Peter Jackson's King Kong - Review
Added December 13th, 2005 by Colin
Introduction:
For years the convergence of video games and cinema has been heralded as the future of entertainment. Yet, virtually every time the two met, unbridled crap would emerge. Countless movie licenses were turned into cookie-cutter game titles, or worse, Enter the Matrix. And, on the flip side of that, countless games were turned into movies that can only be described in two words: Uwe Boll. I’ll wait a moment while everyone shudders.
Well, thankfully, in the last couple of years some games have been breaking that tradition. The prime example of this would be the almost universally acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick: Escape to Butcher Bay, which proved to be better than the movie it was based on. Of course, the movie was mediocre, so even there it wasn’t the great movie to great game transition everyone had been waiting for. Well, I’d like to introduce you to a new game from Ubisoft based on a little movie by the name of King Kong. King Kong is the cinema classic that is currently being remade by none other than Peter Jackson. Yes, I mean Peter ‘Oh-my-god-he-made-the-Lord-of-the-Rings-movies’ Jackson.
Going into King Kong, Peter Jackson wanted to ensure that the games based on the movie would live up to the quality of the movie itself. To do this, Jackson embarked on a quest of his own to find a game studio up to the challenge of crafting a game that would allow gamers to truly play the movie. After sampling a multitude of games from a myriad of publishers Jackson discovered a game by the name of Beyond Good & Evil, a critically acclaimed and commercially disappointing title created by Michael Ancel’s Ubisoft Montpellier Studios. However, Jackson was impressed with the title’s story-telling and immersiveness He contacted Ubisoft to see if the Montpellier Studio would be interested in making the King Kong game.
Naturally, they were. Jackson flew the team down to New Zealand where they were given full access to the digital source materials for the movie. The team also engaged in discussions with Jackson where they fleshed out the gameplay of the game. Montpellier sent builds of the game to Jackson throughout the game’s development for feedback. Needless to say, the development of the movie and the game has been very close indeed. So is the game as good as we are all hoping? Absolutely. Is it worth purchasing, though? Read on.
Gameplay:
King Kong revolves around two completely different sections of gameplay- Jack and Kong. In the Jack sections of the game, you are the hunted, having to rely on your wits and surroundings to survive. In the Kong sections, you are a hulking beast of a beast, king of the jungle, and general ass-kicker of all things primeval. The Jack sections are by far the more complicated, so let’s start there. While playing as Jack everything is viewed from the first person perspective, ala Half-Life. This improves the immersiveness of the game tremendously, and allows you to see the events of the film first-hand. Jack levels generally consist of expository, puzzle, and combat sections. In expository sections, such as the opening scene that has you paddling towards land in a life boat, you just look around and marvel at the virtual world that has been crafted for you to view.
For years the convergence of video games and cinema has been heralded as the future of entertainment. Yet, virtually every time the two met, unbridled crap would emerge. Countless movie licenses were turned into cookie-cutter game titles, or worse, Enter the Matrix. And, on the flip side of that, countless games were turned into movies that can only be described in two words: Uwe Boll. I’ll wait a moment while everyone shudders.
Well, thankfully, in the last couple of years some games have been breaking that tradition. The prime example of this would be the almost universally acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick: Escape to Butcher Bay, which proved to be better than the movie it was based on. Of course, the movie was mediocre, so even there it wasn’t the great movie to great game transition everyone had been waiting for. Well, I’d like to introduce you to a new game from Ubisoft based on a little movie by the name of King Kong. King Kong is the cinema classic that is currently being remade by none other than Peter Jackson. Yes, I mean Peter ‘Oh-my-god-he-made-the-Lord-of-the-Rings-movies’ Jackson.
Going into King Kong, Peter Jackson wanted to ensure that the games based on the movie would live up to the quality of the movie itself. To do this, Jackson embarked on a quest of his own to find a game studio up to the challenge of crafting a game that would allow gamers to truly play the movie. After sampling a multitude of games from a myriad of publishers Jackson discovered a game by the name of Beyond Good & Evil, a critically acclaimed and commercially disappointing title created by Michael Ancel’s Ubisoft Montpellier Studios. However, Jackson was impressed with the title’s story-telling and immersiveness He contacted Ubisoft to see if the Montpellier Studio would be interested in making the King Kong game.
