Game: The Incredible Hulk
Genre: Action
Platforms: PC/DS/Wii/PS2/PS3/Xbox360 (reviewed on Xbox360)
SCORE: 5 out of 10
All right so everyone knows who the Hulk is right? Well if you dont I guess youve been living underneath a rock in some far off land with no outlet whatsoever to the outside world. So for the few of you who dont know about the big green guy, Ill fill you in. The Hulk is the result of an unfortunate accident where gamma rays showered the body of scientist Bruce Banner, forever changing him. Cursing him if you will. You are now caught between two worlds. One where you are the spitting image of normal human being, and the other where you are a behemoth: creating chaos and bedlam with each building you topple, or taxi you hurl down a crowded city street.
Opting not to see the latest Hulk movie left me somewhat at a disadvantage when trying to review the game. I had no idea how the movie played out and therefore had a hard time doing a comparison between the movie and game. I wouldnt be able to say they took a great movie and mangled it by making a game out of it, and vise versa. I guess this was a good thing. I could judge the game for what it was, a game.
Being a man that can change from a normal everyday guy who likes science, into a big green compacting machine in a New York minute, can be a big cross to bear. And it also makes you a hot commodity in the world of science. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is always trying to chase you down wanting to get a sample of this, or that for their own twisted ideas of what they could do with abilities like yours. And then the story begins..
The games initial setting is somewhere in South America where Bruce Banner is being pursued down a street by a unit of soldiers. Trying to make an escape he ducks into a factory, but is met by rocket fire by the soldiers who are out to get him. The building starts to deteriorate and rubble falls from the ceiling trapping Bruce in a concrete grave. This wasnt the end of our hero though, it was just the beginning. The rubble atop of Banner makes him angry and triggers his extraordinary transformation into the creature known as the Hulk. After a short fight erupts between the Hulk and the remaining troops in the factory, we are shown some short instructions on how to use our new powers and abilities and shuffled off to New York.
New York City is the location where the Hulk will spend the remainder of his time. The game is set in a massive open sandbox world of epic proportions. The city is a place where colossal steel skyscrapers shimmer in the sun, a place where congested traffic chokes the air from your lungs while pedestrians scuttle around the streets like cockroaches after someone moves a refrigerator. The environment around you isnt something that was copied and pasted a thousand times over. Building can be scaled all the way to the top, and even demolished by landing a fury of punches to its foundation. All the buildings fall in the same exact way, but each neighbor looks slightly different from the one you just ran through a moment ago. The city is bustling with activity and at any given moment there are a thousand things going on at once. I witnessed people hailing cabs, walking down the street enjoying the day, or driving like idiots. While the city functions as its own living, breathing organism, the Hulk does things his own way. And if you happen to be an operator of a cab that stands in his way, you better pray your insurance is up to date.
Much of the game revolves around smashing stuff. Whether youre on a mission or playing one of the many min-games that are thrown in to break up the mundane gameplay, you are always expected to smash something. Dont let me mislead you, I like smashing stuff, a lot, but there is only so much I can expose my fragile psyche to in one week. It seemed as though every single mission I was sent on I had to clobber someone or something when I arrived at my destination. The game became grindy by the third mission or so. I was on a mission to help save a new acquaintance from the Enclave, I had to go to this waypoint, then that one smashing stuff all along the way. This is how the remainder of the game played out. If it wasnt one waypoint I had to smash stuff at it was two, three or even four. My mind, my body, and my soul became weary with each mission that passed. I started to feel more like a prison inmate stamping license plates than a gamer having the time of his life. This was most of what I experience with this particular title. It was almost painful to play and I am surprised I got as far as I did in the game before I decided to return my rental to Blockbuster.
The developer of the game, Edge of Reality had their job cut out for them. They werent creating a new character, a new world that no one has seen before or anything. So where did they go wrong from concept to creation of The Incredible Hulk? In my personal opinion the Hulk was too beefy. I grew up watching the TV series that starred Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno that aired in the late seventies early eighties. I even woke up early every Saturday morning to watch the cartoon that Stan Lee narrated. So their idea of what the Hulk should look like and mine were a bit different. This big green monster looked more like a Hulk who ate two other Hulks, and instead of making the character somewhat believable they chose to push the characters appearance to the limits.
While I enjoyed running around New York City creating havoc, there were some issues with the game that I didnt enjoy. First off I recently played Grand Theft Auto IV and know what NYC can look like when a developer throws countless hours of work into getting something to look good. While GTA IVs recreation of the city was spot on, Edge of Realitys wasnt. Most of the time throughout my adventure I couldnt even tell where the heck I was in the city, if my life depended on it. Another thing that really bothered me about the city was the fact that when I climbed to the top of a gigantic skyscraper and looked around at the city below me it was just big black blocks. There was no definition to the city from my rooftop perch, and as I thought, Is this really a next gen game? my game froze up. Thats right froze up! This same scenario happened four different days in a row, and each time I could see it coming as my game started to chug and sputter eventually coming to a complete stop. The option to simply press the media button and restart the console was not there. I couldnt even access my profile or anything. It was get up for the fourth time in four days and restart my Xbox360 Elite console. I felt like I was the one who shouldve been turning into the big green monster. Countless other items like hit detection when fighting enemies, audio feedback problems: where the game hissed and screeched and me through my TV speakers, and the unenthusiastic voice work done by Edward Norton sealed the deal for The Incredible Hulks imminent doom. In my opinion the game isnt even worth renting. It has even made me a little disgusted that I wasted around fifteen hours or so of my life playing it. If I could turn back time I would have probably opted to rent Viva Piata instead of this, at least the Piatas are cute.
reposted from my personal blog.....http://amellowmoment.blogspot.com/
Genre: Action
Platforms: PC/DS/Wii/PS2/PS3/Xbox360 (reviewed on Xbox360)
SCORE: 5 out of 10
All right so everyone knows who the Hulk is right? Well if you dont I guess youve been living underneath a rock in some far off land with no outlet whatsoever to the outside world. So for the few of you who dont know about the big green guy, Ill fill you in. The Hulk is the result of an unfortunate accident where gamma rays showered the body of scientist Bruce Banner, forever changing him. Cursing him if you will. You are now caught between two worlds. One where you are the spitting image of normal human being, and the other where you are a behemoth: creating chaos and bedlam with each building you topple, or taxi you hurl down a crowded city street.
