The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

"It's big, it's green...and it doesn't belong to a big black guy in prison!"

I have had my eye on this game for quite awhile now, I would occasionally read about it, but I wasn't really jumping for joy, considering how the last Hulk game was a disappointment. So I decide to rent this game from my Blockbuster, and surprisingly they had it on the release day. I get home, pop it into my Xbox, and start playing. As soon as it started, I loved it.

Graphics:

The graphics, simply put are, are really great. Everything is well lit, and easy to see. One thing the developers of UD accomplished was the Draw Distance, or View Distance. In most "Sandbox" titles such as GTA and SM2, there was always the problem of how far the player can see without slowdown. Well in those games, the environment would just pop up sometimes when your walking around. This game does an superb job of fixing this. Now you can stand on the top of a building and basically see all across the city or area your at. Without pop ups, or slowdowns. They also did the damage graphics very well. If you jump really high and land on a street, the street concrete will crack. Sadly this same exact effect applies to all different types of terrain. So the effect you get when cracking concrete is what your get on dirt, grass, and every other walkable terrain. It's not game effecting, but it is somewhat lame that they couldn't just put in some different effects. Everything else, the explosions and such are great.

Final Score
9/10

Sound

I don't have much to say about sound. Basically, it's great. There really isn't anything bad about it. The music plays great, and it gets high when your in a heated situation, and low when your roaming around. The sound effects are nicely done also. Now complaints here.

Final Score
10/10

Gameplay

This is the most important aspect of any game. If the gameplay is bad, then it doesn't matter if the graphics are the best out there. The gameplay is very deep in the core of the system, but simple to grasp. The combos are very easy to pull of and allow for some good attacks. At the start of the game, your feel the game is to easy, but you soon figure out how challenging it is. One really cool feature is the Weaponization Ability. Basically through out the game, after you complete a Chapter, which each chapter is made up of bigger missions, you get awarded with more upgrades to buy. So when you start the game, your start with the Steel Fists weaponization ability, which allows you to take standard cars and rip them in half and pound them into steel boxing gloves. You later learn things like Truck Shields and Bus Skateboards. The Combos are fun and very cool looking. Overall the gameplay in UD is really good. Sometimes though, the Camera might be a nuisance, but it's probably the players fault. Not to mention the game controls great! All the controls are perfectly laid out for quick use and they are easy to learn.

Final Score
9/10

Overall it deserves a 10/10. It's a great game, with a great feel to it. The controls are great, the sound is great, the gameplay shines with genius, and everything else is perfect. There are a lot of ulockables such as cheats and comic book covers, dev interviews, Making Of movies and more.

Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is easily a buy, not a rental.

Overall Score
10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/26/05