Kong: Survivor Instinct Review (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

When colossal beasts wreak havoc in the world, you’re caught in the crossfire. Yet you must fight through the chaos to find your missing daughter. Unlike what the title of the game might suggest, there is minimal survival gameplay. Instead, developer 7Levels chooses to focus on platforming challenges. The result is a Metroidvania-style gameplay that takes up roughly seven hours to beat. You’ll navigate through debris and unstable buildings while cinematic Titan against Titan battles ensues in the background. 

At some points, the Titan beasts will reach into the buildings you’re hiding in. Well, tear up the buildings more rightly, destroying some of the obstacles for you but also potentially ripping you into pieces. This isn’t a monster fighting game that is long overdue from the MonsterVerse franchise. It isn’t a combat-intensive game either, where you fight the monsters themselves or, better still, become them. No. Kong: Survivor Instinct is a sidescrolling platformer that is a definite step up from 2023’s disappointing Skull Island: Rise of Kong. 

It’s almost like a sneak peek into what’s to come, with 7Levels kicking the MonsterVerse off with a low-budget platformer. If they pour more resources into the combat sections of the game and allow you to control Kong himself, we might just be looking at the kick-starter for more satisfying MonsterVerse games to come. If you’re still on the fence about whether to play the game, we’ve compiled all the nitty gritty details you need to make a final decision in our Kong: Survivor Instinct review below.

Moral of the Story

Multiple titans are breaching the surface of Earth, wreaking havoc throughout the city. Most people have managed to escape beyond the city’s gate. However, some remain trapped in debris and crumbling buildings. Your protagonist, however, follows a whole other thread with the responsibility of finding his missing daughter. You have to navigate back into the chaos, rescuing the survivors you come across. Some will be mourning the loss of their loved ones, while others will be on the brink of hopelessness. 

The deeper you tread through the story, the more complex it grows. You discover the role that a criminal organization plays in the events of the story. The eco-terrorist Alan Jonah from the MonsterVerse franchise returns. He leads the mercenary group, the Hyenas. This time, they spearhead a different diabolical scheme. You can tell there are a lot of moving parts in the story, decent and significant parts that have immense potential to induce heavy dread and destruction. 

Lights, Camera, Action!

However, for all the story promises, it hardly ever reaches its full potential. This is due to several factors that combined water down the impact we could have enjoyed. For one, the voice acting does just enough to get the job done. It’s hardly immersive, as is the soundtrack, which could have been better. Coupled with the sound effects, the auditory side of storytelling ends up being just okay. Meanwhile, you’ll find some of the story beats predictable. The ending, in particular, wraps up too quickly and is the kind of resolve you can see coming from miles away.

At least the visuals and environments are spectacular. You’ll find yourself taking the time to appreciate the intense battles between colossal beasts in the background. Kong, Abaddon, and more Titans fight it out, much to the pleasure of the player. They break stuff and throw buses like they were pieces of cake. By the time they’re done fighting, the world around them transforms from into nothing, but derelict remains of what once was. These are perhaps the best parts of Kong: Survivor Instinct, with almost always huge spectacles of combat fueling your trek through the crumbling city. In fact, the battles might have been too majestic, enough to be left wishing you were a part of the action.

Meat on the Bone

Anyway, you’ll be thumbing away in the game’s platforming sections. These incorporate light puzzling, even lighter combat, and general exploration. At first, you’ll grapple with basic platforming that feels responsive. You’ll run, climb, and jump through debris-filled stages. The stages are often diverse, with interactable elements and destructible environments. Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell which areas are interactive or destructive. There’s also the puzzles, which are pretty simple. You may need to explore the environments where screwdrivers can pry open doors or keys to access locked doors. Or you may drag containers to climb on top of and hoist yourself up higher platforms; all pretty straightforward.

At this point, you’ll be hoping that combat is the saving grace of gameplay. Because with the simple puzzles, all you’re left with is running and climbing through debris. Well, combat uses a quick and heavy attack, as well as a block and counterattack. You can shoot foes using a handy pistol that you can upgrade to carry more ammunition. However, there are no other guns you can wield, which barely makes sense when enemies can come at you with shotguns. In any case, enemies do grow in strength and numbers. You’ll soon be fighting hordes of human and spidery foes, and often, you’ll run out of ammunition, pushing you into a corner of solely relying on hand-to-hand combat. Or when you’re truly desperate, you can shove enemies off ledges. 

Saving Grace

You could make combat interesting by shooting enemies in the foot to make them vulnerable to consequent attacks. Or you could grab enemies and use them as human shields. But otherwise, there isn’t much to keep you engaged in combat. Even the melee and ranged attacks hardly pack a punch. If anything, combat looks and feels dull and clunky. And when you’ve played for a long time, it can start to feel frustrating to have to get past. You could say that combat is poor because Kong: Survivor Instinct is a sidescrolling platformer first. However, as recent Metroid Prime and Hollow Knight have taught us, combat can still be punchy and satisfying even in Metroidvania-style games.

Perhaps Kong: Survivor Instinct’s saving grace is the ability to punch through walls and use a sledgehammer to break through obstacles. But even more gratifying is the ORCA device you can use to identify and capture certain signals. Once you reach a certain number of signals, you gain the ability to call a Titan for help with navigating platforming challenges. The respective Titan will clear the obstacle for you. However, you must also be on high alert because they can rip you apart just the same. Platforming turns into a tight timing and precision affair that doesn’t always seamlessly translate well in action. 

Tag Team

In that same vein, a Titan can spot you through the windows of buildings as you make your way through the crumbling city and pursue you. As you can imagine, Kong tearing through huge chunks of multi-level environments sends you into panic mode as you scamper for safety. You’re, of course, much smaller in size compared to the Titans, leaving you with a very slim chance of escaping without a scratch. While you’ll enjoy watching several Titans rampage through the city, you’ll likely notice Godzilla missing in action. It’s probably due to licensing issues. Still, it’s unsettling, given the MonsterVerse franchise has Godzilla fighting Kong for humanity. In any case, Kong: Survivor Instinct features a decent lineup of familiar beasts, and who knows, Godzilla might make it to the next one.

Verdict

Kong: Survivor Instinct feels majorly centered on delivering spectacle cameos of Kong and other Titans. These magnificent colossal beasts duke it out in the background as you platform through the rampage and destruction left in the wake of battle. When stripped off of the action-packed set pieces of warring Titans, what’s left is fairly basic gameplay. You’re often jumping, running, and climbing through debris-filled buildings. While you race through destruction, you solve simple puzzles and fight in even simpler combat. Most of your playthrough is straightforward, hardly engaging you in satisfying gameplay. It gets worse when platforming becomes frustrating, thanks to clunky animation and controls. 

At certain points, the Titans topple the platforms you’re hiding in, leaving you scampering for safety. These are the saving grace moments that rely heavily on perfect timing and precision. They add intensity to your playthrough that keeps you on your toes, but only for a short while before the dull gameplay resumes. Meanwhile, the story’s ending unravels suddenly and predictably. It feels like a missed opportunity to provoke the mind and possibly set the stage for a sequel. Speaking of sequels, 7Levels could pick up where Kong: Survivor Instinct has left off. However, they’d need to scrape off the dull and clunky gameplay in favor of a more compelling story and intense playthrough.

Whether the intensity is ramped up by controlling the Titans themselves, placing you in the middle of the action, remains up for debate. However, what’s clear is that the sidelines are no place for gamers to fully experience the epic destruction in the MonsterVerse franchise.