Woeful comic book adventure
Licensed from the classic comic series by Mike Mignola and taking its inspiration from action/horror adventures like Resident Evil, this is unfortunately a pretty poor showing from the big red guy. As such, it's only really of interest to die hard fans of the character, and even they will likely be disappointed by what's on offer here. The story finds you in control of Hellboy in 1960s Prague in his early days as a paranormal investigator as he attempts to track down a missing agent. Of course, things get a little more complex quite quickly and it's not long before things get a bit supernatural and spooky. What follows is an action adventure like Alone in the Dark, with a mix of fighting, exploration, puzzle solving and narrative. The visuals are 3D like the aforementioned games, but the visual style is actually very different from the original comics, which is another thing which is going to upset fans. Hellboy really should have been a great game. The source material is perfect for turning into an intense, creepy and action filled adventure but the result here is uninspiring, tedious and just plain ugly. From the barren level design which just doesn't make you want to explore, to the uninteresting enemies and dull storyline, and the simple gameplay itself, this is pretty much a disaster from start to finish. The visuals really are awful, with the character work being just unpleasant to look at and which completely fail to do the comics justice. Overall, this might just be worth a look if you're a hardened fan, but expect to quit in rage quickly if you do pick it up.
