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

"King of the amazon Jungle, and King of the concrete jungle"

When someone says the words, “King Kong,” many people often think of a seventy year old movie that was remade this year by Peter Jackson. Most people don't think of a video game. When I first heard of this game, I was slightly skeptical, seeing as most movie to game translations don't turn out very well. Today, I am pleasantly surprised. King Kong serves for a great deal of fun, but it ends too soon. For King Kong, Ubisoft approached this game differently than other first person games. This game is not only a first person shooter, but a first person action game, much like Morrowind in some ways.

King Kong takes place in the thirties. Carl Denham, director extraordinaire, is looking for a leading actress to star in his movie that is about to be shut down by the studio if he doesn't finish it. Already on the cast is the main character of the game and movie, Jack who is played and voiced by Adrien Brody. Joining the cast is Ann Darrow who, when seen by Denham, is instantly identified as the perfect woman for the part. They proceed to Skull Island, which is where the events of the game unfold, until players are forced back into a brief foray in Manhattan.

Players first take control of Jack as he is being lowered off the ship in a rowboat that will take him to Skull Island. Jack is able to wield several types of guns, such as pistols, sniper rifles, shotguns, and an automatic weapon. Controls are fairly easy, and are the basic right trigger to shoot, left trigger to aim weapon mechanics. What makes this game so different is that it rewards players for being smart. Players can't charge through the game shooting everything that moves. Yes, that is a part of this game, and yes, it is fun, but ammo is extremely scarce and isn't always the most efficient, or intelligent, way to kill an enemy. Sometimes, instead of shooting until the enemy dies, it's best to throw spears to distract, or spear a grub worm or dragonfly and use that as bait. Players who take the time to think about their course of action are rewarded by the game by more points, and in the long run, more ammo for the more important parts. After you complete King Kong, which is a fairly short run, only about 6 or 7 hours, players can go back and replay any level for a grade. The way players use bait and spears instead of guns contribute to the way the game calculates the grades. Deaths, injuries, NPC injuries, each spear used, and each bullet used is taken away from your final grade, while using bait, and killing enemies adds to your final grade. The final thing that is unique about King Kong is its absence of health and all other items normally seen on a first person HUD. Players have to gauge how much health Jack has by a flashing red screen. If the player's HUD is flashing, then it's time to step away from the action and let yourself heal. The other thing that King Kong doesn't have is targeting reticules. You can pretty much shoot in the general direction of an enemy, and you are guaranteed to hit it.

Graphically, King Kong is astounding. Ubisoft uses the 360 hardware to seamlessly blend moss into stone, and stone into sculpture. Grass and moss textures can be disconcerting at times, however, as you try to regain your bearings during a fight or after a death and you don't know where you're getting attacked from, or where you're supposed to be going. Character models are very strong when seen from different lighting perspectives, but the actual models themselves could have been better on one or two of the characters, especially Denham. The lighting effects, as I mentioned earlier, are very well done and are some of the most impressive lighting effects I've seen in the launch lineup of the 360, with one or two exceptions. A lot of the enemies in this game are generic looking, except for the V-Rex, which clearly had a lot of work put into it to make it look terrifyingly realistic. King Kong on the Xbox 360 has a major graphical advantage over the other 4 platforms that it currently resides on, boasting better lighting, textures, and a less of a framerate issues than the other consoles.

King Kong for the Xbox 360 is a great game with outstanding visuals that put most games to shame. The main negative I can think of, in King Kong, is the replay value, personally, I wasn't motivated to go back and play some of the more difficult levels, but the level of difficulty is what could keep players coming back for more. Achievements in this game are very straightforward and linear, and those could have used some improvements, such as some achievements for “A” rankings. If Ubisoft keeps the level of their next generation games at this standard and better, than we truly are heading into the next generation of console gaming.

This review was also submitted at IGN under my name "ITripGrandpas," just saying this so people don't think I cheated.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/06