This game is clearly associated with the 2005 movie. How can we tell? The full name of the game is Peter Jackson's King Kong The Official Game of the Movie. Subtle!
The game was made with complete cooperation of Peter Jackson he let the gaming team have access to the CGI and sets from the movie, and the game was made at the exact same time.
The game plays very much like being in a movie, with smooth slides between cinematic scenes and action sections. That being said, the game of course is FAR more action-oriented than any movie would be. In a movie you might fight off a group of creatures for a short period of time. In the game, of course, the hordes come in numerous, almost endless, waves.
This is more than just a beast-slaying game, though. There's a bit of thought involved. For example, if a gigantic dinosaur comes running at you, you don't have to try to slay it in straight-out combat. You can instead kill another random creature that is nearby, and the dinosaur will decide to go munch on it.
There are a few levels that you can play as Kong, but really for most of the game you are playing as a normal human in a band of friends. The various friends around you can either be helpful or REALLY annoying, depending on their mood. There are many times that I was tempted to snipe at my "friends" instead of the Giant Centipede or whatever the monster of the moment was.
The graphics are of course awesome. From the ocean waves to the murky dark caves, from the detail on the faces to the detail on the monsters' teeth, you get immersed in a high quality version of the movie. Again, this is to be expected, as the game designers got direct feeds of the movie graphic files.
The sound is also well done, with the sounds and feel of the movie. You get an immersive experience, drawing around you what the movie is all about. Danger, gloom, crashing waves and thunderous primal screams.
I have to admit that I found some of the puzzles a little tedious. Walking around and around a post to open a door was silly enough the first time, but for me to have to do it repeatedly was a bit much. Also, there were a few times that monsters seemed to get "stuck" in an area and I had to in essence go and prod them a few times for them to come out and properly attack me. I suppose not all monsters are highly intelligent :)
The game is definitely one that targets adrenaline-rush types. The sounds are loud and pounding from bellows to cries of panic to screeches. The video is always jumping between dark caves to dark stairs to fiery bushes and things swooping down at you. You're kept off balance and rarely get a moment to breathe.
I did like how the game is set up like a movie. There aren't on screen health bars, ammo counters or anything else. You hit a button to hear a verbal check of your ammo. You talk to your friends to find out how they are. When you get hurt, your screen starts to go red and fuzzy, and you even hear "angels sing".
If I'm going to have any complaint about this game, it's really a personal one I like games with a balance between hyped-up tension and more calm puzzle/investigating. There was really no break here, it was just non-stop thundering noise and attacking monsters. I'm sure most people thrive on that :)
Well recommended for those seeking a high action fix!
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As has been discussed since the game King Kong was announced, Peter Jackson approached Michel Ancel to create this game due to his work on one of my favorite games, Beyond Good and Evil. When I heard the Michel Ancel was working on a high profile game, I jumped at the chance to play it. This was one of the first Xbox 360 games I purchased and the second I beat.
One thing Michel Ancel is extraodinarily good at doing is creating a living world, populated with rich characters and terrific scenery. He proved this in Beyond Good and Evil, giving various different gameplay functions to mess around with, as well as terrific characters that could bring a smile to your face. King Kong continues this and gives us a fully realized Skull Island as our playground. Ancel took away any hint of an interface. There's no life, ammo, or aiming device. Its all natural and you have to rely on vocal cues about the ammo, realize that one or two bites from a T-rex is going to kill you and estimate on how you throw your spears.
At first I was worried about the lack of aiming target, but the game compensates for this by being pretty open. Hitting a target really isn't too difficult as long as you are aiming in the general area. Playing in first person really helps get you in the shoes of the protagonist, and hearing the terrifying roar of a T-rex (or V-Rex as they are called in this game, to which I say, WTF?) behind you and knowing that he's there but knowing also that if you stop to look you will be dead really helps sink in this feeling. Its a survival of the fittest and you had better keep your wits about you.
Graphically, the game is beautiful. The textures in the land really help present an island teeming with life. The enemies are done pretty well over-all. One of the problems with the current form of normal mapping is that sometimes things can look shiny or slimy. This is duly noticeable in the hair of people. Naomi Watt's character's hair looks shiny and slimy instead of natural. The art direction is stunning too which helps cover-up any graphical short-comings there maybe.
The audio is stunning as well. The voice actors from the movie reprise their roles and unlike some movie video games, it doesn't sound like the actors are just talking into a mic to get paid. The screams, the bit of dialogue there is, it all fits into a nice package surrounded by terrific dinosaur sounds, ambient music and a terrific score. The only part of the audio that became annoying to me was when you are seriously injured. Hearing the angels choir became annoying after awhile.
