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Review: The Incredible Hulk - Ultimate Destruction
- Title: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
- Developer: Radical Entertainment
- Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games
- System: Xbox (PS2, Gamecube)
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 8/10
Indeed, there are as many similarities to Grand Theft Auto as there are to Spider-Man. Just as in GTA there is a lot of fun to be had in finding out exactly how much destruction you can wreak on an urban (or desert, for that matter) environment. The cityscape in Hulk is very destructible, with concrete shattering and trees exploding from even the slightest twitch of the Hulk's impressive physique. Though you can't actually destroy buildings, you can tear them up quite impressively, and almost everything that isn't nailed down can be imploded, exploded, shredded, flattened, or ripped apart. Enough of this sort of activity, and you're bound to attract attention. The screaming citizenry will have long since noticed you, but the forces of the military are a little slower on the uptake. After your second story mission or so, you'll have a funky art deco gauge in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. As you confront humanity with their own transience, the gauge will begin to grow yellow spikes. Once you have enough spikes, the military will send a strike team out to take you down. Typically this will take the form of a couple of attack choppers with machine guns and rockets. In an urban environment, the attack squad is easy pickings, because you have a lot of umm ... ammunition.
By ammunition, I mean cars. And buses. And the burned-out wrecks of already downed helicopters. Tossing around major artifacts of western civilization may sound complicated, but it really isn't. The control schema for Hulk is the best kind: simple with lots of permutations. There's a jump, a punch, a grab, and a "special." Each button can be held down to power-up the move, and easily one of the most satisfying elements of the game is the ability to leap from block to block and building to building like a pissed-off green jackrabbit. In the early game grabbing and throwing objects is one of the most effective tactics, and a powered-up throw can go quite a ways. Movement is just as effortless, with Hulk leaping onto the sides of buildings and scaling them with ease. In fact, the Hulk moves so quickly and decisively that at times he can get a little overenthusiastic. In tight situations the controls can get a little mushy, and with Hulk's power and speed even a slight thumb twitch can result in an unintended leap of a block or more. The developers did a superb job of getting across the Hulk's raw physical energy, but in some cases more forgiving controls would be appreciated.
All of these cool moves and attacks aren't yours to play with at the outset of the game. As you move through the title you'll obtain "smash points," a form of currency. You accrue smash points by destroying stuff (rewarding you for all that urban renewal) and for completing missions. At certain intervals in the title new sets of moves will become available, which you can spend your smash points on to become even more effective at taking out representatives of our nation's military. Some of the moves (like "Air Recovery") are purely functional and serve to improve the Hulk's efficiency in combat. Some of them, though, are pure showmanship. My personal favorites are the hand slap, which creates a violent shockwave that throws your enemies into the air, and the ground slam, which does unfortunate things to any tanks you may be standing on at the time.
Though you do get some points for wrecking stuff, your big source of smash points will be mission completion. Story missions follow the somewhat cookie-cutter tale of Dr. Banner and his colleague as the two of them try to come up with a way to de-Hulk Banner for good. Holed up in a church, hidden way out on the outskirts of a major city, the good doctors are building devices that will aid them in their goals. As the Hulk, your tasks center around two general themes: 1.) steal money, gear, technology, etc. for the ongoing project of reversing your Hulkism, and 2.) disrupt and destroy the military's attempts to develop ever more elaborate anti-Hulk weapons. You'll occasionally get the chance to do something unique, like the occasional fight with arch-foes from Hulk comic canon. The Abomination fights are particularly rewarding (drop buildings on someone and you'd think he'd get the hint). Side missions are your other main source of smash points. Scattered throughout the world maps, side missions are short, fun exercises in Hulkishness that allow you to improve your understanding of the controls and earn some points besides. They vary widely in mood and temperament, and some are predicated on having purchased a particular attack. One desert mission, for example, has Hulk punting cars over a field goal. The city missions are especially varied, with options available to rescue citizens from a burning building, use a large metal girder to slam soldiers falling from a helicopter out across the water like baseballs, races through the city streets, and unfathomable rushes to get large vehicles to perch precariously on the tops of skyscrapers. Depending on how well you do, you can earn a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Each step up offers increasing smash point awards. While to participate in the side missions initially you'll have to stalk the city streets or the desert landscape to find mission markers, once you've gotten a medal of some kind you can access the event through the main options hub at the church, allowing for easy access to fun.
