I’m going to come out swinging. Mike Mignola’s Hellboy is simply one of the best comic book characters ever made. While I’m not an avid reader of comics in general, I’ve certainly read most of these, complete with a unique, yet unmistakable art style, complex and diverse themes and some impressive writing across the board. I wish that Hellboy had more room to play in modern media, given his last run at the movies, while far from terrible, was largely forgettable.
Enter Hellboy Web of Wyrd. It’s not often that the big red brute gets his time to shine in this format, and as you can imagine, I was instantly on board. Hellboy Web of Wyrd clearly understands the source material in terms of its visual design and character development, but rarely leaves a mark when it comes to its combat. While functional, many of the encounters lack an element of difficulty or challenge, leading to rather shallow gameplay.
Yes, They Used to be Horns
Web of Wyrd begins with Hellboy being sent out to rescue a captured BPRD member, only to stumble across an ancient, mystical realm known as Wyrd. After this brief introductory rescue mission teaches you the ropes, the BPRD decide to set up shop in the Butterfly House, an old haunted mansion, in order to discover the lingering secrets of Wryd.
While the game is focused more on its action as opposed to its storytelling, there’s a decent plot scattered throughout its 10-15-hour runtime. That being said, some of the more important and emotional story beats which fans have come to expect, feel a little lost as a result. While I wasn’t expecting this to rival the overall arcs and themes of the original comics, it’s a shame that most of what Hellboy is about is left by the wayside here. The themes of loneliness and isolation experienced from the perspective of Hellboy have always been the core of these tales, in which Web of Wyrd seems more focused on having you uncover the secrets of its newfound world instead.
Thankfully, Hellboy himself is voiced by the late great Lance Reddick, in one of his final performances. He brings a cool, calm and collected approach to Hellboy, that oddly seems to work when mixed with his classic sarcasm and witty one-liners. While I always imagined Hellboy to sound a little more aggressive, I can appreciate the fact that the writing ties in quite well with Lance Reddick’s more nuanced voice performance. While the same can’t really be said for the supporting cast, it’s still passable, given they don’t have nearly as many lines. It is a shame, however, that more popular supporting characters like Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien are also nowhere to be found.
With His Red Right Hand
General gameplay sees you exploring a total of four levels, each spread across four unique environments with various enemy types. You’ll head out into Wyrd to track down clues and uncover new secrets, but everything soon boils down to dedicated combat encounters, which will take up more than most of your time.
Hellboy can use his trusty melee skills, his oversized pistol, The Good Samaritan and his Right Hand of Doom to get the job done. While exploring each environment, you’ll come across larger dedicated arenas for combat, in which the exits are usually blocked off until all enemies are defeated. Smaller grunts will linger about and intermittently attack you, while larger and more powerful enemies will need to be defeated in order to progress, ridding the environment of those lesser enemies.
You’ll mix light and heavy attacks with dodges and counters to pummel enemies, with melee attacks confined to a single button. Pressing the button repeatedly unleashes light attacks, while holding it charges up a heavy attack. Timing these attacks is fun for the most part while dodging and blocking are only ever necessary against those tougher enemies. You can use the Good Samaritan pistol to even the odds, and even build up a metre that allows Hellboy to unleash his Right Hand of Doom for a generally devastating attack. The variety in terms of combat mechanics is decent, but it’s a shame that everything feels the same after a few hours.
Hellboy can adjust and equip load-outs before going on each run, choosing from a number of perks that have various effects on enemies. For example, you can have your ranged weapons freeze enemies for prolonged vulnerability, or increase the damage of each added attack in a melee combination. It does once again add to the variety but never feels as valuable given the ease in which most enemies can initially be dealt with.
I Told You, I Got Rid of the Horns
The enemies themselves only change their design within each new environment, but simply lack any real challenge. This in turn makes the gameplay feel rather shallow, as there are rarely any tactics or moves that need to be used to gain the upper hand. As any attack can be used to take virtually all enemy types down, it all begins to feel mundane.
The aforementioned grunts hang around larger enemies, and while intermittently attacking, they too pose no real threat, never ganging up on you or forcing you to retreat. Most of them can actually be dispatched with a single whack. Given Hellboy Web of Wyrd takes the form of a roguelike, as you dive into Wyrd to search for new clues and areas, you rarely feel like you’re on the back foot. The game allows you to head back to the Butterfly House when you feel you’ve had enough, but I simply never felt that level of tension. I did find it interesting that the Butterfly House experiences physical changes as you progress through the narrative, making the world of Wyrd feel like it’s creeping into yours.
Visually, Hellboy Web of Wyrd absolutely succeeds at making you feel like you’re playing something ripped straight from the comics. Artist and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s style has been almost perfectly translated, even affecting the overall sway and movement of Hellboy himself, which feels akin to a stop-motion performance. The diverse colour palette, minimal background and environments and rougher details on things like walls and doors would stick out to almost any fan, while Hellboy’s design is about as accurate as you can get. The soundtrack also does a great job of setting the mood, between creepy, ominous hums and whispers, to highly bombastic rock and grunge-infused tracks in combat.
Final Thoughts
While Hellboy Web of Wyrd absolutely shines in terms of its visual flare and design, it falters when it comes to providing a level of challenge we’ve come to expect with most roguelike experiences. The combat mechanics themselves, while technically sound and functional, simply fall victim to shallow repetition, as moves, special abilities and perks all allow for the same outcome with little to no resistance. While it’s certainly worth checking out for those more dedicated fans, I’m not sure Hellboy Web of Wyrd does enough to draw newcomers in.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Fantastic visuals and comic-accurate art style; Great performance from the late great Lance Reddick
Lowlights: Shallow gameplay that falls victim to repetition; Little to no challenge from enemies
Developer: Upstream Arcade
Publisher: Good Shepard Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on PC via Steam with a code provided by the publisher.
