A hitman walking through a nightclub filled with people...stop me if you've heard this before. Yeah, Collateral, that Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx movie that came out a couple of years ago, had a scene like this. But it also seems to be a pretty good video game scenario if you can do it just right. You've got a crowd of hungry ravers who can't help but dance to the deep techno blaring in the background. There are enemies lurking within it who have been put on high alert of your presence at the club, and are on the lookout. They're doing a great job of hiding from you, but, by the same token, you're also hiding from them as you work your way to a staircase...

This was just one of the scenes we checked out with IO Interactive's game-in-progress Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, their follow-up to this year's successful HItman: Blood Money. This game, however, takes a much more different path than the one of Agent 47. You're still playing shady characters but the gameplay seems to be much more realized this time around, and the ability to have a friend join in on the fun definitely pushes the gameplay to a whole new level.

One important item that's hard to overlook with Kane and Lynch is backstory, and the game has it in droves. It tells the tale of these two hardened anti-heroes, a mercenary and a psychopath, as they cross paths and find themselves in an unlikely partnership. Here's the breakdown on both men...

Kane is a man torn apart by the death of his son, who accidentally shot himself with his father's gun. Unable to face his wife or daughter, he takes off to South America and joins a mercenary group called The 7. During a routine mission, it appears that the entire team has been wiped out, and Kane heads on-the-run with a cache of diamonds, only to be caught by law enforcement and later sentenced to death. He doesn't have it easy.

Lynch doesn't have it any better. He has himself an extreme case of schizophrenia that's driving him mad, and has a whole shelf-full of medication to keep him from going completely insane. He thinks that solves the problem, but he keeps suffering blackouts. During his latest one, he wakes up and finds his wife murdered. Unsure as to whether he did it or not, he tries to seek out the truth, but is also caught up by law enforcement, arrested, and given a death sentence.

Kane and Lynch manage to cross paths on a bus transporting them to their final holding cells. But during their transfer, the former members of The 7 resurface and shanghai the bus, killing the driver and kidnapping Kane. Lynch, being a freelance assassin of sorts, is hired by The 7 to work with Kane to get back their diamonds. To make sure that their boy is kept in line, The 7 have kidnapped Kane's remaining family members to assure that he doesn't go running off. So Kane and Lynch find themselves in an uneasy partnership that will pit them against several rogue mercenary groups, as well as the law enforcement that's so vehemently hunting them down.

Probably the biggest factor that many will consider for Kane and Lynch is its co-op play. The levels themselves can either be played out with a single player or worked through cooperatively with a second player. The results of this gameplay can change depending on the performance of the duo, so completing tasks and taking out key targets is essential for forward movement. Both men have different tactics for their survival. Kane, already having most of his mind lost over the death of his son, has brutality on his side, meaning a more aggressive approach. Lynch is calmer, cool, and collected, even if he is on a mountain of medication.

The graphics for the game look amazing thus far, as it appears to be an upgraded engine for the previous IO release Freedom Fighters. Details, however, seem to be pouring out more here. In the nightclub level I talked about above, it's wild to see a crowd of hundreds dance differently to the beat, like a real rave is supposed to look. But that's child's play compared to the Tokyo level. In this level, you have a team of mercs that start on the top of a building, dressed as window washers. They then start to descend down the side of this building, with Tokyo's entire skyline in the distance. As their descent continues, people will actually walk up from inside the building to glance over and see what's going on. Finally, when you get your targeted floor, you burst through the windows, and a heavy gunfight begins. The detail here is staggering, even though the game isn't near complete yet.

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