Today is part three of my Marvel’s Avengers hero first impressions. I am so excited by us landing Leonard Taylor that I cannot think straight and I am thankful I typed these notes up a while ago... Which will make more sense tomorrow when we go over Thor (who I had access to) and not Ms. Marvel, who is actually in the beta. I assume they made this swap because there is already so much information out about Thor and so little known about Ms. Marvel that Crystal Dynamics really wanted to show her off but, with my ramble over, let’s smash with the Worldbreaker himself:
Hulk
Did you ever play that old PlayStation game ‘RAMPAGE!’? Well, think of Hulk like a character ripped straight from that game. He controls like a walking tank, he moves like a bipedal rhinoceros and he destroys basically anything he comes into contact with. The game’s environmental impact is really on full display when Hulk is being played and he in turn uses the full display of the game’s environment to further augment both his play style and kit. Both seem a bit limited on the surface but his ability to wield vehicles, power poles and any enemy (even defeated mini-bosses) as unique and different ‘weapons’ means that he goes from one-dimensional HULK SMASH! to a deep and engaging theorycrafter’s dream. Truly, this Hulk is the embodiment of Bruce Banner becoming Hulk; simplistic, brutal and flat out dumb on the outside but underneath? Elegant, sophisticated, thought-provoking and extremely intelligent. By far, Hulk took the most getting used to, if you actually wanted to use his full kit. Now, don’t get me wrong! Smashing things and throwing cars never got old, at all. However, learning when and where to pick up certain objects, which enemies made for the best melee weapons in certain scenarios, traversing the world and finding new places to jump off of for bigger smashes, infusing enemies and objects with different elements like gamma or cosmic radiation... All of it combined turns Hulk from a mindless, shallow smasher character to a brilliant, deep and wholly rewarding chess master. As I said previously... Embodiment of Hulk to Bruce Banner.
[Melee]
Heavy Attack - Ground Smash, ground pound, double fist punches, shoulder charge (vehicle/object like dive, slam, swing)
Light Attack - Single punches, sonic ground punch (Hulk seems to have some passives that weren’t fully explained but if I understand them correctly they act like combo chain stacks in an MMO where the more you hit, the stronger your successive attacks become)
Grapple - (can also rip items out of the ground, used to pick up enemies/objects and wield them)
Quadruped mobility sprint (can be a bit slow and lumbering
(no block or dodge that I could find)
Ability 1
Ability 2
Super/Ultimate/R
[Ranged]
Heavy Attack
Light Attack
Tomorrow will be a look at the game’s only (for now) real caster who plays more like an angry Battlemage with an obsession for his hammer, thank you for reading and as always feel free to ask any questions or @ me! Thank you.
www.polygon.com
