N-Philes

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

Posted July 22nd 2006 by Jared Thomas.

I was running down the streets, causing a little ruckus. Okay, a lot of ruckus. Some puny city cop decided to be a hero. He drew his gun and then from behind the safety of his squad car shouted something to the effect of "Stop or I'll shoot!" or "Freeze" or other standard cop saying. I don't quite remember what he said because before he even finished talking I lifted up his squad car and smashed him into the pavement with it about five times.

Then uncontrollable laughter. Then more mayhem.

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction offers this same feeling of unchecked, unrivaled, unstoppable power a hundred times over. As the Big Green himself you're given free range over a thriving coastal city and a sparsely populated canyon town, and you're the biggest bully on the playground. That means you're free to charge through traffic like a bull elephant, throw busses into a crowded intersection, or use lamp posts to four-iron a cow so far that even the staunchest of PETA members would explode with laughter. I cannot stress enough how great it is to look down a street and see upturned cars, downed power lines, buildings on fire, panic in the streets – something out of a zombie movie – and being able to say, "I did this." I've never actually fathered a child myself but I cannot imagine doing so would match such a feeling of prideful accomplishment.

The basic premise of the game is the same as that of the highly-acclaimed Spider-Man 2, with the notable difference that you play as the Hulk instead of the webslinger. And much like Spidey's foray into the free-roam realm, Ultimate Destruction succeeds at its most basic level: replace Spider-Man 2's awe-inspiring web-swinging with throwing taxi cabs at SWAT team officers, and you're left with the same feeling of half playing/half being the superhero. However, I must say that virtually everything Spider-Man does, Hulk does better. It's just a much, much better game.

Whereas Spider-Man 2 employed a give-and-take concept where gamers were given an incredibly huge metropolis in return for good graphics, Ultimate Destruction offers both, with only slightly longer loading times to pay for it. Loading times are a pet peeve of mine, and they effectively ensured that I would play almost none of the "hero missions", you get what you pay for and I was willing to forgive it for such an immersive environment and a framerate that just won't slow down.

Even more important than his perfectly adequate character model, Hulk has a real weight to him, and it certainly adds to the immersion. Every time this guy lands from a jump you'll hear the boom, see him bounce ever so slighty from his contact with the earth, and see a crater form with a quick burst of upheaved rubble. Most of the interactive objects in the game don't share quite this sense of mass – large rocks from the Badlands move more like they're made of pumice than anything weighing several of tons – but Hulk and his enemies certainly make their presence and strength known. The graphics themselves are never lackluster, and adding to the immersion is Hulk's urban sprawl, which is much more alive with people and accurately-moving cars than Spider-Man's fairly quiet city.

Of course, for all the people in Hulk's city, there are a lot fewer of them to save. Only a few special hero tasks litter the landscape, and the load times for starting one of these tasks eliminates any desire to do them, and also destroys the entire concept of free-roaming. Also, missions like "save the dozen people from the burning building" make no sense when Hulk endangers thousands of lives just by performing his missions, so they might as well not even be there. Some were actually pretty fun and funny (home run derby using a soldier as a ball) but again, load times destroyed any incentive to actually play them. Besides, Hulk earns enough "smash points" to buy all his necessary move upgrades simply by obliterating his enemies (or the civilian populace). Felled enemies also give Hulk boosted power that not only regenerates his health, but also acts as a gauge for his rage, which if topped out can produce a "Critical Mass" effect that doubles his strength and also gives him access to truly devestating special attacks.

In this way Ultimate Destruction is much more akin to Grand Theft Auto than to any game about do-gooders; Hulk causes havoc until the police become progressively more aware of his presence and eventually launch a strike team to stop him. Of course, he's not just some puny human with a gun, and upon his smashing the strike team to bits the national guard scale back their response until the havoc increases to dangerous levels again. The system is pretty well-balanced, though, meaning Hulk can still destroy quite a bit before the feds drop in on him unwantedly, yet if a player was looking to get noticed he could easily trip the alarm in about ten seconds. Of course, this is just what Hulk does between the game's actual missions, which themselves aren't nearly as varied as Spider-Man's, but also not nearly as ridiculous or boring. They play out like the military campaigns of the Rogue Squadron series, only with a gamma mutant in place of an X-Wing. Destroy this, protect that, retrieve this... pretty straightforward, really fun. The game even attempts to tell a pretty good story through it all, but I didn't care and neither would anyone else.

The first time you step into the city, there really isn't a feel that Hulk is being held back in order to give the game an RPG element of upgrading moves. From the outset of the game Hulk pretty much outclasses anything he comes into contact with. In fact, I was having so much fun with the basic abilities like lifting/throwing anything and everything, charging through traffic, and punching into tanks that it didn't even occur to me that I needed more moves. The game is so balanced that the player will feel that they need to work on their skills in the game to overcome bosses and tight spots, rather than harping on the idea that they don't have the right moves that could grant instant victory. You will likely be surprised by how many special abilities the developers came up with for a character who basically has nothing but brute strength to work with.

For the most part the upgrades give Hulk extra mobility, letting him perform his standard attacks, grabs, and throws while running or jumping instead of simply standing still. However, he's also certainly granted a vast array of hard-hitting techniques, and those attained later in the game can only be described as "apocalyptic". The first time I saw a skyscraper building actually crumble into rubble as a result of my actions I began to fear that if I grew any stronger the game's code might not able to handle my next rampage. The escalation of Ultimate Destruction in terms of abilities and enemy assaults follows a steady, satisfying slope, and keeps escalating further than I would have expected. However, the final mission or two suggests that maybe it went just barely too far, because the Harrier jets that eventually carry the bulk of the military's assault are just about the only enemies that cross the line from fun to flat out annoying.

The controls for movement are tight, like AAA tight. While the spirit of the game will probably offer many situations where you simply can't slow down to do what you need to do, the control will rarely let you down in that department. In battles, the control and physics can best be related to Ninja Gaiden. At least, that's the only other place I've seen quite such smooth animation of an enemy being delivered a flurry of blows in mid-air and then thrown flat against a wall quite so fluidly. Also important is the fact that the developers seemed to give a damn about portraying the Hulk accurately. He's strong, duh, but he's also wicked fast, and it's the combination of those two elements that make the gameplay so addictively rush-inducing. He also regenerates his life rather quickly if he can avoid being battered around for a few seconds, which not only keeps things high speed by avoiding the situation of avoiding an enemy for a half hour to look for some health, but also adds to Hulk's aura of unstoppability. Even better is that Hulk is literally at his strongest just before he is defeated; when power reaches zero Hulk experiences an "Adrenaline Surge" that makes his power equal to if he had attained "Critical Mass" power levels by extended smashing sessions. It makes everything much more climactic and much more satisfying than simply seeing the Angry Man fall down dead. Of course, I'd like to see him revert to weak Bruce Banner form upon defeat, but what can you do.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A-.

Apart from virtually every aspect of gaming that Ultimate Destruction pulls off beautifully, the pure raw fun to be had with this title alone makes it worth a purchase. There's madcap enjoyment to be had here the kind of which you'd find in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Only, without friends, because if you had any to begin with you'll forget them once you play this game. If Hulk didn't have some major targeting issues and lengthy load times that made me want to Hulk-out on my Gamecube and throw it into a bus, it'd be a nearly perfect game. I'd still definitely recommend it, although I must warn that this game will get into your head, majorly. Like they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Luckily, Ultimate Destruction rocks most ultimately.

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