Last December, during the Game Awards, developer Upstream Arcade reveals its new Hellboy game, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd. The studio, alongside publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment, accompanied their announcement with a trailer of the game.
The studio has followed that trailer up with a second one released during the ID@Xbox Digital Showcase on Tuesday. The trailer, a gameplay trailer, is less than a minute long. Despite this, it gives anticipating fans an insight into what playing the forthcoming roguelike action brawler title will be like.
It shows Hellboy punching and shooting his way through several enemies before facing what seems to be the game’s major villain – a demon by the name of the Faithless King.
In between, we get snippets of dialogue and are treated to Lance Reddick’s voice as the titular character.
When Upstream Arcade announced the game last year, they also revealed that Reddick would voice Hellboy. But then, Reddick, who you will remember from the John Wick franchise and the Destiny video game series, among others, died in March.
This event, coupled with Upstream Arcade’s silence on the game, led many to believe that the game had been shelved or, at the very least, postponed.
With the new trailer, it would seem that is not the case. The fact that the trailer still features Reddick’s voice suggests that the beloved actor and musician did all the voice work necessary for the game before we lost him.
Or maybe the studio intends to use some form of technology to cobble the actor’s voice for the rest of his lines – either way, Reddick’s death didn’t spell the end of the game’s development.
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd’s art style is modeled after the original comic books that Mike Mignola, the character’s creator, penned. Also, the game has an original storyline that was written by Mignola.
It will see the titular character set out on a mission to save a Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) agent from the jaws of a cult. His mission will lead him to the Butterfly House, where he will be mysteriously transported to a new realm, the Wyrd, that we see in the gameplay trailer.
For fans of the half-demon, half-human character, there’s even more reason to celebrate. Earlier this year, we reported that Millenium Media was working on a live-action reboot of the Hellboy franchise. The project wrapped up filming in May, and while we don’t have a release date just yet, we believe it shouldn’t be far off.
More importantly, the film will be different from earlier adaptations and more in line with the dark tone of the original comics. In February, the director said it will be an R-rated, creepy folk horror film, which is definitely something for fans of the comics to celebrate.
