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Beautifully done!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 21
Date: December 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am playing this on my non-360 XBOX,and it looks gorgeous. I am anxious to see if all the hype about the 360 is true. I will have to wait because the prices are still too high for the initial offering.
However,360 or no 360,this game rocks. Yes the graphics are beautiful,and sometimes creepy;and yes,the soundtrack and ambient noises are perfect.But the game play is really sweet. No health-meters,no quick saves,no nothin' but you and the creatures who come after you,either loudly or very sneakily.And random ammo for a gun is not lying around all over the place,as in other games,so the only weapon you have is a spear. I finally learned to ration my bullets and my spears.(And you can't carry more than one gun and one spear at a time.) It's kind of creepy to be out of weaponry/ammo when you are facing a hungry creature or two. I just hate those sneaky, giant, nasty centipedes.I have gotten killed so many times by them,I'm embarrassed.

You play as a human,Jack,and once in a while you play as Kong himself,albeit too briefly. I love the frenzy-factor with Kong.

I'm sure for you young hard-core gamers,this game will be fairly easy,but for my middle-aged thumbs and hands,the pace is frenetic enough,thank you.Easy or not, a lot of thought went into the creation of this game,and since Peter Jackson was very much involved, I expected a class game,and I got one.

If you are not an experienced gamer(shooter), be patient.You may die a few times until you figure out just how to get from A to B without getting slaughtered by a T-Rex or two, but figuring it out for yourself is half the fun,as it is with any action/role-playing game,in my opinion.

Finally,I just heard on the news a couple of days ago that over-50 gamers are purchasing games at a steadily rising pace. I'm 57, a female and very much into FPS and RPG's. I consider this game to be among the best of the genre.I'm only half-way through and I am having a lot of fun. I'm addicted already,of course.

Read all of the available reviews of this game and others at the web's most popular game review sites before you get this or any other game. This is a lot of money,but I think the fun-quotient makes up for it.

Standing with Riddick as one of the best movie tie-in's available!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Much of the community is undoubtedly prejudice to adaptations, whether that be game to movie, or in this case, movie to game. Although many would argue that most film to game adaptations are cash-ins with little to offer, King Kong, Michel Ancel's latest epic, is neither of these. Michel Ancel is well known for Rayman aswell as Beyond Good & Evil, so it comes as no shock that King Kong delivers. But nothing could have prepared me for this experience......

Director Carl Denham takes an American crew to uncharted territory called "Skull Island", a place crawling with dangers. The island is inhabited by all sorts of giant creatures and even savage inhabitants. Skull Island is where the crew docks and must explore in order to escape. Denham, Ann Darrow, Hayes, and Jack Driscoll, all play a large part in the movie and game. The story itself is quite good, it maintains interest and keeps you going to see the ending resolve. King Kong really blurs the lines between film and game, with countless cinematic moments that make you feel like you are there. Overall, Kong's premise is simple enough, but entails a tale of love, heartache, danger, and adventure. And it all comes together very nicely.

While the game is called King Kong, you will only use Kong for around 25% of the game. The bulk of the experience involves you and anywhere from one to three friends, these include Ann, Jimmy, Hayes, and Carl Denham. The opening scene has you sitting in a boat with a few men, one of whom being Carl Denham, Jack Black's character. After a short exchange of words, you row off onto Skull Island, where many nasty creatures and treacherous environments await. Throughout the game you will be making use of sniper rifles, pistols, machine guns, spears, and even bones from leftover dinosaur skeletons. Yes, there are dinosuars. A kind we had assumed completely extinct, exist in abundance on Skull island. Among those, you will face Venatosaurus, and V-Rex. Not to mention those ugly giant bat-like creatures, who will swarm you and take down your health quickly. There is no health bar, ammo counter, or anything else on-screen. This is in order to create a truly cinematic gameplay experience. You truly feel like you are there, struggling to find your friends and get off of this nightmare of an island. Without a health bar, you are left with only the examination of Jack's movement. This functions very simply: If he's okay, he will walk normally. But if he is seriously hurt, he will limp along. Without an ammo counter, you have only have Jack's dialogue(voiced by Adrian Brodey) to know where you're at. For example, if you need to reload, he will tell himself. And if you want to asess your remaining ammunition, just press the B button and Jack will tell you. Ammunition exists in perfect balance throughout Skull Island. The gunplay is surprisingly well done, aswell. And while there are only four weapons(Sniper Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun, Machine Gun), all provide a satisfying combat experience.

