Nov 6, 2007

Any publication that covers entertainment tends to get a lot of weird promotional stuff in the mail, and GamesRadar is no exception. Today, though, we received what might be the most elaborate promo for a game we've ever seen, coming in the form of two plastic bags filled with ominously sealed evidence envelopes and a letter marked "URGENT PLEASE READ." 

The whole package was put together to accompany a reviewable copy of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - the über-gritty crime shooter about a hard-bitten mercenary forced to work alongside a medicated psychopath - and the amount of effort that went into it deserves special recognition. The full package came with seven sealed, marked evidence envelopes, containing blood-smeared aviator sunglasses; a prescription bottle with a few capsules inside (they were empty, we checked); a boxed cotton swab for lab specimens; a half-burnt airline ticket to LAX from Venezuela; three empty bullet casings; a pair of latex gloves; and a key. And then there was the "URGENT" letter itself, purporting to be from journalist Peter Stack, who warns of a secret criminal society known as The 7 and directs us to his blog at Peterstack7.com.

Also included were two fat dossiers (12 pages for Adam "Kane" Marcus and 17 for Lynch - who apparently has no first name), including mug shots, fingerprints, gruesome crime-scene photos and - in Lynch's case - a recorded interview with the character on CD. Along with a few straight-up promo materials for the game, the package tells us nearly everything we could hope to know about Kane and Lynch - and gave us a very strong urge to go wash our hands after handling it.

Expect to see a full review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men when the game ships next week, at which time we'll find out definitively if the game itself is worth all the fuss. In the meantime, click the Images tab above for more shots of the evidence, as well as of the game itself.