Hellboy: The Science of Evil

Overview

Hellboy: The Science of Evil is a third-person superhero action game developed by Krome (for the console version) and Big Ant (for the handheld version) and published by Konami for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable on June 24, 2008.

A video game tie-in with the Hellboy film series (itself based on the comic book superhero of the same name), players control the titular half-demon (voiced by Ron Perlman) as he tracks down a crazed witch in a small town in Romania (only to unravel the Nazi plot). While this is going on, parts of the games are flashback sequences for some of Hellboy's missions against the Nazis decades prior. The game features co-operative play, both online and offline, where the second player plays as either Liz Sherman (voiced by Selma Blair) or Abe Sapien (voiced by Doug Jones). Liz focuses on pyrokinesis while Abe focuses on martial arts.

Original copies of the game came with a free movie ticket for the film Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which was released shortly after. The game is known for its unreleased content (including a co-operative partner voiced by Bruce Campbell) and unobtainable achievements.

Gameplay

The game is your basic beat-em-up, with different attacks linked to various face buttons on the controller. You also gain access to Hellboy's gun, which allows for various power-ups in the forms of different bullets. There are nine types of ammunition in total as certain types only appear in some levels. Most are used for opponents like "Heavy", "Gernade" and "Splinter" ammo, others can be used during the game’s puzzles like "Ignite" to light beacons or "Release" to destroy vines. Additional types of ammunition like "Charge" can only be obtained by defeating certain enemies with a finishing move. The player punches, bashes, shoots, and pries apart various enemies, ranging from zombies, witches, gnomes, Nazis and Nazi gorillas.

Missing Achievements and DLC

On the retail disc, the game only has 840 achievement points. In accordance to Microsoft's Achievement Rules, every game is required to have 1,000 points either on the retail disc or via free D.L.C.. Likely due to the game's poor sales, Konami never released the levels or character necessary to allow for the final 160 points. In the D.L.C., the character Lobster Johnson is playable. In the game manual, the credits show Bruce Campbell (of Evil Dead fame) credited as a secret character. He's stated in various interviews that he voices Lobster Johnson. The four missing achievements are the following:

• Taste the Lobsters Claw- Complete Chapter 7 - 50G
• Self Service- Complete Chapter 8 - 50G
• Pulp Faction- Completed any multiplayer Chapter as Lobster on Xbox Live - 50G
• Killer Kitsch- Defeated 25 enemies with the Flamingo - 10G

The missing achievements have led to various petitions, but to no avail, as Konami hasn't stated any plans or response in regards to releasing the content, given that the game is a sub-par waste of time.