Download Questprobe Featuring The Hulk

STORY

This is the first of the Questprobe adventure games, and is set in the world of The Hulk.  You play as Dr Bruce Banner, and as you play the game, it quickly becomes apparent that your task is to collect all the gems, and store them in the correct place.  This is not as easy as it sounds, however, as you must overcome many tricky puzzles along the way.  You must learn to make the most of Bruce Banner's brains, as well as The Hulk's brawn.  For example, you begin the game "tied hand and foot to a chair", with no clue as to how or why you are there.  How will you escape from that chair?  You can perform simple actions throughout the game such as checking your inventory (press i) or checking your score (type in SCORE).   After you escape from the chair, you can explore the rest of The Hulk's world, and meet interesting characters such as Ant-Man, Dr Strange, and the mysterious Chief Examiner.  Ultimately, your goal is to find the Biogem, and store it in the correct place.  But I advise you to only pick up the Biogem AFTER all the other gems have been stored correctly, otherwise the Biogem will be destroyed before the game ends.  So can you master Bruce's brains, control Hulk's brawn, and survive to the very end? 

GAMEPLAY

The Hulk is a graphics text adventure game that uses a simple text parser to control your character’s actions.  The screen consists of a large picture to show where you are, with some text underneath describing things in more detail.  You can type in simple 2-worded sentences, such as "Read Sign" or "Get Gem".  The game also understands simple commands like N, S, E, W, Examine, Look, Inv etc.  I must mention though, that occasionally, I had to type in commands twice, before they were accepted.  A strange little bug, but it doesn't affect game play at all.   When you first start the game, you see a Drive Selection Menu, asking where the game data is stored - Select '0: Programme and Data info all on same disk'.  After that is when the game starts properly.  Like I said earlier, the game has some tricky puzzles, and if you make a mistake, you can easily 'die'.  But don't worry, you don't really die as such.  You end up in a high-gravity area.  Simply go down the stairs (press D) to return to an earlier screen.  Nevertheless, I advise you to SAVE GAME often.  The Hulk has 4 game slots (A, B, C, D), which can be overwritten again and again.

GRAPHICS

I love the rich, colourful still pictures used for this game.  Everything from seeing Bruce Banner tied to a chair, to the Chief Examiner's office, to your inventory screen is just wonderful, and has excellent details.  Even the alien ants are quite scary.  Some items even have a close-up view of them.  On the other hand, all 3 domes look very alike from the outside, which was a bit disappointing.  The dome with ant holes is easy to identify, but with the other 2, you have to actually enter the dome to see any differences.  A slight variety in the domes would have been nice, but you can't have everything. 

SUMMARY

Questprobe Featuring The Hulk is a very promising start to these Questprobe games, and Scott Adams notoriously tricky puzzles are very evident.  I like that you had to use the skills of both Bruce and Hulk in order to progress.  The simple text parser can be a little frustrating at times, as you struggle to find the correct words to perform an action, but at the same time, it just adds to the challenge.  The graphics are wonderfully detailed, almost as if I was reading a comic.  If you are a fan of The Hulk, or if you like a good challenge, then you will be sure to enjoy this game.   

You need DosBox to play this game. Use the HULK batch file to start the game with graphics as well as text, or use START.EXE if you just want text.  I highly recommend having the graphics, since the pictures are a visual treat. 

Part of the Questprobe Series

Reviewed by: Frodo / Screenshots by: Frodo / Uploaded by: Luchsen

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