King Kong Hands-On

Monkey Puncher

Watch Kong do his thing in this action-packed trailer.

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Ubisoft's King Kong has the rather daunting task of offering an experience that compares to or complements the upcoming Peter Jackson film of the same name. To make matters worse, the film and game are both dealing with a film icon of enormous proportions. So how the heck do you pull something like that off? For starters, you hand the keys to a veteran developer with a body of work that's matured nicely, in this case Michel Ancel and his Montpellier Studio. It also doesn't hurt if you get the director, who happens to be an Academy Award winner and owns the special-effects house pumping out the jaw-dropping visuals for the film, to collaborate. Such is the case with Ubisoft's King Kong, a promising cinematic game that's coming to the party about as bulletproof as you could hope. After whetting our appetites at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, where Ubi got the crowds in its mini-theater jumping, the developer let us try out a work-in-progress version of the game to see if the game lives up to the lofty expectations set by its first impression.

Kong reaches for a particularly tasty-looking monkey treat.

Before we get to specifics, we'll cut to the chase: Does King Kong live up to its first impression? Yes. Oh yes. The combination of Jackson's stunning vision for the film and Ancel's Montpellier team, no strangers to cinematic wonder as evidenced by Beyond Good & Evil, appears to be a winning one. We had the chance to try out a handful of different levels, playing as both Jack Driscoll (the male lead in the film played by Adrian Brody) and Kong himself (the alpha-male lead in the film played by the most convincing assemblage of CG to grace the silver screen yet) and are pleased by what we've seen.

We had the chance to try out five levels from the game, some of which we tried at this year's E3. Four levels cast us as Jack, and one let us get our Kong on to good effect. The first level, where you play as Jack, gives you your first glimpse of Kong just as Ann Darrow, the actress who gets nominated as a monkey treat by the natives of Skull Island, is nabbed by the mighty one. You'll be freed by Carl Denham, one of the members of your troubled expedition, and you'll both set out to follow Kong. The level lets you get a feel for the first-person controls and the game's lack of interface. It's also quite effective at reminding you of your place in the world of Skull Island. The next segment drives home the point that you're basically kibble to the creatures around you--you'll be trying to get your band of merry men away from a massive dinosaur, the V-rex for those of you following the film, a cousin of the more familiar tyrannosaurus. Though you may initially get the impression that the level pits you and your group against the V-rex, the fact of the matter is that the level is all about getting the hell out of the thing's way and protecting your group. There's no way for you to kill it, so you'll have to slow it down and distract it as your other party members clear the way ahead by opening gates. This theme runs through a forced scrolling level that finds you riding a makeshift raft down a river bordered by hungry rexes who are ecstatic at the moving buffet. The next segment is the stuff of nightmares and is almost funny if you think about it. You'll have to navigate a running pack of brontosauruses, which gets you to cave where you think you can catch your breath but turns out to be full of deadly critters.

As Jack, you'll be going up against these guys armed with spears. Good luck with that.

The Jack levels do a great job of making you feel like a leaf in a windstorm. You're at the mercy of just about everything around you, relying on little more than a spear, some fire, or some weapons if you get lucky. However, there's something to be said for being so insignificant. You'll be able to take full advantage of the world around you if you use your brain. One of the big things that Ubi is touting is the game's "food chain," which is on good display throughout these levels. Raptors can be distracted if you hit a nearby bat so that it falls, dead or wounded, near them. At the same time, bats can be distracted if you harpoon yourself some insects on a spear (creating a makeshift shish kebab) and pitch the treat past them. Another useful aspect of your surroundings is the level of interactivity. You can pick up spears or sticks lying around to defend yourself, or if you're lucky, you can use them in combination with fire to either increase the amount of damage they do when hitting an enemy or set nearby shrubbery ablaze. Sure they're not the most heroic things to do, but if you're trying to throw down with prehistoric creatures, dirty fighting is a must.

The mechanics of the game work surprisingly well considering there's no interface. Your health is reflected in your view of the world. You'll know you're taking damage in a number of ways; chief among them is an unpleasant jerking motion and a red flash. As your condition gets worse you'll notice a red haze, you'll move sluggishly, and you'll generally get the impression that something really bad is happening as your health gets low. Tracking your ammo without an interface is a bit trickier, but it still works pretty well. Basically, Jack will call out his ammo as you play. So, for example, if you fire off a few rounds with your shotgun he'll say how many shots he has left. Attacking works surprisingly well, and even though you don't have a reticle, you'll be able to use your gun sight to varying degrees. Your rifle's scope lets you aim using traditional means, while your pistol requires you to eyeball your shots. When using a spear you simply have to point the dangerous end towards your target and let it fly.