Sometimes we get lucky and game publishers choose to release demos for their upcoming games. These cases are always quite nice. After all, who doesn’t like playing a game they’re anticipating weeks or months before it’s due to release? Other times, when a console game is also in development for the PC, we get treated to downloadable demos of said game. There are some drawbacks to these kinds of demos – for one, we don’t get to experience playing the game with a console controller – but it’s always a nice surprise, nonetheless, to play a game that isn’t being released for a while.
This is kind of the case with King Kong, which is in development for a large array of platforms, including GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and PC. Ubisoft released a downloadable PC demo of the movie-based game on October 7, and AMN’s GameCube Editor-in-Chief Phillip Levin has since played through the demo multiple times. Below he’s detailed his hands-on impressions of Ubisoft’s upcoming first-person adventure game.
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King Kong is shaping up to be incredibly moody, atmospheric, heart-pumping and downright impressive – not to mention a number of other great things. That’s how the short PC demo left me feeling after running through it multiple times. So far, King Kong is well-designed and is dripping in production values.
Those who haven’t been following the game shouldn’t fret. There are a few things they should know, however. For starters, King Kong is based off the upcoming Hollywood remake of the classic film by the same name. The film, which is being directed by none other than Peter Jackson, tells the story of a group film-makers sent to Skull Island to shoot a documentary about the mysterious inhabitants of the island – a number of ancient tribes and monstrous animals. Upon arrival, however, things go terribly wrong – no surprise. The group, led by Jack Driscoll, stumbles into misfortunate when their very own Ann Darrow is kidnapped by the hostile tribe. She’s eventually served-up on a platter as an offer to the island’s legendary and god-like King Kong. To the surprise of Ann’s film group and the tribe, Kong quickly falls in love with her and runs off into the jungle with the poor gal.
Ubisoft’s recently released PC demo picks up somewhere after these events. The demo is split into two different parts: a level where you play as Jack and a level where you play as King Kong himself.
The first part of the demo stars Jack. You play through this short part of the game from the first-person perspective, which is in fact the perspective the majority of the title takes place from. Control is a little wonky in the PC demo. Since I haven’t played the game with either a GameCube, Xbox or PlayStation 2 controller it’s hard to say exactly how it will feel with a console pad, but the mouse and keyboard configuration – which usually works perfectly for the genre – feels unpolished here.
After fiddling around with the mouse sensitivity, I eventually found a configuration that felt more usable. Thankfully, the transition between mouse and keyboard and console controller will be pretty conventional, so describing the control scheme is possible. The title features a dual analog setup, meaning the left analog stick moves Jack forwards, backwards, left and right, while the right stick lets him look around. Additionally, Jack can carry out a number of actions. By pressing the correct button, he’ll pull up his equipped weapon, which in the demo is an automatic rifle. You must hold down this particular button in order to keep Jack’s weapon up. Ubisoft’s opted for this design because it creates a more realistic experience, not to mention a more immersing one. When walking around with your weapon out, Jack’s movement speed drops considerably, so it’s often not the route to take.
King Kong
The demo starts you out in a corner of a forest, with rain pouring down on you and your men. Almost immeaditely, Jack comes to a overhead bridge with a few of his men trickling over it. One of the men says something about seeing some giant monster and escaping to warn you about it, but before a few seconds can pass by, a roaring growl echoes through the forest, followed by a towering tyrannosaurus rex appearing as lightening flashes across the sky. Jack must quickly run from the rex until him and his men come to a gate that is locked. While his crew tries to break through the locked gate, it’s your job to keep the gigantic t-rex distracted. Unfortunately for you, it moves faster than you and can kill you in two quick bites.
This is where something quickly becomes apparent about King Kong. The title gets your heart pumping and gets your blood flowing. Because you can die so easily, and because ammunition is so scarce – shooting at the rex quickly depletes your rounds, and it does nothing but anger the huge dinosaur – you’re very vulnerable. This demo successfully shows off this run-and-hide gameplay that the game’s director Michael Ancel has cleverly designed.
In order to distract the t-rex, you must lead the beast around in circles, using anything possible for cover and employing any resources you have as weaponry. A number of spears happen to be lying around in this area, which can be used to slow the beast down by throwing them into his side, skull or any part of his body you can successfully hit. After enough time, Jack’s life – if you are as terrible at the game as I am – will be low and your vision will be compromised. How the game handles when your health is low is no doubt a major concern for many – and it was for myself, previously – but if you’re in that crowd, rest assured, everything seems to work fine. You’ll know when your life is low. The screen becomes distorted, the sound effects slow down and you’ll hear Jack’s heart thumping. The entire system works flawlessly, and in fact adds a lot of style and a sense of panic to the game.
Eventually, your men break through the wooden gate, and you find yourself cornered into a cave of water. The t-rex slowly begins breaking his way into the cave, and the demo comes to an end.
A cut-scene plays signifying that there is a whole another demo to play. In this one, Ubisoft demos the beat-em-up action segments of the adventure where you control King Kong. I’m was actually pretty surprised by both how well-done this part of the game seems to be and how much fun it is.
Controlling the Kong himself is much different from Jack. He controls smoothly and animatedly across the screen. During this demo, the first-person camera angle is nowhere to be found, as a cinematic dynamic camera system takes its place. The camera is positioned at many different angles depending on what is happening, and it always seems to create a very movie-like experience.
Kong can pound the living fluffing out of anything that challenges him. The primary action button causes him to powerfully swing his gigantic fists at anything that stands in front of him. Moreover, he can grab onto his opponents and throw them around as much as he pleases. He can even pound on his chest to boost his rage, causing him to do even more damage, as a hazy graphics filter distorts the screen, making it appear as if time around you has slowed down. Once you’ve beat-up an enemy enough, he can use a finishing move to kill the creature. For example, in my several runs through the King Kong demo, I saw the giant ape tear a t-rex’s jaw in half and pick a t-rex up and snap its spine, not to mention a few other variations of destruction. The giant King Kong is incredibly violent, and Ubisoft has done a tremendous job capturing this side of the famous ape.
In these areas where you control him, there is also some platforming action, though it’s rather linear. However, it’s straightforward because of Ubisoft’s attempt to create a cinematic experience, which it has overwhelmingly done.
I played through the King Kong demo on a very capable PC, running all settings on high. With these settings, everything looks beautiful. Textures look great, character models excellent, particle effects realistic, lighting just right and vegetation everywhere. Ubisoft’s creating a living, breathing jungle of life, and it’s terribly atmospheric. I can’t wait to see what other areas the final game will explore.
King Kong
For good measurement, I took a look at King Kong running on lower graphical settings, and even on the lowest – which the GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game should look better than – things still look pretty solid. Obviously, things aren’t as crisp or clear as the higher settings, but we’re not talking about an ugly game at all. That noted, Xbox 360 owners can look forward to something more along the lines of the PC version in terms of visuals.
All in all, King Kong is pretty impressive so far. Things aren’t quite perfect, as it’s obvious what’s been released is nothing more than a demo – some things need polishing, for instance – but what’s here is very exciting and promising. Ubisoft seems to be creating a successful video game version of Peter Jackson’s upcoming film. I can’t wait to give the final version of the game, which is due to hit shelves sometime this November.
Impressions by Phillip Levin