Playing as Kong is a delight, mostly. Instead of making it difficult, the game-developers wanted to give players a sense of strength and reckless abandon that you don't have playing as a human. And they succeed. Kong is vicious, you don't have to worry about timing anything or about hiding. Charge in there, destroy things, climb on walls, jump from ledge to ledge, break T-Rex's mouths open. Its all there, easy to pull off, and makes playing as Kong a joy instead of a chore.
Once you get off Skull Island is where the game lost a little. It felt as if New York wasn't as developed as it could be and it was over in about 10 minutes. Pretty much a let down but I'm sure that it was done this way to keep any surprises from the movie leaking out.
Now, as great as this game is, there is a major problem. Its damn short. It took me about 5-6 hours to play it. Since its an incredibly linear video game with no room for exploration, you pretty much have no choice but play it quickly. It is a visually stimulating and exciting journey, but a very quick one. In fact, I don't know if I can justify the $60 price tag. Its a game that begs to be played and you can get it down in one weekend without realizing it.
Michel Ancel succeeds in creating another exciting game. If it weren't in such a hurry to get out before the movie, maybe it could have been a bit more flushed out. As it is, the game is a terrific way to spend 6 hours of your life. But, as to the $60 out of your pocket, that's debatable.
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I will be honest, I was not a huge fan of the movie and wasn't initially interested in this game. I purchased it recently because I had read that it was an easy way to get 1000 achievement points (just play it all the way through), and because it had considerably dropped in price to less than $20.
So, with low expectations, I have to say that I was initially pleasantly surprised. After some clips from the opening of the movie, the game starts off with you playing through the scene of them landing on Skull Island. The voice acting is great, as I keep hearing Jack Black making all his silly comments about capturing footage of everything as we move through the island. The graphics are good, as the character models look very much like their real-life counterparts and the island is rendered in pretty full detail. However, I would not put these graphics anywhere near Gears or some of the newer 360 games, but they are decent enough to hold your interest in the game. The game mechanics are pretty easy to pick up, you either have a gun or you can pick up a spear. Soon you learn to catch the spear on fire and use it to burn patches of thicket in order to clear the way or fend off creatures. There are also some other puzzle-like aspects, such as stabbing bait and throwing it to distract creatures, or needing to find the handles for opening doors.
From there, though, I found the game getting rather repetitive and old quickly. You run through a series of areas fighting and evading various creatures and finding a way out, only to get to more areas where you have to fight and evade creatures.
Finally, after what seemed like an exhaustive amount of play, I got to a stage where I was able to play as Kong. I felt the Kong sequence seemed like it had been tacked on as a gimmick rather than an integral part of the game. First of all, it switches to third-person while you're Kong, so the gameplay is totally different. Secondly, it just took me through a series of climbing, jumping, and swinging sequences, which were all accomplished by pressing 1 button to do everything, so it felt more like a glorified cutscene than actual gameplay. Lastly, I had to fight a flying boss, but due to the third person camera angle I could never face the right direction or time it right to punch him each time he swooped in at me. After multiple attempts I finally beat the boss, but ended up feeling more frustrated than thrilled by it.
The next level has me playing as Jack again, and I frankly haven't summoned up the motivation to play any further yet. I understand there are more Kong scenes coming up where you fight dinosaurs, so that might be fun, but the idea of having to play through another couple of hours as Jack doesn't seem worth it to me.
I recently acquired a few other new games for my 360, and I just find it hard to want to go back to this one to finish it. Perhaps there will be some time when I'll decide to finish this game, but for now I have shelved it and don't have a strong desire to keep playing.
All in all, I would say this game is decent for the price and can provide a couple of hours of entertainment, but don't expect to get hooked on it because you will likely lose interest fairly quickly.
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King Kong game wasn't really a great game or a terrible one, hence the 3 star rating. The most impressive aspect of this game was how gorgeous gaming enviroment was. The rocks and grass were almost touchable through the tv screen! The only draw back about the graphics were how the actual humans were rendered. They were not was "realistic" as the enviroment that the game was.
Comparing human graphics between two games, the humans in Condemned: Criminal Origins were more realistic, smoother, and less choppy. The game play wasn't too bad, and the game wasn't that hard to complete. Sometimes, things would get a bit repetitive but that's how the game goes. Playing the game in 5.1 surround sound is a plus, you can hear the rain from all directions and when a character talks to you'll hear their voice coming out from a particular speaker from their direction.
Overall, the game is not worth the high price of $59.99. However, if you're bored it is a game to take a shot at renting for a couple days or so. Long lives the king....
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Most of you who are looking to play this game are looking for the super easy 1000 Xbox live gamer points.. That's what brought me to this game too, however I was not expecting a mildly entertaining game. I was pleased to find this game was okay to play... Decent graphics, amazing sound, great voice acting. It's a nice little time filler. Give it a try!
