E3 06: Hellboy (working title) First Look

LOS ANGELES--Earlier today, at its pre-E3 conference in Los Angeles, Konami announced its intention to publish Hellboy (working title) for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the PlayStation Portable in 2007. Based on the comic of the same name currently in development at Krome Studios, Hellboy is described as a visceral brawler in which you'll need to employ strategic thinking as well as brute strength to succeed against hordes of enemies. Hellboy is being developed in collaboration with the comic's creator Mike Mignola and Hellboy movie director Guillermo del Toro.

The game's original storyline will see Hellboy uncovering a Nazi plot to take over the world and subsequently attempting to thwart the plans of the evil Hermann Von Klempt. Although the storyline is all new, you can look forward to encountering plenty of familiar faces in the game if you're a fan of the comic books, such as Abe Sapein and Liz Sherman, who will both be playable characters in the game's cooperative mode.

You'll have an arsenal of superhuman powers at your disposal, so while we suspect that the tactical aspects of the game will likely be quite limited, there will purportedly be opportunities for you to use destructible environments to your advantage, for example, or to simply throw your enemies at each other. Hellboy's battle system will employ context-sensitive controls that give you the freedom to fire off quick flurries of hits, charge up for more-powerful strikes, or use grappling moves.

Since today's Hellboy presentation comprised nothing more than a series of very pretty rendered animations of various characters and creatures from the comic book universe, it's difficult for us to say much more about the game at this point. We look forward to bringing you additional information on the game as soon as it becomes available.