Hellboy: Web of Wyrd Review (stepan3490)
As most people are saying, the storytelling, art style etc. are very good and pleasing to look at. But the actual game itself is not only repetitive, but very clunky and frustrating to play in general.
Combo mechanics are poorly explained, and the in-game journal is quite useless seeing as it doesn't tell you about one of the more crucial parts of the game, that being your Toughness (shield) and the fact that you can't parry without it, the only way to get it back of course is by killing the ads but it's nearly impossible to do so due to the very janky out of lock combat, especially noticeable on K&M when multiple enemies are surrounding you and you have to awkwardly hit each one individually, since you can't turn around (or any direction) when starting a combo.
This leads to a very slow and frankly boring combat scenario where 2 or more main enemies are attacking, you take down the first with little issue but then your shield goes away and now you're wondering why you can't parry anymore, so you try to unlock and kill some of the ads but you have to run away (using the god awful sprint-dash) and find one or two of them, kill them each with a polite tap on the shoulder (rather than punching one and shooting the other for a quick re-up, but you can't because as I said you can't turn around or even target the smaller enemies in the same combo)
Aside from the overall combat being slow, the ACTUAL combat (the 1 to 1 fist fighting you do with the major enemies) is decently responsive? Your hits definitely have impact, parries feel great and the dodge system makes sense, the payback decision making of eliminating one enemy quickly or providing yourself some space is fun and not too limited making it usable frequently without risk of missing out on it. I just REALLY wish it was quicker, having downtime where you're waiting for an enemy to attack so you can parry/dodge and get off your own move is not what I would expect with a character like Hellboy. Speeding up enemies (maybe just a difficulty option?) or speeding up your own input could make it feel much smoother and overall more fun.
Speaking of options, it speaks for itself that they're pretty terrible, absolutely no graphical settings aside from display mode and resolution (though I understand quality settings could defeat the purpose of the game), and no camera settings make K&M very frustrating to play, but the developers have addressed this.
All in all, everything about the game, EXCEPT the game, is pretty good. If you want an interactive voice acted Hellboy comic, turn on the easy mode settings and enjoy it, if you want a fresh melee action game (Think Absolver or Sifu.) with roguelike elements, maybe wait a few patches.
Won't recommend it for now due to the fact that I'm in that latter group looking for a fun melee game, but don't let it dissuade you. It's on sale as of now so I'd recommend you buy it and make your own judgement. At the very worst, set a timer for an hour or so and refund it after, put it on your wish list and check up on it in a year.