Hulk

"Short, but well done. Maybe this summer's best rental"

First off let me say that every now and then, I just like to smash things. This game lets you do just that. The levels are split between levels where you play as the Hulk himself and smash, bash, and destroy whatever gets in your way, and then levels where you play as Bruce and usually have to escape or sneak around. It's actually a nice mix. Without further to do, here's my opinion on The Hulk...

Controls - 7/10
The controls are easy to learn and use which is good since this game is combat heavy in Hulk levels. Unfortunately, being a massive monster makes you move slow and makes the controls feel bulky and cumbersome, but that's to be expected. However even in Bruce levels, the controls sometimes feel slow. This can lead to some difficult times in certain levels, but never becomes to big of a problem. There's enough combos to last a while, and nothing lacks too much.

Graphics - 7/10
First thing about the graphics, is the Hulk himself. He looks really well done in the game and every bulging muscle is well detailed. The environments are also done well and everything flows nicely. The games cinema scenes seem to try and mix cell-shading with typical video game graphics, and it makes for an awkward mixture in my opinion. My favorite part would have to be explosions. Knocking down walls, blowing up tanks of gasoline, and detonating reactors are great ways to see what I mean.

Game Play - 5/10
Bah, this is where it fell short for me. The levels you play as the Hulk are all bash and smash. The levels you play as Bruce are all sneak and crawl. It gets kind of repetitive really quick, and nothing changes throughout the entire game. Everything just seems, the same. The Hulk's combos quickly get a little overused and I got to the point where I'd just try to avoid battles instead of fight them.

Another thing, this game is extremely short. What do I mean by 'extremely'? I mean I finished this game in about 5 hours. That's why in the title I said best rental game and not best to buy. I wouldn't pay $50 to buy this at all since it can be beat 3 times with one rental.

Sound/Music - 4/5
The sound effects are very well placed and seem to fit perfectly. The explosions all sound realistic and add to the effect. Sounds and music are meant to tie everything together, and it does a nice job in this game. The music however, doesn't really seem to exist. I had to stop and try to remember what the music even sounded like before I wrote this review because I couldn't even remember if it had music in the first place. It does, but it really just blends in, which didn't bother me too much.

Replay Value - 3/5
Well, it's a short game so replaying it wouldn't be too bad, but after looking at some of the game play problems, I don't really know if I'd want to replay it. I'll take it back to the rental store proud that I beat another game, and just be happy with that.

Final Word
Great rental, but that's about it. Good for 5 or so hours of play and more if you wanna play it again. I would easily suggest this game to anybody that asked about renting it.

Overall Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/03, Updated 07/01/03