Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully done!, December 6, 2005
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Standing with Riddick as one of the best movie tie-in's available!, December 17, 2005
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
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...
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
WOWOWOWOW, November 30, 2005
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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