Guns, dinosaurs, flames, cars, a mysterious island, needy crumpet, decent AI, an unfeasibly long title and one really big ape – that’s the list of things that I’d demand were in my dream game, and lo and behold this one has them all – and wonder of wonders it’s a game of the current big-budget King Kong movie, a game that might just be the best movie tie-in I’ve ever played…
Okay, so the cars are a little thin on the ground (Kong gets to throw them around in the final New York City level), but all the other elements are here in abundance, and set you on a non-stop exciting adventure packed with life and death combat, spectacular graphics and sneaky puzzles.
Set in the 1930s, this is the story of a group of explorers and documentary filmmakers led by Carl Denham (played by the inimitable Jack Black) who travel to the mysterious Skull Island (near Sumatra apparently) to investigate the legend of a giant gorilla named Kong. Once they arrive on the island (rather unglamourously boatwrecked) they discover that King Kong is a real creature, living in a massive jungle where creatures from prehistoric times have been protected and hidden for millions of years…
Starting off as a first person adventure/shooter, PJ’s KK has you exploring Skull Island and basically just trying to find a way off it. For this first section of the game you're Jack Driscoll (played by Adrien Brody in the movie), mostly protecting Carl the annoying director, or trying to rejoin your crew mates as you struggle to survive. The other characters look great and a quite well animated, but the lip synching seems to have gone awry, or maybe it was done to match French dialogue. Kong isn’t the only giant inhabiting the island, and various other massive monsters want to chew your arse. You have to protect yourself and kill whatever attacks you with anything that comes to hand, so spears become your best friend as do the rib bones of dead animals. The game is excellent at scaring you and throwing surprises your way, and sometimes it feels just like a scene from the movie. In addition to all the monsters there is human habitation too, but the natives aren’t of the friendly variety and are as luck would have it, femme fatale Ann and yourself get captured by them and she gets offered to Kong on a sacrificial block, from which the massive ape will grab her. You're tied up nearby, and can only watch in awe as the star of the game approaches through the jungle…
The lack of an aiming reticle or health and ammo gauges may not be immediately apparent, and the game doesn’t need them. Aiming might be a little trickier than we're used to in the usual FPS, but you get used to sighting your weapons and judging things for yourself. Jack lets you know when you need to reload or are getting low on ammo and visual and audible sounds let you know when Jack’s hurt and you need to hide and take a rest (which heals all of your health problems without the need of a white box with a red cross on it). Ammo is limited, so protecting yourself isn’t just a matter of shooting monsters or chucking spears forever. PJ’s KK’s cleverest features are the use of fire and the food chain; You can light a spear on fire which will make it a more potent weapon, and use it to burn grass that may kill attacking monsters, or it can also be used to open new paths by burning the jungle’s spiky and impassable brambles.
You do feel safe however, when you take control of Kong - at least for a while. The Kong levels are played from a semi-fixed third-person (ape) view and look awesome at times – fighting natives and various dinosaurs (including T-Rexes that are just about the only thing that cause Kong any serious problem) is always great fun, slapping them aside like toys or grabbing one and using it as a weapon to smack its fellow attackers with. You get a good sense of scale and things like massive water splashes and dust effects make the Kong sections feel as epic to play as they look.
Deadly monsters can be distracted by spearing a giant grub or mosquito-like creature and throwing it elsewhere as bait, the creatures will follow the scent and feed so you may pass, and one creature will feed on another, some will even fight each other and forget all about puny little you – there are several sections where you simply don’t have the weaponry to kill the dinosaurs, so you have to think/lure/distract/run like hell from time to time. You do find plenty of guns of course, but the ammo won’t ever last for long. To help the game along the ammo crates and weapons you find are neatly explained away by a plane circling the island that drops you supplies to help you out (you see it now and then as it dips under the clouds before soaring away), but it's not enough to keep you permanently tooled-up and you never feel very safe.
The Ubisoft development team, based in Montpellier and led by creative director Michel Ancel (the man responsible for Rayman and the brilliant Beyond Good and Evil), and award-winning Montreal studio, worked closely with Peter Jackson and Wingnut Films – and it really shows. The game reflects the visual style, atmosphere and drama of Jackson's epic film extremely well, and the game’s levels, whilst rather linear at times, possess a mixture of first/third person adventuring & combat and some truly brilliant level design with camera work to match - you find yourself playing a game mixture quite unlike any before it.
Graphically this Xbox version is a strange mixture. At times hauntingly beautiful and amazing to look at (the brontosaurus herd is remarkable), other times the frame rate lets the game down and highly detailed but flat textures and washed–out colours make the game look like an old PS2 game. Naomi Watts (Ann) and Jack Black appear via likeness and provide their voice talent for the game and it really helps – the atmospheric sound of Skull Island and the music all add to the experience.
But the real beauty here is that not only does the game capture the essence of the movie but it’s also a damn good game in its own right, and just like the aforementioned Beyond Good and Evil is a game that the makers want you to see the whole of, therefore it’s challenging but never too tough. Divided up into 30+ chapters you’ll find yourself replaying some purely because the were so much fun, so clever or just such a rush to play – a raft section where you get chased by a pair of T-Rexes is quite unforgettable. Yep, this is simply the best movie-tie in game I can remember, and one that I went back and played through again (a rare thing indeed), I think that’s all you need to know.
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