“Hulk smash puny humans!” That one iconic phrase from the angry green giant sums up Sega’s ‘sandbox’ offering to coincide with the new film. Well, you could probably add buildings, satellite dishes, vehicles, and tanks to the list of things he ‘smashes’, but that is all you really get out of this one. The game is a ‘sandbox’ title in the way they allow you to choose your own branching story paths much in the same way that Grand Theft Auto always has. There will typically be at least two story lines open at any one point for you to choose from, along with a varied selection of mini-games for you to plow through as you wish, or you can simply beat the living crap out of New York City. Unfortunately, the very idea of a ‘sandbox’ game is that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. The game delivers that experience, so long as all you ever want to do is smash things.
The game plays very much like city destruction classic Rampage. You can pick up and throw cars at various tanks and enemies attacking you. Even more familiar is the way the game handles the way you scale buildings. Each time you climb upwards, you do slight wrinkling damage to the building wall; sound familiar? Punching the wall of a building makes a gigantic rounded square shape hole, much larger than Hulk’s actual fist. Punch enough holes in the building, and it shakes violently before falling straight to the ground in a cloud of dust. Where have you seen this before? If it were not for the lack of a tale and ability to breathe fire, you would swear you were playing as Lizzie’s brother.
The game delivers antiquated combat, with only two buttons used for your attacks and no combo system to speak of. There is the ability to perform a few special moves, like ‘thunderclap’ or ‘ground smash’ using a goofy combination of the d-pad with the Y and B buttons pressed at the same time, but the game is easy to the point that you can typically make it through without them. The best use of the special moves is Hulk’s ability to heal by using up some of his rage meter. It is much more satisfying than the typical ‘health pack’ form of healing in most games.
You upgrade your various skills and unlock you special moves by performing random ‘feats’ throughout the game, which really just keeps Hulk’s powers well above those of his foes. The special moves use up Hulk’s ‘rage meter’, which is filled by either defeating enemies or smashing random buildings and cars. A large part of the game when traversing the city is stopping the Enclave groups from destroying the town, though it is, ironically, perfectly fine for you to do it. It basically makes Hulk feel like a two-year old that does not know how to share.
If the game gets one thing right, it is that Hulk is much bigger and stronger than just about anything he faces. This is also where the game goes terribly wrong. The one-note gamplay of all-Hulk all the time, fails to deliver what makes the character so compelling; his alter-ego. The constant tension of not knowing exactly when Bruce Banner will turn into The Hulk, or when Hulk will revert back to Banner, is one of the best parts of the series. You get none of that in the game. You only see Bruce Banner, voice well by Edward Norton, in cut-scenes; where he is typically asked if he can go get something from a guarded location. The response is typically, “I have a friend…”, and the mission then starts with Hulk on screen ready for battle.
The game could have been so much more if they had used the rage meter to keep you as Hulk, or transform you back to Banner. Why not give gamers a sample of the duality of the character, delivering some much needed depth to the experience? Maybe make Banner walk in the hot, sticky, and crowded streets of New York with people bumping into him, and try to not turn into Hulk. Instead, every mission turns into ‘Hey, Hulk, go smash everything here’. There were a wealth of possibilities for what they could have done with the title, but instead deliver a game that loses its luster in under an hour.
Since the game is tied somewhat to the film, the movie’s storyline regarding General Ross and the arrival of Abomination is delivered here. The game adds to the length of the game, somewhat awkwardly, by delivering several more comic-based storylines that seem much more fantasy driven than the semi-realistic ‘evade the Army’ one. The end result is a game that feels more tied to the comics than the movie, but that is far from its biggest issue. The story is always delivered in either a terrible looking cut-scene or a bland text-based single shot. The cut-scenes feature horrid-looking versions of the movie actors, which all have a strangely matted, sweaty look to their faces. The text based mission screens are even bigger offenders, as they feel lazy and rushed. Once in a mission, you will find them all to be very quick and easy. In the rare event that you actually die, the game is incredibly forgiving, and lets you continue with mid-mission checkpoints; which feel odd given how short they all are.
The environments look decent, but perhaps attempting to set a game in New York is a poor choice following so closely on the heels of GTA IV. It is almost impossible not to compare the two, and issues with items on the horizon not quite appearing in time make it hard not to look at this generic version of the city with disgust. The more glaring issue with the city is the way you can sprint right at a group of people and not have them react until you are literally a foot or two away from them. Standing at least ten-feet tall, green, and shirtless, it is a little hard to imagine Hulk sneaking up on anyone.
The city’s other issues come from various clipping and rendering issues in the game. Hulk will frequently climb a building, only to suddenly have his chunk of the wall disappear and clearly show the city on the other side. There are bigger problems on the ground, where vehicles, especially enemy ones, appear and disappear at will. There will be no enemies in sight, when a tank suddenly shows up right in front of you. There is also the odd occurrence of one vehicle ‘hiding’ inside another. Punch one tank away, and you will find one sail away while another is sitting right there still.
Though the game seems to track exactly how much of each neighborhood you destroy, it forgets to actually display your damage when you load up a saved game. You can go into the game’s statistics and see that you knocked over half of the buildings, but if you have quit and reloaded since doing the damage, all the building are standing just fine. Hulk looks great, with his massive frame swaying appropriately while running. The animations look fluid, even though it feels appropriately robotic to control him. The stiff controls feel right for controlling such a large, destructive character. His strange arm waving while making a jump is a little off-putting, looking like a toddler learning to walk, but other than that small issue they nail the feel of the character.
There is no Live support, so the game’s replay value is tied to just how much of the simple-minded ‘smash everything’ gameplay you can take. The game is plenty long, and with the dozens of mini-games and two-hundred hidden canisters around the city, you can smash to your heart’s content for quite a while; but most will give this an hour or two, at most. If you are looking for a 3D version of Rampage, The Incredible Hulk is right up your alley. Before you get too excited, ask yourself exactly how long you could stand to play the old city destroyer before getting bored. That is exactly as long as you will enjoy this one.
