Gameplay

Green Man of Alcatraz

There are some neat frills, however, like being able to throw enemies, clap your hands causing a sonic boom and pound the ground causing a seismic shockwave (just like in the comics), and employ whatever you’ve got in your hands as a club. Just about everything in the game can be used this way, from soldiers to metal pipes to cars. I shouldn’t have to add that this is a lot of fun. I couldn’t stop laughing the first time I used a sedan as a battering ram, or raised my arms for a gamma-powered thunderclap in front of a cowering soldier. Battles aren’t always easy, though. The sheer number of soldiers faced, even early in the game, can be daunting, as they come with electrified shields, rocket launchers, and machine guns. Later on, you have to fight irradiated gamma dogs and other monsters straight out of the comic books, usually with some sort of gimmick that forces you to think before you do the old Hulk smash stuff. Foes are also pretty bright, in that they will try to flank you or will simply run away if directly approached—and what could be smarter than that?

Hulk look for something to smash

Hulk about to call AAA

Hulk doing Bam-Bam impersonation

Fighting is at a measured pace, so you can lumber about the levels at will, clobbering everything in sight. This is a very good thing, because the floating third-person camera has a tendency to obscure enemies. It will often rotate to face you, which results in some great cinematic angles where you can’t see a damn thing. Thankfully, because of the slow pace of the action sequences, the camera only gets in the way during some boss battles. The camera does do a good job showing off the almost completely destructible environments. You can break windows, batter down big metal doors, blow up drums of radioactive waste, shatter crates, break pipes off the wall for use as clubs, and so on. Level design isn’t thrilling, with most of the missions taking place in industrial settings like military bases, factories, and Alcatraz prison, although events move along so quickly that it’s hard to get bored with the scenery. Enemies include a lot of military men, some military hardware, and comic-book baddies like master villain The Leader. There’s a nice mix of gritty, urban-style warfare and over-the-top comic-book battle royales against out-there creeps like Half-Life, an energy-sucking Nosferatu you can’t touch.

Bruce Banner, Milquetoast

Of course, the Hulk is also milquetoast Bruce Banner, who wouldn’t be much good in pitched battle with a brigade. So during those times when you revert to Banner, you have to sneak to your objectives rather than simply wreak havoc until the bad guys say Uncle. Radical should be applauded for attempting to include these missions, as Banner’s weakness is an integral part of the Hulk mythos and apparently a big part of the upcoming movie. But they just don’t work very well.

Cutscenes break up the smashing

Introduce new enemies

And just look really cool

Slinking through the shadows and inputting codes into computer security terminals can’t help but seem dull right after you’ve pounded two dozen soldiers into the ground and smashed more masonry than the US army just did in Baghdad. It’s not realized all that well, either. There aren’t many challenges when playing Banner, mostly because what you’re supposed to do is always obvious. Alcoves are always perfectly placed, as are crates. Hiding spots couldn’t be any more obvious if they were illuminated with neon signs. Even choking guards unconscious is easy, as you’re always in the perfect position to send them to la-la land.