This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by John Godfrey.

Video games based on movie franchises. Yeah, I know, nobody really wants to hear about them because unfortunately, the majority of games based on movies are cheap cash-ins designed to pocket even more money for the movie studio based on whatever blockbuster is getting a lot of buzz from the gaming demographic. However, things are changing, as movie directors are realizing more and more that the interactive medium can be used to further the experience from the films and be more involving, immersive and expressive as technology continues to evolve. They’re just beginning to realize that this is no longer the Pac-Man, Pong and Space Invader era. Peter Jackson had a big hand in the Peter Jackson’s King Kong game, making sure that his vision was adhered to the entire way, but does it make for a good game?

Director Carl Denham has happened across a secret map, to a place never believed to be in existence - a place that time has forgotten. What better place to shoot a movie, right? The game kicks off with a few explanatory scenes - actual footage from the 2005 Peter Jackson movie - of Carl discussing this; finding the leading lady; boarding the ship; and then crashing at Skull Island. The story is established in mere minutes and then you take the reigns controlling Jack Driscoll, the writer behind Denham’s film. You trek across Skull Island with a team comprised of Denham, the leading lady Ann Darrow, and Hayes and Jimmy, at first finding shooting locales and filming footage, until it’s discovered that a variety of dinosaurs, huge creepy-crawlies like bats, millipedes, crabs and scorpions also inhabit the island. There’s also an ancient tribe that’s not too happy about your surprise visit and a giant gorilla named... Kong. The game then becomes about gathering any crew you’ve become seperated from and leaving the island alive.

It’s only a matter of minutes into the game when you’re thrown into a situation of having to protect yourself from creatures and making sure the rest of your team is also alright, a gameplay mechanic that you’ll see carried across for the rest of the game. When the action starts you’re introduced to the games superbly simplistic control scheme. It takes a second to learn and it’s easy to use. A quick run-down is: L2 aims weapon, R3 zooms weapon, R2 does a double act of the action button and firing the weapon, R1 reloads your weapon and X lets you talk to other characters and take their weapon. It’s that simple, and it works like a charm. You can only carry one weapon at a time (after all, this is Skull Island, not San Andreas where you can find a gun shop and liquor store on every corner), ammo is rare on the island and whatever you find is courtesy of care packages dropped by the pilot in your team circling the island. You can carry a spear, which there are plenty of on the island thanks to the native tribe that inhabits it, or a bone which can also be thrown like a spear, at the same time as you carry a firearm, though the spear must be dropped before you can use the firearm again.

If this was just your traditional first-person shooter, the way the weapons system works in King Kong probably wouldn’t fly in it, but because of the scenarios created in the game, the weapon system is incredibly successful. You have to always think about conserving your ammo because you don’t know when you’ll find another weapon crate; when fighting a handful of millipedes you may instinctively use the spears surrounding you against them because you don’t know if there may be a raptor or T-Rex around the corner that you’d need a firearm for more than a giant bug. Of course, when the fast moving dinosaurs enter the scene you usually run out of ammo quick and the game becomes purely about survival and using the environment to your advantage, weaving around stone columns that the dinosaurs can’t fit through or hiding in an ancient stone building while you think of a way to distract the dinosaurs. This could mean killing another nearby creature to get the attention of the predators, so that they’ll be too busy eating it while you leave, or in a situation where a gate needs to be opened, you could divert attention to yourself by shooting at the dinosaurs and running through columns so that their attention is on you while your team opens the gate.

Besides the shooting element, the game also relies on the use of physical puzzles. The puzzles all focus on the fact that you need to go through gates at certain parts of the game to progress. To open the gate you usually need two people to crank the gate open. Sometimes a peg is missing and you must search the area for it. Sometimes when you find the peg it’s behind brush which you cannot pass through and must set a fire, but the nearest fire may have been a little ways back, behind obstacles like spiders and water. It then becomes your initiative to somehow get that peg into the post and open the gate to proceed. It sounds like an extremely simple premise, which it is, but every time it happens there’s a new spin on it and new variables which always make it interesting. 

