Deadpool

Originally written 8-14-13

Deadpool, also known as the Merc with the Mouth, is in his apartment hoping that the video game developer High Moon Studios accepts his idea to create a video game for him. At first they refuse but he was able to persuade them into going through with the idea. From his apartment the game begins, he goes after a man whom is later snatched from under his nose by members of Mr. Sinister's group called the Marauders. -summary

Despite being a hardcore comic book fan, most notably Marvel Comics. I honestly had no intention on ever bothering with this game starring one of their more popular characters as of late; it was on my 2013 avoid list. I enjoyed Deadpool when he was more on the serious side as a nemesis of Cable and X-Force, with that dash of comedic flavor he brought to the table in small doses. Later, I turned out disliking the character once he made the full transition into Marvel's resident fool, to be exact, I quit reading his books for good during the Dark Reign crossover. So why would I bother with his game anyway despite disliking him? Simple, a friend of mine damn near shoved the game in my hands because he wanted to know what I thought of it, since he couldn't tolerate it any further.

Deadpool is not a video game for every gamer. It's for Deadpool fans mostly and also those who enjoy the lowest of crude humor. It's a very shallow action game that heavily relies on Deadpool's comedic antics to carry the ENTIRE thing. It's full of that bizarre, fourth wall breaking, unrestrained, over the top comedy that may provide some chuckles for those unfamiliar with the character; however, it's his loyal fan base who are going to be laughing their asses off most of the time. From what I seen also, they're even going to force laughs even when they know what just happened wasn't funny.

Game Play:

Deadpool is a single player, third person hack and slash that combines shooter elements. The character is armed with two katana blades and double pistols from the beginning with a small combo. He can teleport over short distances which acts as his defensive move since he can't block. Along the way he will be able to purchase more weapons such as double shotguns, double submachine guns, bear traps, and other things. He will be able to upgrade all of this stuff together with his physical abilities in the menu shop which can be activated at any time; and this is a bright spot in the game play. There really isn't much. Deadpool's game play is devoid of any innovation and urgency; it's almost about as barebones this type of game can get.

Deadpool is attacked by waves of enemies and some implement a strategy, such as melee enemies coming straight for you and shooters keeping their distance. The combat is not that fluid for the most part though and targeting is alright at best. You will be able to land most hits especially since the auto targeting kicks in on several occasions, but you will begin to notice the games technical problems in really big fights. I noticed under serious pressure Deadpool would some times find himself stuck to corners with the enemies pouring it on. If you teleport, there's a chance you only moved into the middle of the mayhem. You can fight your way out of this though, but it can still be aggravating and the camera problems add to it, more on that later.

Pretty much you are fighting the same enemies over and over, there is very little variety to be found. The larger grunts, they're overpowered and they all battle the same for the most part requiring the same strategy to take them down, which is take the shotguns and unload on them at close to mid range. The repetitive combat got to me very quick and by the two hour mark out of maybe 6-7 hours, I was ready to quit this game. The mini-games such as guiding Deadpool sliding down a sewer, or manning a Sentinel boot with a gun turret... none of this managed to grab my attention. The upgrades enhance the gaming only slightly, with the best feature here being the gunkata with his various weapons. This can be performed as a counter which finishes enemies quickly once you get the hang of it. Plus the combo system is fine with Deadpool being able to toss in gunshots during and after the slicing. His best ability by far is his healing factor. If you suffer too much damage, just break contact and wait a few seconds for him to heal completely.

The game has several problems for sure that fans are straight ignoring. There just really isn't anything in the game play that stands out in the right way; it's just one bad impression after the other. The plat-forming segments are a joke all the way through, there is nothing to test your wits in the slightest, plus there's this lazy ass difficulty spike that I saw coming very early. The developers knew this game had damn near nothing to offer, therefore in an attempt at a real challenge, they sic the overpowered sub-bosses on you either in double or even triple team attacking you like mad. To include the final boss battle with Mr. Sinister is the definition of overly cheap; I was further infuriated with this boss battle once I figured out this fight wasn't much different than the usual battle with the enemies. Mr. Sinister apparently is just a beefed up version of the grunts you been fighting the entire time, which is extremely lazy and lame.

