Creating a stellar game off a summer blockbuster is a monster of a goal for any publisher, and The Incredible Hulk, based on The Incredible Hulk movie of the same name that opens this Friday, somewhat hits the mark. Sega did a decent job creating an attractive game that lets you roam around and break things, but poor artificial intelligence and boring fights eventually lead to its demise.
Unsurprisingly, the game follows the film's storyline, although a few stray missions waver off into comic book territory. General "Thunderbolt" Ross is eager to create genetically mutating soldiers for the sake of strengthening the military, something scientist Bruce Banner doesn't agree with. Rather than hand over his research or disclose that he can already mutate himself into a nearly invincible green guy, he goes on the run. After smacking soldiers, tanks and other vehicles around as the Hulk, the road leads to New York City, where bigger threats, namely the powerful Enclave group and a transformed soldier called Abomination, await.
As you explore the city, you'll throw cars, create metallic boxing gloves by ripping a vehicle in half, toss enemies and perform special moves such as a deafening Thunderclap and an auto-heal that restores your energy. In addition, you can level buildings down to their very foundation with just a few punches and stomps on the roof, but you can't run up the sides of buildings. Instead, you do a small climb, which isn't easy to execute when you have gunfire coming at you from every direction. The lock-on system is screwed up as well. You can't even lock on to the nearest enemy unless you have them in view on-screen. It's pointless when you have gunmen surrounding you.
New York City's map is like an interactive hub, with several sub-missions and mini-games to complete once you get there. Some further the story, such as protecting a news reporter or battling powerful entities in the Enclave group. Others put you in endurance trials such as speed runs. It's a well-functioning hub overall, one that interacts with a damage indication system that lets the bad guys know when they need to bring you down. It's a shame they're dumb and don't do that much damage to your health meter. Also, it seems inexplicable how Hulk can travel in the subway system without raising a hint of suspicion.
Overall, the game gives you enough to keep you satisfied, especially if you're a fan of the green guy. However, some of the missions repeat, and some get on the nerves. For example, one requires you to take on a Fantastic Four-ish gaggle of villains, but they attack you all at once, making them almost impossible to defeat. Furthermore, any missions involving the protection of a building suck, as you'll cause more damage jumping around than the enemies trying to damage it. The "seek out" goals, finding hidden items scattered throughout the city, offer some relief, as do the opportunities to level city blocks by running down them.
New York City looks decent, with tall buildings, lots of cool destruction effects, a realistically detailed Hulk and nary a hint of slowdown. There are occasional pop-in problems, though, and the cinemas needed cleaning up. In terms of audio, you have decent orchestral music that has a bad habit of looping, paired up with above-average voice work by most of the movie actors (yeah, that's Edward Norton as Banner) and plenty of crunches and bangs to test your sound system with.
In the end, The Incredible Hulk doesn't have the mad strength to keep up with the competition, thanks to the bonehead computer, nonsensical missions and irritating music. Still, for those looking to Hulk out, it's worth a rental.
Related Links
The Incredible Hulk Xbox 360 Game Guide
Reader Comments (1)
Basically in a more realistic sense, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is a better play than this. However, this game will get more hype because it is teh game version of the movie, there-in it will be overlooked for it's flaws and loved for almost nothing.