Peter Jackson's King Kong (Xbox 360)

AI

The human AI is passable; I have seen it get stuck at times especially near to the start of the game when Carl Denham became attached to a wall, refused to move and the game ground to a halt. I was fortunately able to poke him a little and get things moving again. Your companions aren’t too bad in a fight, though most of the time it is Ann that will rack up the kills when confronted by monsters, she has a mean vicious streak and is a fine shot with a spear.

Allies will pick up weapons from around the environment, grabbing spears and lengths of bone to use as weapons. If you give them a gun, they’ll do their very best not to waste the ammunition.

The various monsters have differing levels of intelligence and AI, the Tyrannosaurus is a killing machine when you’re playing as Jack, unstoppable and deadly but when you play as Kong you must still keep your wits about you, since if there’s more than one they’ll work as a team to bring you down hard.

If you’re attacked by a pack of Dinosaurs then you’re in for a fun time as either Jack or Kong, since again the game’s AI adapts based on your actions. If you’re beating the strongest then they’ll run off to regroup or try and flank you to get a better position. In Kong’s sections they’ll try and bring you down by leaping on your back and harassing you, fortunately Kong can really dish out the hurt against the smaller Dinosaurs and this will give you a break to rethink your strategy.

It is worth remembering that the island functions on a ‘food chain’ and you can exploit this by using the AI against itself, as Jack. Shoot a strange bat creature and the big T-Rex intent on making you a toothpick, might just stop to chew on that instead.

Sound

Kong has great sound; the atmospherics of the Jungle are a great counterpoint to the crack of a gun, or the roar of King Kong himself as he battles, snarling and fierce monsters in the depths of his homeland. It takes advantage of Dolby 5.1 and is replete with a library of sounds drawn directly from the movie source or created especially for the game.

Music

An evocative and ever-changing score that once more has been mastered for the game, drawn from the movie and isn’t intrusive or loud. It provides a subtle background to the action and adventure.

Voice

Love him or loathe him, this game has Jack Black in it and the rest of the cast of the movie. There’s no much you can say except that the movie cast does a good job of making their game alter-egos come alive.

LIVE

Kong is LIVE aware and joins the rest of the new library of games, that Microsoft promises are all LIVE aware, allowing for updates, scoreboards and other features. There is no multiplayer or split-screen component to the game.

Pros

Atmospheric
Great gameplay
Good graphics
Excellent sound

Cons

Short game
No Multiplayer capacity
Learning curve can be quite steep

Final Swing

Kong is one of the first generation of new console games that uses a small percentage of the Xbox 360’s power. It looks a lot better than the Xbox incarnation of the game and the 360 version is slightly harder in places than the others.