Now this part is going to be what either makes, breaks, or drags this game in the middle for you; it's Deadpool's over the top comedy. The game completely relies on the things he does to the point where you can't get into the story. In fact, forget the story, it's all about Deadpool's antics. Forget character development too because it's all about Deadpool's antics. You will not get to know the character at all outside of the dumb shit. He ignores the script and whenever a side character such as Cable is giving parts of the story, Deadpool zones out and just ignores it. He's pretty much like this in the comic also. He's not sane in the least, he talks everyone to death, plus he has different personalities that he speaks out loud to, and they speak to him. While this works fine in comic book form, I think it's really shitty for a game.

High Moon apparently knew they didn't really have a game here to begin with, so they go as far as they can with the puerile antics. There are constant jokes that stretch across all spectrums: harmless, toilet humor, sex, everything; there is quite a bit of profanity for those who would like to know. The game is immature, very childish, and people seem to love it. I would probably like this stuff too if it wasn't every 5 seconds over a 6 hour or so period; it's like hearing the same joke over and over again, in fact, you will hear the same jokes. I had to shut the game off to take breaks from Deadpool, and I was heavily tempted to skip the cut scenes. And why not? There's no story here to follow anyway. It's just stop Mr. Sinister from whatever the hell he is doing. There is no insight to his plan, you learn nothing about him, it's just a random game with things happening.

High Moon Studio attempted brilliance with this game but the end result is far from it. It's perfectly fine to have a character that knows his world is a video game. However, the player doesn't need to be reminded of this constantly. Everything about this game got stale quickly, and for me this turned into a very bad gaming experience because I had to suffer through lazy game play and an annoying main character.

Controls:

This is an area that is fine at best. Every button has some type of function and you can access the upgrade menu at any time. The targeting is some times automatic, then for whatever reason the focus will shift from the enemy. When I saw myself firing at them constantly the reticule hardly ever left them. Some people had issues with the counter and teleport using the same button, hell, High Moon acknowledges this wasn't a good decision, but they have Deadpool tell you to deal with it. I can't really say I found big problems with it. Whenever I saw the icon appear over the enemy about to attack me, I always countered them and I could chain this for multiple counters. So I think some people just didn't put any effort into getting good at the game, but I can understand this since boredom can creep up. In any case, there's nothing to really gripe about here.

Graphics/Music/Sound:

This is not a great game to look at. The sewer, building high rise, and the country of Genosha levels, they all look bland and uninspired. There's a 2D level with plat-forming that looks the best representing some type of fire stage. The backgrounds here looked pretty nice and that's about it. The action is decent, but it looks best during the stealth kill moments where Deadpool will slice enemies in two or shoot them into pieces. The camera has moments of being horrible during intense combat despite having control over it. The focus shifts and jumps quite a bit and you can just lose where you're at, this is especially noticeable during the final boss battle. Plus the auto aiming seems as if it can't keep track of the frantic camera, which can make fights tougher than what they are. The camera can be a pain.

For a game where action is supposedly the focus, the music is vanilla as hell. There's no raging rock score to get the blood pumping. The BGM is barely noticeable; it doesn't work into the atmosphere or anything, it's just bland instrumentals to accompany stale combat. This game is atrocious. The sound is the game's only true highlight, and I'm not talking about the slicing and shooting, it's Nolan North's voice work for Deadpool. No matter how irritating the character had become for me, North nailed him again in what I thought he would sound like. In fact, he sounds like he grew more into the character since the Hulk vs. movie.

Final Thoughts:

The game doesn't have an online mode, but it does have a Challenge mode as part of the DLC. I know what's on it, unfortunately I have no intention to play anymore of this. I had almost no fun playing the main campaign.

The fans have come up with some bizarre stances in their defense of this. Some have went on to point out that the repetitive feel isn't a flaw at all, because other games of this type have repetition. Let's take a look at other third person action games: Metal Gear Rising, Tomb Raider, God of War, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Those games have characters you get to know, the combat has far more depth, the settings are far more atmospheric, they have good stories, and they have soundtracks that either gets you pumped or brings you into their world. Deadpool has none of this. There is far more than just killing that makes a game great. This is just a lazy ass game banking on its childish presentation. The people claiming this is the best superhero game ever are living in a world I want no part of. I wouldn't even compare this to the greatness that is Batman: Arkham Asylum; that's like putting boxing gloves on Vanilla Ice again and sending him after one of the Klitschko brothers. It's no match at all.

If you're a fan of Deadpool get this game without hesitation, because you're the only one who's money will be well spent. For others, if you haven't played any superhero games at all, then I recommend the Batman Arkham games or even Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters.

Rating: 2/10

Pros:Nolan North's voice work, some of the jokes are hit

Cons:Too heavy of reliance on the jokes with nothing else to offer

‏