If you thought that Kong’s foray into bad video games was over after 2023’s disastrous Skull Island: Rise of Kong, you may be wrong because we now have a brand-new Kong game which happens to be a Metroidvania. Developed and published by 7Levels, Kong: Survivor Instinct is a brand-new Metroidvania set in the Monsterverse. Featuring different Kaiju from this iconic universe, Kong makes a return to the screen but this time around, Kong is actually in the background serving as nothing more than a dynamic background for all of the action happening in the foreground. Kong: Survivor Instinct is a 2.5D action-adventure Metroidvania and it delivers a brand-new experience in the Monsterverse. This is our review of Kong: Survivor Instinct on the Xbox Series X in which we find some keys and come face-to-face with some of the biggest Titans.
In Kong: Survivor Instinct, you step into the role of David, who has lost his daughter in the aftermath of Kong’s attack on the city. As the city lies in crumbles and flames, you step into a journey following a horrific car crash through the ruins and whatever is left of the city while trying to avoid gigantic monsters and the notorious human faction Hyenas who has emerged back to power. The story of Kong: Survivor Instinct is set after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong so if you have seen the movie, you will be glad to see the villain Alan Jonah making a return in the game as the main villain as well alongside some iconic monsters such as Abaddon, Kong, Tiamat and more. However, as excited as we were to see these Titans finding their way into the game, they are nothing more than a distraction in the background only coming into action for an escape sequence.
This might be disappointing for players who were looking forward to epic boss battles with these Titans or sequences where Kong takes on these Titans, but these sequences are kept to a minimum as you explore diverse environments to progress. The main objective of the game is to find your daughter who has been lost in the ongoing battle between Titans, Monarch, and the Hyenas. Hyenas is a group of mercenaries led by the eco-terrorist Alan Jonah. In all of the hassle, your daughter has gone missing and now you are on a mission to find her and no Titan is going to come in your way. Literally. No matter how big the Titan is, we do not get to fight them in any way possible. There are no boss battles in the game and when occasionally these Titans decide to grace us with their presence, it is just an escape sequence through a building as the Titan tears it down.
The gameplay mostly revolves around you exploring decapitated structures and environments while trying to find a way ahead. During your journey, you come across some simple puzzles, locked doors, and platforming sections. There is a lot of backtracking in the game which is common for Metroidvania but the real problem here is combat. More on this later. You will find keys to open locked doors, gears to operate machinery like broken elevators or starting broken generators and sometimes you will need to push around huge boxes to reach high platforming sections or break through giant spider webs. Scavenging plays a critical role in the game because you will need to explore every nook-and-cranny for upgrades, keys, gears, and ammo for your gun which can be hard to find.
Your main source of information in the game is the ORCA device that you receive quite early in the game, and it keeps track of everything that you pick up during your journey. Throughout the game, you will find text files, broadcasts, and Monarch logs that allow you to learn about the game’s lore and what is happening around you. Since you are just a dock worker, this important documentation is your source of information into classified information about Titans, the ongoing experiments, and more. The levels are fairly straightforward with a few extra rooms here and there where you can find upgrades and collectibles. Apart from this, the levels are linear, and you will cross through almost all sections of a level as part of the main story. Very few rooms and areas are side areas that you can explore on your own.
Each area is locked behind some sort of lock which has to be opened by summoning a Titan which happens to be Kong in most cases. While Kong is extremely aggressive in normal circumstances, if you manage to collect the required number of Biowaves scattered around in levels, you can call Kong by playing its sequence, after solving a mini-game, and Kong will appear to help you out in clearing the roadblock. Most of the time it is some sort of blockage like a building, crashed trains, or even giant webs. Your ECHO device stores these Biowaves and you can use them only once you have found all of the required Biowaves in special locations where the game instructs you to. As you move around, you unlock checkpoints which also serve as Fast Travel points. As we mentioned above, there is a lot of backtracking in the game so these fast travel points save you time, and you can quickly go back to previous locations to open previously locked areas or complete objectives.
