Attempts to change up the formula...and fails.
The game (barely) follows the plot of the film. Bruce Banner (The Hulk, if you didn't know that already) is on the run from the military, who hopes to use Banner's rage as a weapon for the U.S. Army. The story in the game is told through loading screens and 5 second cutscenes. This is not good storytelling. Its almost as if the developers assume that the player already knows what's going on, and presents it in an "Oh, by the way, some **** just happened and now you gotta fight some robots" kind of way. I know that the story isn't the biggest part of the game, but they at least could have tried a little harder.
Once you begin the game, you are immediately thrust into New York where the streets are littered with mindless pedestrians and countless vehicles to throw about. The open world is kinda fun to explore, until you realize that most of it is just cut-and-pasted together. Here is a rundown of how the game flows: You'll run through the same patches of New York again and again to get to the mission points. From there a cutscene of some missiles flying overhead are shown, and then you are told to stop them from slamming into a building that holds some kind of important item that you were unaware existed until now.
Luckily the game's combat holds up. Hulk can learn new combos from getting "experience" and a lot these moves are actually pretty useful. The controls are pretty solid and the carnage is mostly lag-free. There's also a lot of unlockabe content that even impressed a comic fan like me. One especially silly unlockabe is a costume that makes Hulk look like The Juggernaut.
The cast of the film is present for the VO, but a lot of it sounds phoned in. The musical score is nothing special but it fits, and the smashing and crushing sound effects are good as well. But the game also suffers from one big problem: bugs. Pop up is pretty bad, especially from high altitudes. Collision detection is also noticeably bad, but it doesn't ruin the gameplay.
The Incredible Hulk is a decent rental if you desire to watch Hulk smash some bad guys (some from the Hulk comics, which made me happy), but you would probably be better off replaying Ultimate Destruction.