King Kong is an iconic character. The original 1933 film was a spectacle of a film, and every remake and series after that has only added to the allure of the character, even if the quality has varied. The same cannot be said for the various video game incarnations of King Kong. The 2005 launch title for the Xbox 360 was a high-water mark for Kong-related games, last year's Skull Island: Rise of Kong was infamously bad, and every other game is forgettable at best. Kong: Survivor Instinct looks to reverse that trend, and while it is not perfect, it ends up being a pretty good title.

What makes the plot interesting for fans of the recent Monsterverse movies is that this title takes place after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong. After seemingly going underground to live in Hollow Earth, Kong has returned to the surface and wrought havoc on an unnamed city. You play the role of David, a father who has had no luck in trying to contact his adult daughter to see if she's safe from the attacks. Instead of evacuating the city like everyone else, he rushes to the city only to get into an accident. He's forced to go on foot to try and find his daughter.

The story setup works fine, but you'll have to be open to seeing some questionable story moments and take large leaps in logic. For example, you'll stumble upon an important device known as the Orca Sigma with no one present, but everyone knows you have it in your possession. You'll sometimes stop to have a conversation with a character that goes nowhere, and you'll never meet them again. It's frustrating because the encounter doesn't uncover any story threads or anything. These kinds of story beats seem to exist for the sake of it, and the story still would've worked without them.

The game plays out as a big 2D adventure that initially feels like Flashback or something in that vein because of the viewpoint. There is standard platforming fare, such as grabbing onto ledges and dropping from them at safe heights. Collectibles are present in the form of log entries and glimmering beacons that are used for puzzle solving and story progression. You'll move loads of boxes to give yourself some height, and there are plenty of generators that need to be fixed to unlock doors and activate elevators. You'll also come across a good deal of tools, such as a sledgehammer, to break down brittle walls and floors as well as a pistol to shoot generators and locks for chained doors and hatches. There's also a grappling hook to pull objects from far away and let you cross chasms or climb up vertical surfaces.

While the developers bill this as a Metroidvania title, you aren't going to revisit a ton of old areas. There's enough backtracking to prevent this from being a completely linear adventure. Also, the game marks on your map some of the obstacles you've overcome and others that have blocked your way, so you'll have a faint idea of where you need to return once you get the right tool for the job.

You'll spend a good deal of the game in platforming mode, and it helps that most of it performs quite well. The controls are responsive, and even though the highlights don't appear obvious all of the time, the game does a very good job of highlighting what can and can't be interacted with. The only issue some people may have with the platforming has to do with jumps. Unlike Flashback, you can turn on a dime, and you don't have to preload your jumps to make it over a chasm or reach the next ledge. However, it takes a bit of getting used to when it comes to judging the distance that's covered, and there will be times when you'll land at the edge of an electrical current and get unintentionally hit.

When it comes to puzzles, you aren't going to engage in too many brain teasers in Survivor Instinct. Most are observational quandaries, as you'll look for anything that indicates a way to unlock a door or create a passage. The only true puzzles you'll come across are ones where you need to match up various sound bites to call on a Titan to clear a path for you. These puzzles aren't difficult, as the maximum number of pieces you have to play with is six. Even those who are terrible at this sort of thing can brute-force their way through these segments.

Combat in the game is interesting for a few reasons. You can't attack anyone until you find a lead pipe, which switches to a sledgehammer when you find that. You can deliver light melee attacks and heavy ones, which get used more often with the aforementioned sledgehammer, as it can knock away riot shields from enemies. The pistol you find can be used to quickly take out enemies, but you'll only use it in emergencies, since ammo isn't exactly plentiful. The most useful tactic in your arsenal is the grab. Aside from using it so you can pummel enemies or shoot them at close range, you can move enemies with a shove. That shove can interrupt enemy attacks as you make people collide with one another, but you can also take out enemies by shoving them into environmental hazards or off ledges. It is funny to see them die when they fall off a tiny ledge instead of from several stories high.

