Remember when you played GTA and how much fun it was to just go smashing about in cars or blowing things up? Well, imagine you're a 10 foot-tall monster, able to pick up anything and chuck it around in a huge environment. Imagine no more, because the HULK is back.
You play as the Hulk, Dr Bruce Banner's alter ego, thrust upon him by the trauma of a good ol' dose of gamma radiation. Don't play with radioactivity, kids! Unlike the last Hulk game this is based on the comics rather than the movie, so it brings more back story and fans will recognize a lot of characters from those comics. Banner has been on the run for a while, developing a machine to cure his Hulk problem, but he is being hunted by the army, who want him dead because they think Hulk is a threat to national security. Banner is then taken in by an old friend who is willing to help him rebuild the machine. After a brief tutorial that gets you to grips with Hulk’s basic abilities you set off, using the Hulk to get the parts for the machine and stall the military's plans to kill Hulk. The missions give you objectives to destroy, collect or protect. So you could be destroying fuel stations or stealing a container full of uranium. Every few missions you'll also get boss battles set in small areas which can be very tricky fighting all sorts of beasties and giant mechs.
But these are just the missions. The Incredible Hulk: UD has a few other good features; firstly the two play areas (City and Badlands) are fully free-roaming. You can just run around creating Ultimate Destruction outside of missions or during missions if you wish. In this game you really feel like you’re the Hulk, you can pick up virtually anything from tanks, cars, trucks, lamp posts or even people. When Hulk runs, everything he charges into gets smashed out of his path. You can even destroy buildings!!!. At first you'll only have the police force on your case, but as you progress through the story you'll have the military gunning for you with tanks, attack choppers, missile launchers and even huge mechs (or Hulk-Busters as they’re known).
The Hulk has just a few moves to begin with, and even these are very destructive, but when you start getting more advanced moves available Hulk becomes even more incredible, and capable of creating some very impressive damage, and looking really good in the process. To purchase the moves you'll need ‘Smash Points’, no points for guessing how you obtain those! Yes, the more destruction you cause the more points you'll rack up which can be traded for moves. There are a LOT of moves - an impressive amount in fact; you'll be able to jump onto helicopters, pile drive mechs, grab things while running, turn buses into shields – there are literally loads of moves available. There are also big moves like the Critical Atomic Slam which looks amazing (incredible, even) sending everything on-screen flying from the shockwave.
Other features away from the story are the challenge missions, you'll find these dotted around the map and they give you small tests to earn some additional Smash Points. These missions have fun objectives like a spot of urban golf, Hulk-style or simply running to check points.
Hulk: UD also has some extras hidden away, things like artwork and videos can be unlocked by finding hidden comics throughout the environments. They also tell you codes that can be used in the menu, one of which gives the big green guy a snazzy suit, or even Union Jack boxers.
Graphics-wise, while not spectacular Hulk is easily on par with other free-roaming games, with a massive environment, lots of things on screen and tons of destruction. The green guy himself looks nicely detailed and well animated. All of the little smash marks and craters you create while hitting the ground and walls look neat and really add a sense that you are causing damage to the surrounding area as well as vehicles etc.
The sound is very neat in Hulk: UD. One of my favorite things about the game is what the people on the ground scream and shout out while you're rampaging away, things like; "he's huge", "we're gonna need the army" and "see how you like this, Banner". The music is good too, but whilst the Hulk is in full swing all you'll be hearing is the destruction of cars exploding because you've just smashed a mech into them with a lamp post!
Overall I really enjoyed Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, it’s real easy to rampage about with all the basic moves, and for people who like that sort of challenge there are so many extra moves to unlock and master too. The feeling of being this mass of muscle really does come through, leaping 100 feet in the air, landing on a building, smashing it to rubble, running down the street with cars bouncing off you... I could talk about it all day, there’s just so much he can do. All this, topped off with the challenge missions, secrets to unlock and big moves list, and you've got a winner.
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