Unfortunately, the storyline isn't all that interesting. It's a stripped down version of the Hulk's tale of woe, spliced together to provide an impetus for your thrilling heroics. Despite this, the voice acting manages to impress. The folks they got to do the main characters do a competent job of expressing the emotion and humor of their various situations, and even manage a couple of funny one-liners. Random Non-Player Character vocalizations are interesting too, with military NPCs being particularly well done. You can tell from auditory clues when they're about to attack, giving you another way to stay on top of things in a frenetic combat situation. In general the audio for the game is well done, with what little musical scoring there is being adequate to the background music task. It's not going to win awards, but it's not distracting either. The sound effects utilized in the title are very satisfying. Every smash, crunch, or crushing blow has that much more impact on the player because of the well done audio environment. Little touches, like the twisting of metal as you pull a car apart to form into gauntlets, or the quickly fading pleas for help as you toss a soldier over the horizon, are what add an extra layer of enjoyment on the experience.
And Hulk is no slouch visually, either. While it's certainly not the most beautiful game released this year, it's far from bad looking. The Hulk himself is well animated, with a large pool of movements to draw from. His shambling gait is well reproduced, and the slightest twitch of his Buick-sized limbs does a good job of demonstrating the power you're given control over. NPCs aren't given nearly as much detail, but other than a vanilla sameness to your opponents, after a while there isn't a lot to complain about. The destructible environment that the engine offers and the timely use of explosions are what really completes the experience. When you toss a car it doesn't just bounce. If you throw it hard enough, it shatters into a maelstrom of flying steel and fire, usually taking out anything unlucky enough to be nearby. Tanks, when destroyed, can be pulled apart for use as two different weapons. The chassis can be used as a shield (assuming you know the correct move) or thrown, and the turret can be used like an oversized club. The little details like that add to the enjoyment factor.
So combat is fun, they give you lots of stuff to do, and even though it is a weak plot, you have a reason to keep playing. Regrettably, like all heroes, the Hulk has a vulnerability. Repetition, in this case, is the downfall of the big green behemoth. While the first few missions are experiences that you really shouldn't deny yourself, after a while the fun inevitably begins to curve downward. Though the first time you leap into the air and toss a firetruck downward at an assaulting military unit you'll grin from ear to ear, after the 50th time that same move has lost its luster. The fun drain is the Achilles heel for any title, but the "Ultimate Destruction" suffers from that fun-drop fairly quickly. Once you get past the tutorial and the first few missions, you quickly realize that you've seen most of what the game has to offer. To be sure, you face down new opponents and situations, stopping a convoy before it reaches a goal, protecting objects from destruction at the hands of the military, etc., but after the 25th time you destroy a tank it's just not novel anymore.
Hulk, then, is a well-made title with highly entertaining gameplay that suffers from a quickly apparent lack of variety. If you enjoy comics or action beat-em'-ups, Hulk is well worth a rental. The first five hours of play will be extremely enjoyable, with some very memorable moments that can only come from the self-determined playstyle becoming so popular nowadays. Over the long term, your entertainment level is likely to drop, and folks seeking a high return of entertainment for their investment might be better suited waiting on Kingdom Hearts 2 or Final Fantasy XII.
...pity the movie came out two years ago. Still, it's less late than Duke Nukem Forever, so you can't complain too much.
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Looks better than the movie and more realistic too.
"By default, a game based on a movie has to suck."
