As a whole, movie to game releases are horrible. It’s not that the movie that the games were derived from are bad, it’s just that the developers can never get the formula right, and so a faulty/glitchy product is released in the end. Spider-Man was an exception, and Enter the Matrix was just cool because I could finally do all those cool moves without the cuts, bruises and concussions. While The Hulk movie comes out in theaters June 13th, it’s video game counter-part was released at the beginning of June. Normally, there wouldn’t be any kind of problem with releasing the game before the movie comes out, but the game’s events take place AFTER the movie, so a lot of things may not be very understandable.
The Hulk (game) starts off just after the movie ends, and a doctor that Bruce has never met says he has the cure for Bruce. As soon as Bruce makes contact with the doctor, the doctor betrays Bruce, and turns into Bruce’s new enemy hulk monster, Ravage. Ravage runs off with an orb that contains the power of the hulk, and unless Bruce can stop him and get the orb back, Ravage can use the power of the Hulk to do very, very bad things. I’ve not seen the movie yet, since it’s not out, so I’m not sure exactly what events happen before the game or why Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk.
There are pretty much two types of gameplay in The Hulk. While the game isn’t split up into actual missions, there are two types of characters that you’ll be switching between during the game. The first, and the most boring, is when you play as Bruce Banner. Controlling Bruce wouldn’t have been so bad and boring if it weren’t for the fact that all you did was sneak into different places, solve some pretty tricky access codes (by matching up numbers and letters on top and bottom), and try not to be seen and get caught. The camera angles affected Bruce’s missions like the plague, more so than the boring level design and gameplay did. The camera was fixed, and so if I got into a spot where I wanted to swing the camera around to see what’s going on behind me or a way that I wasn’t looking, I couldn’t. Dealing with the camera in Bruce’s “missions” gave me more stress than the president gets in making decisions.
Basically, Bruce is helpless and weak. He can punch, and he can sneak up behind people and choke them ala Splinter Cell, but otherwise he’s helpless. Bruce as Bruce is boring, but Bruce as the Hulk makes up the biggest hulk, I mean bulk of the game. Once you take control of the Hulk, the game turns into a smashing good time of beat-em up action. Once in control of the Hulk, you’ll be able to punch the crap out of anything. Progressing through each level isn’t too hard, though in some later levels, the amount of enemies that attack you all at once is sometimes overwhelming, and so you’ll have to pull off a mixture of jumping and punching combos using the square and triangle buttons to stay alive, and also your rage meter which fills up as you attack or when you collect red orbs left behind by dead bodies. When Hulk is just the Hulk, he can still do some massive damage with punches, but once in rage mode (you’ll know, his body emits a red tint), attacks get much, MUCH more strong, and you can pull more consecutive punches for massive combos. Every so often, the same old smash it up gameplay will be interrupted by the occasional boss battle. Bosses are generally easy, though there is an initial challenge while you figure out what their weakness is and how to distinguish it. There are many different combos that you can do with the Hulk, such as the jump, power-up, and hit combo (no that’s not a real name, that’s my unofficial Hulk combo), and picking up people using the O button and either pimp slapping them, slamming them on the ground (instant death of course), or hitting the O button again to throw them. Much like the lock-on target in Zelda, the Hulk uses the same type of lock-on by pressing either R-1 or R-2, and the nearest target will be locked on. The targeting system is a little off sometimes, though, because you could be facing someone and trying to target them, but instead you’ll target some random object off in the distance. This can produce problems when you’re on your last inch of life, though it is pretty funny when you totally miss someone while they’re right in front of you.
While smashing everything in site is cool and fun, it’s only cool and fun for the first quarter of the game or so. The rest of it gets very cold and boring and repetitious, like a little organism spontaneously combusting (hmm...). It’s not that The Hulk isn’t fun, it’s just that there’s nothing else that the game could really do to keep it interesting throughout the full ride, unless you’re a Hulk or beat-em up/smash it up fanatic. I have no problems with beat em’ up games, though they do tend to get boring by the end.
After you’re done with the game, about 25-30 missions or so, there is a special features where you can see the making of the game and stuff like that, plus there are other unlockables that you probably unlocked in the game, or have to be unlocked in challenge mode. I tried the challenge mode out, though I got bored after about five minutes, and so I doubt it’s going to be worth anyone’s time, except to maybe check it out and get a feel for it or something.
Possibly the most interesting and fun part of The Hulk is how the graphics come into play, giving The Hulk it’s comic book like flare. The toon shading that was used is what gave the game it’s comic book like appearance, though is not what impressed me the most about The Hulk. It’s the destructible environment effects that really pulled me into the game. Anything you can see, and you can destroy it. The point of the game is to smash everything you can, while staying alive, and so as the Hulk, you’ll be smashing down walls and doors to get to where you need to go a lot. Once it comes time to defeat all the enemies in an area before moving on any further, here’s where you can have some fun. Anything that you can see that’s not a wall, you can basically pick up and either use it as a battering ram against groups of enemies or those pesky mutated dogs, or you can throw it for optimized damage. There’s also a neat little visual when the Hulk lands after a jump, which leaves the ground beneath him cracked. I don’t know why this intrigued me so much, but instead of fighting when I should have been, I’d just go jumping around, watching the ground crack every time I landed.
The environments are pretty basic, though unlike most games, that can be changed after one time through as the Hulk. Basically, the Hulk plays out like one giant comic book, only everything in the comic has come to life, and was given 3-d model bodies while still keeping that comic book toon shading look. As far as character models go, the Hulk and the main enemies (Ravage, Half-Life, etc.) had some nice detailed ailments to them, though the rest didn’t. There are a lot of visual effects that might be over looked in the Hulk, but they do need a little spot light. Everytime a special move is used, or you get a big hit with the Hulk, the screen will flash with green and red lights that have that blur effect used in The Fast and the Furious, and also particles from pillars that you destroy look really cool as the dust actually resembles real dust.
The Hulk plays alright, it looks ok, but it the sounds are pretty disappointing. While nothing spectacular was expected, it sure would have been nice to receive some un-expected spectacular sounds. Whiel most people I know who have played the game say they never once heard the "Hulk Smash!", I could have sworn I heard his little “Hulk Smash!” whenever you do his attack, though it was rather quiet, so it may have just been my imagination visualizing the Hulk saying that. I was expecting an earthquake causing, terrorizing voice that just boomed throughout the room you were in. No matter how good your speakers were. Instead, the sound effects are just “eh” like, nothing special or anything.
Overall
I wasn’t expecting much from The Hulk, nor did I receive that much, but it’s a great game for rental. While it is on the PC, I don’t recommend buying it since you can’t return games usually, and when you can it’s usually for half credit at a gamestore (like Funcoland, Electronics Boutique, Gamestop, Babbages). After playing the game, it actually sparked a greater interest in the upcoming movie coming out in the next few weeks, and so instead of putting the movie off as a “nothing to do so lets go see this” movie, my money will be part of the opening weekend box office hit. Definitely rent The Hulk, unless you can find it for dirt cheap somewhere or you’re collector, just rent it and you’ll be able to find a full 5 or so days worth of entertainment. Then by the time you take it back, you’re ready to move on and forget about the game.
Two types ofgameplay: Employ the powers of brains and stealth as Bruce Banner or take control of the of the incredible strength and rage of the Hulk. ...More at Amazon Marketplace
One year after the events that take place in the film; troubled scientist Bruce Banner and his enraged alter ego, the Hulk, are forced into battle aga...More at eBay
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.