Peter Jackson's King Kong for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

How many times is this game going to force me to find a piece of wood or light weeds on fire? How many times am I going to have to throw a spear at a giant millipede? How many times am I going to wish it would just let me play as Kong?!

That sums up King Kong pretty well. You will spend FAR to much time playing as Jack, which boils down to throwing bones, or spears, and lighting weeds on fire. The environment, although beautiful, is not interactive. Levels are very short and linear, and often predictable, especially if you have seen the movie. Although in the movie, they rescue Anne ONCE, not three times!!!

The thing that makes up for all these flaws is the big man himself. The Kong moments are a blast and visually spectacular. I know that in the movie they dedicated a bulk of their time to making Kong look as good as possible, and it seems the developers did the same for the game. He simply looks amazing. The only thing that hampers these moments are the camera angles, which at times, can be absolutely awful. I think this happens because they tried to get that a cinematic feel. Leave that for the movie, make the game easy to navigate.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! It is far too short (around 6 hours). It is a great rental for the Kong moments, and if you are an achievement point junkie, it's one of the easiest 1000 points you'll get.

Ok first of all I've seen the movie so maybe that's why I didn't enjoy the game so much.

The Good: Decent visuals, decent controls, interesting story line(i guess if you didn't watch the movie)...

The Bad: This game will take you no more than 6 hours to complete. It is a complete waste of time if you decide to buy it. It has no replay factor and ALL of the xbox live achievements can be unlocked by playing through the game in a single round.

Final: 6, Hardly worth it. I do not recommend buying this game, only rent.

A short, but sweet, First person shooter. Nothing over the top, and clearly a port from the Xbox. However, the game adds more to the movie, and is worth checking out.

Playing as King Kong was a treat. Who doesn't like to be a huge ape? There are multiple times to play as the giant ape.

A few things puzzles are more tedious hunts then anything else. They shouldn't slow you down much, but it did hinder the experience.

An over simplified control scheme, and idiotic AI really hurt the game.

What should you do?
Rent it, get 1,000 gamer-points and send it in.

You should complete this one in around 5 hours, so plan an afternoon for it.

The Bottom Line: Well Worth Renting

One thing I can say for sure about King Kong is that it surprised me. In a good way. Here's why:

Gameplay

This game plays very well and intuitively. Once you figure out where everything is, there is no problem at all. This is one of the first applications this generation of "non-intrusive" gameplay, meaning that there are no health bars or ammo counters on screen. If your going to die, your screen flashes red with a visual warning. If your going to run out of ammo, Jack Driscoll (not Jack Black) gives you a verbal warning.

You will play either as Kong or Jack. About 70 percent of the time is spent as Jack, which is unfortunate because the King Kong levels are so much fun I wish that they were a little more frequent. The controls for each are obviously different, but they feel and work great. Swinging around with Kong and using his huge arm to bash enemies and obstacles really gives the player a sense of power.

Graphics

The graphics really struck me, particularly when I realized that I stopped to look at wet rocks. If the rocks are worth looking at, you can imagine how good the rest of the game must be. Nearly everything looks really good, but I think I most enjoyed the "V-Rexs." They looked awesome and there were some nice graphical effects when they roar at you: the entire screen blurs and you really get the feeling that your dealing with a very powerful animal.

On the negative side I have a problem with the character models. They look like something the original Xbox probably could have done, which isn't bad, but it doesn't quite match up to the rest of the environment. As far as complaints go, this is relatively minor.

Sound

Like the graphics, the sound is great. The cast from the move lent their voice talent to the game. The V-Rexs and King Kong sound as strong and mean as you'd expect.

Achievements

Just by beating this game you get a 1000 points. That is quite a boost.

Well, the graphics are great. I love the fact that you get to play as the hero and as Kong. Great story line. Prepare yourself to through alot of spears and bones! Yeah bones. you get to through bones at enemies. The game is somewhat short in my opinion but I loved it. I guess we can all agree that we know how the king kong story ends, so there really is not a surprise ending. The only thing I did not like was the fact that once you make it to New york city, the game ending comes too quick.

Pretty good game overall. It had good graphics(especially on the animals). I Did not like that it was in first-person, but playing as Kong was pretty cool. I also liked that it had achievements to improve your gamer score. A good game to rent.

King Kong the game follows a storyline similar to the movie, with, for obvious reasons, some adjustments to suit the first-person shooter design. The action starts when you row ashore on Skull Island as Jack, the screenwriter. (Perhaps the story's biggest stretch, the writer as action hero...) You, starlet Ann, producer Carl, and first mate Hayes start off traveling as a group. The game eases you in, teaching you how to solve the basic problems through interactions with the other characters. The seamless nature of this is impressive. And it's cool to be strolling around an island with Jack Black (who lends his actual voice).

