Hellboy Web of Wyrd‘s reveal at the Game Awards was brief, yet set the tone and demonstrate its comic-like aesthetics. While it still has no release window, Upstream Arcade has now released a more substantial trailer, one with even more gameplay.
Hellboy Web of Wyrd takes place in 1982
Web of Wyrd made an appearance at the IGN x ID@Xbox Digital Showcase. It was still a rather short trailer, but the snippets of gameplay seem to have elements of Sifu and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice with its melee-focused duels against giant foes.
Developer Upstream Arcade told Xbox Wire that the size of the enemies was a focus for the team for this roguelite brawler. Hellboy is a large lad, but he often goes up against even larger lads.
“Hellboy’s fighting style is drawn from the comics. We pored over all the cool action sequences in the comics to get a strong sense of how he tackles all manner of strange and powerful entities. We often talk about this being a ‘Monstrous, toe-to-toe brawler’ where sure, Hellboy is a big guy, but he is often fighting something much bigger than him, so we built the gameplay around those feelings.”
That interview also notes that it takes place in 1982 because the studio “wanted to drop players into an unfolding situation right in the thick of Hellboy’s adventures with the BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) without encroaching on the established comic book stories.” It worked with Dark Horse to ensure that the game would be authentic and possibly get players interested in other Hellboy stories.
Because of that second goal, Upstream Arcade tried to capture the feel of the early Hellboy comics so Web of Wyrd could be a “suitable introduction” with many classic Hellboy elements: Hellboy being a BPRD agent, folklore that spans the globe, and a ton of monsters. The title’s visuals are also designed to evoke creator Mike Mignola’s art style and meant to help Web of Wyrd be a “unique and authentic Hellboy game experience.”
Mignola has also reportedly been excited about what he’s seen. And Dark Horse and Hellboy Universe editor Katii O’Brien has been “heavily involved” with its characters and levels. O’Brien has been at Dark Horse since 2015.
The late Lance Reddick can also be heard in the trailer, as he is portraying the titular character (he only spoke three words in the debut trailer). Mignola and the game’s Twitter account tweeted their condolences after he passed.
