King Kong
You will believe a monkey can cry.
Tags: King Kong Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Feb 4th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| King Kong (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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There is a long and rich history of blockbuster movies that are turned into videogames, all linked by a common thread: nearly all of them suck. But Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie has something of a particularly non-sucky variety that none of those other games had going for them: King Kong was designed by videogame genius Michel Ancel. Ubisoft’s top designer, responsible for titles like Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil, has always been a critical darling, but rarely has he been associated with a runaway commercial hit, until now. King Kong allows Ancel’s talents for ingenious design to be on display in one of the most commercial projects of his career, a game that, even if the movie underperformed compared to box office expectations, was nevertheless a huge hit that generated a lot of interest which will carry over to interest in the game.
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One of the greatest strengths of the game is the inventive design; the game is divided into two main sections with different game play styles; in one section, you play as Jack Driscoll, the somewhat bland screenwriter from the movie played by Adrian Brody; in the other section, you play as King Kong himself. There are plenty of switches between Jack and Kong, though once you’ve experienced the power of playing as Kong, you’ll end up mostly annoyed at having to play weak, bland Jack again. Too much of the game seems to be focused on Jack and you’ll likely also find yourself wishing for more Kong and less Jack. Still, the variety does indeed prevent you from getting too bored.
Yet boredom will seldom be an issue with this game; clocking in at around six hours of actual game play, it doesn’t really last long enough for boredom to set in – heck, that’s only twice the length of the actual film! Speaking of the film, all the principal actors are present and accounted for, including Brody, Jack Black and Naomi Watts. The game follows the basic structure of the movie while tossing in some extras and surprises. And if you thought the spider-pit scene in the movie was intense, well, in the game… ahh, but that would be telling. Better that you just play it for yourself.
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The game is a bit slow-going at first, but you do get to the island right away, rather than spending a third of the game getting there… which cannot be said for the film. Jack Black narrates the setup and unfortunately, the eye-popping shipwreck scene simply plays out in cut-scene rather than being integrated into game play. That’s mildly disappointing but exploring the island first is a great way to get a feel for the controls before you really need to use them. The cut-scenes are actual footage from the motion picture and the environments in the game are fairly true to their cinematic versions. Of course, it must be said that to experience the best version of the game, you truly are better off playing it on the Xbox 360, but the PS2 does surprisingly well in coming close considering it’s a previous-gen platform.
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Fortunately, while the game soon becomes action-packed, there is time to just explore and look around and take in the beauty of Ancel’s interpretation of Jackson’s world. On the gameplay front, the action is a satisfying mix of crafty survival (when you’re Jack), fierce combat (when you’re Kong) and even a few puzzles to solve, though they are never so hard as to slow things down terribly or discourage the player. Jack will actually tell you when you need to reload your weapons and, in a next-gen innovation, instead of a health status bar, the screen just starts to gain a red hue and your vision of the world around you a bit blurry as you take damage. If you take a major blow at a time like that, you’re pushing up daisies, so run, hide and heal. If you survive and regain health, things will get back to normal.
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One weapon at a time is the rule of the day, but you can gain a lot of makeshift weapons from the environment, such as bones, tree limbs, rocks and such. Comes in useful when ammo runs low, though obviously a spear is nowhere near as effective as a gun. The enemy AI is pretty solid, with creatures acting fairly smart, though not quite as sharply as they do on the Xbox 360 version of the game, which benefits from the greater RAM footprint. While the game is no Shadow of the Colossus, you’ll soon learn the pointlessness of just standing and shooting at everything that comes your way; this isn’t Tomb Raider and a clip-load of bullets emptied into a T-Rex isn’t going to make it fall over, or even slow it down much.
That’s where playing the Kong parts comes as a great relief. Not only is the character beautifully detailed, but Kong is pure power and speed; still, game balance is maintained by having enemies for Kong to fight that truly are matches for him; it takes some skilled play to stop a T-Rex, and the kill-move from the movie is usually the best way to go – pulling the creature’s jaws apart until they snap. It’s very brutal, and one of the main reasons the game is rated T for Teen by the ESRB.
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In the end, if a PS2 is all you own, King Kong is one of the better action games you can buy for it; but if you are one of the lucky few who own an Xbox 360 already, as well, then the 360 version is definitely the one to go for, even despite the extra $10 markup – which is pure advantage-taking by Ubisoft, but they’re hardly alone in that. Oh well. Anyway, like I said at the beginning, King Kong is definitely an exception to the rule that all movie-adaptation games suck. This one most definitely does not.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Great voice acting by all the principles from the movie. + Beautifully realized game world. + Great monster designs and game balance, + Game play variety that shifts between first-person and third-person perspectives. + You get to play as Kong – until you try it, you can't anticipate how cool that is. |
8.9 |
| What Doesn't | |
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– At only six hours, really leaves you wanting more. – As in the movie, New York section of the game is very short. – Too much Jack; not enough Kong. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| While paling in comparison to the Xbox 360 version and not quite as satisfying as another game that deals with large-scale opponents – namely, Shadow of Colossus – Peter Jackson's King Kong is still a total winner on the PS2 platform and well worth your time (providing you don't own a 360). | |
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Tags: King Kong
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Feb 4th, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
