Review: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Within 30 seconds of starting Ultimate Destruction, I beat a man to death with a cow.

This was just the beginning of a neverending series of absurd moments of carnage. By the time I finished the game I had thrown giant purple gorilla balloons at civilians, surfed a bus through tons of traffic, and levelled entire buildings with the Hulk’s bare hands. If you’re in the mood for mindless destruction, this game is most definitely for you.

I’m probably one of the only people who actually tolerated the movie-based Hulk game that came out a few years ago. Certain aspects were extremely entertaining, such as throwing countless soldiers off of skyscrapers and causing general mayhem. Unfortunately, that title featured many Bruce Banner missions between the Hulk sections. These levels forced you to be the weak Banner, stealthily creeping through various facilities. This was obviously far less involving than controlling the green behemoth and it appears that Sierra was fully cognizant of this fact. At no point in the game are you anything but the full-fledged Hulk.

Ever since GTAIII, many games have tried to emulate the open-ended gameplay and free-roaming cities. Some have succeeded (Spiderman 2 and Mercenaries come to mind), while others have failed miserably (Capcom’s BeatDown). The Incredible Hulk falls more into the former category. Running around the city causing millions of dollars of property damage is far more fun than the actual missions. The game actually encourages you to destroy anything and everything you see by giving you “Smash Points”. These points are used to increase your initial move set by leaps and bounds. At the beginning of the game, the Hulk can do basic punches, jumps, and grabs. As you progress, you’ll purchase tons of new moves and abilities, such as air dashing, bus surfing, “bowling”, and Sonic Claps. All of these moves are fairly easy to pull off, and they’re all extremely satisfying.

Unlike some games (i.e.: Mercenaries), you won’t get penalized for destroying innocent civilians and vehicles. If you want to carry a woman to the top of a skyscraper and throw her to her death, feel free to do it. Something as simple as running through traffic is productive as well as fun, considering you’ll be earning Smash Points the entire time. Traffic AI seems to be smarter than the cars in GTA. Vehicles in Vice City and San Andreas seemed to sit and watch the carnage happen unless they were directly targeted. Drivers in Hulk, on the other hand, will see destruction coming and try to get the hell out of the way. The only negative effect of indiscriminate death and destruction is the police/military attention you’ll draw to yourself. Ultimate Destruction features a tiered alert system similar to GTA. Cause some small-scale disturbances and the cops might shoot at you. Level a few buildings and you’ll have Hulkbuster robots flying in to shoot dozens of missiles at the green monster.

Like Spiderman 2 and GTA, you can accept missions at certain locations if you tire of exploring the city at your own pace. These missions are one of the game’s weaker points. Repetition is the keyword, as you’ll constantly have to retrieve various items and return them to a designated area. A large number of the missions are of this fetch-quest variety, while others follow the “Destroy all the tanks” or “Destroy the trucks before they reach their destination” scheme. The game has an annoying habit of unnecessary cutscenes during missions. For example, let’s say you have to destroy three power generators. Get anywhere near one of them, and it’ll cut to a brief cutscene showing it to you. It’ll then repeat this for each objective you reach. While not a major problem, it does tend to get very annoying after a while.

Boss fights are fairly frequent, and they’re the best part of the standard story missions. You’ll meet the Abomination somewhat early in the story, and predictably face off with him a couple times by the end. Other bosses include prototype Hulkbusters, the Demon Hulk, and a truly gigantic robot that levels city blocks.

On top of the story missions, there are dozens of side missions available. These can be done anytime, and are a great source of Smash Points. Your objectives in these missions are generally very random and unnecessary, but oftentimes fun. One mission might be a golf simulation, while the next might force you to punt a car through a ring of flares. Others are destruction based, such as “Destroy as many spotlights as you can within the time limit.” There’s a large variety of these, and they’re a welcome break from the story.

Despite some repetition, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is a very fun game. It’s worth going through the sometimes monotonous missions, as the Smash Points and great boss fights are reward enough. It’s hard to get bored with the Hulk’s available moves, considering the huge wealth of buyable upgrades. Well worth a rental for any fan of action games and a recommended purchase for fans of the Hulk or general mayhem.

Graphics: B

Sound: B-

First Play: A-

Last Play: B

Gameplay: B+

Overall: 87% B

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Review: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

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