mclazyj
Reviews
Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Windows)
King Kong is a seat of the pants ride that will keep you entertained, but will let you down at the end.
The Good
The graphics were fantastic and the sound was engaging. You felt immersed without the HUD.
The Bad
The New York sequence was dreadfully short. Some of the characters, Jack Black's character in particular, phoned in his performance. It is a short experience, no more than six hours at best.
The Bottom Line
You look out into the clearing and feel a bit apprehensive. You feel an unnerving sense of something dark that lies ahead. You walk down the steps of the ruins, hearing the rustling of debris falling down around you. Something is watching you. Suddenly, a dinosaur comes out at you fangs exposed. You reach for a spear nearby as the beast charges you. How can you possibly survive this island.
This is one of the scenes that you will come across in Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. First off, the game will now be referenced as King Kong, because there is no way I am typing the acronym PJKKTOGOTM. King Kong traces the path of the movie from beginning to the end. I have not seen the movie, so I am not sure how faithful it is to the movie, but it did not hinder my game experience in anyway.
The game is a port of the console version, but does have some graphical upgrades. You play through the game as two people. First is Jack Driscoll, an aspiring writer that has been picked by Carl Denham to help script out a movie. I don’t know the reason why they are going to Skull Island to film the movie, but they decide that they are going there. Of course they almost crash and then bad weather strands them on the island.
At this point, you start to notice the nice graphics in the game. The backgrounds are very detailed and the beasts look amazing, especially King Kong. Graphics as a whole are quite nicely done. The shaking of the screen when a V-Rex or Kong bellow or rage, to the fog effects and weather effects of the game, it is all a blast to look at and watch. Problem for me was that the game was moving so fast in the beginning rushing you from place to place, that you did not get to appreciate the lush look of the game. But if you have a good graphics card, you will be treated by a great looking game.
The interface of the game also bears some mention. There is none. There is no health meter, weapons screen, ammo screen at all. You do get cues, like Jack telling you how much ammo you have left after each reload, or the screen flashing a crimson color after each hit. It is a real feat to pull off, but I have to say that I did not miss having the HUD and it actually made for a more cinematic and immersive experience.
The game plays out in a first person style while you play as Jack Driscoll and the mission structures are fairly linear. Monsters come about at certain trigger points and disappear if you move back from those trigger points. The levels are well designed and have a good flow to them, but as I said earlier, the game seems to move rather briskly in the beginning. The pace however slows down a bit when you get to the big guy. That’s right boys and girls, you get to play the Eighth Wonder of the World, Kong.
And it is a blast to play Kong. He is a powerhouse of an ape. And he will wreak absolute carnage upon your enemies. Kong looks absolutely amazing and the art style that they used to create him in the game was fantastic. His attacks were a bit quirky and I normally had to resort to a gamepad in order to pull of the rage attacks, because I could not get them coordinated with my mouse. But his levels start to slow down the game a bit and let you view in amazement at how the game looks. Also, the Kong levels switch to a third person view which allows you view his visceral destruction from a more abstract perspective. There is something quite satisfying about watching the big boy destroy everything is sight.
Sound is another factor that bears mention with King Kong. The sounds are really good with nice ambient sound of the jungle surrounding you. Also, the music queues you a bit when danger arises which is a nice thing, because when the beasties come, they normally will surprise you the first time. At least once or twice, I was taken out of my seat due to the sound of a V-Rex or a Bat that I hear but just could not gauge the direction.
I mentioned it a little bit before, but I wanted to mention the control scheme. While the mouse and keyboard works well for the first person sequences, but when I switched to Kong, I have a lot of frustration with the Rage mechanic. You are supposed to work Kong into a Rage to finish the bigger beastie bosses in the game. Problem was that I could not Right click and hold the mouse while scrolling the mouse wheel up. It really took me out of the game the first time it became necessary. But I solved the problem by using my gamepad which worked out nicely.
After reading all of this so far, you have to think that this is a 4.5 star game review. Well, Unfortunately, the game takes a sharp detour once you get to New York. I don't want to spoil the game, so I will just say that it is a letdown after the time you put into the game.
I should note, that the game does give you unlockable items that you get for your score and for completing the game. I have to say that I was not really drawn in by this and it could be because I was not really interested in the movie. Most of the extra content has to do with the movie.
King Kong is a visual treat that gives us a good game that is paced a bit too fast and ends rather anti-climatically. You will enjoy the most of your game play, but in the end will seem a bit bummed by the copped out ending sequence. You will have fun with the game and I do recommend it. I just wish the ending would have been better.
