The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (Reviews)

Chris Stead, GamePro Australia

21/11/2005 11:35:06

Blowing stuff up is heaps of fun, right? Thankyou Captain Obvious and when you're a 10ft tall green dude with muscles the size of wombats and, disturbingly, shorts slightly bigger than the palm of your hand, blowing stuff up is more or less unavoidable. Add a temperament that makes Donald Duck look like the Dalai Lama and you've got yourself a super-hero that can truly bring about Ultimate Destruction. But does all this devastation actually equate to enjoyable gameplay? You bet your sweet green ass!

First and foremost, the game does away with the lame movie (and its 2003 tie-in game) and heads back to the Hulk's comic book roots. And it's methodology for such a transition works wonders: utilising famed comic artist Bryan Hitch to define and create the game's visual style and Eisner award-winning comic book writer Paul Jenkins to work on the story, Ultimate Destruction is far more authentic and faithful to its source material than its predecessor. Quit a boon for fans.

Told through a series of impressive cut-scenes, the story follows Bruce Banner's efforts to find a cure for the gamma radiation which transforms him into his raging alter-ego. His research, however, hits a hitch when agent man Blonsky blows it up, not only sending Banner back to the drawing board but also blasting his new nemesis with gamma radiation. As a result, you must help Banner get his research back on track while simultaneously avoiding the city police, the military, Blonsky and Blonsky's new alter ego, Abomination. Unfortunately, the story is quite short (seven chapters) and despite a reasonably tough AI, the lack of a multiplayer mode, repetitive missions and limited collectables may prove to big an issue for hardcore gamers.

But it shouldn't dissuade gamers who are looking for a good time. The gameplay borrows heavily from two sources; Grand Theft Auto and Spider-Man 2. You find yourself in a free-roaming environment going about your own thing and choosing when to do Challenge Missions (that allow you to collect Smash Points and set high scores) or Story Missions. You are open to wreck as much havoc as you desire during 'free time', but a threat system (similar to GTA's star system) will increase with your actions and if it hits five you can pretty much stick your thick neck between your fat thighs and kiss your green ass goodbye.

Methods of Destruction
Causing destruction is plenty of fun, but does it actually serve a purpose? Indeed it does! Hulk's destructive rampages are converted into smash points which in turn can be used to purchase upgrades at the shop. As you progress through the game you continually unlock new moves (over 150 of them!) ensuring that the combat is always evolving and that you never truly get bored of obliterating everything in sight. Indeed, there are even super-moves to unlock, which kick-in when the Hulk reaches Critical Mass (this occurs when you reach maximum health) and cause truly awe-inspiring Burnout 3 styled slow-mo destruction. You can really feel the power of Hulk as you send shock-waves through the ground and punch through whole buildings and it's only strengthened by the seamless controls which never inhibit the action: although the camera does take a little getting used to.

Unfortunately, there are only two environments to explore: there is a massive city (choc full of skyscrapers, parks, pedestrians and traffic) and the Badlands (which is a small-town out in the desert). While these environments do offer plenty of scope and stimulate exploration, Ultimate Destructions fails to match the high standards set by GTA or Spider-Man 2. You can't go into buildings, there aren't obvious neighbourhoods to seek out and, of course, you can't piss off into the middle of nowhere to scale a mountain and parachute from its summit. Still, there is a day/night dynamic, weather changes and a population of NPCs that react in horror to the sight of your short shorts, ensuring that the open-city vibe is relatively well captured.

More importantly, Ultimate Destruction succeeds Spider-Man 2 in capturing the strengths of a superhero. It does an excellent job of harnessing the phenomenal power of its lead character and allows the user to experience it: it feels like everything you've ever seen the Hulk do is but a button combo away. You can move in giant leaps, run up the sides of buildings, pick up trucks and hurl them at helicopters, unleash attacks in mid-air, split a car apart and use each half as steel fists and crush police cars under your feat. It's great fun!

The environment also lends itself wonderfully to the powers of the Hulk and the whims of the gamer. You can seemingly pick up anything in the game to use as a weapon or projectile; trees, telegraph polls, cars, trucks, busses, humans, boulders, building accessories - hell, even cattle. And there is a healthy undercurrent of humour to the animations too. Watch as Hulk bats a foe with a street-light or picks up a human and flick them thirty meters into a building - sweeeeet! Oh, and of course everything you hit explodes too, making the gameplay on offer here some of the most addictive and combat flexible we've ever seen.

Plus, the big ugly green guy looks a treat. Obviously the comic book-styled graphics and wholly destructible environments aren't about to win any awards for realism, but it does capture the right atmosphere while providing an impressive amount of on-screen action. It's helped by great movement and combat animations for the Hulk and his nemesis, but there are plenty of finer details that add to the experience - like the ground breaking-up following big jumps and cars reversing down streets in terror. Also of note is the sharp audio. There are some great one-liners from the NPCs, plenty of oomph to the many explosions, a great score and quality vocal performances (including Ron Perlman - of Hellboy fame - as Blonsky).

Ultimate Destruction is a very good game and just what the struggling series needed. The action is intense and addictive fun and it excels in capturing the powers of the Hulk without any sense of limitation. A bit more depth to the story and mission structure, a few more environments and a multiplayer component would've made this raging explosion fest a 'must-have' rather than 'must-see'. Thus, you still have enough mental energy to fixate on how such a big dude fits into such small shorts. Our guess? Gamma radiation has a negative affect on the love muscle...

Verdict
Fantastically addictive and well executed this is everything you want a Hulk game to be and should appeal to all action fans. Nicely priced too!
Pros: Combat range, destructible environments, cut-scenes.
Cons: Repetitive missions, only two environments, length.

Score = 8.5/10



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Graphics: 3.5 Sound: 4.0 Control: 4.5 Fun Factor: Fun Factor
Scoring scale: 1-5
Publisher: Vivendi / Developer: Radical Entertainment / Retail Price: $69.95 (GameCube) /, $69.95 (PlayStation 2) /, $69.95 (Xbox) / Release date: 15/09/2005 / Genre: Action / OFLC Rating: M (15+)