The Hulk Review - PC Game Reviews

The Hulk Review

gameplay experience. When I got this game I expected it to be quite atrocious, Wolverine's Revenge had prepared me for that. Regardless, The Hulk is any day better than most of the movie licensed games but still it remains a sloppy mess.

There are two types of gameplay available in The Hulk. One mode lets you play the role as the big green hulk and while the other lets you play as Bruce Banner. During the Hulk levels, you are given an objective and basically you demolish anything and everything in your way until you complete the level. While playing a level as Bruce, you are given an objective as well; but this time you have to go into stealth mode. Of the two choices, the Hulk levels are made just to walk around and punch everything, pick things up and throw them.

Due to the highly destructible environment, you can arm yourself with almost anything you see. In the Bruce-mode, you have to crouch and sneak around, solve mindless crate puzzles and hack into computers. The Bruce levels are also the most boring and crappy. The camera angels can sometimes make it impossible to see the guards. Moreover, sometimes guards see you from far away, sometime they do not even notice when you in their face! This sucks big-time. Also the game gets repetitive at times. From the AI to the moves everything seems repetitive. AI is non existent! The game offers less than a dozen enemies, not counting end-level bosses, and they all play pretty much the same. You just run up and beat them to death. The only variation in this is when you have to throw something at shield-holding guards to avoid a shock.

The controls seemed ok. The keyboard controls were adequate. It helps that the Hulk doesn't have that many moves. However, gamepad lovers might just hate the keyboard controls because of the frustrating camera angles. Other thing, I found interesting was the artistic decisions made in the game's production. The cel-shaded looks of the characters, for example. Many might disagree with this point but the 'cartoon-like shading' made the game look more like the four-colored world of comic books. But with the increased resolution on the PC the graphics will blow anybody away. Still, it was a nice try on the part of the developers. But the sounds, on the other hand are simply boring. The soundtrack sucks and enemies repeat the same words over and over again.

Finally, if you think that movie based games are terrible, yes this one isn't to a certain extent. It just seems to get dragged down by a lack of polish and -- embarrassingly -- the Bruce Banner levels that just seemed tossed in to break up the pace. Yet it is better than Wolverine's Revenge or Spiderman. If you like games to just walk around punch and throw things and people you'll love this one. But if you're looking for a deep adventure and storyline, please do not go for this game.

RATINGS

Gameplay - 5/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 5/10
Technical - 5/10
OVERALL - 6/10

Note - The Overall rating is not an average but reflects the reviewer's thoughts on the game as a whole.

Pros - Destructible environment, descent graphics and controls.
Cons - Meagre sound, Bruce Banner's stealth levels are maddening, dumb AI.