My Ideal Hulk game

 

My Ideal Hulk game

Superhero games generally don't get a good reception and while some of that negative press is justified, I do feel like there are some gems in the genre like Volition's Punisher game, Raven Software's X-Men Origins Wolverine, The Darkness games and one of my personal favorites, Hulk Ultimate Destruction.

Those few that follow me knows that I am a huge fanboy of Hulk Ultimate Destruction. I generally am not a big fan of open world games, but Hulk UD was a lot of fun. It captured, the spirit of the Hulk while also being an incredibly fun game. Radical Entertainment also made a great combat system in an open world setting which is no easy feat if you ask me.

A part of just kept wondering while Hulk UD's combat was very good overall, I got to wonder how much better the game could've been if it ditched the open world entirely and made for a more linear experience. I feel it would make the combat encounters feel better because the developers can place different materials Hulk can use as weapons in an open but carefully controlled space rather than making it something the player randomly finds in an open world. I would certainly use the ball and chain weapon more if the devs spawn more trucks. I feel there would also be more enemy variety too since the devs aren't too busy handcrafting the open world and focus more on the combat engine. Can you honestly name an open world with a huge variety of enemies? They pack the combat arenas with more stuff and opportunities to destroy you enemies. You can have environment kills, even more weaponizations, have more carnage on screen because you are having it in a controlled environment. Something a bit like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic with the environmental kills and that would do.

Which is where my idea for my kind of Hulk game would come in:

Make it based on the Planet Hulk storyline. There are so many comic book stories that take place on foreign planets and in space? So why the fuck don't games take advantage of that? I am tired of cities being used for my superhero games. I know Hulk UD had the Badlands but I find that setting uninteresting.

I picture it being a cross between Metroid Prime, God of War and Hulk Ultimate Destruction. Metroid Prime for it's setting, and sense of isolation. God of War for it's gory combat and pacing. Of course heavy liberties have to be taken with the story since Hulk meets a lot of people in that storyline but I feel Hulk being alone and isolated on a foreign planet would make for a fascinating gameplay experience like Hulk would just get beat up by an alien overlord, and then gets captured by slave traders and then runs off and escapes and finds his way around the world. Hell, since GOW is an inspiration you can have it be about Hulk overthrowing an tyrannical alien dictator. You can have the gladiator parts but that is to break up the place from all the exploring. Hulk can find different upgrades for his armor, get new weapons, and even bring the weaponizations back from UD but with the environment and even some of the weapons you find. Make the combat gorier too, Hulk is a violent character so I would do what Raven Software did with Wolverine and have Hulk brutally murder his enemies. It would lead for much more satisfying combat plus with the impromptu weapons would and dismemberment system like Dead Space and you could get some emergent combat encounters.

You can throw some puzzles along the way to break up the place like GOW and even have Hulk visit landmarks of the planet. The Gladiator school Hulk goes to in the comic can serve as a tutorial as well, I mention him being a slave before but you can tie them in together.

I can go on all day but I feel like a Planet Hulk game has a crapload of potential and am surprised has never got made. With Spider-Man PS4 being a success, maybe we can get something like this get made. Please, no open world Planet Hulk game...please.