This was a game I played as far back as 2018 and while I remember enjoying it, I appreciate it much more now than I did after that initial playthrough. This is in large part due to me playing so many movie tie in games over the years and I mean the decent and enjoyable ones. What makes this Kong Kong movie tie in game stand out is how it feels like a meticulous and delibrately crafted by comparison to some of the better games of it's type. When playing King Kong, I couldn't help but say to myself, "wow there seems to be an earnest attempt at telling a story without me needing to watch the film". I also haven't watched the Peter Jackson King Kong movie in a very long time.
Starting up the game, it was surprising, sure there's footage from the movie used as the opening cutscene but there is an attempt to establish character and location. For example, Jack Driscoll and the other characters all start off washed up on Skull Island. There's also a sense of establishing Carl Denham as this guy eccentric, self centered movie director who cares more about getting a good shot than the well being of others around him, this can be infered all by watching him move around during gameplay and what he says. Ann Darrow seems like someone who might be helpless but she can help you during gameplay and during the Kong sections, she help play a role in help the player progress through the level. Characters like Hayes is a by the book straight man. It was weird playing a game like this where it doesn't feel like the developers are secretly telling you, "you watched the movie, we don't need to tell you anything".There's also other deligently planned aspects of the game like how for example there are moments where there are scripted set pieces where you are going to run past a part of the level that you will eventually come back to continue on with the game. You even slowly go back to the start of Skull Island towards the end of the game.
Other parts like there's multiple levels where you try to get Kong's attention to defeat the V Rex or Jack and by extension the player making his way to Kong's Lair to rescue Ann.
When Jack is with npcs, it can feel like an escort quest but it does reinforce themes of survival and the npcs will also help you. The sections where you play as King Kong himself contrasts how the creatures you barely scraped by against using guns and spears are now insignificent which explains why the humans are afraid of him. This is all done through gameplay.
The committment to not relying on a HUD is also commendable even if at times how much ammo you have in the heat of the moment can be pretty vague.
The visuals themselves also hold up well too with detailed character models for the time and an impressive sense of scale.
With all that said, there are issues with that game that hold it back from great. One issue is that I wish the load screens weren't so frequent. This was before God of War would come out and find ways to mask load screen while keeping the player in the game but with a game so adament about immersion, a load screen can take me out of the experience especially when the levels themselves aren't that long.
The combat for both Jack and Kong aren't very good on there own. The former is shooting or throwing spears dinosaurs, centipedes and bats until they die. Their behavior just consist of charging in at you. Your ammo pool is limited and you can die in 2-3 hits with long health regen time, this can be problematic when Jack's base movement is so slow and stiff and there is no run button of any kind to help avoid damage. The checkpoint system is forgiving luckily. The sound design for weapons and feedback is just satisfactory enough but doesn't go above and beyond.
Kong's combat while not prevelant mainly consist of mashing the attack button and maybe doing some dashes into an attack. Rage mode here and there. It's just mainly there to fufil a base level fantasy until the regen health for Kong pops up and now you have to wait for health to regen and avoid damage while getting into close quarter fisticuffs with animals. The platforming is also very automated where death can happen due to buggy game design than because of skill.
There's also some weird bugs and glitches and this can vary widely from the version you play.
Objectives can get reused quite often. Lots of, "go find switch to put on pillar to open door","burn some grass with flame spear" , "throw spear to have fire to drop down", "get bait to lure some some spiders away," "escort or defend npcs", "walk on large bodies of water", "lure some canivores away from friendly npcs".
While these get reused and mixed up enough to not feel too grating in the moment it can feel like the game dragging at it's heels at times.
The last few levels in the city can also feel confusing to navigate and quickly cobbled together too.
Overall, while having major gameplay issues, King Kong is a game worth experiencing for its earnestness.
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