Naturally, they were. Jackson flew the team down to New Zealand where they were given full access to the digital source materials for the movie. The team also engaged in discussions with Jackson where they fleshed out the gameplay of the game. Montpellier sent builds of the game to Jackson throughout the game’s development for feedback. Needless to say, the development of the movie and the game has been very close indeed. So is the game as good as we are all hoping? Absolutely. Is it worth purchasing, though? Read on.
Gameplay:
King Kong revolves around two completely different sections of gameplay- Jack and Kong. In the Jack sections of the game, you are the hunted, having to rely on your wits and surroundings to survive. In the Kong sections, you are a hulking beast of a beast, king of the jungle, and general ass-kicker of all things primeval. The Jack sections are by far the more complicated, so let’s start there. While playing as Jack everything is viewed from the first person perspective, ala Half-Life. This improves the immersiveness of the game tremendously, and allows you to see the events of the film first-hand. Jack levels generally consist of expository, puzzle, and combat sections. In expository sections, such as the opening scene that has you paddling towards land in a life boat, you just look around and marvel at the virtual world that has been crafted for you to view.
In puzzle sections you have to get through some sort of block through the use of the environment. For instance, you may have to open a door. To open that door, you have to find a way to turn a massive column in circles, which will trigger the door opening mechanism. Problem is, to turn that column you need to find a lever. This often leads to impromptu scavenger hunts that have you searching the surrounding area looking for a post with a lever stuck in it. Oftentimes there will be something preventing access to that post, such as a field of impenetrable thorns. To get across that field, you’ll have to find a way to set that field on fire. There are a couple ways to do this, including grabbing flaming spears off the ground or jabbing a spear into a torch, and throwing the spear into the field. While early in the game this is a fairly simple matter, later on it will be a more complicated affair, as you will have to figure out ways to get fire to areas that are sometimes quite a ways away. Many of the puzzles make interesting use of the environment, but the scavenger hunts for the levers quickly become a huge pain. Many areas of the game are rather dark, and having to search for a lever in some random corner of the level is a huge nuisance, and really ruins the flow of the game.
Combat sections of the game have you fighting your way to eventual survival. You fight using a variety of weapons, from shotguns and sniper rifles to spears and animal bones. Strewn about the island are spears stuck in various trees and objects, as well as the long-since atrophied corpses of animals. From those corpses you can recover unlimited bones that can be thrown as make-do spears, and you can, of course, pick up spears whenever you see one. There is no heads-up display in King Kong, everything is very natural. If you see a spear or weapon you want to pick up, walk up to it and pull the right trigger, you will then equip it. Press the right trigger again and you will jab with it, hold the left trigger and you will get ready to fire/throw, press the right trigger and you will fire/throw. It all works exceedingly well and gives the game a very organic feel. On one of the early stages I was running from the natives, flaming spears falling all around me. I picked one of them up for the hell of it; as I ran I idlely jabbed with the spear, ‘cause that’s just how I roll. Well, that spear was on fire, and the grass below me caught on fire, causing me to roll on over to the continue screen. It was an eye-opening game moment, as it’s just the sort of thing you don’t think of encountering in a game. Namely, an environment that is actually affected by your actions.
Enemies in King Kong are generally of the large and pissed-off sort. Your opposition includes prehistoric staples such as raptors and v-rex’s, as well as giant caterpillars and some rather angry natives. There are also flying critters which are pretty good at eating you alive if you lower your guard. You will always need to be on your toes, and the combat is brilliant when combined with a smart physics system. Throw a spear at a caterpillar and the spear will go through it and stick it to the ground. Need another spear to use as a weapon? Pick it off that enemy you just killed. Need a way to get around a pack of enemies? Find some fish or flies nearby, spear them, and throw them away from your position and those opponents will go and eat them, leaving you to escape without a scratch. The entire system is remarkably fluid and goes a long way toward crafting that organic feel the game goes for.
Levels where you play as King Kong are the polar opposite of those where you play as Jack. Instead of playing the hunted, you are the ultimate hunter. Again, there is no HUD, and the game is better for it. Moves are all pretty basic, such as shoulder charges and swiping at enemy raptors. You can also pick up the smaller enemies and throw them, and beat your chest to go into a slow motion mode that employs some very cool filters. As Kong you will usually either be defending or chasing Ann, or causing massive destruction.
