It seems like every other release is either a first-person shooter or an open-world action game. Not that we're complaining, some of the best games of recent memory fall into those two simple categories, and with gamers buying them up every chance they get, we can't exactly fault the publishers either. The Incredible Hulk is the latest entry into the open-world genre and brings with it the full weight of The Hulk franchise, both from the comics and the soon-to-be-released motion picture.
The Incredible Hulk game is based loosely around the events of the movie, incorporating certain bits of dialogue -- Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, and William Hurt all lend their voices -- and scenes rendered in engine. You won't find any film clips making their way into the videogame but the spirit of the film is felt throughout
Of course fighting against just one of Hulk's sworn enemies (Abomination is the main villain from the film) likely wouldn't pack a game disc with content. To combat this SEGA is calling in reinforcements in the form of characters that fans will surely know from the comics. Rick Jones, for instance, a character never seen in the film, makes his way into the game as a sort of guiding light for our big green hero. He's the voice who chimes in informing Hulk of mischievous activities in his city.
SEGA also added in some custom nameless baddies for Hulk to throw around. Since Hulk can't be hurt by conventional guns or ammunition developers needed to find a way for common enemies to pose a threat. Enter futuristic robots and lasers. It might seem like a bit of a copout, but it's something that all superhero games must deal with and Hulk handles it as well as any other.
One thing that SEGA continued to stress during our time seeing The Incredible Hulk in action is that their main goal was to deliver a spiritual successor to the extremely popular Ultimate Destruction. In order to do this Edge of Reality (the developers) needed to create a city that could be decimated by Hulk's strength. Players need to feel like they can tear buildings down piece by piece. While the action doesn't go quite that far, we can assure you that every building can be rendered into rubble with one swift patented Hulk Smash. You can also take out chunks of buildings, and while you can't venture inside to their interiors, there is some decent deformation that takes place for the sake of visual feedback.
The general gameplay is obviously focused on action. Hulk can grab literally anything in the environment -- from pieces of pavement in the street to breaking apart cars and using them as boxing gloves -- and use them for both offense and defense. There are also powers that can be earned like the aforementioned Hulk Smash and other unlockables.
Aesthetically The Incredible Hulk is looking promising, but mainly because of the amount of action going on at any one time rather than the look of the models. Hulk is bursting with rippling biceps, abs and deltoids as he leaps around the city streets and climbs on the exteriors of buildings. There will apparently be day and night cycles on the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, but we didn't get a chance to see them in action. Our main concern with overall visual presentation was the framerate. When buildings came tumbling, two or three at time, around Hulk the frames per second dropped significantly. Hopefully this will be ironed out in time for release.
The Incredible Hulk looks like it's making leaps and bounds (no pun intended) towards being another worthy addition to the stable of open-world action games. It does a good job of varying its gameplay with mini-games like playing darts with pieces of the environment and action moments ala God of War complete with button prompts to go along with the standard missions. If things continue on their current path we could have yet another game to break the former trend of crappy movie tie-in games. The Incredible Hulk's is scheduled to coincide with the movie in June.
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
It seems like every other release is either a first-person shooter or an open-world action game. Not that we're complaining, some of the best games of recent memory fall into those two simple categories, and with gamers buying them up every chance they get, we can't exactly fault the publishers either. The Incredible Hulk is the latest entry into the open-world genre and brings with it the full weight of The Hulk franchise, both from the comics and the soon-to-be-released motion picture.
The Incredible Hulk game is based loosely around the events of the movie, incorporating certain bits of dialogue -- Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, and William Hurt all lend their voices -- and scenes rendered in engine. You won't find any film clips making their way into the videogame but the spirit of the film is felt throughout
Of course fighting against just one of Hulk's sworn enemies (Abomination is the main villain from the film) likely wouldn't pack a game disc with content. To combat this SEGA is calling in reinforcements in the form of characters that fans will surely know from the comics. Rick Jones, for instance, a character never seen in the film, makes his way into the game as a sort of guiding light for our big green hero. He's the voice who chimes in informing Hulk of mischievous activities in his city.
SEGA also added in some custom nameless baddies for Hulk to throw around. Since Hulk can't be hurt by conventional guns or ammunition developers needed to find a way for common enemies to pose a threat. Enter futuristic robots and lasers. It might seem like a bit of a copout, but it's something that all superhero games must deal with and Hulk handles it as well as any other.
One thing that SEGA continued to stress during our time seeing The Incredible Hulk in action is that their main goal was to deliver a spiritual successor to the extremely popular Ultimate Destruction. In order to do this Edge of Reality (the developers) needed to create a city that could be decimated by Hulk's strength. Players need to feel like they can tear buildings down piece by piece. While the action doesn't go quite that far, we can assure you that every building can be rendered into rubble with one swift patented Hulk Smash. You can also take out chunks of buildings, and while you can't venture inside to their interiors, there is some decent deformation that takes place for the sake of visual feedback.
The general gameplay is obviously focused on action. Hulk can grab literally anything in the environment -- from pieces of pavement in the street to breaking apart cars and using them as boxing gloves -- and use them for both offense and defense. There are also powers that can be earned like the aforementioned Hulk Smash and other unlockables.
Aesthetically The Incredible Hulk is looking promising, but mainly because of the amount of action going on at any one time rather than the look of the models. Hulk is bursting with rippling biceps, abs and deltoids as he leaps around the city streets and climbs on the exteriors of buildings. There will apparently be day and night cycles on the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, but we didn't get a chance to see them in action. Our main concern with overall visual presentation was the framerate. When buildings came tumbling, two or three at time, around Hulk the frames per second dropped significantly. Hopefully this will be ironed out in time for release.
The Incredible Hulk looks like it's making leaps and bounds (no pun intended) towards being another worthy addition to the stable of open-world action games. It does a good job of varying its gameplay with mini-games like playing darts with pieces of the environment and action moments ala God of War complete with button prompts to go along with the standard missions. If things continue on their current path we could have yet another game to break the former trend of crappy movie tie-in games. The Incredible Hulk's is scheduled to coincide with the movie in June.
