Marvel's Avengers: Hulk Needs His Own Ultimate Destruction Sequel
Marvel's Avengers is the latest video game to put the superhero team front-and-center, and it creates brand new versions of the beloved characters. There are also some great voice actors behind the characters, with the likes of Nolan North, Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and more.
Each character in Avengers plays completely differently, with an emphasis on their unique superpowers. This means Iron Man can fly and focuses on ranged attacks, while the Hulk, well, smashes everything. Out of all the heroes currently in Avengers, Hulk is one of the most fun to play as, simply because of the pure chaos he causes.
Hulk in Avengers brings to mind another Marvel game from the past, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. It feels like Hulk's gameplay could turn into something else, and it'd be great to see the big green guy get his own game again.
Ultimate Destruction has gone down as one of the best superhero games because of how it lets players be the Hulk in every idea. The open-world game let players wreak havoc as they fought enemies, and the Hulk could pick up any number of objects like cars and tanks to throw like a rock. The Hulk felt unstoppable like he should, and players could make him bound over buildings, through obstacles, and anything else. The Avengers game feels similar in the way it makes Hulk feel like an unstoppable beast.
The game does a good job of making environments the Hulk fights in destructible, and his levels also feature some simple platforming. One of Hulk's moves lets him pick up an enemy soldier like a ragdoll and slam them around as a weapon. It's easy to see why Crystal Dynamics chose a Hulk-focused level for the Avengers beta, as it shows the game off at its best. Hulk is an absolute blast to play, and the game throws loads and loads of enemies at players. The more linear levels could become even more fun if they were turned into mini open-world areas, letting players jump and bound across a cityscape. The mechanics are all there, but Avenger's stalwart focus on being cinematic makes the Hulk feel limited. The full game may give Hulk more room to breathe, of course, but it's easy to see how Hulk's mechanics could translate into a full game.
Spider-Man PS4 showed how a modern-day game focusing on one hero can work, and it'd be interesting to see Marvel come back full-swing into video games. Outside of Ultimate Destruction, the Hulk hasn't had many great games that focus on him. More often than not the Hulk is just a character in the game to break stuff, but some truly interesting things can be done with the relationship between Hulk and Bruce Banner. Just look at how the Batman Arkham games dealt with Bruce Wayne's psyche, and imagine what a modern Hulk game could do. The tech behind Marvel's Avengers is certainly impressive, and seeing Hulk destroy an entire room will likely never get old. After Avengers, however, Crystal Dynamics should consider doubling down on the Hulk.
Marvel's Avengers launches on September 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It'll release ate a later date for PS5 and Xbox Series X.