Exploring the island and fighting off its ferocious inhabitants, or even cowering in a cave while huge dinosaurs sniff the air for your blood, keeps the game exhilarating from beginning to end. There are even raft rides. While you're running the rapids, flaming spear in hand, you'll have to pick off the island's human inhabitants by burning their rickety scaffolds. It's a continually satisfying adventure that gets harder as it goes, yet rarely becomes frustrating.
There are also several scenes in which the action shifts to a third-person viewpoint, where you play as Kong himself. There's a real sense of exhileration as the monstrous ape swings through the jungle, effortlessly catching tree limbs and moss-covered rock walls, and occasionally bashing the teeth right out of a T-rex wannabe's maw. The huge gorilla's sense of weight is unexpectedly real: every hit feels massive and every swing is powerful. These scenes quickly become predictable, but they're so attractive and polished, not to mention infrequent, that it doesn't become a bother.