Personally, I thought ET was absolutely awesome...
This isn't a movie tie-in whatsoever. THere WAS a tie-in for Incredible Hulk when the movie came out, this one is more a comic book tie in (like Ultimate Spider Man)
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Not all games that will be eventually made into a movie or vice versa suck. Another example of this is Resident Evil (or Biohazard in Japan). All the games, those before and after the 2 movie productions, are considerably better than the 2 movies that were released. But yes, I have seen *generally speaking* that sometimes movies based off video games tend to be less enjoyable than the other way around.
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
While the parent will probably get modded troll by the time I click submit, it is worthy to have bad reviews too.
I dont think this is a bad review... it seemed he said it was fun but wouldn't have you playing for months. Reviews aren't just for the greatest games ever... they also serve to inform the buying public, which this one did well.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
I was in a comic book store a while back and a bunch of middle aged men were talking about this game. Here was the discussion:
Man 1:Yeah the new Hulk game has so many weapons.
Man 2:Yeah did you hear that it has this gun. (I forgot which gun it was specifically.)
Man 1:That gun has amazing stopping power.
Man 2:Yeah. There is no way that the Hulk would be able to stay up after being shot with that.
Man 1: I agree. You know [generic game magazine] only gave it an eighty for realism.
Yeah. The last part scares me a lot. Which magazine actually rates a video game for realism that is about a giant green monster?? What type of people complain that a gun is underpowered when everything else in the game makes little sense?? Comic book nerds scare me.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
So it's a little late... Who's the incredible Hulk anyway? I think I forgot.
Long-term entertainment may be out of reach of this angry goliath, but it's well worth a look if you like action smashups.
Score: 8/10
Did you decide to rate it 8/10 because you haven't tested its long-term enjoyment? Honestly, most games are enjoyable for a couple hours and I felt like I could have had more fun with a dirty hooker for less money.
So, is 8/10 just its first impression or do you really think it will retain that 8/10 throughout its lifespan? If not, which is what I believe you would say, would you rate it higher than a 5 or 6?
"Though the first time you leap into the air and toss a firetruck downward at an assaulting military unit you'll grin from ear to ear, after the 50th time that same move has lost its luster... but after the 25th time you destroy a tank it's just not novel anymore. "
By the second time in the same paragraph I hear the same thing, it kind of loses it's luster, it's just not novel anymore.
Although, being a fan of hack 'n' slash dungeon crawlers, I gotta say that I'll be picking up this title as soon as I can pry the cash from my wife's han... I mean, as soon as I leave work.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Golden eye for N64 was a great game that was from a movie. Gernade launcher with the RPC or dual lasers
Playing golden eye all night with a vodka martini shaken not stirred
ummmmm martini
Nuff said.
I saw a commercial for a Hulk video game the other day.... it had a rather large red and white 8.9 out of 10 rating stamped on the cover of the box.
What's the point? come on, either create a fake website and post a 10 out of 10 rating, or just leave it off. Who wants an 8.9 game when you can get an "11 out of 10"* game?
*(no joke, I remember more than a few reviews for the original half-life that rated the game as 11. mmmmmmm..... original half-life
You're Making Me Angry....
If you don't want zonks stories on your homepage then go to: http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=edithome and uncheck his name.
I really hate games that aren't even new ground. I would consider this game if it wasn't a ploy to cash in on the Hulk name. Good or not, originality may be dead as we know it.
Because nerds probably play a lot of video games?
Still, I'm glad to read that The Hulk is good... though can I trust this reviewer after that quote?
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Why does this guy get to post his game reviews on the front page? That's what the games section is for.
I think the last two LOTR movie tie-in games on the PS2 were quite fun. And one of the few video games that the woman was able to play too.
I should put something clever here. Maybe someday.
Tell me that hasn't always been there or I shall go cry for several minutes.