You move across Skull Island in mission-based segments as you get to the eventual task, rescuing Anne from the clutches of the big ape who rules the island. Along the way, other characters help you out, giving a real sense that you're playing through the movie. There were only two points when I got hung up by one of those ridiculous swarm of enemies/annoyingly impossible jumps. The missions are varied enough to hold your interest, and the movie immersion is a plus. Though, as far as FPS games go, Kong's not going to go down as one of history's most groundbreaking.

But that's okay, because first-person shooter stuff is only half the game. When you're not Jack, you're Kong. Snap the jaws of your first T-Rex and you're hooked.

The game's ending is a little anti-climatic. But the game redeems itself by serving up an alternate ending you can unlock if you win enough points by replaying chapters.

Final verdict: Don't give up on the FPS. Playing as Kong is not to be missed.

This game is a great experience. While it is on the short side, the gameplay is very immersive. You can feel the intensity and suspense in it. If you have an HD set and 5.1 surround, it is that much better. A top notch game and one that I highly recommend. I wonder why the user rating average is so low on this game.

The best part of this game is that it plays out more like a movie. There are some times where you may have to push yourself through some boring parts, but it's well worth playing through the entire game. There are a few great moments that you will remember after you've played this game, and it's those moments that really make this worth playing.

I'll start by saying that I still haven't seen the movie...so that probably has some kind of effect on my review.

Anyways, I thought the main strong point of the game was its subtle differences from anything I've ever seen before. It's not a first person shooter, but you'll use a pistol, shotgun, machine gun, and a sniper rifle. It's not a puzzle game, yet oddly enough I found myself perplexed on how to get out of some of the situations I found myself in.

My opinion is that King Kong does much better than what other "movie-to-games" have tried to do in the past. It actually delivers a movie experience. This is in part thanks to all the actual voiceovers done by the actors themselves. (I'm not positive every single one was done by their real-life counterpart, but you get my point.) One thing to be noted, be it of much value or not, is the fact that there is no HUD in the game. Never will you see a meter displaying how much ammunition you have left or how many hits you have left until you die. The entire game is played out in a blank (free of meters) wide screen.

I give King Kong a 7; here's why. I would give it a 9...if I had rented it to watch a movie. And I would give it a 5 if I ranked it solely on gameplay...because honestly, it's a lot of the same. (Light this stick on fire, burn down some bushes, repeat.) But because of the experience the game provides, which it does well, I am left in the middle at a solid, but not amazing, 7.

This game may be a first-person shooter/ third person whatever filled with dinosaurs and a giant awesome gorilla, but if your someone who is achievement obsessive, that would be the only reason you get this game. This game wasn't all that hard, so I do recommend this game for anyone who wants to boost their gamerscore.

Let's get right down to brass tax: This game is INTENSE. If you thought you were in for a relaxing ride on the Jungle Cruise, with amusing animatronic villagers and hippo heads poking out of the water, think again. No lounging allowed on this ride. Put down your fancy pants fiber-optic light toy and pick up a spear cause there's a big effing dinosaur coming at you, and he's coming fast. There's so many elements that bring an amazing cinematic experience to the game play. Sound is a major factor, whether its the main character's heavy breathing and gasping at key moments, the chirping of a nearby Velociraptor anxiously waiting to free you of your troublesome innards, or the wonderful soundtrack gaining intensity at just the right moment, you really feel like you're in a movie. The voice acting is, believe it or not, all pretty legit, and the lack of any on-screen display just adds to the experience. Not sure how much ammo you have? Press "B" and Jack breathily informs you that you have "Three magazines on back-up." Unfortunately, ammo is scarce, so those three magazines get sucked up pretty quickly. There are spears and sharp bones aplenty, but we're talking prehistoric monsters, people. I'll trade you my rib cage for your 12 gage. At certain points, your mindless spear chucking is rewarded as you take the role of Kong himself. Senselessly prying a huge dinosaur's jaw apart has never been so... satisfying. The main drawback is the length of the game. At a measly 6-7 hours, you're left wanting more. The problem is, as I'm sure you know, there's no room in the storyline for a sequel. Its a renter, but a helluva renter. Thank God for Gamefly.

What can I say? I still say this game graphically is the best since the launce of the 360. Environments are just gorgeous and half the time playing as Kong you wonder if your playing or its a cut scene. I wish there were more times playing as Kong because playing as Jack sometimes seemed long and drawn out. I also wish the puzzles were more difficult. Like the fire parts or grabbing the handle for the pokes to open doors. This game is a serious renter. I would buy it if It weren't one of those games you beat in one night.

