Game Curmudgeons

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is my favorite superhero game ever. It’s one of my favorite games ever, and I had some extremely high expectations going into this new Incredible Hulk.

They were mostly unmet, yet I can’t seem to stop playing, nor can I stop comparing it to the first.

The Incredible Hulk is a movie tie-in, though a fairly loose one. There’s movie plot elements, and the rest is going about Manhattan, smashing things up. And that it does well, there’s a very clear bias toward collateral damage in everything. Punching soldiers out of the way, for example, quite often results in them careening into nearby cars, tables, benches, or stands. Glass, planks, and hot dogs fly everywhere; there’s a real sense of how destructive it is to even exist as the Hulk. Coupled with the fact merely walking(much less running, jumping, or punching) can destroy scenery, it’s easy to understand why the army isn’t so keen on you being around, especially when cars start chain explosions.

Yet with all this destruction, it’s clear something is very much missing, which makes me sad. Actually, lots of things are missing, and the new additions don’t make up for it, but the game is far from ruined.

The game’s pace is dramatically slower than the last one, and even the movie. Honestly, I was worried about the movie based off the game, I expected slow, boring combat (thank god the movie didn’t end up that way). Sega excels at plodding fights these days. Yakuza, Viking, and Hulk all share the same sense of “meh, whatever, do it tomorrow” pace that leads to serious disappointment and a lack of interest. Hulk is cumbersome, slow. Blocking is far more important than one would think in a Hulk game, even, and some enemies easily stay away from Hulk’s slow attacks, which becomes amazingly irritating. The most fun, dynamic attacks from before are gone. Most of the air attacks are out, there aren’t any more running grabs, or tank throws. Hulk can’t run up buildings now. While the new climbing method is a very primal, ape-like way of hurling himself up the side of a building, the lack of running is a real issue in missions where one carries a big object the whole way. And by the time Hulk’s jumping ability is really enough to get you over the rooftops, the game is over.

The frenetic pacing of the first game’s combat is so sadly missing. You stay firmly on the ground for the most part, picking enemies up on occasion and chucking them, but mostly punching and using a reasonable weapon selection to batter them. All the while you build up rage (the special power meter, basically), which is used for instant regeneration, or special attacks (thunderclaps and ground slams). The thunderclap is shockingly underpowered against most enemies, and the ground slam is extremely strong but has a limited attack range, which powerful enemies easily move from, particularly bosses. And they tend to be tough to damage anyway.

A significant portion of the game’s enemies require charged attacks, even rage attacks, to damage. Though often you do less damage, and more stun, forcing you to expend rage which takes a while to build, and then hope you get your attacks off if your stun even lands. Frustration is go, and my real life rage meter rises sharply with every fight. There’s an idea of risk vs. reward which really doesn’t seem to do much, and the rage powers are often saved for “there’s lots of slow things around me”, “oh, it’s a boss I have to hit with a rage attack” or “this building sure takes a lot of damage to wreck.” Rather than becoming a part of the combat, they just become something you remember to do when you have to. It’s a shame, because with the last game, big special attacks were commonly used and highly effective and served essentially as a bonus power for skill, unlike rage powers which essentially build constantly in a fight.

There’s also a sense of constantly being under fire, which really results in some serious player fatigue. Previously one could just take out a strike team, and get a respite. Now enemy levels just get stronger and stronger, never disappearing unless one jumps in the subway, which is an instant nullification of the Hulk’s threat level.

A lot of attacks come too little, too late, like using maces effectively, or picking up enemy vehicles. For some arbitrary reason only damaged enemy vehicles can be lifted anyway, and only after earning the special ability, despite much larger vehicles being lifted at any time. Some of the most insanely fun things from the first game are sorely missing, as is the rapid pace.

There are quite a few bugs, and a big “seen it” factor. Most commonly, enemies will be grabbed by Hulk, and the model freezes in mid-air, despite Hulk behaves (and attacks) as if he’s holding onto them. Sometimes they’ll unstick and reappear in his hands, or reappear in mid-air when Hulk throws them.

At first, taking out a building is spectacular, watching it collapse and walking through the rubble, but it’s quickly apparent every building collapses the same way and the joy tends to disappear.

Missions, both story and side, get repetitive. Story features some variety, thanks to being tied to movies occasionally, but side missions end up almost invariably as “kill this many soldiers” or “Run this course.” The absolute variety of pure fun from UD is gone. No floating, no golf, just checkpoint chases.

Bosses too get quite repetitive too, which is a shame because some are quite creative, particularly a two headed robot and a fight against the U-Foes. But fights often come down to selecting a super move (you don’t just hit x+y or y+b anymore, you have to select the power THEN use the attack), waiting for enemies to be in a reasonable position, and using it to stun then. Then it’s a rapid attack to do the most damage you can, and repeat once they’re attacking again.

No enemies ever seem big enough sadly, despite the fact cars and tanks are bigger. Nothing ever seems THAT big or terribly threatening. In fact, the largest size enemy in the game is actually among the easiest to dispatch. It’s probably just an unfair comparison due to Ultimate Destruction, but it’s a major thing to people coming from the last one.

