Peter Jackson's King Kong (Xbox 360) Game Review - Page 6 of 6

However, boredom also struck me as I played (and especially when I replayed) many of the levels. Creature, stab, repeat. Kong is the real star of this show, but his share of the game is woefully small. Even New York, which is played entirely as Kong, is short with an unsatisfying climax.

While King Kong impresses with an immersive and HUD-less jungle, great battles between titanic creatures, and some inspired visuals, too much of its already brief journey is spent on the numbing journey of Jack. Even though people paid exorbitantly to see the fictional Kong in exhibition, this game does not have enough of the 8th wonder to justify the price of admission.

Technical Notes

The PC version of the game installs the StarForce rootkit as part of its copy protection. The graphics of the standard PC version of the game that was reviewed are comparable to the PS2 and the Xbox versions, but with beefed up resolutions and support for anti-aliasing/anisotropic filtering. There is a “Gamer’s Edition” for the PC that can only be purchased online that features graphics theoretically comparable to the Xbox 360’s (on Hi-Def Tvs), but with significantly higher system requirements.

System Requirements

Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP
1.0 GHz AMD Athlon™ or Intel® Pentium® III (2.5 GHz Pentium IV or AMD Athlon™ recommended) processor
256 MB (512 MB recommended) of RAM
64 MB(128 MB recommended) (see supported list) DirectX® 8.1 compliant video card
DirectX® 8.1 compliant sound card
DirectX 8.1 (DirectX 9.0c included on disc)
8x or faster (32x or faster recommended) CD-ROM drive
1.5 GB minimum free hard drive space

REPORT CARD : Peter Jackson’s King Kong

category	rating	comments
Originality	2	Adapted from the hit movie, the game does its best to expand on the source material but the developers didn’t (or wouldn’t) come up with enough.
Longevity	1	Far too short, and the repetitive aspects reduce replay again.
Innovation	3	Kong is a completely new experience, but the game stumbles when finding things for Jack to do in all his HUD-less glory.
Graphics	4	Not mind-blowing, but they often impress and do so without the latest tech under the hood.
Sound	3	The creatures sound great, but your companions and your own voice get tiresome fast.
Fun Factor	2	Kong is a blast to play as, but because his time is dwarfed by Jack’s repetitive adventure, much of the game becomes tedious.