Oh my god, this game is absolutely horrible! I rented it for easy acheivments, but stopped playing because playing the game wasn't worth 1,000 acheivement points. Let me explain.
The campaign is the worst I've ever seen. The story did not follow the movie, and the stuff they put in to replace it didn't make sense. The makers of the game do not provide sufficient weapons to beat your enemies (aka bones to kill 3 velociraptors, or 5 bullets to kill 10 giant bats), and having to look down your sights to shoot is a pain with the sniper. Most enemies take 2-4 bullets to kill, which are few in supply, and it only takes two smaller hits or one good hit to kill you. Fire works well, but it is not very common, can only burn TALL grass, and frequent glitches prevent your enemies demise.
The graphics leave a lot to be desired. You can see the pixels easily on a lot of plants, rocks, and people. Also, some enemies look almost exactly the same as others. The spiders look just like the crabs, and the scorpions, with very slight veriations.
This game is very deceiving. You don't play as Kong much, you mostly play as Jack. This takes a lot of fun out of what could have been a good "monster fighting" game. I don't think a lot of effort was put into making this game. I've played some pretty pathetic games, but this was one of the worst games I've ever played, hands-down. This game is so bad, if you ask a paralyzed person in a wheel chair to play it, they would get up and run away.

Graphics 8
Sound 9
Gameplay 4
Lastability 4

This game for me was a huge disappointment. After reading the reviews I was expecting alot more. The gameplay is repetitive and not at all challenging, although in parts in was more frustrating than tough.

Jack Black does a great job along with other cast members of voicing the game, which does look impressive. However, there are essentially maybe 5 or 6 different enemies the whole way through the island level and its just not enough.
Maybe worth a quick rent to gawk at the graphics for a couple of hours but that's it.

It only takes about ten minutes to realize this game is not even worth a rental. First of all, the graphics through-out most of the game are Xbox 1 quality at best. The gameplay is entirely linear in that there is only one path to take at any given time. Also, I personally encountered over 10 in-game glitches, three of which froze the system causing me to have to turn off the console and restart. The only slightly enjoyable parts of the game were when I was able to take control of Kong himself. The designers actually did a decent job with making the player feel that larger than life experience while jumping from place to place with the oversize gorilla. Unfortunately, even playing as Kong is only really fun for about the first two levels.
If your looking for a boring, linear game with more glitches than any game should ever have, then this is the game for you. All others, stay far away.

This game was excellent and so smooth. The grapnics were incredable and gameplay was great. the game follows the movie to a t. You get to play as the main charicter and then switch to kong and back its sweet and with actual movie cutscenes and actual charicters that look real. the game has incredable sound and graphics the bad part is that its just too short 3 and a 1/2 hours so you can beat it in a day for 1000 gamerscore.NO replay makes this a 8 but if you like the movie get the game a renter definately not a owner as no replay at all

I was expecting this game to be as good as the movie and let me tell you, it's not. The graphics are not next gen they look like the regular xbox. The gameplay is awful. To look up, you have to press down on the thumbstick. And to look down, you have to press up. C'mon now! That was not smart on their part. It's hard to fight off bugs and dinosaurs because you easily run out of ammo and spheres won't do you any good. I need bullets to kill off hungry creatures. It's also hard to catch up with the other characters because they run and leave you behind. The only good that came out of this game was the voice work from the actual actors from the movie. Just stick to the movie and not the game because it'll disapoint you.

what garbage! it's too repetitive. how many times do we have to find some stupid wooden stick so that we can open a door? or how many times do we have to burn fields with fire. it's too dark! too repetitive and the graphics are not top notch by any means. people who liked this game are the ones that either are die hard kong finatics or owned this game first. yo people you should stop pretending that this is a good game and try playing one...call of duty 2 or GRAW will do just fine. Canker Tanker signing out!

This game is horrible from start to finish. From the "use the environment as a weapon". The only reason to not give this game a zero is because the King Kong levels are ok. Now let me say I'm a big first person shooter fan. Bad game.

My Thoughts on Kong:

+ Has a really nice first person engine
+ Graphics are awesome
- The lighting on the game is really bad

Don't let lighting turn you off to this game, it's a great game but you might want to wait for the patch before you try/buy.

Dont waste the 5 days it takes to receive and then mail back this game to gamefly, it is boring. It is the same thing over and over again, as if i were playing a SNES game.

This games best feature is the graphics; and those aren't even that great. This game falls short on some many levels - much like the movie. It is completely linear, with no variety of weapons or level design!! (ie. run through a level, stop at a door, find the "key", run through the level, stop at a door... OVER AND OVER) The ONLY cool part is playing as KONG and even that is limited to 1, yes 1 COMBO.

Save your time and the embarassment of "showing" of your 360 by skipping this game all together.

sure this game is a 1000 gamer points but i still don't get what that's gonna get you. Even u get this game for that reason the game play will get so repetitive that even some Gamer point addicts will stop playing this game and return it. The graphics are good only if u have hd on a regular tv they r descent the game play is the setback it just feels not right when it is in your hands. DONT GET THIS GAME UNLESS U REALLY CONSIDER YOURSELF THE HARDCOREST GAMER POINT ADDICT