blood, drug reference, intense violence, partial nudity and strong language. Three stars out of four.)

Contact Doug Elfman at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.