The world of Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (whew, that’s quite a mouthful!) is lush and tremendously alive. Grasses sway in the wind, leaves bend and little insects flutter about as you travel across Skull Island. While the world isn’t quite as detailed as the 360 version, which is truly breathtaking, it is still quite beautiful in its own right. You will spend the entire game on Skull Island, so the developers made sure to give you a pretty environment to look at on your journey.

Not only that, but the characters are faithfully rendered and look almost exactly like their on-screen counterparts. You play as Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody) and although you never see Jack’s face, you will be face to face with Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), Carl Denham (Jack Black), Hayes and Jimmy and they look exactly like they should. Eerily so. Add to that the fact that all of the actors lend their voice talents to this game and you’ve got a gold star in the Graphics and Sound department.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a first person shooter where you take on the role of one Jack Driscoll, a scriptwriter hired by Carl Denham to pen his next great film. You travel with Carl, the lovely actress Ann, Hayes, a boat hand with a mastery of weapons, Jimmy, a young deckhand, and others to mysterious Skull Island. Although this game is primarily a first person shooter, it feels more like an action/adventure. Jack struggles along, with the others offering help at times, and there are puzzles sprinkled throughout the game, in addition to bouts of frenzied fighting. These elements, combined with the rich storyline, make Kong King more of a compelling adventure with a first person shooter veneer to it.

As you’ll soon learn from seeing the movie in theaters (and can tell from the movie trailers), the group travels to Skull Island to film an epic story that could save the careers of Carl Denham, a filmmaker who has lost the support of the studios and Ann Darrow, a vaudeville actress fallen on hard times. Things don’t go as planned and Jack, Carl, Hayes and Ann become separated from the rest of the ship’s crew. All is not as it appears on the lovely Skull Island, for it is filled with creatures that time seems to have forgotten. Dinosaurs of various sizes and types, giant crabs, scorpions, centipedes, villagers, and, of course, a certain enormous ape, all pepper the island and it’s up to you to protect yourself and your friends. Sometimes you will have to open gates that require you to actually push a wooden stake to open them, using the analog stick. Sometimes two people are needed to do this. You might be required to distract a predator while others work towards escape. You can grab a bone or spear from the ground and use this as your weapon, and sometimes you will come across ammo that has been left by the ship’s crew. Unfortunately, you can only carry one gun at a time, so picking up the new gun means losing the current gun. Pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles and machine guns are your gun choices. Also, if Hayes is around and you are running low, you can select him and ask for his weapon and he will toss it to you. A nice backup indeed.

At certain points in the game, you will take on the role of Kong himself, as he battles it out with the local wildlife. During these times, you’ll have to make sure Ann is kept safe, while also waging war on the enemies of the moment. In third person view, you’ll scale walls, swing through trees, beat your chest and bust into Fury Mode as you tear through your opponents. While in Fury mode, you become far more powerful. After pummeling a dino, you can perform a finishing move such as ripping it in two or throwing it to its death.

One clever mechanic in King Kong is the food chain system. Enemies are quickly attracted to a dead body, so when you kill one, you will inadvertently attract a multitude of them. However, you can use this to your advantage. If your path is blocked by a slew of scorpions, spear one of the harmless creatures like the giant dragonfly and throw it away from your desired path. The enemies will then swarm the dead creature and your path will magically be cleared. You will use this mechanic over and over. Also, you can use a spear or bone as a torch and light it when you come across a fire bowl. You can use the fire to kill enemies and quickly clear brambles. Small puzzles like this will appear fairly often, but they are never a chore. Instead, it just manages to keep things lively.

I’d have to say the difficulty level in Peter Jackson’s King Kong is just about right. Enemies will attack you, sometimes as a huge group, but it never seems so much that you can’t handle it. Just enough ammo always seems to show up at the right time and when there’s a shortage, you’ll come across a bone pile in which to pilfer weapons. This lends an air of survival horror to the mix.

Also interesting is the fact that you can opt to have your ammo inventory show on screen, with Jack announcing as you deplete your stash ("One magazine on backup!") or you can really play it survival horror style and turn off your inventory option so that you have no idea how much ammo you have, other than what Jack tells you.

Overall, although the enemies seem to ramp up in difficulty as you progress, it’s a nice level of difficulty and makes for a pleasant experience, while things still manage to stay fresh and exciting.

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of th Movie controls very nicely. You’ll move Jack about using the left analog stick and use the right stick to operate the camera. R1 reloads, R2 is used to shoot, and L2 is used to aim. By clicking R3, you can zoom in, which is especially helpful when using the sniper rifle. R2 is also used when you want to pick up a spear, attack someone with that spear or block/attack with a gun melee style, or bust down a wooden doorway or small gate. The X button can be used to select another character so that you can talk to them, borrow a weapon, etc.

Notable to mention is the fact that you have no health meter. Instead, when you are injured, the screen flashes red. Get to safety and you will recover. Don't and the screen covers in red and you die.

While as Kong, things get a bit easier. Left and right analog sticks hold the same functions, but it felt more like I was watching an interactive movie while still maintaining a little bit of control over the character. Kong jumps, climbs and swings with the square button, but each jump or swing covers a huge amount of ground, so hence the feeling of watching more than controlling. The circle button is used to pick up Ann or to catch and/or throw things, and occasionally it is used to unblock Kong’s path. With the triangle button, Kong can go into Fury mode or repel and/or bite enemies.

The camera was pretty good in that it usually seemed to be where it needed to be and when it wasn’t, you could reposition it at will. Occasionally, I would lose track of an NPC as they would run ahead and duck into a cave or something, but in the end, my friends would always pop back up.

Overall, King Kong is a blast to play and with its storyline, compels you to keep playing to see how it all turns out. With more of an action/adventure feel with an FPS twist and a shot of survival horror, King Kong is a real winner and a credit to movie license-based games.