Though PJ: King Kong has some good moments, the game is too uneven to be recommended wholeheartedly
Well, both yes and no.
First and foremost, this game is split between trying to be a good game, and trying to tell the story of the movie. If I had to judge, it does a better job of the latter, but not to the point of making the player feel like they are a part of a movie. Or, should I say, only now and then.
Because King Kong is an uneven experience - in the beginning of the game, you'll se plenty of fun and impressive moments, but towards the middle of the game, most of the gameplay variants and ideas are exhausted, and even the storytelling loses some of its breath.
But King Kong is not a failure. Some of the ideas in this game are well implemented, especially the dinosaurs (along with the infamous T-rex) are striking, and sometimes impressive. The Jungle has a lush, vibrant glow to it and although the levels are linear, the illusion of an expansive jungle is there.
Unfortunately, when King Kong finally comes to New York, the visuals fade to bland textures, appalling 3D models (the cars look like tin toys) and it doesn't help, that some of the actors models in the game, refuses to open their mouths, when they say something (especially apparent in the end).
The actual gameplay is a mixture of FPS, simple logical puzzles and - when you play as Kong himself - the game turns to a ape vs. dinosaur type of brawl n' run game. Often with a rather irritating time limit, but otherwise these gameplay types complement eachother rather well - at least 'till your halfway through. At this point the gameplay elements goes in 'recycle' mode, and only changes a little at the very end in New York. And not to the better. The gameplay sometimes take a pause for giving you an 'FPS' version of a cutscene. Unfortunately these living cutscenes feels convoluted and not as fluently blend into the game as seen in other games (like Bioshock)
And talking about the technical side of things, its as uneven as the game itself. The visuals are decent - as mentioned before the jungle looks impressive, but some of the animations are stiff and dead, and for a game that tries to take a cinematic approach, it is somehow striking that the 3D actors have few to none facial expressions. Some of the vegetation, that plays a keyrole as a gameplay element, looks strikingly horrid and out of touch with the rest of the jungle vegetation. Maybe it was meant to be that way, but it sure degrades the overall impression. The framerate is far from solid, and although the game looks decent, this is a pure example of why some the launch games to a console performs worse than we'd expect - and why these framerate troubles extent to the short New York section is beyond me, as this particular section of the game looks bland and at times straight ugly.
So, check the bargain bin, and give it a try. I've seen the game for as low as 10$ - and its definitely worth that. Just don't expect a solid experience from beginning to the end.