It is almost as much of a sure thing as death and taxes. That is, a video
game based on a blockbuster movie will undoubtedly be very, very bad. Next up to
the plate is HULK, which for some reason the name is capitalized every time I
see it. Must be compensating for something, if you know what I mean… Anyway,
Universal is unleashing this monster on the PS2 and I’ll let you know if it is
just another in a long line of unfortunate movie based games or if the power of
the HULK can break out of that cycle…
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Hulk wants a hot dog. |
HULK is divided into two different gaming modes: Story and Challenge. The Story
mode is where most of the action happens and I’ll talk more about that in a
moment. But first let’s look at the Challenge mode. There are three different
basic games in the challenge consisting of Endurance Mode 1 and 2, Time Attack 1
and 2 and HULK Smash. Each of these chapters is unlocked by defeating a special
boss from within the Story mode. They are also pretty much as they sound. In the
Endurance modes you run around staying alive for as long as possible. The Time
Attack lets you see how many bad guys you can slap around within a certain
amount of time. And HULK smash is the most entertaining because you just go
around and wreak as much havoc as humanly, or would that be HULKALY, possible.
So this is fairly simple and straightforward stuff. Now let’s learn about the
Story mode…
The Story mode takes place sometime after the HULK movie as you learn through
some of games cutscenes. (For some reason these cutscenes remind me of the old
Genesis game “Out of this World”. While the graphics are naturally tons better,
I think the shadows and movements are reminiscent of this oldie.) It seems that
there is a new menace in the world that is going by the name of “The Leader”.
You know, if you’re planning on taking over the world you might as well give
yourself a simple no nonsense name like The Leader, it cuts down a lot of
confusion during meetings. Seems The Leader plans on leading by infecting the
world with some gamma rays or something like that. Whatever. It really doesn’t
matter. The plot isn’t very important in a game like this, thank goodness,
because it’s all about the action and HULK brings it with an interesting shade
of green. Well, most of the time anyway…
In the game you play not only as THE HULK (seriously, what is up with the caps?)
but also as the more wimpy side know as Bruce Banner. The gameplay is
drastically different for the two characters, as you might imagine. As Bruce you
sneak around labs and places where a multi-ton bright green monster might not go
unnoticed. Now this isn’t a Splinter Cell quality sneakfeast, no it’s pretty
lame. You do a lot of crouching and hiding and just generally trying to avoid
all human contact. The deal is that if you get in a fight with one or two of the
guards chances are you are going to start to get beat up because Bruce is a big
wuss. This makes Bruce mad and we all know what happens then. Of course in these
stealthy type missions if you turn into the green dude, the mission is over. So,
like I said, just avoid everyone and you’ll be fine.
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