Played on:
Xbox 360
When it comes to games based on movies, everyone's a skeptic nowadays. Even casual gamers now know to steer clear of most of these games, but King Kong is not one to be skipped. While this game won't last you forever, nor is its action just totally thrilling all the way through, there's plenty to be enjoyed in this rare decent movie-licensed experience.
If you've seen nothing about this game yet, then you might be surprised that you spend most of the time playing as screenwriter Jack Driscoll (acted by Adrien Brody in the movie). Yes, for a large majority of this game it's basically a sort of survival-horror first person shooter. It's not exactly creepy like horror games, but you will have limited ammo, must complete some simple puzzles, and will be fighting some large nasty creatures.
You'll also play as Kong in a third-person view, and for the most part these sequences are easier and a whole lot of fun to boot. You'll run, swing, and climb as Kong, smashing through stuff and making it look hilariously easy (even though you only have to basically press a single button with the laziest timing ever to progress). Fighting is also pretty easy as Kong, as you'll have only a few basic moves to work with. But finishing off a T-Rex with a snap of the neck is extremely satisfying, and these moments are easily some of the game's best.
Sounds pretty decent, right? Well, at the start of the game, you'll spend a lot of time as Jack killing plenty of large, mutated crabs, scorpions, and millipedes. Then you'll get some gargoyle-style bats, and only then does the game start introducing the dinosaurs. Honestly, I hate games that progress like this, and usually find them incredibly annoying at the start - Kong was no exception. This is one of those games that generally gets better as you go, although the finale is a pretty big let-down. More on that later.
Skull Island is a huge land way out in the Pacific with apparently enough food going around to sustain the lives of dozens of massive Brontosaurus Rexes. Amongst the many ruins and crudely-made doors there are also some savage humans on the island, which you'll never directly have to kill as Jack (but Kong most certainly will). Your fights generally revolve around some mixture of land, air, and sea creatures which sometimes will fight each other.
As you traverse Skull Island, you'll have a few companions with you, although for the most part you'll only be partnering up with one at a time. There's Ann, Kong's love, Hayes, the voice of reason, and Carl, the director who dragged everyone out to film a movie on Skull Island in the first place. There's also a teenager named Jimmy you'll travel with - all of these characters are voiced by their original movie actors. These characters generally are helpful, and while it is game over if one of your companions dies, it's not that they do anything particularly stupid in order to get killed. They fight as fiercely as you do (although Hayes is the only one of your companions that's capable of firing a gun), but you'll still find yourself taking the brunt of the damage and dishing out the most pain yourself.
There are a few puzzle elements in this game, mostly involving finding handles that allow you to turn large pillars that open up doors. It sounds stupid, but most of these light puzzle parts mix things up and pace the game to where you're not constantly fighting for your life.
This is a first person shooter, so of course there are several weapons to choose from. Jack can only carry one firearm at a time, and the game explains away the proliferation of modern guns on an ancient island by way of the plane that has come with the ship you showed up on - the plane drops supplies with parachutes. You'll get your choice between a pistol, shotgun, Tommy gun, and a sniper rifle, but you won't exactly have a lot of choices at any one time since the supplies are somewhat few and far between.
Ammo runs dry on your firearms quickly, so you'll find it's best to hold off on blowing your ammo until you've come to a tough spot. Instead, you'll spend quite a bit of your time fighting with the various spears and bones around the island. You can stab with them or throw them, and the game generally seems to prefer you throw them, as you'll do far more damage with a thrown spear. You'll also need to control the arc of your throw, which makes fighting with spears a non-trivial activity.
Combine this with the fact that spears are in limited supply as well on the island, and you can see where ammo management really becomes important. Luckily, for the creatures that take multiple spear-chucks, you can run up and recover it right out of the creature's body and throw it again immediately. There are also piles of bones scattered throughout Skull Island, and these supply a never-ending stream of bones.
Few first person shooters have ever tried to operate completely without an on-screen display of any kind, but King Kong actually does it very well. Tap the B button and Jack will yell out the number of bullets or magazines he has left. Want to know how much health you have? Well, you only have three states in this game - healthy, injured, and dead. If you get hit by a monster once, that puts you in danger territory, and the screen flashes red. Manage to not get hit for about another five seconds, and you'll be fine, but if you get hit again inside that time, you're done. Kong himself also works the same way, except that it usually takes a few good hits to injure him, and a few more to kill him.
Since this is a remake of a movie made over 70 years ago, it's a little silly to not talk about the ending that Peter Jackson (director of the film and contributor to the game) has already said he wouldn't screw with - Kong is captured by the humans, taken to New York city to be exhibited for money, and manages to break free. As Kong, you'll tear through NYC, smashing and throwing cars at the cops and military that are trying to stop you. Ok, I'll leave it at that as far as plot goes. I just wanted to say that while I was really looking forward to fighting in NYC, it's actually really boring and confusing walking around the streets as Kong. It's probably the least fun part of the game, sadly.
Kong is available on many platforms, but the difference in visuals from those versions to this is huge. This game looks wonderful on the 360, as the very organic environments and meticulously-detailed ruins all look totally natural. Skull Island looks great and while you'll generally find a green theme throughout, the wonderful skies and even ambient sound effects really give the game an excellent atmosphere. Even the PC version's graphics pale in comparison to the copious use (yet never over-use) of normal maps, bump maps, and other fancy technologies to give the game its highly impressive visuals. Of all the Xbox 360 launch titles that also have current-gen versions, King Kong easily shows the most improvement over its current-gen brothers when compared to the rest (like Gun, Tony Hawk, Need for Speed, and EA's sports games).
With solid production values, the original voice actors, cool spear-chucking action, and a creepy, unique atmosphere, Kong has a lot going for it. I'd say that the biggest disappointments would be that combat in the beginning is annoying, you play as Kong himself far too rarely, and the finale in New York City is downright boring. Replay value is almost nonexistent and the game will only take you between six and eight hours to complete, so only those with plenty of cash to spare should consider buying it; most will be perfectly happy with a rental. Still, I can't blame King Kong for its gameplay length, as I still found it to be a satisfying experience. It's the perfect rental game, and the really dedicated fans will surely enjoy the purchase.
