Hellboy Web of Wyrd Review
Hellboy Web of Wyrd
Publisher: Good Sheperd Entertainment
Developer: Upstream Arcade
Genre:
PEGI: 12
Comments:
Hellboy Web of Wyrd is based on the comic book Hellboy by Mike Mignola. The game recently came out on the Xbox Series. Is it any good? Here is our review!
In case you don’t know him, Hellboy is an agent of the B.P.R.D: Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Hellboy looks like a demon with sawed off horns and he investigates paranormal stuff. He’s a good guy. And in the Web of Wyrd game, Hellboy is sent to the Butterfly House, a house that holds the gateway to another dimension called The Wyrd. As Hellboy talks to his fellow B.P.R.D agents and investigates the Wyrd, he finds out more and more about the mysterious dimension. The story and dialogue of this game are pretty good and it reminds me a lot of the Hellboy comic. Thankfully, the gameplay is pretty good too.
Hellboy Web of Wyrd has a hub world, which is the Butterfly House and then the Wyrd world, which is a roguelike dungeon that changes every time you enter it. The Butterfly House isn’t a huge place to explore but you can talk to other agents and upgrade Hellboy’s abilities and weapons here. Its a neat little area. The Wyrd is where the real gameplay takes place though.
In the Wyrd, Hellboy takes on enemies with his fists and whatever weapons he has at the time. The Wyrd has branching paths and challenges around almost every corner; it always looks the same but as mentioned the layout changes when you come back to it. The combat in this game is pretty fun: most of it involves Hellboy punching enemies, but you can also shoot at them or knock them back with a charm. The combat feels a bit like a fighting game.
The over the shoulder camera has the usual problems of a 3D game: sometimes its fine and other times it gets in the way of you seeing enemies. Even when you use the focus button, the camera can still be iffy. Fun combat and neat exploration wins the day though. That said, you’ll be dying a lot in this game. You’re supposed to, there’s even an achievement for it! But by going back to the Butterfly House and leveling up, you’ll get further into the dungeons every time. If you like Hellboy, then you’ll likely enjoy this game a lot. Even more so because the game looks a lot like the comic!
Web of Wyrd looks like a Hellboy comic book brought to life. The characters and the environments are very cel-shaded and look like something out of the Mignola comic! The dungeons and enemies could be more varied, there’s a lot of reused enemies/areas, but all of it looks really good. There are comic book-like cutscenes too. Those are not as good as the regular graphics but still neat.
Meanwhile, the voice acting in this game is very good. Actor Lance Reddick gives one of his last performances as the voice of Hellboy in this game. For a fan of the movie, his voice as Hellboy does take a little getting use to but he does a good job and so does the rest of the cast. This is, without a doubt, high quality voice acting.
Overall, Hellboy Web of Wyrd is a great game. The story and character will definitely appeal more to people who know the comic/movie than anyone else. The game has a neat gameplay loop thats pretty addictive. Yes there could be more places to visit and enemies to see but the game is still really fun. If you like Hellboy, you have to check this game out!
Thanks to Tinsley PR for providing a digital copy of this game for review. Hellboy: Web of Wyrd is out now for the Xbox Series.
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Article By Daniel Fugate
Daniel Fugate has wanted to be a writer since he was seven years old. He has a bachelor's degree in English and he's a huge Animal Crossing fan. The Wii U and 3DS are currently his favorite video game systems!
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