A game published by vivendi? The same guys who are slamming bnetd in courts? No way I'd buy anything else from them, let alone give them free advertising.
In an urban environment, the attack squad is easy pickings, because you have a lot of umm ... ammunition. By ammunition, I mean cars. And buses. And the burned-out wrecks of already downed helicopters. Tossing around major artifacts of western civilization may sound complicated, but it really isn't.
This "game" as you call it is targeted towards the young and the impressionable who are prone to emulate what they see in violent movies and video games such as this.
It's true. During the weeks following the nationwide release of "The Karate Kid", enrollment in karate schools increased substantially. When the movie "Top Gun" was showing in the theaters, enlistment in the Navy overwhelmed recruiters.
Scientific studies suggest that exposure to violence in the media increases aggresive and violent behavior in young people, especially adolescents. Can you imagine what chaos would be wrought by kids throwing around buses and downed helicopters emulating a poor role-model, who clearly has impulse-control issues? Think of the children. Won't someone please think of the children?
I want to stop typing now.
I played this game non-stop (around my work schedule) for the last week and I gotta say, it is the best action game I've ever played, hands down. I was so impressed by every little element of this game. This is a great example of how a game should be built, and an obvious example of what a game could be like when developers aren't rushed. I highly recommend this game to anyone (but don't get it confused with the old Hulk game(s), which sucks major ass)
Oooh! I think I'll dash on down to the video store and see if they still have a copy of Super Mario Brothers. Or maybe Street Fighter. Or Wing Commander...
By default, a game based on a movie has to suck. It's one of the unwritten rules of the industry that movie games are pure profit: Stamp it out quick, screw the gameplay, and we'll make it up to the players with our next genre-buster
True in almost every case! However, I would almost expect the Fantastic 4 game to have much more potential for entertainment than the movie did.
do() || do_not();
I did see some cinematics;
Hulk is fighting some large mech warrior thing, he grabs a car in each hand, clenches a fist around the roof of the cars and uses the cars as brass knuckles against the mech warrior. Im sorry but thats bad ass!
Then it sounds like a perfect adaptation of the movie.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
And if it's only games articles you don't want on your homepage, then select 'none' for games.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Dude, I don't know why you spent $1 on ET. You could've always downloaded an emulator...
:)
I mean, if a game can be called ABANDONware, it's ET, right?
Why is a game review on the front page? I actually bought this game and played all the way through. It is quite fun and somewhat unique gameplay experience, you definitely feel like the Hulk when you play. The game is pretty short though and could easily be beaten in a few days. There is theoretical replay value but I feel that most people wont replay it after they beat it and I recommend a rental. The controls as a whole are above par, there are a wide range of moves and many of them are pretty cool and useful. One problem is that it hurt my hand to play this game even though I play other xbox games quite a bit. I think this has to do with holding down the right trigger to run. Besides being inverted on both axis by default (though thankfully it can be changed) the camera will rotate around the player based on the direction he is moving, and there is no way to turn this off. Some people wont mind this (it is how many games in the genera work) but personally I like to have full camera control on the right stick, I believe it would have made some of the boss battles and challenges easier. The storyline is pretty weak and this game is very linear. Each mission you play opens only one other mission. I would have liked to at least a little bit of a branching mission structure. There are mini challenge missions that open up when you buy new moves, many are just simple races or kill as many tanks as you can type of missions. But some mini challenges have some fun ideas like a game of golf, football and baseball. I should also mention load times. While the loads are fairly quick (3 seconds maybe) they occur every single time you start a mission or mini mission. This definitely made me not want to replay mini missions though I took the time to try them all at least once. Some of the boss battles are very annoying especially the finial boss battle which took me several hours before I was finally able to beat it. I nearly broke my controller. I also felt the ending to be anticlimactic. So that is my quick review, there are some other issues good and bad but those are the major ones. I think any gamer would definitely enjoy this game at least for a few hours. After the game is beaten you can play on a harder difficulty or try to get higher scores on the mini missions, unlock stuff, etc. Still I feel like I probably wont play it again now that I've beaten it.
