Hellboy Web of Wyrd from Good Shepherd Entertainment and Upstream Arcade is ready for you on PS5. Learn more about it in our Hellboy Web of Wyrd review!
Hellboy Web of Wyrd from Good Shepherd Entertainment and Upstream Arcade is ready for you on PlayStation 5. Indie studio previously gave us the fun action roguelike West of Dead, a game that launched in 2020 with a very dark, solid, and particular art style that reminded me of the work of master Mike Mignola. In fact, William Mason, the game’s main character, was voiced by none other than Ron Perlman, who you might remember portrayed Mike Mignola’s Hellboy in a pair of movies.
It’s now 2023, and we’re getting a fun action roguelike from the studio based on Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, with this being one of the posthumous appearances of actor Lance Reddick, who passed away in March this year. You definitely know Lance Reddick from his performances in TV series such as The Wire, Fringe, Bosch, and most recently, the Resident Evil reboot on Netflix, as well as movie roles in Jonah Hex, White House Down, and the John Wick franchise, including John Wick: Chapter 4, which launched in the UK shortly before him passing away.
Hellboy Web of Wyrd was created in partnership with Dark Horse Comics and Mike Mignola, and this is why we’re getting to enjoy a brand new story in the Hellboy universe in video game form. The gist of it is that an agent of the B.P.R.D. – that would be the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense – goes missing under mysterious circumstances, so Hellboy is sent in to investigate. The B.P.R.D. is in charge of researching the occult, the paranormal, and the supernatural, and this is how Hellboy ends up engulfed into the depths of the Wyrd.
What is the Wyrd? It’s a very, very bad place that is full of dangerous creatures! The Wyrd was accessed thanks to The Butterfly House, a weirdly shaped location that was built in 1962 by occultist Pasquale Deneveaux. It serves as a gateway that can open doorways into the Wyrd by using the energy flowing around it. This is how you’ll end up fighting against grotesque and powerful entities that will put your skills to the test. You’ll explore randomly generated locations that offer a good challenge as Hellboy moves through each area at a slow but steady pace. Hellboy is a huge individual, which means one can’t really expect him to dash and jump through each location as if he were Spider-Man, right?
Since the game is played from an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, you’ll control Hellboy with the left analog stick as you look around with the right one. Pressing the X button will allow you to sprint so that you can speed through some of the areas. You can focus on an enemy by pressing and holding down the L1 button. While doing this, pressing the X button will make Hellboy duck. Pressing the left analog stick down while also pressing the X button will allow him to dodge back. Pressing the R1 button will allow you to block.
Light attacks are mapped to the Square button. For heavy attacks, you’ll need to press and hold down the Square button. You can combo your way to victory by pressing the Square button in quick succession. After completing the tutorial segment and obtaining enough Shards, you’ll be able to unlock the pistol. You’ll be able to shoot by pressing the Triangle button. Once you run out of ammo, you can reload by pressing the L2 button. Just be careful when doing so since you’ll leave yourself wide open! Make the most of the environment by smashing enemies toward structures to deal extra damage. You can then press the Circle button to grab any chunks that remain to throw them.
The more you play and the further you progress during each run, the more Shards you’ll be able to collect. Along with using them to unlock new stuff to make subsequent runs easier, you can also spend them to upgrade your items. Take, for example, the aforementioned pistol. Upgrade it to level 2, and you’ll increase the damage dealt to an enemy’s stun bar. Boosting it to level 3 will once again increase the damage dealt to an enemy’s stun bar. But if you manage to upgrade it to level 4, it will also receive an increase in the damage dealt to a target’s health. Shards can also be used for things such as boosting your overall health or increasing the damage dealt by heavy attacks.
Since this is a roguelike, that means you can run into different types of nodes. Along with those that lead to fights, you could find others marked with a heart that will lead you to an area where you can heal your wounds. As you explore the Wyrd, you can obtain blessings to aid you. Verdandi can bestow, for example, the Addendum Aura, which will increase your max ammo capacity. Skuld is another character that can provide you with a blessing. Maybe you can get the Fortune Aura so that enemies drop more resources or the Dividend Aura so that some of them might drop health pickups. Scheherazade will also reward you with some blessings. Her blessings can be applied to your fist, your weapon, or to a charm you have equipped.
And now, let’s talk about the trophies! This one has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you, with a list that is split into 12 Bronze trophies, 14 Silver trophies, and 5 Gold trophies for you to work on. To get that Platinum trophy in your collection, you’ll need to complete objectives such as acquiring all lore trophies, dealing a killing blow on an enemy with the pistol, doing the same to other enemies with the shotgun, the grenade launcher, and the knife charm, filling up the bestiary, dying three times, performing 10 perfect dodges, and defeating each of the bosses, to name some examples.
Hellboy Web of Wyrd brings Mike Mignola’s creation to life on PlayStation 5. It offers an over-the-shoulder action roguelike in which you’ll dive into the titular Wyrd to try and find out who it is that is pulling the strings behind the scenes. You’ll need to use your fists, and the weapons you unlock do the talking since the monsters and bosses you’ll meet during your time within the Wyrd won’t understand any other language. Hellboy Web of Wyrd is out on PlayStation 5 with a $24.99 asking price. There’s also a PlayStation 4 version available for the same price as a separate purchase.
Disclaimer
This Hellboy Web of Wyrd review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Good Shepherd Entertainment.
