On top of finally getting his own movie this summer, everyone’s favorite big, green mass of primal fury is getting his own cross-platform video game.  The Hulk is the latest movie tie-in to hit the PC, and the game features a brand new storyline that takes place after the events in the movie.  The Hulk offers up a tasty dish of carnage and destruction, and does a fine job of emulating what it’s like to be the gamma-bombarded creature.  However, the experience is indeed short-lived, and the repetitive gameplay will no doubt wear thin after a while.  Still, The Hulk is a fun and mindless smashing game that will keep you entertained for a little while.

Instead of following the events of the film, The Hulk is an entirely new story, taking place shortly after the movie.  Bruce Banner is still trying to cure himself of his disease, and attempts to get a hold of an orb that will cure him and prevent him from becoming the Hulk.  However, things go awry and soon he’s battling a host of popular villains from the comic books, like Half-Life and The Leader, as well as trying to rescue the love of his life, Betty Ross.

The gameplay in The Hulk is dirt simple, and that’s probably the way it should be.  The game is divided into two different modes, one in which you play as the Hulk, and the other as Bruce Banner.  The Hulk levels are mindless fun.  You fight endless legions of enemies and basically smash everything that gets in your way.  You have some combos and special moves at your disposal to help you take on the bad guys.  Underneath your health bar is a rage meter, which fills up as you take and dish out damage.  Once this bar is full, you go into rage mode, a mode that significantly increases the power of your punch.  You can interact with the environment very well, meaning that you can use almost anything as a melee weapon or you can just throw it at your enemies.  You also can hoist enemies up and chuck them across the room at each other, which is very cool looking and fun.  These levels are the most fun, although they do wear thin after a while given the overall lack of depth.

The Bruce Banner levels are focused on stealth, although it is quite limited.  As Bruce, you must avoid detection from enemies, push around crates, activate consoles and solve simple puzzles.  The stealth is very simplistic; so don’t expect anything on the level of Metal Gear Solid 2 or Splinter Cell.  You have one sneaky move at your disposal, and that is the ability to crouch and walk at the same time.  Incidentally, this move is all you need to get by in this portion of the game.  Guards won’t detect you unless you make noise by running, so you can often times sneak up really close to them and easily put them out with a sleeper hold.  If an enemy does detect you, then all you have to do is run far enough away and they will forget about you.  The puzzles are repetitive and simple.  You have twenty or so seconds to line up a group of symbols (letters or numbers).  This is very easy and often comes across as a way to waste some time.  The whole Bruce Banner mode feels very rushed and serves only as a mundane interlude before you get to smash more stuff as the Hulk.

The graphics in the Hulk exude a very comic-like look.  The characters are semi-cel-shaded, featuring solid colors, few polygons, and pronounced shadows adding to the comic book style of the game.  The characters are also very nicely animated, and move very fluidly.  The game’s environments are also quite cool looking, since they are damageable.  When you jump into the air and land on the ground, you’ll leave impact craters and cracks.  Punching walls will also leave cracks, as well.

The sound is a bit of a mixed bag.  The voice acting is very nicely done, with Eric Bana (from the upcoming film) providing the voice of Bruce Banner.  The sound effects are also quite nice, ranging from Hulk’s roars to clanging metal to crumbling rubble.  The music, on the other hand, is a bit of a disappointment.  The score is a bit redundant and sounds very quiet and muted.

The Hulk is a fun game that will certainly keep you interested, albeit for a pretty short time.  The story mode for the game is relatively short clocking in at little over eight hours.  However, the game has enough extras to keep hardcore Hulk fans busy for a while.  Everyone else should be pleased with just one run through of the story mode.

Gameplay: 8.0
The Hulk provides all of the fast-paced, non-stop, mindless action you’d expect from the superhero.  However, it is a bit redundant and will no doubt wear thin on many gamers after a while.  Also, the Bruce Banner levels are a bit too simplistic and feel a bit rushed.

Graphics: 8.5
The Hulk uses a semi-cel-shaded technique to provide the characters with a great comic-style look.  The environments are also very nice, and exhibit battle damage after being pummeled.  Plus, all of the action occurs at a very smooth frame rate, even on mid-range PCs.

Sound: 7.5
The voice acting is well nicely done and features Eric Bana reprising his on-screen role as Bruce Banner.  The sound effects are also quite nice, although the music is a bit muffled and repetitive.

Difficulty: Medium       

Concept: 8.0                                                                                                                               

The storyline is a bit convoluted and has quite a bit of loopholes, but it certainly was a noble effort and features several cool appearances by characters from the film and from the comic books.

Overall: 8.0
The Hulk is a fun, mindless and short romp that will entertain action fans.  However, the redundancy of the gameplay will keep the game from being a long-term investment of time.  Hardcore Hulk fans will appreciate the extra features, but anyone else will be satisfied with one go-through.