Intelligent Design
If hardcore gamers could put down the joysticks and brush off the Cheetos dust long enough to hold a vote on the most unjustly neglected game of the past few years, a top contender would have to be 2003’s Beyond Good and Evil, a slyly written fantasy that mixed cute and challenging in crack-like proportions. (Give it to someone who rarely plays games, and watch them develop insomnia.) One notable fan was director Peter Jackson, who was reportedly so impressed after playing it that he sought out developer Michel Ancel and gave him full rein on developing the companion game to Jackson’s dream project King Kong.
The resulting game, the awkwardly titled Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, shows that Jackson’s instincts were correct, and then some. Almost ridiculously immersive, this is a short (the frequent checkpoints and shifting-difficulty AI ensure that even the most butterfingered button pusher should be able to complete it within a weekend) yet brilliantly paced combination of first-person shooter and third-person brawler.
Closely following the structure of the film from bug-infested Skull Island to the eventual coda at the foot of the Empire State Building, the game’s innovations lie mainly within the first-person segments, which take up about 70 percent of the running time. Unusually, there are no onscreen health indicators, crosshairs, or ammo gauges to clutter up the screen. Everything vital is relayed by visual or audio clues, which is jarring at first but quickly becomes genuinely cinematic. The use of sound is particularly notable, with inspired performances by the original cast (this is the least snarky Jack Black has sounded since, well, ever) mixing with your character’s off-screen groans and heavy breathing. Said breathing is justified: Far from the usual assortment of megaweapons, your arsenal is limited to a few guns and whatever spears you can pick up from the various carcasses scattered around the area. In a nice touch, things can be made easier by abusing the local ecosystem—everything on the island has a taste for something beneath it in the food chain, and you can often avoid conflict by spearing a smaller critter and using it as a distraction. The weak-sister attributes may be daunting at times—particularly when you’re facing off against an extremely pissed off Tyrannosaur—but it’s a credit to the game’s design that you always feel like you have just enough resources to get through an area, if played smartly enough.
Such relative puniness, however, pays off in spades when you finally get to play as Kong, opening up giant cans of whup-ass against monster bats, dino hordes, and masses of fire-wielding natives. Veteran gamers may find the limited number of available combos disappointing, but the way that the game conveys the sheer size and power of the Big Guy is mightily impressive. Shortness of the game aside, the first time you finish a ferocious duke-out by ripping open a T-Rex’s jaw, it’s hard not to feel like paying full price has been more than justified. Big Monkey good monkey.