Review

Deadpool

Crazy, vulgar, hilarious, sexist, and ridiculous are some adjectives that probably come to mind when you think about Marvel’s Deadpool. A cult favorite, this anti-hero was “made” by the same group of guys who gave Wolverine his claws; he has a healing factor and the skills of an elite assassin. He’s also completely out of his mind. To make a long story short, his attributes makes him suitable for a starring role in a video game. That said, the real question is whether or not High Moon Studios can make a compelling game out of this character.

Now, High Moon is one of UFG’s favorite developers thanks to their amazing work with the War/Fall of Cybertron series. So it hurts me so much to say, that this title is really ordinary despite having extraordinary ideas. Allow me to explain why the Merc with the Mouth maybe all talk with this game. The story starts with Deadpool sending an idea to High Moon Studios to make a game about him; he is constantly breaking the forth wall in the comics so it comes to no surprise that he is aware that he isn’t real. They send him a script and he decides “screw this I’m too awesome for a script! I’m just gonna go cut and shoot stuff!”. Unfortunately that’s pretty much what the game becomes from that point on.

Most of the game consists of Deadpool fighting similar looking goons using repetitive hack, slash and shoot mechanics. Not repetitive in the “this is so awesome I just can’t stop” kind of way. It’s repetitive in the “I’ve grown bored and it’s only level four” kind of way. The combat offers a weird mash up of the fisticuffs featured in the Batman Arkham series and the shooting mechanics found in High Moon’s Transformers series, but isn’t nearly as polished as either of them in their own right. The controls can be confusing, especially when in a battle and needing to switch weapons using the D-pad or teleporting; the button used to finish off a foe and teleport are one and the same. Though you can switch between using guns and melee weapons pretty quickly, the fighting never evolves beyond basic button mashing. A deeper combat system would have kept things interesting; spamming the same moves over and over (especially during boss fights) gets old pretty quick. Mind you, this wasn’t because I chose not to venture out and try new combos; there just weren’t enough options to explore.

The overly repetitive fighting is certainly a letdown. The game’s narrative, on the other hand is hilarious. Nolen North did an excellent job voicing Deadpool; his over the top antics nearly covers up the lacking gameplay. Throughout the game you’ll constantly hear him talk to the voices in his head and cracking jokes as he cuts down enemies. Adding to this are the cameos from other Marvel characters, which should certainly resonate with any comic book fan. Seeing characters like Cable, Psylocke, and Wolverine shows that High Moon really wanted to make gamers feel like they were stepping into a part of Marvel’s universe. A lot of fan service went in to creating a believable Deadpool experience in game form!

Again, it’s sad that the gameplay isn’t as interesting as the dialogue. There always seemed to be something bad whenever I found something worth mentioning. Hearing Deadpool talk is awesome but the lack of skill required to win fights made playing as him boring. The Marvel characters looked great but the level design was a big video game cliché (not in the good way). It was cool that there were multiple weapons to use but the guns sounded weak. Not just weak…odd – like none of them sounded right. It’s just one thing after another, hurting my overall enjoyment of the game. Bottom line, the story is fun and very corky, but playing the game is what really stinks, which would be okay if this wasn’t a video game.

If you are looking for a good action title, I’d recommend something like Capcom’s DmC as only the most diehard Deadpool fans will enjoy this game. Now if you’ll have to excuse me, I need to make my exit. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be on Deadpool’s revised hit list!