I still like the game but not quite as much as I used to. I'll start with the good. The combat feels great and is so in line with the character of the Hulk while also being a very good combat system in it's own right. I'd say it's one of the better combat systems in an open world game. There's a lot of options to choose from like creating boxing gloves out of cars, shields from buses, throwing stuff, using enviromental objects as makeshift weapons, doing highly powerful air attacks like a super punch later a cannonball and an elbow drop, there's also more "weaponizations" like a ball and chain and missile packs(very useful but can be a nuisance to keep in your hand). There's a lot of decision making here for a combat in an open world game and I commend it for that.
The traversal is also very good, chaining jumps, climbing and running up walls, doing air dashes, this feels like the basis for Prototype's movement system and it feels good in this game. I also like the music as well, I tend to like Bill Brown as a composer.
The story surprsingly is good, it could be because I am a fan of the Hulk character but the whole story feels like a Hulk comic in video game form. The voice acting does a good job at selling the material, and the characters are interesting enough. I quite like this version of Emil Blondsky, he feels like a darker reflection of Bruce Banner which is a sign of a good villain to me. The Blondsky files did reveal more info on the story and I did like that they were voiced and you didn't have to read the text.
So all the praise out of the way, let's talk negatives, there's TOOOO many loading screens way too many. One to get back into gameplay, one to get to the open world, one to start a mission, one to end a mission and one to save your game, a good time is spent looking at loading screens. That and the missions themselves are...not great, there are good ones but the ones that are good tend to involve the combat system and just punching destroying things, the bosses are enjoyable, the CTF style missions however are horrible because they limit movement, can't let you hit anything and a have health bar on them so if it depletes, it's game over.
This combined with the difficulty spikes in the Badlands area is where the frustration can come from. That area has lots of enemies with heat seeking missles which are such a horribly designed aspect of the game because they do high damage, send you flying and could stunlock and plus the high enemy counts in the Badlands missions can be very frustrating. That and I also dislike this in Team Ninja games as well, but if an enemy grabs me, just let me break out of it, it's a fighting game mechanic clearly and those games let you do it. So it's dumb to me and just adds cheapness.
Another problem with the Badlands is that they don't have nearly as many walls for you to climb up from and do super air punches and elbow drops from. The game also has a habbit of overwhelming the player with enemies and if you don't have a critical mass ability lined up, fighting those large numbers can feel hopeless. It just feels weird considering it's a game where you play as the Hulk. I feel like playing the game in free roam where you fight nothing but Strike Teams might be the more fun way to play the game because it's nothing but combat. Now final compliant is that the open world just feels kind of tacked on. Side missions barely give you any Smash Points and most of those come from how many Strike Teams you destroy rather than doing side missions which makes wonder side missions where there. Also, Story Missions don't give you enough Smash Points to unlock a lot of the moves so you may to go to free roam and destroy strike teams anyway.
Overall, Hulk Ultimate Destruction is a good game but it has a number of flaws that hold it back from being great, still worth checking out but it's rough around the edges. Must play for those who like the Hulk or even just Marvel comics in general.
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