Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie

"Atmospheric, gripping and heart-throbbing, all the way through"

Peter Jackson's King Kong the official game of the movie is a game that has an interesting genre comprising 1st person survival rather than action and 3rd person ape battles. Both sections of the game are fun, although the ally system and cool features in the first person levels ie. Food chain feature make these parts a little more special. I will split this review into 4 sections from now on:

Story
Gameplay
Graphics
Sound

The review will finish with a final conclusion paragraph.

1. Story 8/10 story doesnt get through aswell as the movie

King Kong has always had a brilliant enticing story enraptured within the movie. Unlike other movie-based games recently this one is much better and stays much more true to the movie. Carl wants to shoot a new movie for ££$$ and they sail of to skull island thought to be only a myth. Some truly catastrophic things happen on the island, they run into dangerous creatures, blonde-thirsty natives (geddit) and King Kong; the last standing in his species: Giant apes.
Unfortunately the story isn't as emotional or gripping in the game, but still it gets the story through to even the people that haven't seen the movie (me being one of them).

2. Gameplay 8/10 Feels simplistic often, but is always heart throbbing, clever and entertaining

The gameplay isn't done too well, it feels simplistic a lot of the time especially with Kong; he has a few attacks and they seem to be quite unresponsive. This is the same for Jack, although slightly improved, he just doesn't have enough things to do. He can walk, throw spears and shoot one of 4 firearms. Some may argue that this adds to the feeling of "survival" and when you get later on in the game yes, your small arsenal has a big effect on the games atmosphere, but generally you don't feel as satisfied as you could because there is no shotgun on you to shove in the raptors face, and no trigger to pull to watch him howl in pain. There are a couple of redeeming features to the gameplay, most of all, the AI is brilliant, and the monsters aren't just clever, they are outstandingly vicious and violent towards you and can be distracted by a corpse of another animal. Which leads onto my other point; the food chain. The system feels good and is another way to show off the great AI. Find a grub such as a huge maggot on the ground, kill it and chuck it into the approaching monsters, it's fun to watch all of them go for it and see who is the fist to get there and eat their treat. This allows you to pass through an area while not being number 1 priority for the monsters.

3. Graphics 9/10 While not pretty, there is lots to see, great looking monsters and some gorgeous effects.

The graphics aren't great but even from the first level there will be something captivating for you. The effects and great detail on everything makes you want to see everything and what it has got. Character models are mediocre but monsters are well designed. The thing that really adds some terror into the game is the action when large monsters roar at you like a V-Rex. While hearing a great roar you will see blurred wind effect rushing past you, hinting at the power of the beasts, it just makes you want to run as far as possible. The lighting is also something that is really inviting in this game you will see sun rays breaking into caves through holes and fantastic effects on the humans from torch light. The graphics of objects may be a tad bit rugged but the lighting, monster modeling and dazzling effects will change your opinion.

4. Sound 10/10 absolutely perfect sounding game "Section contains minor spoilers to the movie"

The sound is awesome and must have taken a lot of work to get right. The roars from creatures are terrifying, the effects i.e. fire crackling are all in there and the voice acting is some of the best I have heard in a video game. The thing that really makes the game sound truly unique is the sound when you are disoriented. The screen develops a red bloody tint; your current surroundings can be heard as if they are echoes in the distance over the haunting tune of a soft humming from a female and the increasingly faster heartbeat sound. This really adds a layer to the game. Whe playing the last level when Kong is up the empire state building, you know that he is going to die, you found out from the movie. The game sounds like it should with airplanes hovering around and kongs fist breaking the soft propeller noise. As you get to the last minute of your control over Kong before game completion, the sound wears away the humming tune begins to haunt you, you know Kongs death is near, you play to the sound of the humming until silently a last emotive cutscene shows Kong slowly fall to the New York streets below. This part really feels awesomely emotional and makes for a fantastic ending.

Last Word 35/40

Although it won't last you long, King Kong is a fantastic game with very few flaws. I will leave you with a typical heart-throbbing moment from the game to help you indulge in it one last time.

"You are alone, wading through a dark, deep undergrowth. You look around to check you are alone but you are distracted by a soft vibration on your playstation controller. You feel weary as the vibrations get louder and closer, they are pulsating fear and tension through every last part of your body. A soft roar can be heard, a collapse of rocks in the distance... Somethings coming ......"

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06