Hulk (PS2) - 19. Reckoning [Hard]

Channel:

Louis B

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Published on April 15, 2024 11:00:04 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D__yG6kV3w

Game:

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (2005)

Duration: 23:19

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Ang Lee’s Hulk, released over twenty years ago now, is a forgotten relic of the early 2000s superhero boom, and that is a bit of a shame: Hulk has some incredible performances, with the interplaying relationships around Bruce Banner ultimately leading into a darkly compelling story as to how he became The Hulk. This video game adaptation does not have the same heavy handed approach to its characterisation and storytelling, but Hulk by Radical Entertainment is similarly a now forgotten product released in an era filled with many other interactive superhero alternatives.

Although, to backtrack a little, it is probably fair to say that The Hulk feels like two games in one: Naturally, the majority of gameplay sees you playing as the Green behemoth in The Hulk itself, with these sections presenting waves upon wave of foes for you to decimate. Like a typical brawler of the day, you have combo strings, grapples, and environmental weapons that make disposing soldiers, mutated dogs and robots all that much easier. These Hulk sections are absolutely satisfying to play, and can get quite intense on harder difficulties too, if a touch repetitive after a while. Often your only objective is to move from point A to B, keeping yourself healthy enough to progress while combating obstacles in the way. Locales can vary from the dusty desolateness of a highway gas station to sterile prison complexes and secret Laboratories. Fascinatingly, The Hulk’s story doesn’t pull much from the film, instead choosing to act as a standalone sequel to it. Villains like Half-Life and Ravage are transposed into The Hulk’s campaign, likewise other elements, like the gamma orbs, are dropped into the narrative despite not playing any part in Ang Lee’s production.

Because of this, Hulk the game does take an identity of its own, with the developers smartly opting for a cel-shaded artstyle to indicate their focus on the comic's ideas, although Banner and Betty still clearly take after their film counterparts. For a film tie-in, it looks good, and performs relatively consistently for the amount of on-screen insanity for PlayStation 2 as well.

Where The Hulk maybe falters the most however comes from those Banner specific sections. You see, while most of adventure will have you enacting chaos as the great green menace, the other game featured in The Hulk has you stealthing locations as a very human Bruce Banner. These Banner specific sections feel more Metal Gear Solid esque, as you predict enemy patrol patterns while whisking your way around them, completing a few puzzles to pass security gates, and avoiding combat as much as physically possible. While playing as Banner certainly breaks up some of the monotony in Hulk’s otherwise destructive arenas, it whiplashes you into a slower, plodding, experience. Banner’s levels can feel much longer and therefore much easier to fault if you don’t enjoy the contrasting style.

Something not established earlier either but Hulk suffers from camera issues as it is largely fixed, although will track and altogether change based on where you exist on the map. It takes a few seconds normally to adjust to these changes but those few seconds can be enough time to get completely caught out while playing as Banner and entirely disrupt the flow of play for that reason.

The Hulk is also unsurprisingly short as an experience. All-told, you can press through the levels in around five hours gametime. The Hulk could be bought and completed in the same day! Yet, while it would be easy enough to cry foul at how quickly the experience is over with, we have to likewise commend Radical Entertainment for putting out the game that they did. Technical issues in The Hulk are sparse and, as indicated earlier, it succeeds in what it sets out to do. It must be admitted that the lack of variety hurts The Hulk’s overall playability, as the levels can become samey, reflecting the usual risks associated with brawler gameplay.

Radical Entertainment would eventually go back to the well with 2005's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - which effectively expands on what they put out here, going for an open-world, and pushing the Hulk's fighter elements further. Even so, Radical Entertainment's output halted as it became another casualty of Activision Blizzard (Fuck you Bobby). Regardless of the shitty actions of greedy executives, the evidence of good workmanship will always remain, and that applies here with The Hulk at the very least.

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A LEGAL NOTICE:
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Any copyrighted footage I use is covered under fair use laws, or more specifically those listed under Section 30(1) of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1989 and under section 107 of US Copyright Act 1976. This video exists purely for the purpose of research and criticism. I do not make a profit from any uploaded content, nor do I intend to. Thank you for watching.

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