Hellboy: Web of Wyrd was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023 following the awesome-looking trailer shown during last year’s Game Awards livestream. The fantastic Lance Reddick was voicing the titular big red guy and Mike Mignola was onboard to help out with the game’s development. The art style was even going to be based off of his iconic illustrations! Unfortunately, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd now sits as my biggest disappointment of the year so far.
In the realm of comic book heroes, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy has always stood out as a uniquely compelling character, blending a childlike fairytale wonder with dark and macabre storytelling elements. The iconic Dark Horse character’s universe, is one ripe for a solid video game adaption. In fact, this is something that fans of the character have been desperately wanting for years.
Unfortunately, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd is not the stellar video game experience that we have been waiting for. While it does attempt to capture the essence of the character, it fails to do so with any real depth and it also fails to deliver a compelling gameplay experience.
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd is out on October 18th for PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
For some inexplicable reason, Upstream Arcade decided to opt for a procedurally generated roguelike format for the basis of Hellboy: Web of Wyrd. While this approach has worked wonderfully for titles like Hades, it feels like a bizarre choice for a game set in Hellboy’s world.
The Hellboy stories that serve as the source material for this game are carefully crafted narratives, laden with rich storytelling elements and memorable, well-defined characters. The decision to adopt a procedurally generated roguelike format is essentially the polar opposite of this and thus, it feels jarring and detracts from the essence of Hellboy’s previously established universe. The end result is Hellboy: Web of Wyrd feeling like a missed opportunity to deliver a more immersive and engaging narrative-driven experience.
In the opening moments of Hellboy: Web of Wyrd, the player is greeted by slideshow-like cutscenes that instantly make the game feel cheap. While this format could have worked to set the scene, it should have executed differently, as the version currently presented screams a lack of sophistication.
The developers should have embraced the comic book source material and incorporated speech bubbles into the scene rather relying on mundane subtitles. The odd aspect ratio used during these cutscenes and the absence of facial animation only works to further reinforce a general lack of effort in the game’s presentation.
Thankfully, there is one positive aspect to these cutscenes and it is also the strongest element of Hellboy: Web of Wyrd overall. The game’s art style, which brilliantly emulates Mike Mignola’s iconic work, looks glorious onscreen. The use of contrast and color is exceptional, really making the game’s visuals pop.
Unfortunately, this huge positive that is the game’s visuals is somewhat overshadowed by the negative that is the game’s audio. While the late, great Lance Reddick’s performance voicing Hellboy is phenomenal, the sound mixing itself is odd. Certain audio elements have vastly different volume levels by default and some of the dialogue echoes as though it was recorded in an old, derelict barn.
Unfortunately the moment-to-moment gameplay in Hellboy: Web of Wyrd isn’t enough to save it either, with combat feeling awkward and stilted. While Hellboy does wield his iconic Hand of Doom and his trusty handgun, The Samaritan, neither weapon packs the punch that you would expect. The Samaritan in particular feels disappointingly weak, lacking the satisfying impact seen in the Hellboy films.
Hand-to-hand melee combat feels just as lackluster. It lacks any sense of fluidity, failing to provide any sense of flow. Both ranged and melee combat experiences feel unpolished and lack the finesse that would make combat scenarios enjoyable.
On top of this, the procedurally generated nature of Hellboy: Web of Wyrd results in sparse, bland environments that quickly become repetitive and dull after just a couple of hours of gameplay. The lack of variety in enemy types only exacerbates the gameplay issues, causing combat scenarios to feel monotonous and outright boring before too long.
There are also multiple technical issues present in Hellboy: Web of Wyrd at the time of writing in its current pre-launch state. While these aren’t anything major and are limited to visual bugs, like character models clipping through certain parts of the environment, they further detract from the overall experience. Character animations in the game also look janky and unpolished, particularly the sprinting and reloading animations.
The character animation also has a laggy feel to it in terms of its framerate. I am unsure whether this has been done purposefully in the style of Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse, or if it is a technical glitch that will be fixed in a future patch upon release. Although, the fact I cannot say for sure should tell you all that you need to know about the game’s quality. Players should not be left wondering whether something is a stylistic choice or an unresolved technical glitch.
Ultimately, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd is a hugely disappointing experience, as I love this character and I really wanted to like this game. The bones of a potentially fun game can be found here, but ultimately it just feels unfinished and unpolished. Sadly, I cannot recommend playing Hellboy: Web of Wyrd unless you are a true diehard fan of the Hellboy character and universe.
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd – 4/10
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd was reviewed on PC with a code supplied to FandomWire by Indigo Pearl.
