Matt Hanchey writes:
''It seems that it is that time of year again. It is the time when every Hollywood summer blockbuster receives a sub-par videogame tie-in. This time it is Hellboy: The Science of Evil and fortunately, it isn't a direct translation of the new Hellboy movie, but instead it tells a side story to enhance the Hellboy mythology.
Visually for a PSP game, Hellboy: The Science of Evil actually looks pretty good. Most of the environments are ripe with detail and the set pieces set the tone well. Animations are solid and the character models are interesting enough to get the job done, but there are only a handful of enemies, but then many different takes on that same character model. Another thing is that frequently throughout the game, Hellboy glitches and sometimes gets hung up in mid-air or falls through a wall. The clipping was quite bothersome, but it did run at a very smooth framerate. Of course, once the realization sets in that all the play areas never go beyond a small boxed area or arena, it takes a little of the "oomph" out of it.
The audio department isn't anything remarkable, but it does leave much to be desired. First, since it is a PSP game, Hellboy does not feature ANY voice talent. All of the story elements are told by on-screen text and really need some audio flare to spice things up. The background music is pretty great and slightly resembles Danny Elfman's mood, whereas the sound effects are painstakingly generic. With the exception of the musical score, Hellboy: The Science of Evil does not bring anything new to the PSP that has been seen (or done better) before.''
Following last week’s look at the Top Ten Games Based on a Movie, this week’s Sunday Special feature is about to turn things upside down, this week looking at the top ten worst videogames based on a motion-picture release. As bad as some games based on a movie licence may be, at least most them are playable. But not these abominations.
This week's episode of Distributed failure features discussion on Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, Rune Factory: Frontier, Patapon 2, Plants vs. Zombies, Legendary, Hellboy: The Science of Evil, and much more! They follow that up with some gaming news including the closure of Factor 5 studios and the possible announcement of a "slim" PS3. After that, they dive into the "Sausage Dump" and chat up some movies, as well as the Lost finale.
Thunderbolt Games: "It's safe to say that I'm quite a Hellboy fan. The world created in the two movies is fantastic, and I just love the character - even taking the time to dabble in the comic books. Hellboy: The Science of Evil dips in to both these mediums, creating a universe more suited to the comics whilst also borrowing elements from the films. Sadly, it fails to live up to the name, descending to a place far worse than hell itself… mediocrity."