Where the combat starts to falter is when you suddenly have enemies on both sides. Your attacks and blocks automatically target whoever is nearby, but enemies tend to act simultaneously and quickly, with little chance for you to create an opening. You can't dodge because a body will be blocking you. Try to grab someone for a throw, and you'll get hit from behind. Stay on the attack, and someone will sneak in a hit. Considering that you tend to respawn near the site of combat, your best strategy is letting yourself get killed and starting the fight again while hoping for a better result.

The chase sequences make up the last big part of the game, and they add a good deal of tension to the adventure. All of these sequences end up being against the game's Titans, with most of them taking place in dilapidated buildings. Some of these are basic movement exercises, where you'll need to quickly reach the next ledge or do a safe drop before you get clobbered. Others are sneaking sequences, where the Titan peers at you through an opening, and you need to only move when they move their head to a new location. Some moments require you to perform some kind of distraction, but each moment is thrilling and gives you a good sense of how minuscule and powerless you are against these behemoths.

The chases only begin to falter when other gameplay mechanics are introduced. Shooting off a lock or using your grappling hook to latch on somewhere still requires some aiming, and you can only do these things when moving slowly. You can't throw a grappling hook and latch on somewhere when jumping. Without a quick snap to the point you need to hit, you'll spend enough time fiddling around and missing it, so death is almost guaranteed. These sequences are all meant to be completed in one shot, and with every tiny mistake sending you back to the beginning of the chase, players will find these to be exercises in frustration. The one saving grace is that only the game's final chase sequence feels long, so it's the only point where you might need to take a breather to collect yourself after the umpteenth death.

From beginning to end, Survivor Instinct takes roughly six hours to finish, and there's not much replayability. Achievement hunters have lots of various rooms and upgrades to uncover as well as creature logs and notes to collect. They also have the chance to beat the game at the highest difficulty and come up with various ways of killing the Hyena thugs. What you can't do, however, is use the same save file to change the difficulty and beat the game again. The ability to progress to the game's final area is unavailable, forcing you to start fresh if you want to beat the game again.

Graphically, the game is quite nice. You are traveling through freshly ruined cityscapes, but they still look nice with a decent amount of detail to them. The monsters, especially the Titans, look awesome and the humans look fine as well when you consider how pulled back the camera is, preventing you from really scrutinizing the model quality. The only knock against the modeling has to do with David as the lighting in various areas changes his hair color drastically, making him go from late middle aged to straight up old man in an instant. The game performs fine all around but don't expect true ultrawide support if you have that monitor type.

The sound is good, but it has a few issues. The music is fine, but there's rarely a pause for quiet moments. The pieces are quite short, and it doesn't take long to notice the track looping the same notes in a short time period. The voice work is also fine, but there's an issue when it comes to volume and quality; some callouts come in too loudly, and others are cleaner in their delivery.

Steam Deck users will find that Survivor Instinct does well on Valve's handheld. The game goes for a resolution of 1280x720, and it looks fine on the system's screen, even if it can look a bit fuzzy at times. The game goes for a mostly medium graphical setting with a few options set to high, and that does well for the frame rate, which holds at 60fps almost all of the time. The battery life on the LCD version will yield roughly three-and-a-half hours of gameplay on a full charge, with that varying wildly depending on the area. Indoor settings suck up more power, while more open areas drain less juice.

In the end, Kong: Survivor Instinct is a pleasant surprise when compared to the rest of the Kong-related games up to this point. The story isn't that great, but it has enough of a hook to keep players going. The platforming can be quirky, especially during the big chase sequences, but it works fine most of the time to provide some fun sections. The same can be said of the combat, which has flaws but also gives players the chance to take care of enemies in a few fun ways. The adventure isn't too long, but it is satisfying enough once the end credits roll. It isn't a sleeper hit, but it isn't a bad experience to go through for a day or two.

Score: 7.0/10