Normally, as you play Metroidvania titles, you unlock new gear and powerful moves to make yourself better at the game but nearly all of the equipment that you can use is given to you within the first few minutes of the game. You have a pipe for basic melee combat, a pistol for ranged combat and later, you find a sledgehammer which is good against defeating heavier enemies and also breaking down weak walls to open new paths. Apart from this, you do not get any other tools or moves to help you during combat or movement even though enemies you face in the game tend to get tougher as you progress in the game. This brings us to the probably the weakest aspect of the game: combat.
When we first started playing Kong: Survivor Instinct, we loved it because the game’s level design, atmosphere, and platforming were solid but as the game introduced enemies and they started to get tougher and more in number, we started to dislike combat in its entirety because it is poor and fails to impress at any level. There are so many issues with it that it completely ruins the gameplay in specific sections. While we are glad that there are not a lot of enemies in the game, with progress, the enemies appear in increasing numbers and they get tougher as well. The main issue with combat is that your character is pretty stiff, and combat movement is not fluid at all. The only things that you can do during combat are dash to avoid bullets, grab enemies and hit them, or use your melee or ranged weapons. Since the bullets are rare to find, melee combat is always the way forward and even it fails on so many levels.
The enemies effectively juggle you between them because the game is 2.5D, you can either move forward or backward. The dash is only a small movement, and you cannot even use it to get behind an enemy. If you find yourself between two enemies, you are stuck there. The attacks are focused on one enemy and while two enemies are beating you senselessly, you cannot do anything if you are cornered. A small ledge which is completely fine in normal gameplay, becomes deadly in combat as somehow, falling down two steps is fatal. The attacks do not have any weight to them and as you are swinging your weapon mindlessly, ranged enemies from behind the melee brawlers chew down your health. Your weapons deal minimal damage to enemies, and it gets frustrating as you are stuck on taking down the enemy right in front of you instead of choosing the enemy.
Normally, we always go for ranged enemies first and then focus on melee enemies, but this cannot be the case if a melee enemy stands in front of the ranged one. With easier enemies, you can grab them and move them around, but tougher enemies instantly escape from your grab and in return can grab you and beat you. These limits with your movement, attacks, and items in your inventory fall flat when compared to the most recent title in this genre Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The combat eventually starts to feel tedious in an otherwise decent gameplay loop of solving puzzles and exploring some cool-designed levels.
The world of Kong: Survivor Instinct is amazing to look at because you can actually feel the gloomy feeling all around you. Buildings are trashed, there is chaos everywhere, the entire infrastructure is down and sometimes, Kong will knock out the eventual helicopter flying near it as well. The sense of scale in the game is amazing because the game levels are designed to make you feel tiny. The Titans feel massive and when they come close, you can see how huge they are. Their long legs and huge eyes look absolutely terrifying as they are peeking through holes inside buildings as they are looking for you. It feels like you are really there. There are a few annoying elements when it comes to level design, but the highlight is the roof bits falling on your head. We just hated this particular mechanic because it was more of an inconvenience and annoyance than an actual threat. You would be happy with your full ammo and full health kit inventory and then suddenly, a roof bit will fall on your head and a health bar will vanish. Really annoying.
Compared to the most recent Kong game, this one is ahead by leaps and bounds in terms of game design, sound design, and even combat. The game makes you feel dread and tension as giant Titans roam the environments in the background and occasionally come forward for some action. The level design is brilliant and apart from some annoying elements, like the always-falling-on-your-head roof bits, you enjoy exploring the diverse locations. The enemy variety is not so great, but you never look forward to meeting enemies because of the poor combat design anyway. Being on the street level in the game certainly gives you an idea of scale, which is amazing. The only problem with the game is its boring and unimaginative combat, which you will need to tolerate during your gameplay.
Final Verdict:
If you are a Metroidvania fan and recently played Prince of Persia: The Last Crown or Blasphemous 2 and are actively waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong, Kong: Survivor Instinct will leave you wanting more. Not only does it lack exploration rewards, but the combat is also forgettable and sometimes frustratingly bad. The lack of focus on combat development in Metroidvania is just bizarre and it is perhaps the only major flaw in this otherwise brilliant design of a game. Once you get the grip of the poorly executed combat, it is fun for a few hours until you hit that credits screen and then you turn it off for good. If you need to fill your Silksong void with some cool Kong and Kaiju moments, consider giving it a shot but if you are looking for slick movement and combat skills, this is not the Metroidvania you are looking for.
Final Score: 6.0/10