The early Kong levels are all a blast, but the latter ones fall apart, especially the New York levels at the end. New York just doesn’t look nearly good enough to be an end-game stage. When you finish a game, you want that last game to be the best yet. Great games usually use the last stage as a sort of reward to the player for finishing the game, utilizing all the best gameplay mechanics and generally just making things as fun as possible. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. Instead of the massive mayhem that the 360 allows for, you simply swat aside a few and kill some police machine gunners. It just wasn’t epic enough. In the last level you should be leveling buildings, annihilating waves of soldiers, and wasting masses of cars. Instead, it’s simply a ho-hum, thrown together stage that really lets down the rest of the game’s production values. Also, the game ends with you, as Kong, dying. While it is obviously true to the movie, it doesn’t make for a satisfying ending. They really should’ve just cut off the game once Kong is captured, and told the rest of the story through clips from the movie.
Don’t get me wrong, though, King Kong is an incredible ride. It isn’t just a game, it is a playable movie. Kong is the perfect companion to a movie that is shaping up to be a blockbuster, allowing you to play through all of the sequences from the movie, and more. Many of the scenes in the game are simply breathtaking. One level in particular is reminiscent of one scene from Jurassic Park, and it is utterly beautiful. As Jack you are usually aided by the other main characters from the movie, and all are faithfully recreated from the actors that play them in the movie. The AI on these characters is quite good to boot, they will do a good job of defending themselves and you, and will oftentimes lead you from area to area.
However, it often feels like they leave too much up to you. ‘Jack! Go get some fire from the other side of this valley, dodging hordes of raptors and gigantic dinosaurs, and then keep the fire going as you run all the way back!’ ‘Jack! We’ll open this door! You get that V-Rex’s attention!’ ‘Jack! Search the surrounding area to find a lever, we’ll just sit here and take a breather!’. You get the idea. It was great traveling through the world of King Kong with your brothers in arms, but they really should’ve been a bit more helpful. And it was the latter of those examples, in particular, that they should have helped with. The levers that you must find completely ruin the flow of the game. You’ll finish some ingenious sequence that has you battling huge dinosaurs, rescuing a teammate or two, and generally acting like a movie superhero. Then you’ll need to search the area you just conquered, looking for some stupid little lever. All the while, your teammates will just sit around the door, doing nothing, while you spend ten minutes seeking that lever. Why they don’t just lead you to the area where the lever is, or even search on their own, is a total mystery. As is, it feels as if the developers are trying to artificially inflate the length of the game by throwing in random scavenger hunts.
In the end, though, King Kong’s gameplay is groundbreaking. By having no heads up display, at all, and allowing you to truly use the environment to succeed, Ubisoft has broken new ground here. Unfortunately, some level design issues hold the game back, as well as a general lack of quality in the last level.
Graphics:
This is a beautiful game, period. Environments are all incredibly detailed, and the lighting is spot-on perfect. The jungles are all believable, and character models are generally well done. Kong in particular is amazing thanks to some great fur effects. There are some low-resolution textures here and there, but just a general increase in environment detail across the board helps this title excel on the Xbox 360. Another thing of particular high-quality are the animations. Never before has a giant ape looked so graceful, no giant dinosaurs looked so believable. Everything moves like you would expect it to, which is the highest praise one can give the animations for a game. For a game that depends on immersion, graphics really do improve the overall gameplay experience; as they do here.
Combat sections of the game have you fighting your way to eventual survival. You fight using a variety of weapons, from shotguns and sniper rifles to spears and animal bones. Strewn about the island are spears stuck in various trees and objects, as well as the long-since atrophied corpses of animals. From those corpses you can recover unlimited bones that can be thrown as make-do spears, and you can, of course, pick up spears whenever you see one. There is no heads-up display in King Kong, everything is very natural. If you see a spear or weapon you want to pick up, walk up to it and pull the right trigger, you will then equip it. Press the right trigger again and you will jab with it, hold the left trigger and you will get ready to fire/throw, press the right trigger and you will fire/throw. It all works exceedingly well and gives the game a very organic feel. On one of the early stages I was running from the natives, flaming spears falling all around me. I picked one of them up for the hell of it; as I ran I idlely jabbed with the spear, ‘cause that’s just how I roll. Well, that spear was on fire, and the grass below me caught on fire, causing me to roll on over to the continue screen. It was an eye-opening game moment, as it’s just the sort of thing you don’t think of encountering in a game. Namely, an environment that is actually affected by your actions.
Enemies in King Kong are generally of the large and pissed-off sort. Your opposition includes prehistoric staples such as raptors and v-rex’s, as well as giant caterpillars and some rather angry natives. There are also flying critters which are pretty good at eating you alive if you lower your guard. You will always need to be on your toes, and the combat is brilliant when combined with a smart physics system. Throw a spear at a caterpillar and the spear will go through it and stick it to the ground. Need another spear to use as a weapon? Pick it off that enemy you just killed. Need a way to get around a pack of enemies? Find some fish or flies nearby, spear them, and throw them away from your position and those opponents will go and eat them, leaving you to escape without a scratch. The entire system is remarkably fluid and goes a long way toward crafting that organic feel the game goes for.
