First off, let me say that I rarely ever play or enjoy movie games. I, like a lot of movie fan gamers, have been burned in the past. Badly. Typical movie games are just thrown together versions of the movie with some filler put in to extend the game beyond two hours. Having obviously not seen the movie yet, and the preview being only two short levels, I'm not sure that this question is answered yet, but I mostly liked what I've seen so far.

In this preview you can play one first-person perspective level as Jack Driscoll, a hapless puny human on The Island of the Skull. You are in the party with the director Carl Denham, played by Jack Black in the upcoming movie, and one other member in the party giving you orders on what to do. I must say, the model and skin for Jack Black's character was exceptionally well done, and bears quite a good likeness, something that adds more realism to the game. (Especially when he yells at you for getting in the way of his camera shot - nice touch.)

You start the mission in the rainy jungles of the island, near some ancient ruins, and are told to follow the party. Very quickly a Tyrannosaurus Rex is on your group, in full thunder lizard glory, and chases you through the jungle. Carl and the other character have to stop to open a door so that you can continue running and you are told to "distract" the beast.

So, armed with your machine gun and hide-and-seek skills, you have to work to draw the T-Rex's rancor onto yourself. The best hint here is "get out of the way and hide" as the T-Rex will quickly turn on you and alternatively slowly stalk and viciously attack you. I died a couple of times just trying to get out of the way, but after a couple of attempts you soon learn that shooting it only makes it angry, but does tend to distract it away from the guys opening the doors. After a few minutes, the doors are open and the group can flee.

The second level lets you play as Kong himself, from the third person this time, as he tries to save Ann by laying down some king of the jungle action on the T-Rex. You battle it out in third person fighter style with full ability to move around the "room." Kong can even jump up onto the vines on the jungle wall to pull some WWE style wrestling attacks on the helpless reptile. Using a mixture of grabs, attacks and a special move called "Rage" (where Kong beats his chest and pumps himself up) you wrestle down the T-Rex and eventually rip its jaws apart. Or the T-Rex beats you and wraps its jaws around your gigantic jugular. (Don't worry parents, there's no blood - at least in the demo - though it is quite violent in parts.) The most interesting aspect of combat is that you have to repeatedly press the attack button to best your opponent, giving you a real sense of having to strain to kill the beast. It was quite different than just "point and hit" but I wonder how it might work in a real game after hours of play and the carpal tunnel sets in.

After the initial T-Rex fight, you have to chase after Ann before other dinos get a hold of her. To chase her through the jungle you have to climb up walls, swing on outstretched rocks and vines and jump over chasms. Finally you land near some smaller dinosaurs, take them out, then rescue Ann from another pair of T-Rexes, and so ends the demo.

This demo has a tremendous cinematic feel - one of the best executed movie styles I've seen. From the beginning, strong chords of movie music hit you, giving you those opening credit goosebumps. This continues into the game where, inexplicably, there is NO heads up display. You can't tell if you are carrying a gun, what type of gun it is, how much ammo or health you have, or anything else except what your character sees. This has some good and bad points to it as it definitely keeps you "in the moment" when things start happening, but it also gives you no feedback on how you are actually doing. I think, in the end, it probably didn't matter that much because when I got attacked I had a pretty good feeling I was going to die anyway, but it does lead to some uncertainty in your strategy. Of course, even death is cinematic as you start to only be able to hear your own breath and begin to hear the choral strains of angels. Eerie, but amazing stuff.

The graphics, if you stop and look up close are decent, but really pretty basic. However, this is easily covered up by the glorious special effects. For example, besides a driving rain in the jungle during these levels to distract you, the skin and the animation of the T-Rex and other characters are really well done. Kong's fur is pretty thick and unnatural looking if you stop and look close, but you rarely have the time. Then, as the T-Rex leans back and opens up a very large jaw to bellow a "howdy!" the screen blurs from the sheer force of the scream. Another jaw dropping moment is when Kong is swinging through the jungle to rescue Ann. The animation is spot on as Kong grapples and swings as the jungle rushes by. You see those effects in movies, but rarely are they done so well in a game.

The effects work though, because once you get in the thick of the scene and the combat, you really aren't paying a whole lot of attention to anything else besides getting out of the way, or winning the fight. That's usually a tell-tale sign of a great game to me if it can immerse me like that, but unfortunately the demo is just too short to know if that feeling stays throughout the whole game.

Besides the lack of a H.U.D. the only other real downside I found was that Kong is incredibly difficult to control in combat. This might be just because there isn't a lot of practice that can be done in a demo, but I found it difficult sometimes to get Kong to turn around and actually face the enemy or I would get him caught up in rocks at the edge of the walls. Other times, I'd be trying to jump up to grab on to the wall and for some reason just couldn't stick. Not sure if I just wasn't in the right place, was too far away, or was just doing it wrong but it definitely hampered my play. On the other hand, it appears they added a large "fudge factor" while swinging through the jungle as I was able to control that flawlessly, and it felt very natural. If there was anything I could tell Ubisoft to fix before release, it would be Kong's control while in combat.

Not a very large demo, but it does give you a small taste of what the final game MIGHT be like. A lot can change between a short teaser demo and a final boxed product, but this will definitely be a game I keep my eye on over the coming months. At the very least I think the demo has cinched my getting to the theatre to see this movie on the big screen, which is no small feat for a game.