And yet, I have to admit with all this I’ve finished the game, happily. I kept playing the game and I’m still hunting down achievements to get every unlock for some damn reason, despite the jump challenges and comic markers being so…misplaced overall, not to mention so few.

There’s a lot of fun to be had if you can get past the bad pacing, and the bugs, and the sameyness. It’s not a particularly good game, but damn it, it’s fun. It’s The Incredible Hulk’s Bogus Journey, and that’s okay, it seems, and at least it’s a great rental, despite a slow, unfun first hour or so.

The Incredible Hulk gets 2.5 out of 5 stars-It’s pretty alright, but it could have been so much more, and should have been. If you dig for it, there’s a lot of fun to be had anyway.

Damn it, can’t it be so easy in reality? Maybe it is, maybe the real secret is that no politician has broken it down into spreadsheet form and then put a spiffy UI on their campaign.

Because if they do that, they should win pretty easily, and have a pretty nice time in the process if it works as well as Stardock’s Political Machine 2008.

TPM 2008 isn’t a terribly complicated game, though depth is certainly present, and at a budget price without the budget production values. At its core, it’s a turn based strategy game, but instead of armies and combat units you have spin doctors, advertisements, and consultants. Instead of favorable terrain, there are areas which tend to be liberal or conservative, and easier to add to your Electoral College totals come election time. Three resources must be managed, being money, political capital, and clout. Capital and clout are how candidates win endorsements from special interests, or to hire agents such as spin doctors, smear merchants, and the various political tagalongs. Money, well, it’s money. Buys ads, keeps them running, builds outreach centers (each of which generates one of the three resources), and even move around the country until your stamina runs out for the turn.

Breaking up the potential monotony (which does show up sometimes) are random events. Mystery characters can show up on the map, which may hinder or hurt you. Movie directors who cheapen advertising, celebrities to spread the word, or just enthusiastic fans. There are also sporadic TV appearances you can go on, including parodies of Larry King Live, the Colbert Report, and The O’Reilly Factor. The amount of responses you have differs by the intelligence stat of the candidate you’re using.

Speaking of, every available character has stats. Intelligence, charisma, all the things one would expect when referring to candidates, and they all have positions placed before going on the trail. Some are a little poorly defined, with the support or opposition meaning left unclear, but not too often. Of course, stats and positions are available for characters you create yourself (which are highly customizable and quite fun to make), though the points at the start feel very limited for positions. Fortunately once in the game, positions are altered by speeches and advertisements.

There is a definite feeling of repetition after a few games, though, even with four scenarios. Most people will play a few quick games, but the odds of finishing the longer mode aren’t so good for most. Die-hard political junkies will probably manage it, but as politically involves as I am I never finished it myself.

The stats seem a bit party biased (also of note, no third parties!). The Republicans have a higher intelligence stat set, and Democrats a higher charisma and comeliness stat set. Not to get too political, but I have trouble believing George Bush (either one really) is on the same mental level as Al Gore. Intelligence seems more based on how effective a speaker one is, including rhetoric and just convincing people of a position, regardless of legitimacy. Small nitpick, really, since the rest of the game is pretty fun. There’s also an odd choice of including Ron Paul but not Dennis Kucinich, who is effectively the Democratic version. Plus it could have lead to the “Extremely hot British redhead wife” perk in-game.

TPM 2008 doesn’t take things too seriously, which is nice. Tooltips for everything, and when bobble heads are the avatars, you can’t expect much seriousness anyway. A nice pop-up tooltip comes with one of the create-a-candidate accessories, a videotape. Yes, VHS is in play, and tells the kids to ask their parents about it. Good stuff.

The Political Machine 2008 gets a 3.5 out of 5 rating. There aren’t any major bugs, but there’s some ambiguity about what things do, particularly attack ads and speeches, and the game gets fairly repetitive quickly. Yes, you’ll spend a lot of time in Florida, Ohio, California, New York, and Texas, especially as a liberal candidate. More random events would go a long way for the game, rather than the monotonous nature of move, speech/fundraise, advertise, rest, repeat. Still, at the budget price it can be fun, and doesn’t feel like a budget title at all.

Every year, Atari gives us a new Dragonball Z game, and every year consistently brings improvement in presentation and combat. Sadly there’s always a new problem added to the mix as well, but normally the benefits have outweighed the problems.

Dragonball Z: Burst Limit may be the first exception, with some serious improvements in terms of presentation and a tightened up fighting system, but a stunning lack of options and a real drop in combat depth.

The biggest, most obvious upgrade is that the game is absolutely stunning in terms of animation and color. The animation is better than the most carefully animated DBZ movie, and it shows. A few times clothing clips improperly and there’s some repetition to the power attacks; the impact animation which becomes far too elastic looking. That aside, it’s dynamic, it’s crisp, clean, bright, and altogether excellent, even if lacking in variety.

