This week I rented Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, available for PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. I actually played the Xbox version, which to my knowledge, boasts the smoothest graphics and it definitely shows. Hulk and his environments look fantastic; I was soon reminded of the movie that came out a few years ago. It?s a third person action-adventure in which you and the hulk use brawn not brains to win. Similar to Grand Theft Auto, you can either progress through the story or explore the environments.

The storyline here is something to the extent that the Hulk, a.k.a. Bruce Banner, and his trusted friend Doc Samson are trying to find a cure for Banner?s condition. The Hulk?s main enemies are the ones working for the military, which include plenty of characters from the comics such as Abomination, General Ross and Mercy, as well as an alter ego trying to surface in Banner?s conscious. At the end of every chapter the game makes sure to constantly recap the story and there is a solid amount of CGI cut-scenes. For the most part I found myself skipping through the recaps however, to get to the next mission or to roaming around the game environments.

You have a home base and once you progress far enough via the chapters you have two environments available: a busy metropolis (no, not the one where Superman lives) and a vast desert called the Badlands. Both environments are attractive and fun in their own ways. When I felt like running around causing random acts of destruction such as smashing buildings, throwing people into the ocean or ripping cars in half, I?d head for the city. When I felt like leaping in a huge, spacious and smooth looking environment, which again, looks just like the movie, the Badlands was the way to go.

When not following the missions and roaming, again similar to the Grand Theft Auto series, the more havoc that you create the more military authorities you attract. After causing enough damage a kind of Special Forces unit is deployed but you can neutralize them easily once you get the hang of Hulk?s controls.

Hulk isn?t invincible, he has a gamma energy bar to worry about but gamma refills are absorbed after defeating most enemies. If you collect enough energy the Hulk will enter a super mode called ?Critical Mass,? in which his moves have added damage and specials become available for use. And when I say specials I don?t mean some cute little punch or kick, I mean the Hulk will go absolutely berserk. In one special for example, the Hulk will start roaring in anger, charge up, and then slam the ground so hard that in the process cars and trucks get vacuumed in and then sent 50 feet straight up; in other words, the Hulk becomes a gamma radiation bomb himself. Ineed, these specials also take advantage of bullet-time, a GREAT touch.

Hulk?s controls and the wide variety of moves at your disposal is the area in which I believe this game truly shines. For example, as complicated as it sounds, running top-speed, then picking up a car, then locking onto a target, then even switching targets, then leaping into the air to turn around, charge your throw and then finally launch the object at let?s say an enemy mech, becomes so fluid and natural that it?s amazing.

As I said, there are a wide variety of moves, which come to think of it, might be an understatement, at your disposal. For starters, most enemies with a few exceptions by comparison, and objects can be used as weapons. These moves have to be purchased first at the cost of smash points. How smash points work is basically you smash, you get points, and you buy moves at the home base ? very simple.

Back to what I was saying, every vehicle that has a weaponry use is unique. Cars can be ripped in half in order to make metal boxing gloves to cause more damage, trucks can be flattened into shields and even thrown like boomerangs. The weapon that impressed me the most was the one that came from the long-range missile tank – after defeating these enemies, the Hulk can tear the box in which the missies are held and as if they were toy darts, launch them at enemies for one-hit K-O?s. Yeah, it?s that fun.

For the most part, anything can be thrown and anything can be destroyed, which is another factor that makes this game so fantastic. Most of the time after playing through a great game like this I can still say, ?it would have been better if,? or, ?it would have been cool if they had just thought of adding,? but this is not the case here. Mind you, I did manage to beat it on Normal in three days but there are still lots of skins and challenges to unlock. After all, every now and then I still enjoy swinging through New York in Spider-man 2 and I can easily see myself coming back to Hulk: Ultimate Destruction just to leap from building to building and create some havoc.






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