by: Dakota Grabowski

December 02, 2005

The story beings with a cut scene from the movie itself as Carl Denham (Jack Black) is desperate for a hit movie so he plans to take his production to Skull Island for the thrills he wants. As Jack (who is played by Adrien Brody in the movie) you tag along with Ann Darrow to this mysterious island to get the footage Carl needs. What Carl, Jack and Ann encounter is more than they can ever imagine. Dinosaurs, a lost civilization and an 800 pound monster that is extremely powerful.

Playing as Jack is a whole new approach that I loved all together. There is no HUD (heads-up display) to show neither how much ammo you have nor any type of map to assist you. Ubi Soft France decided to remove that to give it a better feeling of playing a genuine movie. If you want to know much health you have, just watch the screen bleed red and Jack start to breath heavily. Want to know how much ammo you have? Jack will let you know via him stating that he doesn’t need to reload. The HUD is not missed at all and I feel that this is a whole new approach of developing a video game adaptation of a movie.



Jack is limited to only one gun being equipped. If you want to pick up a pistol instead of the rifle you are holding, you’ll have to drop the rifle to pick up that pistol. There are weapons lying around the levels that are ‘natural’ weapons. They are natural since you’ll be picking up bones of dead bodies and native spears. Extra ammo will be delivered in realistic ways. Sailors will have ammo on them to give to you and planes will drop down crates from the ship to aide you on this mythic journey. You should never feel empty handed if you search your environment like MacGyver to assist you on your battles with the creatures you encounter.

Michel Ancel’s storytelling is obvious to see. The game progresses rapidly as if the game is supposed to be the real source and the movie would be the adaptation. Comparable to other Ancel games, he included puzzle elements to pass along the time between action scenes. The simple ones include finding handles for wooden gears to open doors. These handles need to be turned in tandem with a partner so a sailor that tags along will help most of the time. The puzzle elements are a little too easy and could have used some depth to them. I followed the computer A.I. half of the time and watched what they did to finish the puzzle. They’ll even help you advance by telling you straight up what to do. Not hard at all.