King Kong

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on November 15, 2005

Final Glimpse: Giant hairy ape seeks single white female for companionship. No weirdoes.

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Unless you've been living in a cave on Skull Island, you already know that Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is reworking the 1933 movie classic, King Kong. What you might not know is that he has also been working closely with Xavier Poix as well as Ubisoft's Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel to bring the giant gorilla to gaming consoles Ц and wow, it's looking good.

Yes, games with movie tie-ins usually suck like a tornado so what will make King Kong any different? For starters, Peter Jackson was involved from the start and is smart enough to know the difference between the two mediums; in other words, he knows that simply mirroring events in the movie would make for a boring game. Instead, he worked with Ancel and Poix to create a unique immersive experience that will make you feel as if you're actually in the movie but not restricted to the exact same storyline. The game is being designed to both complement the movie and stand on its own by letting you explore new areas, perform interesting tasks and expand on the story.

To do this, the developers worked closely with the film production team and even visited the set to better understand the feel and scope of the film. They also worked with Peter Jackson's WETA special effects team to ensure the game accurately projects the film's unique look and feel. All of the films assets were shared with the developers, including CGI artwork of the creatures and environments, and even clips of the actors so the developers could recreate authentic body movements.

As a result, the game looks fantastic. Most of the screen captures and videos you see on the Internet are Ц surprise! Ц from the PS2 version, so you can imagine how it looks on the Xbox. Every version dazzles with cool lighting and shadow effects but on the powerhouse Xbox 360, it simply looks stunning with much higher detail, normal mapping, dynamic specular lighting and a whole bunch of other technical mumbo jumbo that no one besides a programmer would understand, but certainly makes for a damn pretty game. The 360 version looks much more realistic, from the way the light filters down through the jungle canopy onto the lush foliage, to the way wetness shimmers off rocks in the moonlight. And let's not forget how incredibly detailed the characters, animals and enemies are. The game will support 1080i widescreen and Dolby 5.1, so those of you with killer home theatre setups will have another reason to make your friends green with envy.

Okay, so the game looks pretty, but what about gameplay? From what we've seen so far, gameplay can be summed up in one word: exciting. The game will be a classic action adventure with a mix of combat, puzzles and exploration, split roughly 70/30 between first-person perspective as Jack Driscoll (played by Adrien Brody) and third-person as the big ape himself.

The developers really wanted to immerse you into the experience and make you feel as if you are actually in a steamy tropical jungle. To do that, they tried to make things as realistic as possible, such as eliminating the HUD. That's right, there is nothing on the screen to clutter your view and constantly remind you that you are in a game; no health meter, no radar, no crosshairs. So how do you tell if your health is low? As you take damage, the screen will start blurring and your heartbeat and breathing will become more strained, simulating what could happen in real life. As well, your onscreen hands only appear when you're using them and will do things like automatically move aside tall foliage. Cool!

You also shouldn't expect to find weapons, ammo and health pickups conveniently lying on the ground. Instead, supply planes will occasionally drop much needed powerups as you progress deeper into the jungle searching for the heroine, Ann Darrow (played by Naomi Watts, in the role made famous by Fay Wray).

From what we can tell, this immersive strategy works; you really do feel as if you're in a tropical rain forest running for your life from deadly dinosaurs and other deadly nasties. For example, at one point, you're stuck on a raft floating down a rapidly moving river while T-Rex's are stalking you on shore. This thrilling experience will make your palms sweat with excitement, fear and the sheer intensity of the T-Rex's howling at you as their ground-shaking footsteps come ever closer, and you can feel the desperation at your pathetic attempts to shoot them with your tiny pistol while the frenzied shouts of your NPC companions drown out the roar of the river. Wow.

What makes it even more realistic is how the T-Rex's are animated. Unlike some games where characters seem to УfloatФ above the ground, the T-Rex's move and flex as if they have real weight to them. If you're thinking Jurassic Park quality, you wouldn't be too far off.

Joining the T-Rex's in their quest to turn you into a yummy cocktail weenie are other nasty enemies like giant insects, enormous bats and frighteningly quick velociraptors that can leap at you from amazing distances.

In order to survive, you will use authentic weapons from the 1930s like pistols, rifles and shotguns Ц but since you're stuck in the middle of the jungle, ammo will be rare. Instead, you may find yourself fighting with the plentiful spears, bones, tusks, sticks and other items lying around. Since there are no aiming crosshairs, fighting will be a bit of a challenge at first, especially with the spear; getting the aim and distance right will take some practice since the spear will travel along a realistic arc.

You won't be fighting all the time, however; sometimes you will just have to distract enemies while your companions attempt to complete a task. For example, at one point your buddies have to unlock a gate while a T-Rex is hot on your heels. It will be your responsibility to distract the hungry beast by chucking spears at it and making it chase you while your companions work on the door. And you thought it was a pain helping a friend moveЕ

Eventually, though, you will get to play as the big guy himself, who is a sight to behold. He not only looks impressive, but moves like you would expect a giant gorilla would move Ц with strength, authority and weight. This is thanks to the developers using good old fashioned hand-drawn animation rather than motion capture, which would have made Kong's movements too human and awkward. Taking a cue from Ubisoft's own Prince of Persia, Kong can perform some incredible acrobatics such as leaping and swinging from one tree to another, jumping across chasms, and even do a wall-run across vine covered cliff faces.

Needless to say, Kong is one powerful gorilla. He is so good he can kill dinosaurs holding Ann in one hand. However, when he wants to get serious you can put Ann down and go Cretaceous on some T-Rex butt. Kong can perform a basic swipe attack, grab or charge at them, or go into Rage mode by pounding his chest and getting all worked up into a frenzy. This gives him the ability to launch special attacks that are simply devastating to the hapless recipient. Kong smash!