izigame.me

I see a lot of mixed reviews and got curious.
I am not a huge comic book fan (i have probably pushed myself to read only two or three fairly mainstream comic books in my life) and i've watched both Hellboy movies but couldn't tell you the plot of either.
I mention this because many reviews say 'if you are a big fan of the comic books then you will love this game' which i don't think is true. From just playing this game alone i can finally appreciate and enjoy the character and artwork of Hellboy without having needed to have read any of the comics. I tried one a while ago and didn't get the hype. But i can finally appreciate that now it's in a format i can relate to better.
Second. I absolutely love roguelite / like games. When a developer gets the gameplay right they are wonderful and can provide what feels like infinite amount of value for a fraction of the price. I could buy 3 or 4 of these types of games for less than publishers want for a new AAA game these days.
The gameplay loop is very vanilla roguelite. You go into a biome / world. You walk around a procedural generated layout fighting enemies and collecting perks / buffs / currecty. There are bosses and encounters. If you die you go back to a hub where you can spend currency to unlock various things that make your journey easier.
Firstly the art style is fantastic. It's the same dark gothic style with pure blacks and bold outlines that made the comic books stand out. Even the animation of your character is deliberately steppy in a way that makes it feel like its animated. It's hard to describe but it works and it isn't distracting. It just really pushes the aesthetic. It also seems to be done in a way that doesn't impact combat.
The voice work is incredible. Some voices you will absolutely recognise in there as well as the late Lance Reddick voicing Hellboy. It's fantastic. The story as well is compelling. The pace is deliberately slow (which was my impression of the Hellboy comics) and thick..... it feels like its intentionally paced to slowly suck you into this strange world and the investigations.
The key gameplay component of this game is the combat and its good. Its solid. Its beefy and chunky and feels satisfying. Some have described it as clunky but i disagree. There is a decent lock on system that targets the larger enemies in a room. The combat has a level of depth to it and feels very satisfying and suitably heavy which ties in with Hellboy's character..... you know... the giant fist made of stone. So his punches are slow but solid. They connect. The enemy reacts. You can dodge and block and if timed well you will stagger your enemy and open them up to huge damage. You can string combos together which result in a very powerful final blow. You can do heavy attacks which do more damage and can push enemies back. If then go back into a wall they take extra damage and even some environmental damage. Then there are more layers you can unlock. It's really fun. I'm not massively into any of the souls like games. I find them too tedious, but the combat here is great fun. Once you get into the flow you really feel powerful just slamming these giant enemies about into crumbling pillars and then throwing a shard of concrete into their face and watching them explode.
You have a health bar and a toughness bar. The toughness can be refilled by defeating smaller mob enemies in each arena. Health is harder to come by. It's a great mechanic and complements what the combat is asking you to do.
Complaints are that i wish there were more variety in terms of the things you pickup. The gameplay variants. A core staple of many rogue games is a deck of cards and each one modifies your gameplay in a specific way. Some are more rare than others. As a bonus some even introduce deck building to increase or decrease your chances of getting specific cards and you can unlock or find cards by playing the game. Hellboy feels like it has very few of these 'cards' and would benefit greatly from having such a system to add some more variety / randomness and depth as well as things to farm for.
Another complaint is the lack of descriptions. There is a journal but it feels like the developers got bored half way through and things like status effects aren't explained. I'd also like to see a list and description of all the enemies you encounter. Just stull like other games in the genere have to flesh out the lore and also to help players better understand game mechanics.
One other thing is that this game feels like a rogelite journey through a story. You can go back and replay levels but so far it doesn't feel like there is any increased difficulty in that same map or reward to make it worth while (at least at the moment). Other games like Cult of the Lamb God will NG+ the areas you have cleared with more challenging enemies but better gear. I wish this game did that to make re-treading cleared biomes feel fresh and more of a challenge with more of a reward.
Other roguelites have really fleshed out mechanics and meta progression. Hellboy feels very basic. You get some currency. You unlock some stuff, but there isn't alot of decision making (at least so far) It feels very much like a game the developer just wants you to push on through the story and be done with.
I could be very wrong there. There could be way more depth than i'm seeing (i've only played for one evening and will update this if i'm wrong here) but from my initial time with the game, while very enjoyable and absolutely worthwhile... and as a rogelite fan....i wish it had borrowed more from some of the classics in the genre to provide more variation and depth.
Finally. It runs fantastically well out the box on steam deck.
All my playtime has been on the deck either in handheld mode or docked to a 4K TV with an Xbox controler and performance, visuals and controls were flawless.