The voice clips as well are excellent, and provide flavor to the battles. Characters will occasionally yell each others’ names during a fight, and will talk to their support characters during drama scenes and vice versa. Rather than a generic “Have a senzu bean!”, you’ll get “Lord Frieza, take this!” from Ginyu, or “Dad, let me handle this!” from Goku to Raditz. It’s an extra layer of life that is easily appreciated. Of course, the mouth movement is almost never synchronized, but fans of the series have come to expect that sort of thing.

Sadly, the drama scenes, one of the new features, become very repetitive. When triggered by certain conditions, a cutscene plays out. At the end of it, there’s a status boost for someone, or someone is knocked away, an attack defended, quite a few things are possible. The system is great and throws some surprises into fights, and each character has plenty of them. So, while each sound bite is unique between characters and is well done, there are only so many times you can see the same animation repeated for a character. On top of that, there’s rarely actual interaction with the fight, just a cutscene that often ends in a black screen with a flash, implying someone being punched in the face. Or sometimes a generic ki attack being deflected. Sometimes if the scene is the two combatants interacting something happens, but that’s the exception.

The other issue is that the scene, well, it will just play out the same. There’s a point where you’re really sick of hearing “Is…is this really my limit? No, it can’t be! I AM A SUPER SAIYAN!” It’s unskippable in a fight, and while the idea is great, and it provides a solid mechanic, it becomes rapidly annoying. Especially in two player games, where it provides some “DUDE COOL” at first, but shortly players may skip the drama scene selection altogether. It’s a shame because the mechanic is great, but the implementation is rough.

Combat in DBZ: Burst Limit is similar to Tenkaichi, though the aerial battles have been toned down or nearly removed, and control is vastly simplified. No more special attack orbs plus a big bar, and various up/down combos. It’s forward+ki, back+ki, or up+ki for a super attack. When totally charged, players can use an aura spark which provides boosted defense and offense, rapid super attacks, and an enhanced chase attack. Defense is holding the block button down, or tapping it right before an attack and dodging. Tapping with a direction leads to a teleport and a counterattack as well, which can often result in ridiculous chains in two player matches. As a single-player mechanic, it’s not so great, but it functions for the story mode. With two players, the game absolutely shines and the combat is tight.

That said, there’s still a lack of variety to it, with many characters feeling same-y. Essentially fighting just on the horizontal plane with 3d movement to avoid attacks has taken away from some Dragonball feel. Special attacks still all dial in the same, button mashing is still present during struggles, and there’s very little risk vs. reward going on. A full power smash leaves a player vulnerable, but otherwise there are unblockable defensive postures, no manual ki charging (there’s a constant recharge, boosted slightly by dealing damage, stunted by taking damage), and no real battles for position. It’s a little dangerous to use an ultimate attack since it leaves one unable to teleport, but that’s minor overall.

But like I said before, the game absolutely shines in two player mode. The shallow combat is easily picked up, there’s a lot of excitement, and there’s a solid length with a great ebb and flow often enough, especially since players will tend to max out the health, attack, and defense stats. Add the drama scenes, and there’s a really fun game to be played with friends, even with some included annoyances. Hell, it’s even fun to watch, something most fighters can’t claim. The raw energy of Dragonball is obvious, and it’s easy to play two or three hours with four friends, passing the controller off upon loss. Spectators will cheers and yell, undoubtedly, for tense battles and utter decimations. But, that’s the result of the fast pace and flashy moves that show up in the battle. It doesn’t take a lot of skill to pull off, but it’s still a lot of fun to watch.

This is, of course, a review, so I have to issue a few complaints. There’s a pattern emerging. 3 iterations of a series, and a reboot. Budokai did such when I moved into Tenkaichi, dropping most characters and most story progress. Burst Limit has done the same, ending up at a very bare bones amount of characters and ending at the end of the Cell Saga. The presentation is, again, spectacular with cutscene intros and all, though the story stages are few really, as are characters. Unlocking drama scenes requires them being played out in story mode, which really limits what’s available for two player games. There’s also the issue of not being able to randomize the CPU character’s settings in versus mode. Players are forced to pick the ultimate special the computer will use, and the drama scenes. Some probably won’t care, preferring to re-create scenes or form what-if scenarios, but I like a challenge and a surprise. Not knowing what’s coming, having to be ready for anything, is part of the fun against the CPU. Instead, I know there will be a senzu bean and two special attack blocks, and that there will be a Hellzone Grenade. It really limits the single-player replay factor.

More characters are really needed, especially ones that start out at higher power levels. Everyone starts at the bottom, and moves up, and can be knocked back down. It doesn’t really make sense watching Frieza go through four transformations (and it’s annoying to do), then get knocked back down to his original form. And I don’t see why Goku always has to go through kaioken before hitting super saiyan to be honest. It doesn’t mesh with the show, but it doesn’t kill the gameplay, at least. Just annoys.

Dragonball Z: Burst limit gets 3 and a half canes. It’s a three cane game in single-player with decent AI and solid basics, and a four cane game for multi-player. The likely iteration next year will undoubtedly include many more characters and an improved/lengthened story mode, and probably improved drama scenes. Hopefully more open combat as well. For now, it’s no Soul Calibur but it’s a fuckton of fun with friends, and at least worth a rental.