By mclazyj on March 5, 2006
Fallout (Windows)
A classic
The Good
As a psuedo sequel to Wasteland, it had all the trappings of a great game. Deep plot, complex characters and the ending gave you an idea of the true consequenses of your actions. The main quest was decent, but did not force it down your throat, allowing you to enjoy all the little nuisances of the story including all the side quests.
The Bad
That said, I was a little letdown on how easy the ending was. You became too powerful for the game by the end. But this is a minor quibble on an otherwise great game.
The Bottom Line
Think Damnation Alley the movie, but not as cheesy and missing George Prepard.
By mclazyj on March 29, 2003
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (DOS)
One of the coolest graphic adventures I have played
The Good
This game had great graphics for its time, and a good story that kept you laughing the whole way through. It took adult matter and presented it in a way that was humorous, yet risque. This game definitely follows in the Sierra trend of fun adventure games. And don't forget one of the funniest text parsers -- truly infused with Al Lowe humor.
The Bad
My one problem with the game is the fact that it was a little too short and on the easy side. I think that they wanted to make this a game the would introduce people to computer games, which sometimes made it a little to simplistic.
The Bottom Line
Old style adventure game with a great text parser.
By mclazyj on August 1, 2000
Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale (DOS)
One of the Great Dungeon crawls
The Good
This game gave you a simplistic interface, good graphics, and lots of hacking and slashing. Who can forget the little things like teleporting into the room with 4 groups of 99 bezerkers. Or wandering for days on the dark level in Mangar's tower. It is an absolute must for all RPG players to play this game.
The Bad
The only thing that I did not like about this game is that I owned a Tandy 1000 at the time it came out for the Commodore 64, and I had to wait for something like a year to a year and a half before it was released for the PC. Also, the sound was a little basic, but what could you expect for the time. I am probably just biased due to the advances in sound technology for the PC.
The Bottom Line
A great hack 'n slash dungeon crawl with a lot of gameplay.
By mclazyj on July 23, 2000
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (Windows)
The Gabriel Knight Series sets the bar for other adventure games to beat
The Good
The Beast Within has tense, driven story that will captivate and draw you into the adventure. The puzzles are logically placed in the story and are believable for what a normal person would do. But again, it is the story that will keep you playing this game for days, and possibly weeks. I felt that it was a rare sequel that was better than its original.
The Bad
I do have to say that one of the puzzles requires timing, which is not my strong suit. I had to replay that part several times over. Also, this is just a personal preference, but I did not like the full motion video setup of the game, but this was the big technology at the time, and it did not hurt the actual story in any way.
The Bottom Line
A mystery/suspense adventure game that will keep you guessing until the end.
By mclazyj on July 23, 2000
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (DOS)
Two words: BABEL FISH
The Good
To this day, I still cannot forget the dreaded babel fish puzzle. This puzzle taxed my brain for weeks. I ended up having to get a couple of friends to come over to brainstorm with me on how to get the babel fish in my possesion. It was things like this that make me have fond memories of this game. This was one of the first games I played on my computer when I got it in 1985. It also made me realize how games like this could make me and my buddies stay up all night trying to think up ways to solve some of these puzzles. I only wish that some of the puzzles in today's games would match up to the evils of this game.
The Bad
Not much.
The Bottom Line
The ultimate thinking game. That could be said about any Infocom game. You definitly have to think your way through all of the puzzles.
By mclazyj on May 2, 2000
Starflight (DOS)
Six months of lost education
The Good
This game had everything going for it. It had character development, ship building, exploring, resource gathering, and space combat. It had hundreds of hours of gameplay, which is so hard to find in a game today. It had the endearing quality of "just one more hour before I quit" addictiveness. And all of this gameplay fit on two 360K disks. Game companies of today should take a lesson from this. I still consider this game my all time favorite, and it is 14 years old now. Hard to believe it has been that long, (and don't include the sequel, because it wasn't even half as good) and EA has never produced an update of any kind. I remember reading some time ago back in '94 that they were going to be producing Starflight 3, but nothing ever came of it. Everytime I buy an EA game, I put on my warranty card's additional comments field to "make a quality Starflight update".
The Bad
That I just wanted more. I know this sounds greedy, but I couldn't believe the game was over when I blew up the grey planet. I kept looking for the next challenge, but that was it. You could keep playing, but by that point in time, your ship was fairly invincible, and you had more than enough money to keep you going. I felt that a part of my life was gone, and wished that there was more. I guess that this isn't a bad thing, but just thought the people should know.
The Bottom Line
Think of this game as the game that spawned Privateer, Privateer 2, the Star Control Series, Homeworld, Independence War, and many others. It encompasses resource gathering, space travel, space combat, crew development, and exploration. Everything you would find in a classic Star Trek episode. I even named my crew after the Enterprise crew members.
By mclazyj on May 2, 2000