With a name like Kong: Survivor Instinct, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the titular giant ape would be the star of the show. After all, who wouldn’t want to play a giant hairy ape beating the snot out of another giant creature? spirit! Despite the name, Kong and his Titan friends are mostly background scenery, receiving only a few minutes of screen time during the four to six hours it takes to play Kong: Survivor Instinct. But can that even be a good thing? Last year’s Skull Island: Rise of Kong had you playing as the big boy, and it was absolutely terrible. The short answer is no. It’s not a good thing. Kong: Survivor Instinct is a better game than Skull Island, but not by much.
So unless you’re messing around like Kong (yes, Kong is an ape, but we won’t take that as a joke), what exactly are you doing? Set shortly after the events of Godzilla vs Kong, you play as David Martin, who races to find his estranged daughter amidst the ruins of a city that is now under attack by several giant creatures, including the powerful Kong. Along the way, he encounters a group of mercenaries called the Hyenas, taking away some of their mystery technology and angering a group led by Alan Jonah, a character last seen in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Available on: PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch
Reviewed for: PS5
Developer: 7Levels
Posted by Level 7Review code provided by the publisher
Look, the Monsterverse movies aren’t known for great writing and strong characters. They certainly have their moments, but most people couldn’t care less about humans and their dramas. I say this so that you can understand what I am trying to say. Survivor Instinct is worse. That’s not to say it’s poorly written. I’ve read a lot of bad fanfiction, including Fifty Shades of Grey. However, it has almost no story or characters and is just softer than a beige sock. David has no notable personality and the few other people he meets are instantly forgotten. All the similarities in the plot mostly come from the optional documents, so if you don’t read them, it becomes a story about David wanting to find his daughter, going over a lot, and then the game ends in an abrupt and unsatisfying way.
But at least we get a look at some of the monsters that didn’t appear in the movies, like the terrifying Abbadon, who is supposed to drop a nuke from space.
Speaking of climbing on things, let’s talk about the gameplay. Kong: Survivor Instinct is a 2.5D metroidvania, albeit a very simple game. David starts off with simple skills like being able to jump a foot off the ground and a foot forward (I swear the guy has concrete in his shoes) and dragging boxes like a boss. Over the course of the game, David picks up several new tools that will help him. A sledgehammer that’s equally good at bashing people or punching through walls; grappling hook for reaching awkward places; There are also guns for shooting faces and locks.
It all comes together with some very basic, sprinting platforming and puzzle solving. The most complicated ones involve turning on a generator to get the box to go through the floor, which requires climbing up a few things to open a door, or cycling between a few generators to open the right door at the right time.
That’s not to say it’s bad either. At the end of the day it works mechanically, it’s sturdy, but it’s a very basic design, it’s just that we’ve done it all hundreds of times. Except, we’ve done this in a game that feels smoother, faster, and builds on the fundamentals. Perhaps Kong: Survivor Instinct is aiming for a slower, more deliberate pace because David appears to be a middle-aged man, but that doesn’t stop the game from feeling too slow and the puzzles monotonous. There is no challenge or satisfaction in figuring something out because everything is so obvious. What you do in the first hour is almost identical to what you do in the sixth hour, with just a few extra steps.
Without a doubt the worst part of the game is the combat. David can block incoming attacks, dash to avoid bullets, and catch enemies who reflect his attacks. This is the default movement choice and it feels bad because the game is slow. Ranged enemies are confused and always come behind their companions, who duck down for them to shoot. It’s like the world’s worst conga line. So the basic combat loop is to take an attack or two to block an enemy, grab it for one or two attacks, and then throw it towards the next enemy. If you time it right, the ranged enemy will shoot his friend in the back. Occasionally one or two new enemy types will appear randomly, like shieldmen, but they add little to the experience.
All of this is painfully slow and cumbersome, made worse when enemies approach from both sides because the controls and mechanics aren’t built for it. Each attack feels weak without any impact. Thankfully, if you’re a good shot, you can knock off enemy helmets and gun them down with quick headshots to end the fight quicker.
Let’s get back to the Titans, the giant monsters we actually want to see in action. What do they do in the game? Well, there are two things. The first is that each segment is themed around one of the Titans, slowly building to a clumsy chase sequence in which you have to awkwardly run away from a vicious monster destroying the buildings around you. This sequence is definitely the most exciting moment in the entire game, but it’s low-key to surpass. The biggest problem is that the movements are neither smooth nor fast enough to make these chases enjoyable. So instead of running for your life, you feel like you’re gently jogging away from persistent salesmen waving flyers.
Another time you see the Titans in action is when you intentionally summon them at the end of each section to help demolish obstacles blocking your path. Collect special biometric signals scattered throughout the city and then piece them together in clunky minigames. You’ll need to collect them all to lure the Titans into the area so you can advance. Baiting them should feel like a big moment, but it really isn’t. There is little sense of the scale or power of these monsters. There’s also no interactivity in these sequences, so you’ll have to watch blankly for a few seconds before dragging the box again.
as a result…
I think I’m being very harsh on Kong: Survivor Instinct. Let me tell you about this. As you can see, it’s not really a bad game. I’ve played some really bad games and comparing them to Survivor Instinct is like getting a sweet peck on the lips. But in some ways it might be worse than that terrible game. boring. Terrible games and amazing games have something in common. That said, it’s interesting to experience. Truly terrible games are at least interesting to pick out and talk about in the same way that great games are. But Kong: Survivor Instinct is just boring from start to finish. From the non-existent story to the lifeless gameplay, there’s nothing to talk about.
no. I’m lying. There’s one interesting decision that Kong: Survivor Instinct makes, and that’s that it barely features Kong and the rest of the monsters. It’s a truly unusual choice to base a game on an IP that’s built around a giant monster causing carnage and makes little use of that monster. In some ways, using rampaging beasts as a backdrop is a bold choice. It’s about honoring the legacy of Godzilla films, where the human story was just as important as destroying Godzilla. But Kong: Survivor Instinct doesn’t even do justice to the human story, leaving us with a boring 2.5D metroidvania with barely any apes named.
