Hardly any news for Hulk fans out there. I mean, it’s his go to move, right? But HOW does he smash? At least insofar as it comes to Midnight Suns?
Skully isn’t big on predictions, but this one I’ve convinced him to let me write with bribes of whiskey and chicken wings. Firaxis is cribbing things that work from their other games and for The Hulk there’s one creature from XCom 2 that sprang immediately to mind once I saw that he was going to be in the game. Specifically, from the Alien Leaders DLC: The absolutely terrifying Berserker Queen.
Look, regular Berserkers are terrifying. Bullet sponges that run up to you, then beat the ever-loving snot out of you if they get close enough and they’ve got a whole bunch of other special abilities to let them do just that. Very ‘Hulk SMASH’ tactics. The Queen, though, adds a few more tricks to this tried and true method of taking out her enemies.
The one I really want to mention, the one that I think will definitely be part of The Hulks’ arsenal in the game, is a ground smash attack she does. It’s an Area of Effect attack with a pretty wide radius that stuns everyone around her for a turn and does damage. Thus leaving your soldiers nice and prone and suitable for more, immediate pounding-into-paste punches. I’ve lost more than one soldier to this absolutely bullsh*t move and it always makes me want to throw my keyboard across the room when she pulls it off.
Now, if hitting the ground so hard that it stuns our heroes doesn’t sound like an absolutely CLASSIC Hulk move, then you haven’t been paying attention. Whether it’s him punching, stomping or even just landing, Hulk smashing the ground to either give himself space to swing or just to announce that now he’s REALLY mad is a staple in his arsenal. Given that the team designing Midnight Suns has access to The Berserker Queen and her full set of moves, it seems ridiculous that they wouldn’t use it.
Look, as predictions go, I admit this is not Nostradamus level. And I am 100% positive that they’ll have more than a few extra surprises in store for us from the big, green, rage monster. Firaxis isn’t just going to do some silly palette swap and port The Berserker Queen straight into Midnight Suns and call it a day. Anyone that thinks that is going to be in for a big surprise as well as a pretty quick restart. There’s numerous other tricks from the movies and comics that they can have Hulk pull off that will be just as devastating as the Ground Pound move that The Queen uses. But I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that it’s the first one they thought of since they already had it lying around and ready to go, so to speak.
So, if you’re looking to get an early taste of what it’ll be like to go up against Dr. Banners’ alter-ego, I suggest you fire up XCom 2 and hunt down The Queen. Going a few rounds with her will likely give you the closest approximation to facing The Hulk.
Just bring plenty of medkits. That bitch hits HARD.
- Rock
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