Of course, the other component to the game besides the first-person shooting segments with Jack is the third-person element featuring King Kong himself. Kong’s segments find you swinging across the jungle on tree limbs, running on vine-covered walls, and fighting whatever beast wants to take Ann away from you. It plays part like a platformer and part like a wrestling game once you start fighting the other creatures on the island hand to hand. The fights can be particularly exciting to watch, especially when Kong enters rage mode by pounding his chest - the colors become desaturated and the lighting blown out as Kong delivers lethal slow-mo blow after slow-mo blow. 

While all this action is taking place you may be surprised that there is absolutely NO HUD. That’s correct, no heads up display, no little meter that tells you whether you’re almost dead or out of ammo; instead there are visual and audio cues that more than do the trick. As for ammo, every time Jack reloads he’ll say something along the lines of "It’s okay, I’ve got enough magazines,” “One magazine after this,” or “I’m dry,” so you always know what your weapon status is just by hitting reload. I would say this method works even better than an HUD, because with a HUD, even if it’s for a mere half a second you have to look elsewhere on-screen than the action to see what your status is during the heat of the moment, the moment where it matters for you to know how much ammo you have is the moment in the game that it’s hardest for you to check it. As for health status, when you’re critical you’ll hear your heart beat faster and see the screen go red, and that’s when you know you have to get out of danger or die in one more hit. If you manage to get away, and take a few moments to collect yourself so the screen is no longer red, you’ll be recovered from the incident and ready to move on.

Video and audio effects are used well throughout the game. First off, the game is letterboxed on 4:3 televisions and that adds so much to the movie feeling, the way the picture is composed in a widescreen format is instantly more compelling than one with a simple 4:3 ratio (if you don’t like letterbox you can turn this off in the options, as well as be able to get a weapons HUD). Whenever Jack is scared you can hear his breathing become faster and more erratic, this in turn makes you feel a bit more scared about what may be just ahead of you. Whenever a huge beast like a T-Rex roars in front of you, the camera will shake and the screen will blur to further enhance the frightful experience. The graphics in the game in general are simply gorgeous, the first few levels especially. I was wondering how the team managed to get all of these textures to work with the PS2’s limited memory, as well as great character and environmental models, with random rock formations and foliage everywhere. The lighting is also fantastic - both the fire effects and natural lighting are very realistic. The music in the game is very cinematic and fitting with such a game, and the sound effects are top notch; the sounds of all the creatures are harrowing and can give you a jump now and then. The cast comes back to voice their characters, so that movie authenticity is added there as well. 

Though King Kong is a great game, it is notoriously short, maybe clocking in around six hours. The shortness is probably due to the game’s other problem in that it is very linear. Though this is not instantly recognizable through playing some parts, because it is a dense jungle in most of the game and you’re simply following whatever path is clear for you, you realize later on you’ve pretty much been on a straight path the whole time. What’s even worse is that the Kong segments might as well have been on rails. When Kong goes through the jungle, swinging on trees and running on walls covered with vines, you simply hold forward as the direction to run or swing and press square to jump or speed up. Apparently, it’s impossible to jump too early or late during these sequences, so you don’t even need to worry about timing or accuracy. I just found myself holding forward and continuously tapping the square button like a Track and Field game through all of Kong’s “jungle chase” sequences. When it comes to fighting, the Kong segment becomes more interesting, as you have to fight off many small creatures at once or face off against big foes like the T-Rex; this portion plays a lot like a simplified wrestling game and can be quite dramatic to watch but repetitive to play, consisting of only button-mashing.

I really wasn’t expecting this much from a movie license, but King Kong obviously had a lot of work go into it to make it something more than just a movie cash-in. Though it is very linear and very short, it is excellent at creating a rich visual, audio and emotional experience in an extremely cinematic manner. Fans of the upcoming movie should definitely pick this one up as it does both the movie and the video game format justice, but casual gamers ought to give it a rental first, because you’ll probably be able to beat it before you have to return it and make your decision based on that.

Simplistic controls and premise, but the situations make the game tense and fun.

Really beautiful textures, models and lighting effects, has a cinematic flare.

Excellent cinematic score, edge of your seat sound effects, star voice talent.

You always want to see what lies ahead on the Island, but your voyage ends up short.

Like a movie once is enough for a few months. You can go back and unlock things.