Kong: Survivor Instinct Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: N/A

This game honestly caught me off guard. I care very little for the recent Kong and Godzilla movies. They are ok to me, but they are nothing that I rush out to see or watch more than once. I noticed that Kong: Survivor Instinct bears a resemblance to Shadow Complex from its trailers, so I had to try it. Man, I was quite surprised at what a good game I ran across in this game. If you like Shadow Complex, you’ll most likely find something to enjoy with Kong: Survivor Instinct. Kong is a 2.5D action-adventure game with platforming, combat and a metroidvania-style exploration and is developed by 7Levels.

The game takes place after the events of the movie Godzilla vs Kong. Players take on the role of David, who journeys out to search for his daughter. Kong is tearing up the city while searching for something. Other titans are on the loose as well. While platforming your way through the city, you’ll run into some of them.

If you’ve played Shadow Complex, this game plays very similar, but it is slower and more about exploration. You run, jump and climb your way through obstacles all on a 2.5D plane. Just like other Metroidvanias you can pull up a map that will help you navigate the environments and find hidden areas. Besides objective areas, this game has many secret areas to discover. One of the best parts about this game is that it’s constantly introducing new mechanics as you progress. The gameplay in this is so very satisfying.

You start out armed with a pipe to defend yourself and eventually gain access to other weapons such as a handgun. It’s quite amazing how deep the melee combat in this game is. You can block enemy attacks, parry and counter. There is also a dash used for avoiding enemy gunshots. Once you get into a fight, you have four face buttons to choose from to attack. You have a melee button, a grab button, a guard button and a dash button. There is a slight bit of “paper, rock, scissors” to the combat. Grab beats guard, dash beats gunshot and block beats melee attack. When up against two enemies, they can surround you, but you can grab one of them and shove the enemy to the side with the other enemy. You can also grab enemies near a cliff and shove them off a cliff or into an electric current.

The overall combat is quite satisfying, but not without its frustrations. When you get into a fight with more than two enemies, the game starts to get frustrating. You might have two melee enemies, one with a shield that you have to break and an enemy with a gun. Combat can get so intense later in the game that it becomes hard to respond to all the attacks thrown your way. You can always choose to take out unarmored enemies with your handgun though, which is the main way I got through most three enemy battles.

This game has fantastic visuals. Environments are so lively! While going through damaged buildings, you can look outside windows and see things moving in the background. In the first area, you can see Kong looking around the streets in the background. In the spider area, spiders will crawl up and down walls. You constantly have to watch out for falling debris as well. The game has a lot of detail in its backgrounds and overall surroundings.

The files and other collectibles in the game add a lot of information to the lore outside of the movies. You pick up files and documents that mention characters and titans from the movies. Like I said before, I don’t care much for the Kong and Godzilla movies, but this game makes me want to go back and watch them again.

Just like other Metroidvanias, you’ll be finding character upgrades in the environments, such as health upgrades and handgun clip upgrades. The game is light on puzzles. The main puzzle is to match up a sound wave frequency. There are puzzles in the environments as well, such as finding a narrow hole to aim through in order to shoot a lock or control box in order to unlock a new area.

You’ll also have to escape titans at times. There is one section where you have to run through a building and avoid Kong as he looks inside the building. You have to avoid his gaze or else you instantly die. You also have to avoid his arms as he tears the building apart. There areas are done quite well. The game has checkpoints throughout the different environments. If you die, you quickly respawn at a checkpoint and get another try very quickly. Even though the game can get hard at times, it makes up for it with many checkpoints and health pack pickups throughout its areas.

Overall, Kong Survivor Instinct is a fun and satisfying game. I must repeat, this game caught me off guard. I was not expecting such a greatly polished Metroidvania and Shadow Complex-style game out of this. If you like either type of game, be sure to check this game out. This game seems quite “under the radar”, but hopefully, more people will try it out and give it the attention it deserves. Fans of the Legendary’s Monsterverse definitely need to pick this one up.

The Good:
+ Beautiful environments
+ Deep combat
+ Good movie tie-ins (files and mentions)
+ Overall satisfying game

The Bad:
- The combat can get tough