Created by 7LEVELS, Kong: Survivor Instinct is a 2.5D action adventure that creatively ties into the events of the Kong Vs. Godzilla movie.
When you think of Kong, you probably think of a giant monkey terrorizing cities while fighting prehistoric monsters. So it is a little misleading that you play as a everyday average dude looking for his daughter in the aftermath of Kong’s destruction instead of fighting King of Monsters-style. To summarize, this is Prince of Persia side scrolling action platformer but with a gun and a giant ape in the background.
Even though you don’t play as Kong, creating an entire game based around a commoner is a gusty yet interesting side story that directly connects with the movie. It isn’t the obvious choice for use of the license but one that I admire and sort of reminds me of Halo ODST, where you play as a marine in a side story who got caught in the aftermath of Master Chief’s shenanigans. You are playing through the consequences of someone else’s actions.
It is your job to navigate a crumbling city in hopes of finding your daughter but trying to stay alive along the way. Blocked passageways result in some light environmental puzzle solving, like pushing a cabinet to clear a gap or finding keys to unlock doors. However, these are things a normal human can do. There are times when tasks need to be completed that are beyond tiny human means. This is where Kong comes into play. By scanning parts of the environment, Kong can be summoned to your location to clear a path or create drama. These are all scripted events, but they look good adding some predicted, slightly cheesy flare.
Navigating this desolate landscape isn’t just littered with traps but also bad guys who want to kill you for some reason. Even if they had a place in the story and weren’t there just to put a hazard between the player’s goal, combat is repetitive and clunky. There is a melee attack, blocking, a rolling move that isn’t great, and gun play that suffers from a very limited number of bullets. At best, combat is fine, nothing special, slightly boring, but gets a little annoying when you have to kill the same NPC you just took down sixty seconds ago. I almost wish enemies were removed entirely and a higher emphasis was put on puzzle solving using Kong to help.
The highlight is the obvious encounters with Kong and the giant monsters. While it would have been cool if they were not so scripted, it does create some captivating tension. These segments are short lived and require trial and error, but they look impressive especially for a lower costing 2.D title.
Kong: Survivor Instinct isn’t a terrible game as its blemishes are tolerable, but it never achieves the height of Kong himself. While the gameplay maintains a steady good-to-decent range, it at least deserves recognition for using the license in such an unexpected way.
Not As Good As: Rogue Sentry
Better Than: the Single-Pak link multiplayer mode in Godzilla: Domination for GBA
Wait For It: the next Hollow Knight
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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RATING
SCORE - 6.5
6.5
SCORE
For a Kong game in which you don’t play as Kong, this 2.5 action puzzling platformer is decently average but remains strongly admirable for extending the story of the movie in an unexpected way.
Editor in Chief - been writing for mygamer,com for 20+ years. Gaming enthusiast. Hater of pants. Publisher of obscure gaming content on my YT channel.
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