Written by guest reviewer Caballero Oscura
As movie tie-in games go, King Kong is well above the norm. This is primarily due to the involvement of one man, and it's not Peter Jackson. Although Jackson's name is above the title and he was fully involved in the development of the game, the heart of this project is Michel Ansel, director of the criminally overlooked gaming gem Beyond Good and Evil from a couple of years ago. Peter Jackson played through that game while he was wrapping production on Lord of the Rings, and when the time came to develop a game based on Kong he realized Ansel would be a perfect choice for the project.
Beyond Good and Evil was a lush, fairly linear adventure that excelled thanks to a tight, rewarding narrative, superb characterization, stellar graphics, and pitch-perfect controls. It's no surprise that Kong shares a similar format, and it is gratifying to find that it has top-notch production values throughout and even manages to expand on the world of Skull Island through the addition of creatures and environments ultimately dropped from the film.
As the game begins, you play as the character of Jack Driscoll as he first starts to explore Skull Island. Gameplay takes the form of a traditional first-person shooter, and you'll find plenty of weapons around the island to keep your trigger finger happy. Surprisingly, there's no heads-up display of any kind to alert you to health/weapons status, and even more surprisingly it's not missed at all thanks to subtle verbal cues and flashing screen effects. Of course the island is littered with huge, nasty beasts looking for a quick Jack snack, and you'll quickly learn that they're very smart and sometimes can't be killed by your weapons. It's not all run and gun in your quest for survival, as the plot calls on you to solve a few basic puzzles and use strategy to advance. And then there's Kong.
Article comments
1 - Ken Edwards
Peter Jackson also left EA because he was NOT happy with their LOTR games. I read it was more then the games too, he just did not like the way EA handled the situation with Jackson.
On the other hand, Ubisoft was more then willing to work with Jackson. It helped that Beyond Good and Evil was a well designed game.
What is amazing is to see this game on the Xbox 360. If you take a look at the screen shots, the differences between the Xbox and the 360 are staggering.
Also something to note is that the DS title is not the same game, and has been trounced on by the press. But you can't really get away from the fact that there is no New York gameplay in the DS version.