Pictures Promise, But The Action Can’t Deliver
HIGH A beautifully realized world in the Mignola style.
LOW Mechanically shallow.
WTF Punching Nazis is always good, even when it’s boring.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi Everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
I don’t know a lot about Hellboy as a franchise other than what I’ve seen in the movies, but having said that, I’ve always liked the character. When I saw the reveal trailer for the game back in 2022, I was floored with the art style and had to keep my eye on it. Sadly, despite my excitement, actually playing it cooled me off pretty quickly.
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd puts players in the roll of Hellboy on a mission to the Butterfly House — a residence built upon mystic ley lines. However, this mansion isn’t just a residence, but a portal to an alternate dimension known as “the Wyrd” into which Hellboy must go in order to save one of his teammates. He’s soon greeted by a character named Scheherazade who dubs him “The Protagonist” in a tale that will pit our hero against stone guardians, werewolves, and other terrible creatures.
Web of Wyrd is a run-based roguelike, and each level of the Butterfly House will take players from room to room while fighting sets of enemies. Mostly, this will be be punching and dodging attacks, and occasionally shooting Hellboy’s gun.
As enemies are defeated, they drop health, armor shards, runes (used for currency) or wyrd orbs used for permanent upgrades. Some rooms may have a power-up for Hellboy, and this can range from simple things like health or armor upgrades, to special abilities like increasing enemy damage with consecutive strikes. Players will eventually run into a boss for a big showdown before being returned to the Butterfly house — that is, if they don’t fall in combat first.
Outside of the runs through the mansion, players can use their accumulated wyrd orbs to invest in upgrades to Hellboy himself (more permanent health or armor, more damage, etc.), or to upgrade and unlock tools to use in each run, like a shotgun or grenade launcher, or a charm that can push enemies around the arena in combat. Web of Wyrd gives the players enough tools to make things interesting, but it’s never overwhelming since Hellboy can only have one gun and one charm per run.
While this all sounds solid enough for a roguelike, what makes me sad is the execution. Being largely a brawler, most of the focus is on punching enemies, and Web of Wyrd just doesn’t make this combat interesting.
There’s a light punch and a heavy punch, but nothing that justifies combining these two in any meaningful way. If enemies are hit enough, they can be stunned, which makes a heavy attack do more damage, but that’s the end of it. Otherwise, mashing the light punch until the enemy dies is a valid strategy. There’s plenty of enemy design that make foes look unique, but that doesn’t translate to their combat style, which is all pretty samey.
I think I’m also in a weird spot with this Web due to how many roguelikes I’ve already played. Every time a run ends, the narrative feels like it wants to give the player some type of dialogue — almost as if Hellboy has spent a lot of time in each area and really “learned” how to get through. So what’s the problem? Not to brag at all, but I didn’t die once. This meant there were few opportunities for the narrative to kick in, and the result was that the plot felt stilted and rushed.
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd feels very safe as roguelikes go — The controls are uncomplicated, the equipment is serviceable equipment, the enemies are straightforward, and it doesn’t go out of it’s way to do anything too strange or off the beaten path other than showcasing Mike Mignola’s iconic art style. Since that art was enough to get me in the door, it did what it needed to do, I suppose. Hellboy comic fans may enjoy this experience more than others as it was created with help from the writer of the comics, but I’m hoping that there are some updates down the road that will give the game a little more bite.
For me: Hellboy Web of Wyrd gets a 6.5 out of 10.
Disclosures: This game is developed by Upstream Arcade and published by Good Shepard Entertainment. It is currently available on Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 12 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Language and Violence. From the ERSB website: “This is an action game in which players assume the role of Hellboy as he descends into an alternate dimension to rescue an agent. From a third-person perspective, players traverse the comic book-styled world and battle fantastical creatures (e.g., stone golems, living statues) in close-up melee combat. Players use punches and a handgun to defeat enemy creatures. Combat is accompanied by impact sounds, gunfire, and cries of pain. The words “sh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game.”
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in game, but text is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: Controls are completely remappable.
While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved -- there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between -- if it’s available, he’ll play it.
While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on Twitter -- @eugene_sax.
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