Games for Lunch: The Incredible Hulk
In a nutshell: More like The Mediocre Hulk, amirite?
9/25/2008 7:07 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3
Developer: Edge of Reality
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: June 5, 2008
Systems: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC, DS
ESRB Rating: T
Official Web site
0:00 I liked
my time with The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, so I have high hopes for this one even though it's based on a movie. The Sega seal of potential quality has to count for something, right?
0:01 Whoop, not so fast ... version 1.1 of the software requires 14 MB of downloads. It could be worse...
0:03 A view down a secluded alley accompanies the title screen. In the background, tanks roll by. I can hear Hulk screaming and I see something throwing people ... who knows why. I hit start and a cab comes hurtling through a wall next to me. Hulk comes out of the hole in the wall like the Kool-Aid man, except much more muscley, as the menu screen pops up.
0:05 Hulk flexes and roars as I choose the Story mode. I guess he approves? Or is he against it? Really, I have no idea what emotion he's expressing with his constant roaring.
0:06 "My name is Bruce Banner. I'm trying to stop a monster." He's standing in a secluded snowscape. The screen goes blank and a gun fires. Fade back in -- Hulk spits out the bullet and screams: "BANNER!" Whoa. Dark. Five years later, in Brazil, Banner is running from some military types. He runs into a factory and a helicopter sends a missile in. I'd say that's overkill, but for the Hulk, it's almost definitely underkill.
0:07 I'm in control. The screen prompts me to press the O button repeatedly to make the Hulk burst forth from under some rubble. Whoo! Interactive!
0:08 Running around with the control stick ... seems I've got a couple of punch buttons, too. Right stick controls the camera.
0:09 "Bullets are worthless," cries one of the expendable military men standing around like idiots. Doesn't stop him from firing, though.
0:10 So far the environment is depressingly generic, the enemies are ridiculously easy to take out, the graphics are annoyingly dark (with smoke effects that get in the way of the view) and the camera controls are pretty awful. Try not to jump to conclusions but ... eeegh.
0:11 I earned a "Feat" for getting 5,000 "Destruction" points. That was easy...
0:13 New enemy alert: Guys in mech suits that stand nearly as tall as Hulk. Nice: They don't go down to one punch. Not nice: They just sit there passively as I punch them.
0:14 I unlocked the "concept art from the creation of the prologue cut scene." Wow ... I'll try and contain my enthusiasm. OK ... enthusiasm contained. That was easier than I thought.
0:15 So the screen briefly showed an objective to "defeat the helicopter," as I was leaving the room. Instead, a cut scene begins with a guy named Blonskey flying down in a black mech suit. "You're mine." What's going on?!
0:16 Quote of the moment: "There's a gorilla or something loose in here."
0:17 Blonsky's suit just takes a few more punches than the other mech suits. "Something attacked us in there. It wasn't a gorilla," he says in a cut scene. General Ross explains that it was Bruce Banner and gives some exposition about the monster's origins. "Banner was brilliant, one in a generation, but he's a scientist, not one of us." His body is property of the army, blah blah blah.
