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The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction screenshots:
throwing things
bad cop no donut
what weak ground
oops it broke
farting a cloud
eat this neo!
flying cars are here
yoda is that you
cgi model
get out of my game!
say good night
breath check
gone awol
cars for hands
here little chopper
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Better than crap! Do you remember the Incredible Hulk game which came out right around the same time as the movie? Perhaps you recall that it blew goats? That's a good recollection. I recall feeling vaguely annoyed at the hours of my life that I would never see again after playing that thing which we shall laughingly call a "video game." So you can imagine, dear reader, the trepidation which I faced when I approached Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.
Fortunately, I had little to worry about.
Getting your Hulk on I think the thing that I appreciate most about this new Hulk game is the intricate storyline, full of tender emotion and heartbreaking revelations...er...actually, it was getting to rip the top off a tank and use it as a bat to absolutely destroy a dozen other heavy vehicles, several squads of soldiers, and anything fragile nearby, such as buildings.
This game really knows how to approach the Hulk. There is a very simple thing you're looking for when you play a Hulk game, and it's mostly the strong desire to be a very large, angry, green product of gamma radiation who hits things very hard, a lot. They deliver. A good portion of the game takes place within New York City, which is accurately represented here, and is full of cars, life, and things to shatter. It's a big city too, but getting around isn't a problem since Hulk can bound and rebound so far, so fast, that it's just silly.
The graphics look great. The buildings have lights that flicker and change depending on how much carnage you're wrecking. The explosions will change the screen color, the people look terrified, and the Hulk himself is astounding. He's green, he's covered in muscle, and he's not afraid to roar at the camera. Throughout the game, you get to visit all sorts of interesting locations, such as the Badlands, which will make any reader of the comics properly happy, since there was a fair amount of action there. It's all beautifully recreated by a team of people who were not only paying attention to the detail of each location, but who were also making sure that there was scads of stuff to blow up and destroy.
Oh, right, a storyline...
Impossible as it might sound, running amok as the Hulk and smashing stuff into oblivion would eventually get old if there weren't some sort of storyline to move things along. I was very curious to see what they'd wind up doing story wise, since this game was oddly released with no movie tie-in or anything of the sort.
The folks at Radical knew what they were doing, though. They pulled the story right from the comics, and they seem to have done a very fine job of it. I'm very picky when it comes to super-hero games, because a lot of them are based on the comics that I read avidly as a kid (many of which I still read). The Hulk was not one of my favorites, but I always kept an eye on Bruce Banner and his alter-ego. The game lifts the Nemesis storyline out of the comics. Nemesis, for those who don't know, is a big ugly goblin-like creature who is very much another Hulk, smarter, but certainly not angrier. This storyline interweaves with Bruce Banner realizing that the Hulk is getting too strong for him to control and starting a desperate hunt for a cure. You can play the game without worrying about the story overmuch, but it is adviseable to go through it. The more missions you beat, the more unbelievably powerful combos you can unlock, the better the Hulk gets. I mean, it's worth a good storyline to unlock the ability to ride a city bus like a skateboard, am I right? Of course I'm right.
Listen for a minute The sound in the game is, by and large, pretty solidly done. There is the general background noise of the city that you hear as you romp around. When you start destroying things, though, you'll find people screaming, cops desperately trying to figure out how to stop you, sirens wailing, things crashing, gunshots going off...and all of it is done beautifully. Received at a good volume, or through a surround sound system (as I did it), the game gives you the sense that you've really shaken up the city and caused panic. At one point in the evening when I was playing, I actually paused the game and muted it for a moment because it suddenly occurred to me that the police sirens I was hearing were a bit too loud to be coming from the game. Once muted, though, I was happy to find that from the game it was indeed. Very nice.
The voice acting is not bad, but it doesn't exactly rivet you to your seat or anything. The Hulk's lines are various degrees of "ugh" and "gah!" along with the popular "GAR!" and they're all delivered in the spirit of someone who's big, angry, and getting shot at. Bruce Banner and many of the others, though, range from sounding a bit bored to sounding a little melodramatic. I thought that the voice work for General Ross was top-notch, though. Through and through, he sounds thoroughly stressed and miserable, which is a fairly accurate summation.