I think the lession here is pretty clear: Free-roaming games are in, they make just about any game work and there is no excuse not to make a free-roaming game anymore.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I'm sure some hacker will discover a way to unlock the naked Hulk content ...
How is there fantasy different from yours/ours?
In my world, we pretend to be doing real work, that our bosses want the company to succeed, and that our SDLC makes sense.
Don't get me started on our fearless leaders in Washington, and their more frightening fantasies
Most of us are stuck working in a fantasy just as divorced from reality and just little different from that of the comic book nerds.
The difference being that comics nerd's is a little more consistent - and the inconsistencies are the subject of their (reasonable) debate.
There is not nearly enough love in the world, but there is far too much trust.
Yeah, but it'd difficult to actually get the real instruction booklet, though I'm sure there's an FAQ out there.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
I present Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
I think that Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay was an awesome game. And the movie wasn't bad either.
Goldeneye N64 is still one of the best movie tie in games..to bad it came out like 3 years after the movie
I've read this comment - and its utterly dreadful. I wouldn't waste yoru time on it. The above comment is completely over-rated. The comments lacks depth and staying power.
(Do you care to give us a reason maybe?)
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Rumor has it there's a hidden mini-game where you get to see how long it takes you to rip a woman in half with your hulking schlong.
While games have often regarded more as promotion for movies than as products in themselves, it is becoming clear that a successful game can be a major source of profit. A positive aspect of this is that game releases are no longer so tightly coupled to major movie releases. The rush to release a game in synchrony with the movie often results in mediocre titles.
There was indeed a Hulk game released with the movie, but it was rather undistinguished and generic, like so many releases linked to movies. Like the Spiderman 2 game, it finally manages to capture the exciting feeling of "being the character." Unfortunately, like the Spiderman2 game, it also seems to have a rather indifferent story. The "bull in a china shop" sense of controlling the rampaging Hulk in the city is an undeniable thrill, although it is also the source of one of the biggest problems with the plot, which has Doc Samson sending the Hulk on missions in the city. In the course of completing his missions the Hulk inevitably causes incredible destruction, leaving hundreds of police and civilian casualties in his wake. Perhaps wisely, human beings struck by the Hulk discretely vanish, rather than turning into bloody pulp. Still, it is somewhat difficult to imagine Doc Samson encouraging the Hulk to undertake missions with such an inevitably large death toll. Unlike most Hulk comic books stories, which gloss over the human toll of the Hulk's activities, it is hard to be unaware of just how high the body count is as you complete the game's missions. The game really needs a darker plot, more on the level of the Marvel's MAX Hulk miniseries, or the way the Hulk is treated in Marvel's "Ultimates" title.
Two of the best games to come out on Xbox were The Matrix and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Both games greatly revolutionized what you can do with movie games, making the game essentially an interactive chapter, providing further insight into the plot and adding hours of additional character development in two highly popular sci-fi sagas.
The movie was so horrible that they decided to put some time between the game release and the movie.
You know - to let the anger cool off for wasting $8 to see it in the theatres. Of course, for stores with a "break it=buy it" policy, it could still have turned out okay. ("Me saw movie! Movie no good! Game be same! ME SMASH GAME!")
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Uh, I think you mean Chronicles of Riddick turned the tide against stupid movie tie-in games. At least, it's a hell of a lot better than Spider-Man 2 (and a ton better than the movie Chronicles of Riddick, for that matter.) Not to say that Spider-Man 2 was bad, but Chronicles of Riddick was better and came out earlier.
Comment of the year
now someone will have to put up a site called 'planethulk.com' just so it is in the same class as unreal or halflife... well maybe not.
FragHARD or don't frag at all
Women can't play other video games?
