Kong: Survivor Instinct

 PlayStation 5
Metascore
57

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. PlayStation Country
    Nov 15, 2024
    70
    Kong: Survivor Instinct is a solid enough Metroidvania. Don’t be expecting much in the way of Kong himself, as he and other titans are reduced to bit parts. You’ll be fighting off human antagonists, with the main baddie being Alan Jonah as previously played by Charles Dance. Combat is OK, but you’ll see little nuance in enemy encounters. The titan encounters are made frustrating due to miserly checkpointing, but we still had a fair bit of fun with this.
  2. IGN
    Oct 22, 2024
    50
    Setting a Metroidvania-style platforming adventure against a backdrop of building-razing beasts is certainly an intriguing idea, but unlike its towering cast of kaiju cameos, Kong: Survivor Instinct itself simply doesn’t measure up. Its story and characters are underwritten, its ravaged urban playground is eye-catching but not particularly surprising to explore, and its combat fails to evolve enough to keep the fights interesting over the course of the journey. The occasional room-rocking escape sequences do literally shake things up, but they’re few and far between and only distract from the otherwise uncomplicated platforming for short bursts at a time. Kong and his kind may hail from an alternate world hidden deep inside the Earth’s core, but the actual gameplay of Kong: Survivor Instinct is strictly one-dimensional.
  3. GameSpew
    Oct 22, 2024
    50
    Kong: Survivor Instinct looks rather nice, and its 2.5D action-adventure gameplay is somewhat enjoyable despite being quite basic. It's just a shame that there's so much clunky human-on-human combat, which is not fun in the slightest, and that manipulating its gargantuan monsters is simply a case of gathering collectibles.
  5. Push Square
    Oct 22, 2024
    50
    It's a real shame because there's a promising premise here that could've delivered something unique beyond the usual 3D kaiju brawlers. For a human-focused story, it's unfortunate that more time wasn't put into this, and while exploration is passable, the gameplay soon falls into repetition. Unless you're a die-hard fan of Legendary's Monsterverse, it's difficult to recommend this over other Metroidvanias.