Hulk received "mixed or average" reviews according to aggregator
Metacritic. Jeremy Dunham of
IGN declared the game to be Radical Entertainment's best yet. He and Scott Alan Marriott of
AllGame considered it to be the best
Hulk-based game, though Marriott felt the distinction was practically by default considering the weak competition. Reviewers largely enjoyed the initial visceral satisfaction of wielding the Hulk's power, but determined that the gameplay soon became repetitive. The lack of enemy variety and limited range of tactics required to defeat them were both attributed to the feeling of repetition. Ryan Davis of
GameSpot, Tim Surette of
GameZone, and Dunham only recommended renting the game as it did not take long for them to complete. The controls were appreciated as intuitive, though Chris Baker of
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine noted that hitting two buttons simultaneously for a special attack often leads to undesired results. Assessments of the amount of fighting moves were mixed, with some satisfied with the variety, and others finding it lacking. Ben Silverman of
GameRevolution and Marriott were disappointed by the linear level design. Shawn Elliott of
Electronic Gaming Monthly negatively compared the "infuriatingly cheap" boss battles to those in ''
X2: Wolverine's Revenge, whereas Baker enjoyed them, particularly Half-Life. While Simon Limon of GamePro faulted the lack of a multiplayer battle mode, Nick Valentino of GameZone'' welcomed the Challenge mode as a fun means of increasing replay value. The stealth levels, while acknowledged as an effort to provide gameplay variety and reduce monotony, were considered dull, tedious, and under-developed due to their simplicity compared to similar games such as
Metal Gear and ''
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Kristan Reed of Eurogamer, however, found enjoyment in the hacking minigames. Critics also faulted inconsistencies in the enemy artificial intelligence and collision detection. Justin Leeper of Game Informer denounced the stealth levels as "some of the crappiest coding on a next-gen title", remarking that "When the Chicken Run'' video game has better stealth, you know you're in for a one-way trip to Headachesville, USA; population: you". Marriott suggested that both Banner and the Hulk should have been integrated into more expansive environments, and provided a concept in which levels could be completed with either character, with some routes or areas only accessible to a particular identity. The static camera in both the Hulk and Banner levels was criticized for its tendency to obscure enemy characters. The
cel shaded graphics and art style were widely praised for capturing the feel of comic books in a unique fashion. Silverman and Dunham compared the visuals to
watercolor paintings, and Michael Knutson of
GameZone remarked that the effect was "
psychedelic". While Allen "Delsyn" Rausch of
GameSpy regarded the graphics as falling short of exceptional, he still considered the stylistic choice to be a worthwhile effort. The style was not without its detractors; the D-Pad Destroyer of
GamePro compared the overall aesthetic to
claymation and found it distracting, and Surette felt that while the cel shading technique worked well for the Hulk and the mutant villains, it failed when applied to human characters such as Banner or Ryker. Valentino was impressed by the character design (singling out Banner's resemblance to Bana), and Andrew Reiner of
Game Informer felt that the game's Hulk model was almost better than that of the film. However, Benjamin Turner of
GameSpy and Silverman derisively described the Hulk as "a green-hued
Down's sufferer" and "a beefed-up version of
Jim Carrey in
Dumb & Dumber" respectively. The environments were admired for their interactive textures and effects, which complimented the Hulk's destructive powers, though Simon Limon and Davis observed that the level designs become repetitive over the course of the game. The consistently fast
frame rate was also commended, as were the
cutscenes and their seamless transitions to the gameplay. Davis, comparing the three console versions, determined the Xbox version to have the best graphics, observed that the PlayStation 2 version "has a bit more aliasing and some occasionally blurry textures", and found that the GameCube version carried the same deficiencies but to a greater extent. He added that while the PC version's graphics were satisfactory on both high and mid-level machines, he noticed that the pronounced shading effect on the characters was missing when the game ran on mid-level PCs, which he felt somewhat detracted from the visual style. Reactions to the music were mixed. While some determined it to be fitting and atmospheric, others found it to be average and unremarkable. Silverman and Steven Hopper of
GameZone added that the music was muffled and repetitive, and Lisa Mason of
Game Informer, comparing the game to other contemporary tie-in titles, remarked that it lacked the "pulsing soundtrack" of
Enter the Matrix. Critics generally commended the sound design, particularly in the context of the Hulk's destruction of the environment, though others considered it to be merely adequate. While the D-Pad Destroyer and Valentino admired the Hulk's vocalizations, Davis was underwhelmed by his roars, and Rausch criticized the absence of his "Hulk smash!" catchphrase. The voice-acting was received positively, with Bana's performance being singled out for praise; Baker regarded Bana's voice work as the sole redeeming quality of the stealth levels, and Turner described his delivery as "amusingly earnest", remarking that "Lines like 'I'm bleeding... I need a doctor!' and the oft-repeated 'I've got to move the pairs of symbols until I get a matching series' become pure magic when uttered by such a talented thespian". The enemy voice lines, however, were considered repetitive. Knutson and Valentino commended the use of the
Dolby Digital feature. Davis reported sporadic audio bugs in the PC version such as "loud, horribly distorted" sound samples and voice lines being cut off mid-sentence, and decided that while they did not ruin the experience altogether, they did detract from it. The storyline received varied responses. Dunham liked the aspect of the narrative being a sequel rather than a straight adaptation, explaining that it "helps keep the mystery of the film while still allowing us to feel a part of it" and suggested that more video game adaptations should adopt the approach. Hopper felt that the story was somewhat convoluted, but regarded it as a noble effort, and admired the number of characters adapted from the comic series. Baker, however, wished that the plot did more to introduce the comic-based antagonists to newcomers, pointing out that they were not as well known as the
Joker,
Lex Luthor, or
Magneto. Davis and Surette dismissed the plot as uncompelling and disjointed, serving only as a means of transitioning between
set pieces. ==Followup==