But by far, the spears are the best weapons in the game. With a spear, you have a number of options. You can pierce enemies by throwing your spear at them, Poke/repel them, light them on fire and burn obstructing bushes with them, use them to light a friend's spear, and finally, use them to spear small larva with the objective of clearing a path covered by deadly spiders. This attracts them to the speared creature, which you have to throw near them so they'll take the bait. Before I figured out how to do that, I wasted my Shotgun and Machine Gun ammo trying to kill them. So watch out for that.

The gameplay is reasonably varied. You will shoot, spear, raft, run for your life, puzzle solve, and play as Kong. There is one section where you are fighting off the savages residing on Skull Island while escaping on a raft. This section requires you to light spears and throw them at the bushes on the hills, resulting in the destruction of the bridges they were throwing flaming spears from. This was a highlight. But even better was the short lived, but exhilarating cliff jump, where you and Ann must dive off of a cliff and into the river below. I was thinking, "are you crazy?!", but had no choice but to wing it. So I did! And once I hit the water, I went straight to the bottom and bobbed back up. You had to be there, it was something. The level design is excellent. Of course, it all looks the same and there really isn't any variation in locale outside of architecture, fittingly. But you'll always feel like you're on the edge of your seat at all times, because you really are! Whether you're fighting off Venatosaurous or crossing dangerous water or creaky planks, it's always a constant adrenaline rush.

Another definite highlight was the V-Rex encounter, where you are tasked with the difficult feat of distracting the dinosaur while Ann opens a large wooden door. You will rely on spears to get his attention away from Ann, and then to protect yourself, you'll have to hide behind stone structures, which you'll eventually run out of, as he knocks them down. No amount of shooting will help, V-Rex is completely invincible, only Kong can hurt them. Moments like this are nothing short of humbling, the sheer size of these things makes you feel like your in Jurassic Park. The way they shake the ground when they chase you, your blood is pumping, you're tempted to look back, but know that his mouth could be right there waiting for you. The sheer immersion of it all is just something only experienced in a select few action games.

The Kong sections have received mixed critical results within the community. But personally, I thought Kong controlled wonderfully. You just need to get a handle on how he interacts with his environment, aswell as working simple combos, which are essential to winning a fight. In order to kill your enemies, you will need to wear them down, and grab them with the B button, rapidly pressing B until Kong kills them. B is also used when pushing obstructions out of the way to clear a path. We've seen this done more recently in videogames, and while this proves fun, it is very strenuous to the hands. I found the combat relatively enjoyable, but the travel element is much more rewarding. Kong climbs and swings along, avoiding lava, and usually attempting to prevent the death of Ann. Kong can actually travel with Kong, you can pick her up and put her down with the B button. She will then defend herself with her environment, which brings me to the AI. The artificial intelligence in King Kong is astounding compared to most games of this type. 90% of the game is essentially an escort mission, but while this usually proves annoying, in Kong, your allies will defend themselves, hide when needed, and path find extremely well. I was actually surprised at how good it was. Which is a breath of fresh air. Overall, the gameplay in King Kong is certainly more than I bargained for, I was surprised at how enjoyable and varied it was.

Going into King Kong, I didn't quite know what to expect. I had seen some of the Kong sections in brief video form, but nothing had prepared me for just how rich and beautiful this game is. Considering the technical limitations of the Playstation 2, Ubi Soft covered up this fact with amazing art direction. Clearly the textures aren't normal mapped, and polygon counts aren't staggeringly high, but it didn't matter all that much because the art direction is so rich. For the most part King Kong looks fairly realistic, but the characters have a sort of animated way about them, sort of like Timesplitters, but a little more realistic. The texture detail on the character models isn't immense, but they animate so well that you have no choice but to be convinced. Every environment has something interesting to look at. After rowing ashore, I stood on high ground, looking out into the expanse, and the water is so beautiful, I couldn't believe it. Now Kong's water doesn't have any of the fancy technological prowess seen in games like Half Life 2 and Oblivion, but it makes up for this in style. The way the water actually moves is a lot more animated, less realistic. And it sort of plays to the Playstation 2's strengths, and I don't know, I think it's a better game because of it. Standing on a creaky rotting plank, looking out into the Island's expanse is extremely immersive, you really feel like you are on this Island, this nightmare of an Island, and that there may be no way out. There is always another obstacle, another trial, and all of this takes place in an extremely immersive and believable world.

