What an immense disappointment. The idea of a Hellboy game with the aesthetic of Mike Mignola's art, with the late Lance Reddick voicing Big Red himself really had me excited. But this was just such a waste. It's so repetitive and dull, the beat 'em up just isn't interesting enough to justify doing the same thing over and over and over. Plus, it's buggy as all hell, constantly crashing and freezing. And, as a certain point, you just have to wonder why you're fighting so hard to make a game like this work, when it's not even fun.

This is one of the most disappointing games I've ever played.

When I heard there was a retro turn-based RPG where everyone was wrestlers, I was so excited. But, I somehow missed that they were also toys, a whole aesthetic that really just didn't hit with me. But, that would have been fine if the game was fun to play. And, it's not. It's so meandering, it introduces so many strange controls and elements just for one mission, and it's just frustrating. Not to mention that it's buggy as hell and crashes all the damn time. It's like they had a million ideas, and stuck them all in this game as some sort of grand statement, instead of actually making a game that's fun. I should have loved this, by the end I have a rag-tag group of heroes flying around on an airship, giving me big Final Fantasy 6 vibes, but it was just a joyless slog that I was thrilled to be over with.

What an experience.

I'm a huge Spider-Man guy, and the first game was one of my favorite experiences in video gaming. The Miles Morales spin-off game was a hoot too, but it really just put that itch in me for a second full game, and now that I've played it, that itch is thoroughly scratched. The gameplay is just as innovative and fun, the game looks great, and the whole story is just a blast. It did the seemingly impossible and made me give a shit about a Venom story for like the first time. I just love these games, and can't wait to see what they cook up next.

There's a lot to like about this game, but enough to keep me from absolutely loving it. The idea of taking all the spooky Marvel characters and sticking them in an insane plot full of Darkholds, Cthon, and all that other crap is so up my alley it's nuts. I don't get why characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man are here, but its' still fun. I just feel like some elements could have been tightened up. The whole card-based gameplay gets a little tedious after a while, and the game can just drag at certain points. I liked wandering around the grounds and befriending everyone, but it felt like it was so close to being a really fantastic game, and just didn't quite get there.

The idea of following up one of the greatest video games of all time was probably pretty damn daunting. And, I don't think they quite surpassed it, but they still ended up in a rarified air. These games are just so fun, the world is so well-realized, and the gameplay is so addictive. The whole Zonai device things was maybe a little better in concept than execution, unless you're one of those lunatics on Tik Tok that make Gundams or whatever. The biggest thing that I love about these games is the aesthetic. I will take a game that looks this gorgeous, and leans into its own look, over some hyper-realistic game that will age like milk in a few years when better processors are invented. Let games look beautiful, not real.