It is truly amazing to see all of the lore being created from the ‘Monsterverse‘ series featuring King Kong and Godzilla. From Kong: Skull Island to Godzilla vs. Kong and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters we are getting our fill of giant monster mayhem.

To continue the world of the Monsterverse developer 7levels has created Kong: Survivor Instinct an intimate 2.5d survival game featuring the devastating power of the Titans. Focusing on a lone man searching for his daughter the game explores the effects of a Titan attack and the nefarious power struggles behind the scenes.

The main character is David, a remarkably capable oil rig worker (he would have done great in the crew of Armageddon) as he travels to a devastated city to find his daughter. Of course there is more going on than David suspects and he gets tangles in Monarch, competing organization Hyena and the Titans struggles.

As David travels through the destroyed city he stumbles on Monarch tech, new items to help with his journey and clues as to what is going on with his daughter Sarah. All the while Kong and other Titans are rampaging through various parts of the city.

Structured much similarly to Metroidvanias like Shadow Complex the game slowly provides more tools like hammers, guns and climbing hooks to enable more and more of the world to get explored. Thankfully the design doesn’t make it feel like there is a ton of useless backtracking thanks to clear navigation points and fast travel.

As David explores the city various signals are discovered and captured to eventually allow him to call a Titan to clear an obstacle or path. It is a little ridiculous and convenient but each and every time I was blown away when a Titan filled the screen and destroyed a building or landmark to clear the path in a devastating way.

The Titans like Kong, Abaddon and others are revealed sparingly aside from those benchmark moments but at times they spot you and a chase ensues. These are the more frustrating bits of the game as it is a true race and if spotted the sequence starts over. Luckily they are not overly difficult, just a tad frustrating at times due to timing.

Outside of this the game is a pretty standard experience with simple puzzles, simpler combat and fairly speedy navigation. There is decent voice acting and the soundtrack is pretty good despite some repetition in the background music.

What I did really like was the look and feel of the game. The graphics are extraordinary at times for the relatively small scope of the game. I never failed to get impressed when Kong lumbers by or is in the background destroying something.

Kong: Survivor Instinct is a fairly short but focused experience that has a lot to offer to fans of the Monsterverse. Deep lore from the universe, great looks at Titans and one of my favorite things a look at a city devasated by one of these monstrous attacks.

The gameplay itself though is fairly basic and while that is helpful to get the game moving along I kept hoping for a little more. Better tactics for enemies, more items/weapons and more far reaching puzzles and scenarios. The experience is worth it for the glimpses of Kong and other Titans but the rest ends up being a standard experience.

We were given a PS5 code by the publisher for review purposes. Kong: Survivor Instinct is available right now on PC via Steam, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.