The gun models are very well crafted, with the appropriate amount of polygonal and textural detail. The same goes for the spears, who can be lit aflame, resulting in a great fire effect prevalent throughout Skull Island. The effects are appropriately well done, considering the fact that there are many throughout the game. In one situation, burning bushes illuminate the darkness while you dodge flaming spears in an attempt to escape harm's way. It creates such a strong sense of environmental believability.

The dinosaur models are reasonably detailed, although up-close they are a tad behind the times. But then again, when facing a V-Rex you are either turned in the other direction, or at a reasonable distance. The sheer size of the V-Rex is quite impressive(about Kong's height), so considering this, the details are quite sufficient and realistic. The other dinosaurs look average for the most part, but in all honesty you will be too busy spearing them and running after your next goal to look at a few low resolution textures. I think that the msot visually amazing part of Kong was when Jack(your character) is crossing a patch of water, and these giant long necked dinosaurs begin to stomp their way through. I swear I sat there for ten minutes marveling at their beauty(texture detail is exceptional), they dwarfed both Kong and the V-Rex. And actually dodging their giant feat was a humbling experience. This is yet another example of the game's constant surprises.

The Kong model itself is modeled with exceptional detail, when zoomed out, Kong looks absolutely breathtaking, and you can truly appreciate his mass. Zooming inwards shows his flaws, however. The fur shading isn't the strongest you've ever seen, up-close it isn't very impressive. However, most of the time you will be zoomed out behind Kong, and this is where he is truly convincing. The animation is superb in King Kong, I couldn't believe how amazing it was. I would even go as far as to call it near flawless. Ubi Soft clearly spent an exhaustive amount of time on this aspect of the visuals, and it scores big points for that fact. You can even move Kong's head in different directions, up, down, left, right. When he jumps, swings, punches, grabs, it's all pulled off in a very realistic fashion. The only real complaint I have with Kong himself is that he sort of opens and closes his mouth rapidly. He never calms down in that sense. But that's really just a superficial complaint.

Another intelligent use of hardware is the draw distance. It is actually very short, but there is a lot of fog on Skull Island, and when it isn't foggy, it's dark. This clearly allowed for more environmental detail, and truly makes sense. The only real complaint I have with King Kong's visual facet is that, while playing Kong in some sections, the framerate is atrocious. I was actually surprised. But just as surprising is how it hardly affected gameplay, since all I was doing was climbing and swinging around without having to actually fight any enemies. In the end, Kong manages to strike a balance between console technology and smart art direction, and ultimately this pays off.

I couldn't possibly convey Kong's sound quality in text form, you just have to hear it. There is literally a detailed and realistic sound for everything! For instance, when you've been limping around for a long period of time, and finally slow down, Jack will actually huff and puff and sort of try and catch his breath. And it sounds so realistic, I'm telling you this game has some of the best voice acting ever seen! Done by the original cast aswell. Many times, events are triggered by NPC alert. For example, maybe after a brutal up close and personal battle with an enemy, Ann might say, "oh my God", or something similar. She acts so genuine, not as if she's reading off of a script, but actually as if she is really there! Jack Black really takes it though. Not only is he utterly hilarious, he's just animated in general. I mean when you're fighting off giant bugs, he's off somewhere with his camera shooting footage and saying things like "this island is amazing!", his mind is totally fixed on this film. Actually one of the funny parts was when we were wading through some deep water, and I happened to ask him if he was okay, and he's like "NO, my camera's getting wet!". I mean we're in such an intense situation, and all he can think about is this film, and redeeming his reputation regardless of who he puts in danger.

