This Hellboy Burns
Since I am a considerably crazed Hellboy fan girl, you could say I was pretty darn excited for the new Hellboy game, Hellboy: Science of Evil. Sure, it was coming out right before the new Hellboy movie, but I figured since the two were basically unrelated in terms of storyline, Hellboy: Science of Evil would not fall prey to the dreaded curse of the movie inspired game. I mean, this was a game inspired by a comic book, which also shares its name with a movie, right?
Well, that’s how I thought of it until I actually played the thing. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed with how poor of a title this turned out to be. I almost wished it was a movie inspired title.
One of the first issues you will have with Hellboy: The Science of Evil is the story, or lack thereof., You begin the game by walking though a graveyard and hunting down a witch and then free a trapped spirit. Then you’re suddenly in Japan and are fighting robotic gorillas. Somehow this is all tied together by the presence of Nazis. Cinematic scenes really don’t make sense, even if you’re a fan of the comic book series, and you’ll find yourself wondering if there really is a story to this game at all. The back of the box says series creator Mike Mignola as well as movie director Guillermo Del Toro were on staff for this title, but it is painfully clear neither of them had anything to do with the actual storyline of the game.
Another huge issue I have with Hellboy: Science of Evil is the game’s level design. Levels are completely linear and feel almost like an old Crash Bandicoot title. You’ll frequently find yourself following a path to nowhere, unsure of where you’re going, armed only with the knowledge that if you try to deviate from the path, you’ll find yourself boxed in by an invisible wall. Many times however, the game attempts to break from its linear nature, and the paths will disappear. However, this attempt largely fails, as the invisible walls will remain in place and you’ll just end up walking around banging your head against an invisible wall until you find your way. The level design really is nerve-racking and is a source of countless time spent in painful frustration.
Those of you unwilling to believe that this game could be all bad might look for solace in the battle system. Sure, it may be a real clunker in the story department, and the level design is extremely frustrating, but the brawling has to be okay, right? Well the fighting aspect of this game, while not fundamentally broken, is quite repetitive and a little less than intuitive. For basic attacks you will use two of the face buttons and one button dedicated to finishing moves. However, the complication comes in with the introduction of the grapple button, which occupies the right trigger.
You see, in order to attack your foes successfully, you will have to beat them up sufficiently with your two standard attack buttons, grapple them with the right shoulder button, and then finish them off using the third face button. Of course, there are no on-screen cues to help you execute this long attack chain (which becomes very necessary in boss battles), so you’ll end up just frantically pressing all the buttons on the right side of your controller and hoping for the best.
Even though the story is bad, the level designs are abysmal, and the battle system is a little iffy, none of these represent the worst aspect of Hellboy: Science of Evil. No, the worst thing about this game has to be the almost completely stationary camera. Sure, you might be able to sneak a brief glance left or right, but for the most part you can never really look at your surroundings. And when you are surrounded by enemies from all sides, this can be a problem. Sometimes you will completely lose sight of where you are and the camera will forget to follow you into a dangerous area, or worse, the camera will rotate 180 degrees on its own and invert your actions, creating complete battle chaos and disorientation.
For all its bad points however, there is one part of Hellboy: Science of Evil I truly enjoyed: Ron Pearlman. Even though the script wasn’t exactly inspired, Ron Pearlman’s delivery brought it from the brink of total mediocrity and somehow made it good. Even if the line was just “Oh Crap!” (and it often is), Ron Pearlman’s delivery was pitch perfect.
All in all, Hellboy: Science of Evil is a pretty intolerable game. Perhaps I am most upset because I feel personally let down as a fan of the series. But I can’t see anyone getting any substantial pleasure out of this title, be they fan or not. But since the majority of people who are looking to pick this one up are fans, I would advise those people to stay away from this title, as it is an extreme let-down. Oh, and as a side note, Hellboy can be killed in this game by lava. Does anyone stick to canon anymore? Hellboy is from Hell, and is therefore unscathed by fire, lava, or anything else hot. Just thought I’d mention that.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.4 Graphics
Graphics look very stoic, as characters rarely display emotion. But the real problem here is the camera, which makes certain parts of the game unplayable. 3.0 Control
General battle controls work well, but grappling moves are far too tedious and difficult to execute. 4.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Probably the best part of this game. Ron Pearlman is still sharp as ever as Hellboy. 2.1 Play Value
The story mode isn’t terribly lengthy, and there is really nothing to be gained from online co-op. 2.7 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
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