Levels where you play as King Kong are the polar opposite of those where you play as Jack. Instead of playing the hunted, you are the ultimate hunter. Again, there is no HUD, and the game is better for it. Moves are all pretty basic, such as shoulder charges and swiping at enemy raptors. You can also pick up the smaller enemies and throw them, and beat your chest to go into a slow motion mode that employs some very cool filters. As Kong you will usually either be defending or chasing Ann, or causing massive destruction.
The early Kong levels are all a blast, but the latter ones fall apart, especially the New York levels at the end. New York just doesn’t look nearly good enough to be an end-game stage. When you finish a game, you want that last game to be the best yet. Great games usually use the last stage as a sort of reward to the player for finishing the game, utilizing all the best gameplay mechanics and generally just making things as fun as possible. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. Instead of the massive mayhem that the 360 allows for, you simply swat aside a few and kill some police machine gunners. It just wasn’t epic enough. In the last level you should be leveling buildings, annihilating waves of soldiers, and wasting masses of cars. Instead, it’s simply a ho-hum, thrown together stage that really lets down the rest of the game’s production values. Also, the game ends with you, as Kong, dying. While it is obviously true to the movie, it doesn’t make for a satisfying ending. They really should’ve just cut off the game once Kong is captured, and told the rest of the story through clips from the movie.
Don’t get me wrong, though, King Kong is an incredible ride. It isn’t just a game, it is a playable movie. Kong is the perfect companion to a movie that is shaping up to be a blockbuster, allowing you to play through all of the sequences from the movie, and more. Many of the scenes in the game are simply breathtaking. One level in particular is reminiscent of one scene from Jurassic Park, and it is utterly beautiful. As Jack you are usually aided by the other main characters from the movie, and all are faithfully recreated from the actors that play them in the movie. The AI on these characters is quite good to boot, they will do a good job of defending themselves and you, and will oftentimes lead you from area to area.
However, it often feels like they leave too much up to you. ‘Jack! Go get some fire from the other side of this valley, dodging hordes of raptors and gigantic dinosaurs, and then keep the fire going as you run all the way back!’ ‘Jack! We’ll open this door! You get that V-Rex’s attention!’ ‘Jack! Search the surrounding area to find a lever, we’ll just sit here and take a breather!’. You get the idea. It was great traveling through the world of King Kong with your brothers in arms, but they really should’ve been a bit more helpful. And it was the latter of those examples, in particular, that they should have helped with. The levers that you must find completely ruin the flow of the game. You’ll finish some ingenious sequence that has you battling huge dinosaurs, rescuing a teammate or two, and generally acting like a movie superhero. Then you’ll need to search the area you just conquered, looking for some stupid little lever. All the while, your teammates will just sit around the door, doing nothing, while you spend ten minutes seeking that lever. Why they don’t just lead you to the area where the lever is, or even search on their own, is a total mystery. As is, it feels as if the developers are trying to artificially inflate the length of the game by throwing in random scavenger hunts.
In the end, though, King Kong’s gameplay is groundbreaking. By having no heads up display, at all, and allowing you to truly use the environment to succeed, Ubisoft has broken new ground here. Unfortunately, some level design issues hold the game back, as well as a general lack of quality in the last level.
Graphics:
This is a beautiful game, period. Environments are all incredibly detailed, and the lighting is spot-on perfect. The jungles are all believable, and character models are generally well done. Kong in particular is amazing thanks to some great fur effects. There are some low-resolution textures here and there, but just a general increase in environment detail across the board helps this title excel on the Xbox 360. Another thing of particular high-quality are the animations. Never before has a giant ape looked so graceful, no giant dinosaurs looked so believable. Everything moves like you would expect it to, which is the highest praise one can give the animations for a game. For a game that depends on immersion, graphics really do improve the overall gameplay experience; as they do here.
Audio:
King Kong is an extraordinary auditory experience. The world of the movie truly comes alive with a grand soundtrack and voice acting that doesn’t suck for once. Here the actors actually sound as if they are into it, each comment is applicable to the situation at hand and the voice acting is just really, really well done. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough sayings to go around, as you will see characters repeating prior lines as you progress through the game. What’s there is brilliant, though.
