Hulk

"Not much hype....Thank God"

Well. I have to say I'm glad I rented this game first. There were so many flaws in this game it was like trying to cut through the smog. Let me begin by saying even if you're a diehard Hulk fan, RENT THE GAME FIRST. I found myself in a tight spot with Spider-Man when I bought it before I ever played it, only to beat it in about three days.

To begin the actual review, the graphics were half and half. I read out of a recent video game mag about this game possessing Cel-Shading and immediately The Wind Waker popped into mind. I didn't know someone could screw up cel-shading so badly. This game looked like at most a DreamCast game. The cutscenes were terrible, and outside of one, when someone talked their mouths didn't even move! The only thing cel-shaded that I noticed was the Hulk itself, the highlight of the game. Lest we forget, the voice acting was downright horrifying. Bana sounded like he was high through the whole game, and the developers had to shove in new characters, in my opinion, to cover themselves. I mean, Enter the Matrix wasn't really that good, but at least they had the actual movie actors doing the voice overs.

The controls were decent. Really. This game had exactly the right amount of simplicity for games like this. No trying to find the right button in the middle of a fight or anything. B for punch, X to kick, Y to use things. Period.

Sound really could have stepped it up a bit. As I stated before, the voice acting is terrible. Somtimes the ambience can get a bit annoying, like the dogs sleeping in the alcatraz mission or the guards continuously yelling at nothing. The punches could have been more life-like also. It sounded exactly the same when Bruce punched someone as it did when the Hulk did.

Gameplay is a BIG gray area. When you play as the Hulk the game is great fun. You pound soldiers and whatevers in your way as if they were rag dolls. A nice addition was the gamma wave projectile, along with the rage meter. Now to the cloudy part...I myself don't even know why the developers made this a part of the game, but you HAVE to play as Bruce on some levels. You HAVE to. In my opinion, that is absolutely rediculous. Bruce is weak, he can't jump at all, he can't kick, and his grapple move bites. It is horribly boring trying to sneak around guards as Bruce when in the back of your mind your thinking, ''What the heck were they thinking???''.

The one reason this game gets a 3 is because of being able to play as the Hulk. The one enjoyable aspect of the game.

Rent before you buy, for sure.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/03, Updated 07/01/03