James Lynch is settling down - or at least, settling as much as possible for a medicated psychopath who still dabbles in Shanghai's murky underworld. He's got a girlfriend, his condition is under control, and he wants to retire from the crime business after one last job that will set him up for life. His British boss wants some guns smuggled to Africa, so Lynch calls in partner Kane to help, promising to split the deal. It'll be easy, he assures him. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. After a run-in with an informant for a rival gang and accidentally killing the daughter of Shanghai's most powerful crook, the duo are the city's most wanted men. It's nothing but non-stop gunfire after that as Lynch tries to seal the deal while fighting for his life.

This game's biggest success lies in its delivery of gritty atmosphere and brutality. Dog Days aims to create the feeling of a haphazard documentary, as if you're experiencing the action through the lens of a handheld video camera. When Lynch runs, the camera runs with him, shaking with each step, and when he's hurt, the lens becomes spattered with his blood. Wind crackles in the audio feed; some faces become pixelated after receiving a headshot; and even the loading screens "buffer". It all feels a bit like Cloverfield meets Collateral. This lo-fi aesthetic works in the game's favour graphically, as the textures and animations are nothing special; it seems to make sense in the context of a murky, pirate videotape. The maps on offer make good use of the grimy streets of Shanghai, taking the player into subterranean sweatshops, chaotic markets, and city rooftops, sometimes all in the one stage.

What makes Dog Days a truly immersive experience, though, is the sound design. The voice acting is superb (if you can get past the cliched dialogue) and during gunfights Lynch and Kane yell expletives and exclamations across the fray, adding to the already intense gunfire and heightening the sense of urgency that pervades the game. It's hard not to swear, bite your lip and teeter on the edge of your seat as you negotiate your way through this title.

Unfortunately, for these stylistic positives, Dog Days has some severe gameplay drawbacks. Third person shooters are often plagued by control issues, and the Kane And Lynch series is a textbook example of this. The gameplay revolves around duck 'n cover gunfights where Lynch and Kane must take out vast numbers of adversaries whilst hiding behind walls, cars and benches. Standing out in the open is a terrible idea, which you'll quickly realise after being pumped full of lead from every angle. While taking cover has been made easier than in the first game (a tap of the A button now gets you under), the system still feels clumsy, requiring you to be facing the cover in question - and even once you're down there, certain obstacles can be shredded away by gunfire, leaving you vulnerable. Lynch's huge hulking form also seems to stick out a little too far most of the time, providing ample cannon fodder for your annoyingly accurate enemies. These guys can hit you from a mile away, which would be alright if you could do the same - but none of Lynch's weapons seem able to hit much at a distance of more than a few metres, especially automatics. On top of that, your enemies can take a serious beating, and only a headshot is guaranteed to drop them efficiently - a real necessity as your ammo is usually running thin. This means you must constantly advance under heavy fire, taking bullet after bullet, until you get close enough to blast with confidence. It's a laborious process that wears pretty thin after the first few stages.

Occasionally there's an explosive object you can hurl into the fray, but the results are rarely satisfying enough to make up for the grueling gunfighting. One could argue that the inaccurate guns and constant pummeling is representative of a real shootout, and in some ways this is true - but when coupled with the clumsy controls, it's more frustrating than challenging.

Dog Days suffers from repetitive gameplay - once you've established a rhythm of ducking into cover, shooting, moving forward, ducking, shooting, etc - that's more or less it for the duration of the story mode. Aside from one sequence where Lynch controls a Helicopter, it's a relentlessly same-y adventure. While difficult, the story mode is also quite short, and can easily be finished in a few solid hours of play.

Luckily, Dog Days returns the online multiplayer format from the first installment, a team heist game called Fragile Alliance, as well as two new variations - Cops and Robbers and Undercover Cop. In Fragile Alliance, you team up with other players to grab loot and escape quick smart - the catch being that any player can turn on a team member and claim more cash, but thus risking the wrath of their fellow players and AI enemies alike. The constant threat of betrayal and lure of greed makes this mode inherently playable. Cops and Robbers splits players into two teams, with one side trying to pull off the heist and the cops putting a stop to it, while Undercover Cop randomly assigns one player as a spanner in the works as the job goes down. The main issue with these modes is that they have ridiculously short time constraints - five minutes is the longest - meaning there's little time to strategise, or fight your way through the sharpshooting AI unassisted. Like the story mode, the multiplayer portion of the game is engaging, but there's just one too many flaws keeping it from greatness.

Kane And Lynch 2: Dog Days tries very hard to deliver an intense, bleak and shocking shooter, and on most counts succeeds - but what it forgets is that no amount of obscenities, atmospherics and nihilistic violence will make up for a fundamentally flawed control system. This makes it hard to recommend the game, despite its occasional moments of nail-biting brilliance.

5/10