Kong: Survivor Instinct Takes a Swing at Adventure Gaming

Kong: Survivor Instinct
Gameplay
graphics
audio
value
fun
Genre
Reviewed On
Xbox Series X
Available For
Difficulty
Intermediate
Publisher(s)
Developer(s)

The giant ape King Kong is an icon of modern culture, easily recognizable around the world as the epitome of a movie monster. Perhaps only Godzilla is more famous in monster circles.

Now, King Kong is looking to tackle the smaller screen with Kong: Survivor Instinct from developer 7Levels. But unlike titles like Rampage from the arcade era where we got to play as the great ape (or a generic facsimile), in Survivor Instinct we play instead as a normal human character who’s running along a broken city in side-scrolling action solving puzzles and fighting with other humans who dare to block your path. The city is collapsing as a result of battling monsters, and many of the residents become trapped in its rubble including your character’s daughter. Players ultimately must try to rescue her.

Kong: Survivor Instinct has an innovative concept, but it’s also incredibly repetitive after a while. The story was much too straight forward, which left me envying the epic battles that King Kong was having off in the distance rather than craving yet another fist fight or gun battle with people down on the ground. It also kind of made me wonder if the license for King Kong was a bit wasted on this. In fact, there are other giant monsters that show up at different parts of the game who are sometimes more interesting than the monster with top billing here.

Though initially interesting, the concept of Kong: Survivor Instinct becomes incredibly repetitive really quickly. The story is not very well developed. Players will be mostly dodging falling buildings and debris in order to find the missing daughter, which in itself is rather generic. The main character’s only redeeming trait is the fact that he’s a devoted father trying to find his kid, yet he still has time to make incredibly horrible quips that leave players cringing a bit.

The environment within Kong: Survivor Instinct is also pretty stale in the sense that each new area follows a standard formula that is easy to recognize. First you find yourself in an unstable building. You try to escape the building safely, but then the floor gives out taking you to new depths as you try to escape or explore further. Well, that’s pretty great the first three times you do it, but after the next 40 you kind of get the point. The only real puzzles within the title consist of shooting padlocks or moving crates so that you can climb up higher and escape out a window or something. It’s all pretty obvious really, especially for experienced gamers.

There are also those aforementioned human enemies in Kong: Survivor Instinct. The combat could have been a high point if done right and served to break up the exploration-heavy gameplay otherwise. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most restrictive parts of this game. The weapons you have are very limited. There is, for example, a sledgehammer and also a pistol with very limited ammo. And there are also almost no boss fights, which seems strange for an adventure named after a movie monster. Again, you are doing all this small stuff in the foreground with Kong and the other monsters off in the distance. Yes, you occasionally interact with them but not nearly enough.

I pushed through Kong: Survivor Instinct all the way to the end. It’s not a bad title, but it’s not really super fun either. And its ending follows that trend. It completes the story but does not really help reward players for getting to the end.

It was fun to watch King Kong or one of the other monsters fighting off in the distance or trying to destroy buildings as a way to kill you. But again, you are mostly watching the action. It’s almost like playing an average game while a much better monster movie plays in the distance. Kong was definitely having more fun out there than I was.

Overall, Kong: Survivor Instinct has some nice nostalgic ideas, and this is what I hate to see with titles like this: when the developers come up with a wonderful idea but then fail to execute it. Survivor Instinct could have been better if it offered some way to play as Kong or maybe another monster, or by giving the characters a bit more depth. A few more difficult puzzles might have been a bit more fun too.

Kong: Survivor Instinct is not a bad title, and it’s currently on sale on Steam for under $20, which is a pretty good value. It’s just a little disappointing, especially for fans of King Kong or other movie monsters that Kong is relegated to a secondary character in a game that bears his name.

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