{Leans over and whispers in a conspirational manner} It's the boobies. They get in the way of proper joystick movements.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
I always thought the default was: that a movie based on a game must always suck.
Anybody see Mortal Kombat?
-- kortex "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts"
That has been there at least going back to Jon Katz (thank god).
...from the screenshots it looks a LOT like War of the Monsters that came out for the PS2 a little while back.
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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (by Lucasarts) was probably the best movie-based adventure game of all time. Similar enough to have me going 'hey, I remember that from the movie!' yet different enough to suprise me now and then. Followed up by the quite enjoyable Fate of Atlantis (based upon an original work), these two games were a pleasure to play.
Does anybody make adventure games anymore?
"Read on for my impressions of what it's like to step into Hulk's very big shoes. "
I would imagine that stepping into Hulk's very big shoes would be something like one of the following:
Trying on the Headless Horseman's hat for size
Seeing eye-to-eye with the Invisible Woman
Walking in the footsteps of Professor Xavier
Get the picture?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
>By default, a game based on a movie has to suck. Sure, but this game is clearly based on the comic book, and there has already been a movie tie-in game a few years ago.
what it's like to step into Hulk's very big shoes
:P
Hulk is barefoot.
Is there a way to remove Zonk's stories from my /. experience? Mod me down if you wish, but at least wait until I get a reply to take me out of my misery.
There's a few facts mentioned in this article that unfortunately lead me to believe the reviewer didn't complete the game. While I'll admit that's not *necessary* for a review, it generally leads to a more whole and balanced one. As well, it generally makes it less likely you'll make statements that are untrue such as "You cannot destroy buildings." You can. You're just limited to certain ones. There are many buildings throughout the city you can destroy, but it's still a very small percentage. I *think* they're buildings that are supposed to belong to the "bad guys" or something. But the reason is irrelevant. As well, if he's still fighting tanks and helicopters, he's not particularly far in the game, as the enemies advance technologically to small men in battlesuits (think Elementals from Mechwarrior/etc) and larger battlesuits / mecha. In fact, as *soon* as these become available they become standard issue for the "strike teams." I don't know if there's more, as I myself haven't completed the game, but just as the repitition started setting in for me, the new enemies came into play, and I found myself needing new tactics to fight them (relative to tanks and helicopters, which by this point were less threatening than gnats.)
It's completely accurate what he said! Grow a brain, moderators!
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...I'm giving away two copies over on my website as part of a "Roll your own PCW toon" contest.
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Does not really matter if game is better or worse.
my sstream of consciousness
Read on for my impressions of what it's like to step into Hulk's very big shoes.
Um, the Hulk doesn't wear shoes.
By default, a game based on a movie has to suck. Get with the times, man. Chronicals of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay already disproved that outdated belief.
& I wish I knew the password to your heart . . . &
Doesn't anyone know the true reason for the Hulk's rage? It's because, while Bruce Banner groups to five times normal size when becoming the Hulk, his jockey cup definately does not...
The whole point of the review is that The Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is a VERY GOOD game. They gave it an 8 out of 10.
I've been playing this game nonstop for weeks now, and I absolutely love it. I disagree that it's too repetitive. The way you can continually purchase new moves really keeps things interesting, IMO.
You can really tell the comments by people who've played this game from the comments by people who haven't.
The people who haven't played it are writing things like "Another article about a crappy game" or "Zonk sucks", or "Lame advertising on Slashdot".
The people who have played it are uniformly writing things like "This game is awesome". I can tell the reviewer didn't complete the game, and I would give the game an even better score than he did. I would give it closer to 9/10.
That is the best laugh I have had in YEARS. Finally, someone understand HULK. Finally, someone expose BIG PURPLE/GREEN LIES. Genius, sir or madam. The world may stand against you, but I, my friend, shall laugh at the world, and reward you in the afterlife. PUNY CHRIST! PUNY WEB SERVER! PUNY MESSAGE EDITOR!