Hellboy: The Science Of Evil

Verisimilitude was the word used by Richard Donnor while directing Superman with Christopher Reeve. It basically means to find the truth in any story, for example what would it be like if someone could actually fly, how would you make people believe it? Guillermo Del Toro faced a similar problem when showing the world Hellboy. If he stuck closely to the truth then audiences would easily accept the characters and hence the amazing things he can do. Truth, verisimilitude.

While not based on the upcoming movie, Hellboy: The Science Of Evil uses the same actors and art direction, it’s just such a shame that Krome Studios hasn’t heard of verisimilitude. Things that shouldn’t hurt Hellboy inexplicably kill him. Fire? We thought he was made of the stuff? The combat itself is endlessly repetitive with streams of enemies coming out of the woodwork all looking exactly the same. Hellboy can hit things hard, soft or he can shoot and grab enemies, much like Dante, only worse. By the end of the first section you will have experienced everything the game has to offer. That’s not to say it isn’t fun for a while at least, but any enjoyment is completely sucked out by the end of the game. It’s almost like a form of torture, repeating the same actions over and over.

Hellboy comes off feeling decidedly last-gen. The camera infuriatingly cannot be moved, often leaving you to guess awkward jumps and punch enemies into corners. In fact the whole game feels very much like Van Helsing on the original Xbox. You’re never asked to do anything more taxing than lighting a few lanterns and beating things to a pulp, only it’s the same creatures every time.

The completely incoherent storyline sees you globetrotting to different locales, each one with its own enemy. We thought we were done with this sort of thing in the Mega Drive days. Simple by-the-numbers game design, completely uninspiring and actually very boring, and while not the worst looking or playing game, it is very bland and when all’s said and done, Hellboy doesn’t do enough right to warrant even a playthrough. There are plenty of games on offer that look, play and feel much better and it’s a real waste of a fantastic character.