Controls:
This title features one of the most natural control schemes in recent memory. If something looks like it can be picked up, it can with a simple pull of the right trigger. There’s no heads up display, so the control scheme accounts for that. If you have a gun, press B and Jack will state how much ammo you have left in reserve. Movement speed is spot-on, and the camera during Kong sections rarely gives you any trouble. Everything controls very well, and there really aren’t any problems here.
Replay:
Here’s the sticker: replay value. Namely, the fact that there is none. When you beat King Kong, you will feel the same as when you finish a great movie: that you just saw an incredible piece of cinema, and feel no need to watch it again. When you finish a movie, you don’t say ‘that was great! I’ll watch it again right now!’. Or at least, no one I know does.
While there are some unlockables, they really aren’t anything to write home about. It’s mostly concept art and the like, which is unlocked by completing various in-game actions. There aren’t any achievements to go back and acquire, either, as you 100% the game, and add 1000 points to your gamerscore, by finishing the game. There really just isn’t any reason to play through this game a second time, though that’s not really any knock against it. There is simply no good way multiplayer could be implemented here, and if anything the game is too long, as the last level isn’t that good and the lever scavenger hunts draw out the game unnecessarily. Don’t expect more than 7-8 hours of gameplay out of this.
King Kong is an extraordinary auditory experience. The world of the movie truly comes alive with a grand soundtrack and voice acting that doesn’t suck for once. Here the actors actually sound as if they are into it, each comment is applicable to the situation at hand and the voice acting is just really, really well done. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough sayings to go around, as you will see characters repeating prior lines as you progress through the game. What’s there is brilliant, though.
Controls:
This title features one of the most natural control schemes in recent memory. If something looks like it can be picked up, it can with a simple pull of the right trigger. There’s no heads up display, so the control scheme accounts for that. If you have a gun, press B and Jack will state how much ammo you have left in reserve. Movement speed is spot-on, and the camera during Kong sections rarely gives you any trouble. Everything controls very well, and there really aren’t any problems here.
Replay:
Here’s the sticker: replay value. Namely, the fact that there is none. When you beat King Kong, you will feel the same as when you finish a great movie: that you just saw an incredible piece of cinema, and feel no need to watch it again. When you finish a movie, you don’t say ‘that was great! I’ll watch it again right now!’. Or at least, no one I know does.
While there are some unlockables, they really aren’t anything to write home about. It’s mostly concept art and the like, which is unlocked by completing various in-game actions. There aren’t any achievements to go back and acquire, either, as you 100% the game, and add 1000 points to your gamerscore, by finishing the game. There really just isn’t any reason to play through this game a second time, though that’s not really any knock against it. There is simply no good way multiplayer could be implemented here, and if anything the game is too long, as the last level isn’t that good and the lever scavenger hunts draw out the game unnecessarily. Don’t expect more than 7-8 hours of gameplay out of this.
Summary:
King Kong, the game, helps bring in a new era of gaming, the convergence of video games and movies. Consoles are now at the point that stories can be told believably, and with a level of immersion that the film medium simply cannot afford. The expository sections of Kong really do feel like a playable movie, and there are scenes in King Kong that will make you stop in your tracks and stare at the utter beauty the developers have crafted. There is no HUD, which only serves to increase the immersion of the game. Fortunately, this does not have any negative bearing on the gameplay, as the control scheme fully takes into account the lack of a heads up display. In the end, King Kong is a great game that is sadly brought down by a bad last level and some badly placed item searches. But, regardless of those shortcomings, King Kong can be recommended whole-heartedly to any fan of the film, or someone looking for a rousing single player title. But, if you’re looking for a long game that you will play for years to come, look elsewhere.
King Kong, the game, helps bring in a new era of gaming, the convergence of video games and movies. Consoles are now at the point that stories can be told believably, and with a level of immersion that the film medium simply cannot afford. The expository sections of Kong really do feel like a playable movie, and there are scenes in King Kong that will make you stop in your tracks and stare at the utter beauty the developers have crafted. There is no HUD, which only serves to increase the immersion of the game. Fortunately, this does not have any negative bearing on the gameplay, as the control scheme fully takes into account the lack of a heads up display. In the end, King Kong is a great game that is sadly brought down by a bad last level and some badly placed item searches. But, regardless of those shortcomings, King Kong can be recommended whole-heartedly to any fan of the film, or someone looking for a rousing single player title. But, if you’re looking for a long game that you will play for years to come, look elsewhere.
