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Kong: Survivor Instinct – Review

Time for more monkey business! After taking a trip to Kong Island in Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, we’re going to our backlog to spend time in the company of DK’s even more famous cousin: King Kong. The giant gorilla is best known as a star of the silver screen, but he’s no stranger to appearing in video games either. With mixed results, mind you, as 2023’s Skull Island: Rise of Kong turned out to be a stinker that could compete with Gollum as that year’s worst video game. We’re still big fans of the ape, so we were hoping that he could reclaim his crown with Kong: Survivor Instinct. The game actually came out in October of last year, but given how jam-packed the holiday season was, we had to file this one under our backlog reviews. Did we go bananas for Survivor Instinct or did it make a monkey out of us? Story There have been countless iterations of the King Kong story over the years. Most have been standalone entries, but Survivor Instinct ties into Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse. Don’t fret if you aren’t up to speed with the kaiju-infested franchise, however, as Survivor Instinct revolves around an original character, David Martin. The opening cinematic shows that David’s daughter Stacy finds herself caught in the chaos of an attack by kaiju, referred to as Titans in the series. David sets out to rescue his daughter. Early on, he stumbles upon a device called Orca, which proves to be invaluable in tracking down Stacy. That same device is also on the radar of the Hyenas, a terrorist group led by Alan Jonah. David won’t just have to avoid the raging attacks of Kong and two other Titans, Tiamat and Abaddon, but he’ll have to deal with the Hyenas as well, as they try to take the Orca from him. Graphics There is a wealth of cinematic material from the MonsterVerse already, and Survivor Instinct makes good use of what already exists and adds to this. The game’s 2.5D side-scrolling visuals aren’t necessarily the most impressive, with textures appearing fairly basic, but as a whole things look good. The highlight here is of course the design of the arachnid Titan Abaddon, who makes her first full-fledged appearance in this game. The design fits in flawlessly with what we’ve seen from the cinematic MonsterVerse. While David may be a new character, we’ve seen Alan Jonah before, performed by Charles Dance, and his likeness is used in-game, further tying Survivor Instinct to the films. Survivor Instinct’s visuals may not necessarily impress, but they do what they need to do. At this point, that’s all we’re asking for. Sound Like the visuals, Survivor Instinct’s soundtrack sticks to the atmosphere that was established through the film series. It’s not particularly memorable, but it suits the overall atmosphere that the game attempts to convey. The impact of the destruction around you is emphasized through a good selection of sound effects. Where Survivor Instinct’s audio falls flat is in its lackluster voice performances. Yes, there is plenty of voice acting here, but the cast phones things in and is seemingly only there to cash their paycheck. The worst offender is Fantasian‘s Mike Cunningham, who plays David. He is seemingly unaffected by all the mayhem going on around him, which doesn’t help with making him a likable protagonist at all. Gameplay We’re going to be honest here: with Survivor Instinct being billed as a King Kong-themed Metroidvania, we were initially hoping that we were going to be able to play as the titular gorilla at some point. That turned out not to be the case, unfortunately. Instead, we were put into David’s shoes, and were tasked with maneuvering through a ruined cityscape where Titans still roamed. The different buildings and structures provide a realistic canvas for the familiar Metroidvania mechanics, involving crawling through narrow passageways and climbing up makeshift ledges. The abilities that David inevitably unlocks are tied to different tools he finds along the way, like a grappling hook that allows him to swing across gaps. Each area of the game houses bio-acoustic fragments that need to be recorded with the use of David’s Orca device. Collect them all, and you’ll be able to move on to the next area by summoning one of the game’s Titans to destroy obstacles that stand in your way. The Titans are of course the stars of the game but we found that they were severely underutilized. Instead, you’ll be dealing with hostile Hyenas and so-called Superspecies throughout most of Survivor Instinct’s runtime. When you run into enemies, you’ll have to fight them off, using a very barebones and basic set of button-mashing combo mechanics. And we do mean that you’ll have to fight them off as the game doesn’t let you progress until every single enemy is dead. The issue here isn’t that the fights are very hard, as even the Superspecies can be one-shotted at Survivor Instinct’s higher difficulties. It’s just that combat isn’t very enjoyable in the first place, lacking any sort of strategy beyond timing your punches. When the Titans do inevitably show up, Survivor Instinct becomes marginally more interesting, as you’ll need to narrowly avoid the attacks of these massive monsters. However, the increased difficulty makes it difficult to appreciate the choreography and visual impact of these supposedly defining segments. They supposedly replace boss battles, with the focus being on survival instead of beating the monsters, but ultimately, they fall flat. This illustrates a larger issue with Survivor Instinct, and that is that it simply isn’t a very interesting game. Instead, it is very much a by-the-numbers Metroidvania with giant monsters tacked on. In typical Metroidvania fashion, Survivor Instinct encourages you to explore your surroundings and revisit earlier areas with new abilities. Doing so typically rewards you with new lore about the creatures you encounter. The MonsterVerse’s inhabitants are fascinating without a doubt, but the game lacks the inventiveness and creative level design to make backtracking worth it. Survivor Instinct brings to mind the plethora of bad licensed games from the late ‘90s and early 2000s, with how its only reason for existence is to cash in on a popular IP. The game isn’t even ‘so bad it’s good’, it’s just bland and uninspired. Die-hard MonsterVerse fans may get a kick out of discovering new lore, but there are wikis that cover the ins and outs of Tiamat and Abaddon. Survivor Instinct isn’t a very lengthy game, clocking in at roughly 8 hours, but even this was too long. To Survivor Instinct’s credit, we didn’t run into any mechanical issues or glitches, but that’s the least we could expect for the €24.99 price tag. Conclusion Our pal Kong really can’t catch a break, can he? As Survivor Instinct’s credits rolled, we felt underwhelmed by what the game had to offer. It’s as if the developers forgot to put the fun in functionality. That David isn’t a relatable protagonist doesn’t help either, as he is difficult to care about. Let’s put it this way: we were bored by a game where a giant gorilla and an enormous spider do their best to try and kill you. The potential of the Titans is wasted on the most barebones Metroidvania game we’ve played in recent years. You’re not missing out if you decide to skip this one.