Peter Jackson, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy fame, has re-made the 1933 classic King Kong for the big screen. As could be expected, the new King Kong movie has also made into a videogame. Now the big question is, whether the game is worth playing or if it has suffered the movie to game license curse. And to set your fears aside, the game is worth playing. In fact, it’s pretty good, a little short, but still pretty good.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a first-person action adventure game part of the time and a third-person beat-em-up the rest of the time. For the first-person elements you take control of screenwriter Jack Driscoll, and you control the big ape himself for the third-person segments. Ubisoft does a good job bringing these two different gameplay styles together seamlessly. Luckily we had as much fun playing the first-person segments as we did playing as King Kong, but I do have to admit that it was more satisfying controlling the big ape than it was his human counterpart.

The game begins with a short introduction to the storyline. You find out that film maker Carl Denham’s (who is voiced by Jack Black) film is about to be dropped by the studio. As sort of a last ditch effort to ignite his film with some momentum and get it back on track, he gets a boat and takes his crew to Skull Island. Skull Island was the abandoned home of a lost civilization that ends up not being so abandoned. Along Denham’s side are the aforementioned screenwriter Jack Driscoll (voiced by Adrien Brody) and a struggling actress Ann Darrow (voiced by Naomi Watts). There seems to be a little more going on that the game doesn’t elaborate on, but we will all soon discover all the truths when the film hits the screens. It is fair to say that the game will pretty much cover the major plot elements. So if you are looking forward to this one on the big screen, you may want to wait until after you see it to play the game.

The actual gameplay begins once you reach Skull Island. You see the world through the eyes of Jack. And of course tragedy strikes once you Ann, and Carl get onto a row-boat to make your way to the island. I don’t want to give everything away, but I will tell you that you are marooned. You spend the first couple of minutes of the game looking around, taking in the rich jungle.

Once the action starts you get a real treat. There is no HUD (heads up display). You don’t have health or ammo gages taking away from the first-person experience. To be honest, you probably won’t even miss them either. They are replaced by verbal and visual clues. When you get hurt the screen flashes red, during this time you need to get away so that you can heal because if you get hit again you will die. And when you are reloading your weapon, Jack says he has plenty of ammo, or tells you that he is running low. All in all, I really enjoyed this, and it made this title stand out from the slew of first-person games I’ve played over the last couple of years.

Another way the game makes you feel like your living Jack’s adventure on Skull Island are the weapons. They just make sense. You find spears and bones lying about, and can use them whenever it is necessary. You find the spears and bones lying in places where it seems you would find them if you were walking around the island. You also have firearms. The guns and ammo are dropped by the captain of the ship from an airplane, while he’s looking for a place to land. You do not find random assault riffles lying on the ground in this game, and that is a good thing. They went out of their way to make you feel like you are living this adventure, not playing it. Also it would be fair to mention that you can only carry one gun at a time. You can put the gun in your pocket, and grab a spear, but if you want to use the gun again you need to drop the spear. This is just another attempt at making the game as realistic as possible.

Okay, we’ve had all this talk about trees and guns, but what about the enemies? Oh, don’t worry; there are some pretty nasty ones. You have hordes of T-Rex’s that you can’t stop with guns or spears (just distract them and run), you have giant bats, millipedes, scorpions, and all sorts of other dinosaurs. Also these animals are smart. They will hunt you in packs. You will have to retreat, and find cover. This isn’t some random shooter; it truly pulls you into its world and makes you fight your way out.