Kong: Survior Instinct

Developer: 7Levels

Publisher: 4Divinity

Release: October 22, 2024

Playtime as of writing: 7.9 hours per steam, 6 hours per in game (Game bought)

Kong: Survivor Instinct is a 2d platformer set after Godzilla vs Kong but before Godzilla x Kong. The first game I compared this to in my head was the original Prince of Persia, which is weird because I’ve never played it, and Wikipedia tells me the genre is referred to as a cinematic platformer. You run, jump, and climb with all the weight and strength of a human, but like an in shape human that probably used to do parkour. All I’m saying is if that were me, I would have died at the truck crash.

Kong has emerged from Hollow Earth and seemingly destroyed the Bay Area for no reason. You play as David Martin in his mission to find his daughter, an adult women who should be perfectly capable of evacuating on her own. Along the way you get mixed up with the Hyenas, the eco terrorist group led by Alan Jonah from Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It’s never explicitly stated to take place in San Francisco (at least as far as I remember) but there’s mention of the “great bridge” and the “bay” so I’m assuming it’s set there. Since this is set after GvK which is set in 2024 that would make this the second time we know of Titan’s attacking SanFran since G-Day in 2014.

The Hyenas stole a device known as the ORCA Sigma, an updated version of the ORCA that is more tablet like and not some bulky computer in a briefcase. After the Hyenas have a brief run in with Kong, David just so happens to come into possession of the ORCA Sigma. Unfortunately, the Hyenas know you have it and Alan Jonah tells them to kill you and get it back. So not only do you have to deal with giant monsters getting in the way of the search for your daughter but perhaps the greatest monster of all, humans. But you can’t just give the sigma back because now you’re using it as a map! And also, David is aware of who Alan Jonah is and the whole Ghidorah thing that happened and assumes that the Hyenas are the reason Kong attacked the city.

Being a 2d game, the main game play is moving from left to right but also sometimes from right to left. Because the city has been ruined by titan the path forward is not always straight ahead as you find yourself climbing over roofs and into buildings. The downside of the game being 2d is that David does weird things in world like climbing over a truck when it would be easier to walk around it.

While exploring you’ll need to scavenge keys and machine parts to unlock doors or fix generators respectively. You can also find weapons that are used for traversal, like a pipe for breaking down makeshift walls and a gun for shooting locks because your pipe is too weak for the locks I guess. You also get a grappling hook. You can also scavenge water for a health upgrade and gun magazines for an ammo upgrade. Every 2 bottles of water you find you get a another piece of health. You start with 4 health and can get all the way to 10 meaning that David drinks 12 bottles of water in 6 hours. If each bottle is a standard 16.9oz that’s 1.5 gallons.

Combat is simple, you use your pipe to beat people to death. Your enemy attacks, you block or parry, and swing with your pipe until they start blocking, rinse and repeat. Parrying opens up your enemy to a counter attack but issue with the that is the counter attack kick pushes your enemy out of bludgeoning range. You can also grab people and push them into walls, other enemies or environmental hazards that can deal massive damage. You can also just shoot them with your gun and if they’re not wearing a helmet a headshot will kill them instantly.

Bullets are both scarce and infinite. While scavenging or after killing Hyenas there is a chance that you’ll find bullets. Since you need bullets to progress by shooting locks it would seem like you can easily soft lock your game by shooting wildly at a giant spider however around the levels you can find monarch ammo boxes which you can only use if you have no bullets to get one. So while you can’t go full shooter on your enemies you don’t have to worry about running out of bullets needed for progression.

When I first started the game on steam, I got a pop up saying to use a controller before the game even launched so I played it using an Xbox 360 controller. Left stick moves, right stick aims, jump attack shoot dodge, you know all the usual stuff. What I suspect is the reason they push the controller is for the vibration. At certain points in the game you have to run from a titan while it chases you and in the last chase scene while I was trying to line up a throw with the grappling hook the vibration threw me off, which honestly is very immersive because I’m sure in that situation my hands wouldn’t be steady either.

Also the first time I played the load times seemed long. I don’t know if it’s me or the game but the first load between cutscene and gameplay took nearly 2 minutes. However after that load times seemed to improve. Since there wasn’t any patch to improve load speed I can only assume that it was on my end the whole time.

If you’re a lover of the monsterverse I suggest waiting until this game is on sale to get it, the current price tag of $25 seems a bit to steep for me with only about 6 hours of gameplay. If you do your first playthrough on hard you can collect all the achievements in one go. My hope is that this is a step forward and we get more proper monsterverse games and not just mobile games. Maybe one day we’ll even get a 3d version of this, which would essentially be City Shrouded in Shadow but in english so I can understand it. Please Bandai Namco and Granzella, release Kyoei Toshi on PC at least so someone else can make an english patch.

I guess until then I should try that other Kong game…

Anthony

Anthony spends most of his time thinking about games. When not playing games, writing about games, or thinking about games he can be found hunting pokemon in the wilds of downtown Clermont.If you like the words I write, maybe consider supporting me on Patreon?