So, Kane and Lynch. Lynch and Kane. Kynch and Lane. Here we have two ‘bad-ass’ (as our American cousins enjoy saying at maximum volume) ex-criminals, on the run and seeking revenge. Developed by the bods who were behind the most-certainly-above-average Hitman series, the game does away with stealth tactics and sees you mowing through countless enemies in the third-person, whilst at the same time being regaled by a rather gritty, criminals-never-win storyline. Sounds fun, right?

Ah. You see, Kane and Lynch is, as a game, rather like the schizophrenic lead characters it portrays. There were, during my playthrough of the single player campaign, at least a dozen times where I sat back and considered the game to be actually rather good. Heck, at times it seemed pretty damn brilliant. Sadly, each time without fail these moments were followed by subsequent moments where you would find my head buried in my hands, the controller chucked at random on the floor and some kind of expletive issuing forth at great volume from my mouth.

Why this should be is best described by the word ‘inconsistent’. Throughout the entirety of the single player mode – all ten hours or so of it – there are great third-person shooting moments, with waves of police and enemy gang members causing you to duck, scramble and rapid-fire between various pieces of cover. It aims itself toward being part Reservoir Dogs and part Gears of War, meaning that you’ll need to use cover and scenery to protect yourself whilst at the same time moving relentlessly through each level gunning down every gangster and policeman you see.

That’s the theory, anyway. If Gears of War showed me anything on a personal level at the end of last year, it was that I could actually get more enjoyment out of third-person shooters than I previously managed, Jet Force Gemini excepted. Epic managed to get the difficulty of Gears just right, so even on trickier difficulty levels things ramped up at a level you were comfortable with. This point is the first of many that Kane and Lynch fails on.

Take for example one of the later levels, which sees you battling through an enemy-soaked town square. At various points you have to take out pockets of resistance, an enemy helicopter, more enemy resistance and then, yes, more enemy resistance. Having battled through to the exit of the square, you are then suddenly ambushed from all sides by a huge amount of troops who seem to spawn out of nowhere. Chances are that you will die, and in doing so will have to replay what was a reasonably tense ten-fifteen minutes of battling again to get to that point.

In fact, there are plenty of moments in Kane and Lynch where it falls into the Splinter Cell syndrome of trial-and-error, meaning that the only real way for you to survive some of the sections is to have attempted and failed a few times before you know which side things are up. The enemy A.I flits between cretinous and superhuman, with some blindly running into your line of fire or being unaware of your presence even if you are mere yards away, whilst on the other hand other enemies manage to spot you sneaking along in the shadows from distances so far away they might as well be in a different country.

It’s not as if the fighting improves the situation either. Throughout the game you’re given rifles, shotguns and pistols to play with, but whatever you choose will prove vastly inaccurate and really quite weak, leaving you with moments where ploughing an enemy with four bullets will still see the little bugger popping bullets back in return. The use of cover is something that occasionally throws up annoyances too – on one occasion I managed to get stuck inside a pillar and left me with no option other than to restart the section I was on, whilst on more than one occasion at other times Kane failed to duck into cover or ‘click’ onto the scenery, leaving me a sitting duck.

It’s all rather messy, and by the time Kane ends up repeatedly slamming a shovel brutally into the head of one of the game’s enemies during a cut scene you are left with the overbearing temptation to do exactly the same to the game disc, or to repeatedly slam your face into your television through sheer frustration. It’s made all the more frustrating by the game giving up some pretty handy sections that are actually really quite enjoyable, leaving you wondering what could have been.

The storyline, voice acting and settings throughout are also a plus point, with both Kane and Lynch’s characters benefiting from some top-class vocals. The plot itself is a little hackneyed, with Kane being busted out of prison by a group of rebels working for a mob he double-crossed so they can get him to fetch the money he owes, but throughout the script is entertaining and in some cases – mostly when Lynch is talking – downright hilarious. In fact, one major disappointment that the story does throw up is that, whilst Kane is developed throughout with various happenings, Lynch himself isn’t given the same detail, and the game really does suffer for it.

Thrown into the mix for those who like playing with a chum is a useful co-op mode, allowing you to take control of one of the main characters each. Doing this also allows you to do bits of the story that you didn’t see from Lynch’s viewpoint, such as taking hostages in the bank or covering Kane with a sniper rifle in Tokyo. Throughout the game you’re allowed to inject downed friends with adrenaline as well, which means you’ll be involved in some hectic do-or-die runs through enemy fire to reach your downed mate in time before he slips off his mortal coil. Sadly, all this isn’t available online for some reason, so big thumbs down on that front too.

Not that this is the only multiplayer fun to be had. In an attempt to bring something a little different to the table, IO Interactive have made their online mode – named Fragile Alliance – into a real case of double-crossing your mates for gain. Each member of your team is on the same side at the start of a raid, with a number of cash deposits guarded by the police. Higher levels of enemy troops tends to mean higher levels of cash, so working together as a team is initially rather rewarding.

However, whatever cash you do get is split equally between all of you, leading to all sorts of interesting shenanigans. Bumping off one of your team mates will deposit their share into yours, giving you more cash and hence a better chance of winning the game should you get back to the getaway vehicle without being assassinated yourself. Thus, coming to an arrangement with a friend will see you benefit no end, although even the most tightly bound of chums will have the odd sideways glance at the other now and again. Add in the fact that downed friends respawn as police and get a cash bonus for eliminating their former chums and you have the recipe for some pretty spicy multiplayer sessions. Best hope you don’t get a hyperactive 13-year old playing, obviously.

It goes some way to making up for the shortcomings in Kane and Lynch’s single player offering, but alas it can’t cover them completely. It’s a game that is effortlessly cool in setting and style, but insurmountably frustrating and inconsistent in execution. The main problem for Kane and Lynch is that it’s been released at a busy time of the year when many more exciting and – bluntly – better games are springing out of the release sack and onto shelves. It’s not hard given that to assume that come this time next year, Kane and Lynch will just be a faded memory of a reasonable title that spent most of its time shooting itself in the foot.