Hellboy Web of Wyrd preview: back from the undead

The art of the comic book brought to life

There is a big crossover between comic book and video game nerds and comic book based video games tend to do well no matter their quality. There are plenty of early games you can point to to prove this point. Despite Superman 64 being one of the worst games of all time, it was one of the top ten best-selling games in the year it was released. In fact, at the time it was the third best-selling video game for the Nintendo 64, and it was absolute trash.

Conversely, games like Marvel’s Spider-Man show what can be done with a comic IP when put in the right hands. It and the Batman Arkham games are considered some of gaming’s greats, beloved by fans and certainly financially successful for their studio. However, these two games played things safe, sticking to the 3D action adventure genre that superhero games mesh best with. Hellboy: Web of Wyrd isn’t taking the safe route, though. Literally, nothing about this game is safe, and it’s all the better for it.

Good Shepherd Entertainment

The first thing you’ll notice is how it sticks so rigidly to Mike Mignola’s original art style. Even being in 3D, it has tried to embed the comic style in every piece. This is all the way down to the backgrounds, where tricks usually used in 2D like tonal changes and lack of definition, are used over 3D tricks like blur to denote distance. Despite Hellboy ever moving across the screen, each frame could easily be a panel from the books.

Good Shepherd Entertainment

The interesting thing is that while Mignola’s style is used, he had pretty much no input personally. He was consulted but admits that everything he was sent seemed up to snuff. He gave small hints to the designers, but beyond this, they had free reign. It’s all about getting the details right. Mignola has never drawn the palm of the Right Hand of Doom so you shouldn’t either. He also rarely draws Hellboy’s feet. There are probably five panels for reference over Hellboy’s huge library, Mignola explained to GLHF, and when it comes to finding them, it’s all on the team. The important thing is that the team did pay attention to the details, and it’s clear the team was passionate.

Good Shepherd Entertainment

And then there is the genre that the team decided to go for. While it would have been safe for them to choose a simple action adventure, Web of Wyrd is a roguelike. Playing to Hellboy’s unique strength that he can’t die, the team built this into the game in a unique way. When Hellboy loses his HP, instead of returning to the start with no explanation, he is sent to the council who allow him to power up for his next attempt. We only had around 20 minutes to play, which saw the end of the tutorial, so we don’t know too much about this, but gameplay was smooth, combat was solid, and it certainly piqued our interest.

The most unfortunate part of Hellboy: Web of Wyrd is that it is releasing October 4, 2023, right in the middle of some of the biggest games of the year. But it deserves our attention, not only the attention of Hellboy fans, but fans of anything that’s a little bit different. The art alone makes it stand out, so hopefully the gameplay loop seals its success.