...And then your brain shuts off As the game progresses, the missions start to vary wildly from manageable, to fun, to so insanely chaotic that your brain makes a bizarre screeching noise and you begin to smell smoke. By and large, the missions stay well within the realm of "fun," but occasionally you find yourself racing a time limit while dodging tanks, heat seeking missiles, massive assault-mech robots, and four or five helicopters, all the while trying to keep your eye on something small and fast...unless you're instead holding something fragile and running frantically to keep it from getting blown up. It never gets to the point where you want to throw down the controller and give up, but when it starts to get frustrating and you can't see your flailing green body on the screen through all the explosions, I'm pretty sure you'll be expressing your feelings loudly with words that will frighten children.
Hulk gives this game four "Gar!" out of five This game, along with a wealth of others, is proof yet again that there is a whole genre emerging around the sandbox style of open-ended city-based game play which games like Grand Theft Auto really pioneered. It also goes a long way toward proving my theory that these open-ended games are perfectly suited for comic book adaptations such as Spider-Man and the Hulk. There are some games that are just worth renting and some that are actually worth plopping fifty dollars on the counter for. This is the second kind. Even after you've beaten everything and unlocked the Hulk's different styles of shorts, you'll be back because you'll have a few more buildings to bust into rubble.
...
Pete Tzinski
Story: It gives you the bare bones of a fairly detailed comic book story, but it gives it well enough to be entertaining.
Graphics: The Hulk looks great, the particle effects and explosions are sharp. The city is fairly generic and full of lo-res textures.
Music/Sound: The music is odd and random. The sound effects are lots of nice explosions.
Voice Acting: Nothing to write home about. The Hulk is the most dramatic.
Script/Dialog: A bit too melodramatic/cartoonish. Not bad, but corny.
Similar Games: Most strongly reminiscent of Spider-Man 2, but there's also the Grand Theft Auto series.
Gameplay: Third-person action game, full of destruction missions, delivery runs, and time scenarios.
Strengths: Plenty to do and a great deal of fun to be had from destroying things. The Hulk is amazing.
Weaknesses: Some fights can quickly become too chaotic to comprehend. There is no A.I. whatsoever, anywhere.
Depth: Thoroghly enjoyable, with not only the storyline missions but plenty of timed races and random little missions to keep you busy. Plenty of items to dig up throughout the city and lots of things to unlock.
Length: If you breeze through the storyline, perhaps 10 hours. Otherwise, you can probably keep it going for about 20-25 if you find everything.
Pace: You set the pace. You accept missions at your discretion and you can do what you like in between. The missions are frantic, though.
Difficulty: Medium
Control: Good
Learning Curve: Short. Hit a button.
Replayability: High. Even after the story is done, there's plenty to do. It's an open-ended game which leaves you plenty of random missions to complete and a huge city to knock around in.
Will keep you up until (a.k.a Fun
Factor): You find something else to do. It's easy to put down. You'll pick it up again sooner than you think, though.
Notable Features: It's a Hulk game, and it doesn't blow. Yes, he really is that freaking powerful.
Fav. Character: Well, it's a toss-up between the Incredible Hulk, or that random pedestrian that runs away from you screaming. I mean, come on...
Instant Classic: It's fun, but it's not hard to dismiss it as a Spider-Man 2 clone (which some argue was a GTA clone). It does not innovate, but it does entertain.
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Release Date: 2005-08-23
Players: 1
Multiplayer: No
ESRB: Rated Teen for...get this...violence.
Target Audience: Comic book fans, anyone looking for a quick game, repressed young men (or women.)
Recommended For: If picking up tanks and making huge explosions make you giggle, this is for you.
Not Recommended for: Anybody who likes a quiet, thoughtful, intelligent gaming experience which enlightens you in the end. Also, pacifists.
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