The Incredible Hulk
Review
The Hulk takes down New York, one building at a time
by ffanxii4ever
reviewed on X360
The Past and the Present
The Incredible Hulk is one of the most recognizable heroes in the Marvel universe with his incredibly green skin, his incredible strength, and his incredible resistance. These characteristics combine to form a character that would seem to be quite capable of starring in an incredibly fun, free-roam game. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was this game’s last generation, and now The Incredible Hulk for the Xbox 360 and PS3 is this game’s current incarnation. Unfortunately it fails to raise -or even reach- the bar set by Ultimate Destruction though ultimately it can provide an enjoyable experience if you can set aside any preconceived expectations.
A Picture is worth 1000 Words
There are certain perceived standards about the state of a game nowadays, with regards to gameplay and graphics. Unfortunately, The Incredible Hulk fails to meet those standards on just a few too many of those points. The general quality of most of the graphics is poor compared to what I feel games this day and age should look like. Most of the world is also very bland and uninteresting, at least until the Hulk interjects himself, and the chaos that ensues.
The cutscenes, which typically look as good as, or even better than the rest of the game, actually look worse than the game itself. On another note, the costumes don’t carry into cutscenes either, which is a little annoying. Like Iron Man, the actor renders barely look like their human counterparts, and at times even look like they were molded out of melting wax. There also is a very poor draw distance. Basically anything more than a dozen blocks away disappears into an almost impenetrable grey mist. Also objects popping into existence no more than a few feet away are inherent to this problem.
Despite all these graphical problems, there are a few high notes in the graphic’s presentation. Contrary to most of the game, the Hulk’s character model is highly detailed and, without a shadow of a doubt, the best looking thing in the entire game. Some of the explosions, when the frame rate doesn’t drop to dramatic low rates, look very nice as well, especially when coupled with taking out something massive, such as a segment of the highway, a bridge, or an entire building. While those roads, buildings and bridges may not be the most graphically impressive things on the 360, there is very little that beats the feeling of taking down massive buildings such as the Chrysler Building or Stark Tower.
Just like the default Hulk character model looks great, all of the various costumes also look excellent, from the Maestro to the new character of the Red Hulk to the Hulkbuster costume, which you only get if you have the misfortune of having an Iron Man save game file. Also, when the environment allows it, you are even able to follow the path of thrown enemies for several blocks, until they smash into the side of a building and start to bounce around.
7.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
