Kong: Survivor Instinct Review (marpl)
I'm leaving the review as a negative but I do want to see more kaiju games set in the MonsterVerse, this game is just a huge misfire. Making the core gameplay a 2.5D linear metroidvania where you play as more or less some guy is not what I imagine when talking about the cinematic universe about science fiction giant monsters fighting.
Visually, the game looks great, the two cutscenes in the game are well-rendered and look beautiful and the general game looks good but the actual animation of the game sucks a lot. Characters move so inhumanly and there is little effort to give the characters any lip-syncing. The animation and visuals clash so hard that I don't know if I can really say the game looks good. The background of the levels look good, especially in the cities where there are a lot of detail, I like how it looks and is probably the strongest part of the game, though its not a very important strength. The titans themselves look good enough, but the animation problem runs true with them too. There are a few sequences where you try to escape a building with the titan trying to get you, which I think is fine in the game but logically speaking very goofy, which reins true for many aspects of the game.
The gameplay loop has three main areas, that being platforming, puzzle solving, and combat. The platforming is more or less okay, the main character's movement is pretty monotonous and very clunky to control (B to crouch? Really?), but I did get the hang of it eventually and the level design is alright for the most part.
The puzzle solving is also just okay, but probably the weakest of the three. Seeing very articulated and conveniently placed boxes and explosive barrel dispensers doesn't make a lot of sense and isn't very cohesive with the environment we are in, and also doesn't make a lot of sense much of the time with the character only interacting with things in a straight line (and occasionally a titan in the background).
The combat is also fine, I would like the system it was going for if it wasn't in this game, and every fight sequence is scripted in specific areas and ends up being very monotonous and boring.
Even if you want to play this game for the lore, it doesn't give you a lot, if anything, and what it does give you is pretty boring. The game introduces a new titan to the series, but its very poorly fleshed out and generic as well as kind of being a rehash of other titans, being the MUTOs from Godzilla 2014 (burying and creating offspring). It also introduces the Tiamat titan's baby, Lahamu, at the end, and is meant to be why the main character's daughter cut contact from him, so-to-speak. Whether that mean anything in the future of the universe, I don't know.
All in all, I think this game is just really lame and not really worth the play through, but as I said I want Legendary and/or Toho to consider making another game, possibly with a higher budget and a game idea that's more appealing. I think a fighting game with no lore implications is the strongest direction they could go for, or a first-person adventure on someplace like Skull Island, I dunno. I think they should try again with a game that's hopefully better than this one.