Peter Jackson's King Kong
9.3
10
3
3
10/10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The best first person shoter ever just totally epic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11/22/11
An experience of kong-like proportions!
I purchased Peter Jackson's King Kong because I had heard that it was one of the top games on the Xbox. When I looked into the game, what I heard from a lot of players is that it really gets your blood pumping. I didn't fully understand what they meant until I got the game. With its suspenseful moments and host of downright creepy creatures, it will really keep the gaming experience interesting. Alright, let's get down to business. Gameplay. It offers a gaming experience set on Skull Island that really changed my definition of an action/adventure game. You play as Jack Driscoll in the first-person view, and on certain levels, you can play as Kong in the 3rd-person view, and, needless to say, the gameplay changes drastically. While playing as Jack, you'll explore the island, fighting your way past a host of creatures to reach Ann. The first thing I noticed about the gameplay was that there was no HUD of any kind. This was perfect for me, considering the fact that I like to play blind. The combat layout was interesting, because when I read the manual, it said "Press right trigger to poke" and, on the next page, "Press right trigger to shoot". It was a little puzzling, until I played the game. You have to hold down the left trigger to aim you weapon, and then press the right trigger to fire. If you hit it without holding the left trigger, it'll do your almost superfluous melee attack. There is a good assortment of weapons in the game, but it seems like there could be a lot more, considering the fact that there's only the pistol, the shotgun, the sniper, and the tommy gun. I'm sure they could have made room for a lot more, like revolvers, double-barreled shotguns, etc., to give your equipment a little more variety. The weapons that are in the game have significant variation in ammo capacity, firing rate, and firepower, and this is immediately noticed by shotgun users. Rather than being a close-quarters "when-all-else-fails" weapon, it is a cannon in this game. When you hit a raptor coming straight towards you, that raptor will be launched 10 feet backwards, sprawling on the ground. This would be a great feature if it actually killed the raptor on the first shot, rather than having to waste another shell putting it out of its misery. There are other weapons you can use in the game, like bones and spears, that will usually be your first line of defense. These weapons are used and thrown like spears, and they can have very significant range and damage. The bones do very little damage to the bigger enemies, but there are unlimited amounts of them. The spears are bigger and can inflict significant damage on enemies, especially if you spear them through the head. There are, however, a limited amount of spears. Spear throwing is an effective and fun way to take out your enemies when you are conserving ammo or are weaponless. It can be a useful survival technique, and most of the time you are forced to use them, but quite frankly, most of us King Kong gamers just like to put a few spears through a raptor's head. The damage of these melee weapons can be increased by lighting them on fire with the various burning areas throughout the game. Damage is significantly increased when the weapon of choice is on fire. Fire is also a key element in solving most of the simple puzzles in the game. Many areas will be blocked by annoying patches of bushes, most of which you can burn with extreme prejudice. All that you really do in the game is run through the jungle, although there are some moments where the pace of the game is violently shattered in intense combat or climactic moments. There are not enough of them, however, to change the face of the game. This is not a bad thing, although I wish that I could have done a bit more with Jack than run through the Jungle. Playing as Kong is a fun and powerful experience, and the Kong gameplay adds a lot to the game. His button layout is very simple, mostly because you use just one button to interact physically with your environment. That's not a bad thing, because it makes moving around much easier, but sometimes it can be very akward to, say, climb up a wall, because the game will have a little bit of a delay, and sometimes won't know what you're trying to do. It's a bit clunky, but it works. The place where Kong's gameplay really shines, though is its combat. You have a very good set of moves (sheesh, I'm comparing this to a fighting game) that can be used to lay waste to your opponents. There's your basic hit, thrash and grab, and some of these buttons can be combined to make skull-shatteringly violent combos. When taking on multiple V-rexes, you'll have more options than just beating the snot out of them. You can grab their heads, then choose to bite them or smash your fist violently into the top of their skull, climb up a wall and drop on top of them in a 2-ton body slam, or grab a log and slam them aside with brutal force. The V-rex fights are very enjoyable, and pretty much are the highlight of the Kong gameplay. There are many other small enemies to fight as Kong, but most of these are weak enough to be tossed aside with a single swipe. Overall, I'd give the gameplay a 9.2/10. The graphics are okay for the game, and textures are fabulous, the graphics seem somewhere between a previous-gen and next-gen console. Environments are open and graphically well done, but you'll notice the difference between the xbox and xbox 360 versions if you get really close to a wall. The texture of the wall just doesn't seem to bring out the visual elements that tell you that it's a stone. In contrast, it seems to give you what some of the mid-gen Zelda games had: a texture that was fantastic from far away, but lost most of its splendor when up close. The overall environments themselves, however, are done very well, and they usually add to the feel of the creepy and action-packed experience that you should have with this game. Character models look alright from a reasonable distance, but up close, they really show you that very little love went into their creation. Overall, I'd give the graphics an 8.4/10. The sound of the game is fabulous, and the voice overs from the original cast are done very well. Creature sounds aren't monotonous, and you'll have a good variety of screeches, squaks growls, etc. Overall, I'd give the sound a 9.6/10. The lasting appeal of this game is fairly good, with a few unlockable features and such, but most of these unlockable features are cheats and different visual modes. These don't really add much to the replay value of the game; on the contrary, the former takes away replay value from the game. You'll enjoy playing the levels over again, but without variety in mission goals and ways to complete those goals, you won't spend to much time replaying this game. Overall, I'd give the replay value a 7.6/10. The final verdict? King Kong is a game that will surely delight the action/adventure enthusiast, and will keep you riveted to your seat for the duration of the game. It's got thrilling moments, frightening encounters, and heart-stopping creature chases, so get ready to get your pulse pumping! It's a great buy whether you're into this type of game or not, and I can guarantee that you'll love it for a very long time, even after you stop playing it. My final rating: 8.9/10. Thanks for reading my review; thumbs up if you think it was helpful! Good luck getting out alive on Skull Island!
3/29/11
it rocks!!
I played this game on xbox and it is and will always be one of my favorite games. You will not want a cheat for this game. If you do get a cheat it won't be as fun. It is cool how you start out using a person then later on you get to use king kong. The graphics are really good. Some times it will get your blood pumping. Actually more than some times more like all the time. It is also cool how there is always a challenge. The controls can get hard but as you play you get use to it. Not many games are better accept for star wars. Unless you are a super gamer you'll restart a level some of the time. But I totally recomend this game. Some spots get confusing. Like you might be trapped because you can't find a door or a path so you some times have to look harder than usual. Thats all I have to say.
2/13/09