I almost want to call King Kong a survival horror, partly because when you hear a blood curdling sqawk or scream, you're on the edge of your seat, and sometimes even feel paralyzed in fear. Because you want to run, but you can't think straight. Next thing you know these horribly ugly giant bat-like creatures are attacking you, or there are savages screaming and throwing flaming spears at you. Sound truly does play a large part in videogames. I don't know about you, but over the last few years I've really come to appreciate good sound in my games. King Kong delivers in spades. The sound effects are top notch, the music is excellent, and the voice acting is superb. Speaking of the music, in fact. When you are badly wounded, the game will actually go into slow motion and the screen will beat red, and this dramatic violin will play over everything. Sometimes you think you're dead, but you're not, you are still being chased by a V-Rex who just hit you in the back with his head.

In the end, King Kong isn't terribly long, nor is it particularly short. Instead, it strikes a balance between the two and stays fresh for the time it lasts. It has absolutely everything going for it. Superb sound, visuals, story, and gameplay. King Kong proves that movie based videogames can be good when you put the appropriate amount of time and talent into the project. Peter Jackson and Michel Ancel really care about their craft, and I couldn't be more pleased with the way this game turned out. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a videogame. This is an example of how far we've come in every way.

WOWOWOWOW

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Wow what a beautiful game. I am very impressed by the graphics on this one. But what about the gameplay. It is very unique. Most of the game you are a human running around in first person shooter mode. This is pretty cool. Sometimes you will have to look around in the environment to find things to use. An example would be finding a spearlike object to hurl at a t-rex. THis sounds like it would be tough, but it really isn't. While you cock the spear with one hand, your other hand points to where you will throw the spear. THis brings up a very unique aspect of the game. There is no health meter, no reticle for shooting, no ammo readout. NO nothing. You are IN the game just as a real person would be. This helps with the immersion in the game. But what about the Kong Levels? They are way fun and way short. they are probably only about %25 of the game. They are fun though. A little clumsy on the controls, but fun. All in all this is a good game. Not great, but pretty good. (...) Whatever the case, you will be pretty happy with your purchase.

King Kong 1933 movie and now an XBOX game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

King Kong! A thought of a Giant Gorilla, a Ship with explorers..
King Kong plays as you set the ship abound for the island. You have machine guns, but you also use branches and hiding. King Kong has a replay value because, you play as the explorers and sometimes as King Kong Lot's to do in the game.

The moves are plenty cool and fun to pull off. finding where to go can be the best challenge. Visualy awesom as you are King Kong fighting a Tranasourus and then breaking it's jaw and you can pick up cars and flip them. Trees with moss, Skyscraper Buildings and people that bring you in to the time of 1933.

Sound is so mached up. This is one movie game thats worth your time. If you liked Predator Concrete Jungle XBOX game like I do, than King Kong is right up your alley.

Too Short

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

King Kong has many good points. The unobstructed camera view makes you feel like you are in the movie. There's lots of creepy creatures and sounds. The graphics are great. Controls/gameplay are very solid. One of the things however that makes this game old is the repetition of finding levers to unlock doors, and finding fire to burn down grass. Apparently you're bad enough to take on oversized spiders, centapedes and mastadons yet walking through tall grass is an impossiblity. The scenes when you play Kong are pretty cool, the best of which is at the end of the game. The major complaint however is how short the game is, however shorter is probably better considering it is based on an hour and a half movie. Buy it used.

???

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: December 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

ok this is going to sound dumb. but is there the creepy native people in the game? just wondering thanks!!

