After the fiasco that was Gerstmann-gate, I can't say that I bothered trying the original Kane & Lynch. This year at E3, I did get some hands-on time with the sequel's Cops and Robbers multiplayer mode.

The basis for the mode was fairly simple, half of the players in the game are cops while the other half are robbers. Assisting the cops are NPCs, and winning the mode as a robber requires players to reach a particular item being guarded by the cops. Along the way, robbers can go rogue and kill their teammates to earn more money, the gauge of success in the mode.

The concept of the mode was enough to make it interesting, and the solid controls and third person shooting kept it so. Throughout my single match, there were a couple of things that rubbed me the wrong way.

For one, from a distance, the game looked great. Up close, it had a frustrating appearance. Over the screen was a filter that gave the game a security camera-like look. It was distracting and completely unnecessary. I hope options exist to turn this effect off, if not, for certain players this could be a major frustration.

The other complaint is slightly nit-picky. While shooting semi-automatic and fully-automatic weapons, the gun continuously aims upward. While the effect is meant to be realistic, in practice it's just frustrating. This wasn't a huge negative, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

I'm not certain how the rest of the game will play out, but this massive multiplayer mode was quite enjoyable and I look forward to playing it again in the full retail release.