Peter Jackson's King Kong: the Official Game of the Movie
by Ubisoft
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List Price: Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of Peter Jackson's King Kong: the Official Game of the Movie
Customer Review: Kong Fun Immersion, for High End Computers
Summary: 5 Stars
***NOT FOR BUDGET COMPUTERS***
System Requirements:
128 MB Video Card
1 Gig of RAM
2 GHz Processor
4.1 Sound Card
I have listed the system requirements for this game based on experience, even though they are different from the requirements listed on the retail box. Before I could play, I had to upgrade my video card and RAM so that they exceeded the recommended requirements. I do not recomend this product for people with low budget hardware; it's more in line for advanced "gaming" type computers.
As far as the gameplay, King Kong immerses the player into a world of jungles. Both the look and the sound of the game help to draw the player into the feel of what it would be like to journey through Skull Island. It has a fascinating music score, that changes when dinosaurs and other predators attack. The music change adds to the suspense of the game, keeping the player on edge.
Distracting a Tyranosaurus can be pretty tricky, and you need to be alert for places to hide from Raptors. For those who like battling extinct species, this game is for them.
Customer Review: This game is total garbage..
Summary: 1 Stars
The designers of King Kong could not care less if their program works or not. This is the single most buggy program I've ever owned. Its worthless.Customer Review: A seamless blend of cinema and gameplay.
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this game for Christmas and started playing with decidedly low expectations as games based on movies are usually, in my experience, rather bland and limited in interactivity and immersiveness.
King Kong is truly an exception. I was pulled in from the very beginning, where as Jack Driscoll you and the other main characters row from the Venture to Skull island in the midst of a violent rainstorm. The boat rolls with the waves as rocks precariously tumble into the water around you, and the game does a wonderful job of making you feel like you're really there. I usually prefer third-person games, but this is a situation in which a first-person perspective truly enhances the feel of being part of the game.
A simple but very effective aspect that makes the game stand out is that there are few "cut-scenes" where you just sit and watch the action. In the scene above, for example, while you don't really have any mobility as you're sitting in a boat rowed by some oarsmen, you can freely look around, seeing the Venture out across the turbulent waves in one direction, the island in another and, as you get closer, up at the tall imposing cliffs above you. Again, this makes for some beautifully immersive gameplay.
It should also be mentioned that the whole game takes place in a widescreen "letterbox" view, like most movies. It also has no GUI by default (although I think there's an option to have it show how much ammo you have for a given weapon and possibly what other objects you're carrying). This could be seen as a drawback, but I personally prefer it, as it makes it easier to forget it's just a game and lose yourself in the adventure. You don't have "health" in the traditional sense (thus eliminating the need for a GUI that would contain a health bar); when something hurts you, your vision takes on a red cast and goes a bit blurry, and the sound becomes less distinct and blearier (this effect might require an EAX-capable sound card), and the music is replaced by a haunting, very "cinematic" vocal melody. The effects increase as you take more damage and you will die fairly quickly if you continue to be hit, but you will recover within a few seconds if you can avoid being further wounded. Some may call this unrealistic, but in my opinion it beats arbitarily-placed first-aid kits that magically heal your wounds the second you touch them.
Most of the "Jack" portions of the game are largely about survival. There are guns that you can pick up in crates dropped by the rescue plane as it searches for a safe place to land, but you can only carry one gun at a time and ammunition is scarce, which means you can't go around with guns blazing as you would in a traditional first-person shooter. You have to utilize your environment--often resorting to spears or sharp bones as weapons to fight your enemies, ducking into small crevices or ruins to escape some of your larger foes, or using fire either as an impromptu weapon or to clear an overgrown path.
Your companions also play a pivotal role at times; some can get to places you can't in order to complete a task, and you need to occasionally protect them and make sure they stay alive (although they will grab weapons for themselves and use them when given the opportunity). Likewise, they'll cover you when you're in a situation in which you can't use your weapons (such as when swimming across a river) or give you a hand up when you're below them and unable to climb up on your own.
Playing as Kong, it takes a bit of practice to master the controls, but once you manage that it becomes a tremendous amount of fun. In contrast to the Jack levels, in which you are a tiny human in a land of giants with little more than his wits to survive, as Kong you are a powerful wall-smashing, dinosaur-wrestling, native-stomping giant, perfectly at home on Skull Island. Even with the feeling of power you get as Kong, the game still manages to be challenging as you not only fight for your own life, but also protect Ann from the legion of dangers of the island.
The game does have some of the drawbacks I've learned to associate with those based on movies; mainly that it is, of course, a linear plot and perhaps a little on the short side, but this is vastly overshadowed by its immersiveness. In part due to the amazing graphics and animation, in part due to the excellent voice acting, and in part due to the unfolding plot and the simple art of cinematic storytelling (even if we DO all know how it ends), the world the game creates feels very dynamic, dramatic, and real.
Somehow, the makers of King Kong: the Game succeeded in creating a game that feels like a movie in and of itself while, at the same time, fully including the player in the experience.
Customer Review: Problems, problems, problems
Summary: 1 Stars
Problem 1 - Bad textures. Bland washed out green textures that clip way too often. Walking up stairs is a major problem. Quite often you'll walk through them and fall off the map to your death. At several points in the game, even the NPC's I was teamed with, fell through the map and died. It made the game very frustrating.
Problem 2 - No save games. Now they offer you infinite saves, you just cant load them. If you get killed the game loads at the previous save checkpoint and you start there, even if you had saved your progress after that checkpoint. I know your thinking, why not just load your saved game right? Wrong, because there is no load game feature. I particularly liked that one.
Problem 3 - Now if your like me when your playing a game, you tinker with the keyboard config to get it just right. In King Kong this involves exiting the game, having to select YES I REALLY WANT TO QUIT several times, until you get to the main menu. Then after your asked if you REALLY WANT TO QUIT the game yet again you can exit the game back to your desktop. From there you can pull up the King Kong config menu and remap a few keys. The only thing you can do from the in game main menu is change the sensitivity of the mouse. Cool, because I didn't want to be bothered with resolution, sound features and keyboard config anyway.
Problem 4 - Now the game gives you the classic FPS view when your controlling Jack Driscoll, and it works fine. But during the sequences when your controlling Kong, the game takes a turn for the worse. The box says, "control Kong from the third person perspective." This is not true. I would say your controlling Kong from an audience perspective. Your always looking directly at King Kong never from the traditional over the shoulder 3rd perspective. You can make Kong move any direction you want, however only Kong will move in that direction, your left feeling like your holding a remote control for some computer generated ape off in the distance. Worst yet, because the controls are so bad, the fight scenes involving Kong become very tedious. Often you'll just end up rapidly pushing buttons at random until your arm is sore. It is so bad you wont look forward to the scenes where you have to control Kong.
I gave this game 2 stars in the fun category only because the sequences involving Jack Driscoll were somewhat enjoyable, however ultimately King Kong is just a bad game rushed out in time for Christmas and not worthy of anything more than 1 star, save your money.