A THRILLING, NON-STOP, ACTION-PACKED, ROLLER COASTER RIDE! 9 OUT OF 10

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's nice to see that not only can Peter Jackson make movies, he's also good at collaborating the making of the game based on the movie. I feel that this game didn't get the amount of sales it deserved. It sold respectably, but it could have been so much more in sales. If you passed up buying this game it's understandable why you'd do so. You probably thought it was going to be a game of shoddy combat, ugly graphics, asinine platforming, boring collecting challenges, and no voice actors from the movie. If you thought this, you are wrong in every category.
WHAT THE GAME IS: It's basically a first-person shooter mixed into an adventure/survival setting. When a film crew and ship crew members travel to an island called Skull Island, the actress for the movie gets kidnapped by savages and is offered as a gift to a giant ape known as Kong. You play the role of Jack, the writer for the script for Carl Denham's movie. You must go rescue Ann, kill numerous beasts with weapons like a Luger, a tommy gun, a sniper rifle, spears, and spears with fire on the tip. There are even some scenes where you play as Kong, which is a really nice bonus.
GRAPHICS: For a game that came out in 2005, this doesn't look that bad, even to this day it looks decent. However I did notice a few animation stutters in character movements.
MUSIC: The music is absolutely fantastic, and captures everything that made the movie's music perfectly. It sets the mood, and it sets the suspenseful, terrifying scenes that really get the heart pumping like crazy.
SOUNDS: Shooting, dinosaurs roaring, little bugs squeaking, bigger bugs squeaking, great acting from the actual actors in the movie, bushes being set on fire, and King Kong's roar.
GAMEPLAY: This game is absolute thrill-ride to play, it never gets boring. The shooting mechanics work great and spear throwing works just like shooting a gun. King Kong is a little difficult to control sometimes during some of his scenes and the camera during those scenes can be a little wonky, but you get used to it. Whether it be a shooting scene, on-rails sequence, or a puzzle, this game doesn't stop delivering those hair-raising, heart-pumping, and adrenaline rush scenes. The encounter with the T-Rexes are absolutely terrifying, and you will probably throw out more than a few "HOLY S***!" remarks during these encounters (Think Jurassic Park-type encounters, only you're right there) and desperately spraying bullets and throwing spears as fast as you can to fend them off. King Kong has an impressive selection of moves at his disposal, which really comes in handy during those encounters with T-Rexes (Breaking jaws in this game is so much fun). This game does have you do protection missions where you have to fend off dinosaurs (Namely T-Rexes) while your team members open gates, and there will be some cases in which you will fail and you watch as your team members gets chomped by a T-Rex. These frustrating scenes are rare luckily, and this game dishes its thrills out like you wouldn't believe. Buy it immediately, especially if you haven't a good adrenaline rush from a game in a while.
OVERALL: While this game isn't perfect, it nearly is because of how much of thrilling adventure it is. You will not be able to put down your controller and you won't want it to end, ever. This is one of the best adventure games I've played in a long time. This is also perhaps one of the best licensed games ever. It is a superb adventure that feels somewhat short, but this game deserved more in sales. Oh, and by the way, sniper rifles and spears are your best friends on the game. Use those most of the time because sniper rifles have a lot more ammo that's easy to locate and spears are unlimited.
THE GOOD: Non-stop thrill ride, decent graphics, sublime music, King Kong scenes are awesome, combat it great, good puzzles, actual actors from the movie, great shooting mechanics, great spear-throwing mechanics, and you will never want this adventure to end.
THE BAD: Animation stutters, camera can be jittery during King Kong scenes, game feels a little short.

Lots of fun, not overly difficult

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: December 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

So far, I feel like this game is a good blend of being challenging, but easy enough that you can progress through and keep it fun.

I have a number of other games that I'm stuck on. There's a balance between being challenging enough, but not so much so that you get tired of trying. Maybe I don't have the time or dedication to commit that some do. So far, I feel like this game is right there.

There's a lot of scenes that have gotten my adrenaline going pretty good (dinosaurs, gross, huge bugs) without being sick. I don't need blood to make it exciting, and this game doesn't go overboard with that.

I agree with one poster--the one scene I've been in so far where you're Kong, the controls felt kind of kludgy. We'll see how other scenes go.

great game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: December 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

that akadude who left a bad review just mad cause he sucks. What he is right is do not waste your money buying it but rent it instead. You can beat it in an long sitting and you constantly kill the same things the hole game. More weapons should have been added into the game and although fun you constantly throw spears and light bushes on fire. You get to play as kong which as fun as it would seem its not, its more fun to play as the human guy and the controls on kong stink. The graphics are good and it keeps you playing and playing. You wont be regreting spening 50 bucks or how ever much until your finished with it in a matter of hours so i am telling you now do not buy just rent it, it may seem fun and entertaining and worth 50 bucks untill your finished with story because thats all it has to offer.

Graphics Good. Game Boring.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: January 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

While this game has some excellent graphics, after a while the scenery gets old. The challenges get redundant as you search for sticks or fire or ammo, or shoot at raptors or big bird things scene after scene (after scene after scene). As Kong, mobility is limited to a single correct path that you have to find. Players have little freedom of movement, and while swinging from branch to branch, or running along the side of a cliff or building looks cool, players have limited control over where Kong goes. Not Fun. The game is also very short. Less than 10 hours of play.

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