Opting not to see the latest Hulk movie left me somewhat at a disadvantage when trying to review the game. I had no idea how the movie played out and therefore had a hard time doing a comparison between the movie and game. I wouldnt be able to say they took a great movie and mangled it by making a game out of it, and vise versa. I guess this was a good thing. I could judge the game for what it was, a game.
Being a man that can change from a normal everyday guy who likes science, into a big green compacting machine in a New York minute, can be a big cross to bear. And it also makes you a hot commodity in the world of science. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is always trying to chase you down wanting to get a sample of this, or that for their own twisted ideas of what they could do with abilities like yours. And then the story begins..
The games initial setting is somewhere in South America where Bruce Banner is being pursued down a street by a unit of soldiers. Trying to make an escape he ducks into a factory, but is met by rocket fire by the soldiers who are out to get him. The building starts to deteriorate and rubble falls from the ceiling trapping Bruce in a concrete grave. This wasnt the end of our hero though, it was just the beginning. The rubble atop of Banner makes him angry and triggers his extraordinary transformation into the creature known as the Hulk. After a short fight erupts between the Hulk and the remaining troops in the factory, we are shown some short instructions on how to use our new powers and abilities and shuffled off to New York.
New York City is the location where the Hulk will spend the remainder of his time. The game is set in a massive open sandbox world of epic proportions. The city is a place where colossal steel skyscrapers shimmer in the sun, a place where congested traffic chokes the air from your lungs while pedestrians scuttle around the streets like cockroaches after someone moves a refrigerator. The environment around you isnt something that was copied and pasted a thousand times over. Building can be scaled all the way to the top, and even demolished by landing a fury of punches to its foundation. All the buildings fall in the same exact way, but each neighbor looks slightly different from the one you just ran through a moment ago. The city is bustling with activity and at any given moment there are a thousand things going on at once. I witnessed people hailing cabs, walking down the street enjoying the day, or driving like idiots. While the city functions as its own living, breathing organism, the Hulk does things his own way. And if you happen to be an operator of a cab that stands in his way, you better pray your insurance is up to date.
Much of the game revolves around smashing stuff. Whether youre on a mission or playing one of the many min-games that are thrown in to break up the mundane gameplay, you are always expected to smash something. Dont let me mislead you, I like smashing stuff, a lot, but there is only so much I can expose my fragile psyche to in one week. It seemed as though every single mission I was sent on I had to clobber someone or something when I arrived at my destination. The game became grindy by the third mission or so. I was on a mission to help save a new acquaintance from the Enclave, I had to go to this waypoint, then that one smashing stuff all along the way. This is how the remainder of the game played out. If it wasnt one waypoint I had to smash stuff at it was two, three or even four. My mind, my body, and my soul became weary with each mission that passed. I started to feel more like a prison inmate stamping license plates than a gamer having the time of his life. This was most of what I experience with this particular title. It was almost painful to play and I am surprised I got as far as I did in the game before I decided to return my rental to Blockbuster.
The developer of the game, Edge of Reality had their job cut out for them. They werent creating a new character, a new world that no one has seen before or anything. So where did they go wrong from concept to creation of The Incredible Hulk? In my personal opinion the Hulk was too beefy. I grew up watching the TV series that starred Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno that aired in the late seventies early eighties. I even woke up early every Saturday morning to watch the cartoon that Stan Lee narrated. So their idea of what the Hulk should look like and mine were a bit different. This big green monster looked more like a Hulk who ate two other Hulks, and instead of making the character somewhat believable they chose to push the characters appearance to the limits.
While I enjoyed running around New York City creating havoc, there were some issues with the game that I didnt enjoy. First off I recently played Grand Theft Auto IV and know what NYC can look like when a developer throws countless hours of work into getting something to look good. While GTA IVs recreation of the city was spot on, Edge of Realitys wasnt. Most of the time throughout my adventure I couldnt even tell where the heck I was in the city, if my life depended on it. Another thing that really bothered me about the city was the fact that when I climbed to the top of a gigantic skyscraper and looked around at the city below me it was just big black blocks. There was no definition to the city from my rooftop perch, and as I thought, Is this really a next gen game? my game froze up. Thats right froze up! This same scenario happened four different days in a row, and each time I could see it coming as my game started to chug and sputter eventually coming to a complete stop. The option to simply press the media button and restart the console was not there. I couldnt even access my profile or anything. It was get up for the fourth time in four days and restart my Xbox360 Elite console. I felt like I was the one who shouldve been turning into the big green monster. Countless other items like hit detection when fighting enemies, audio feedback problems: where the game hissed and screeched and me through my TV speakers, and the unenthusiastic voice work done by Edward Norton sealed the deal for The Incredible Hulks imminent doom. In my opinion the game isnt even worth renting. It has even made me a little disgusted that I wasted around fifteen hours or so of my life playing it. If I could turn back time I would have probably opted to rent Viva Piata instead of this, at least the Piatas are cute.
reposted from my personal blog.....http://amellowmoment.blogspot.com/
