Genre: Action, Hack n’ Slash, 3rd-person shooter
Available Platforms: PC, PS4, PS3, Xbone, 360
Platform I played it on: PC
Developer: High Moon Studios
Publisher: Activision
So the Deadpool movie is right around the corner and this game was “recently” re-released/HD-remastered (or whatever the kids are calling it), so I felt this was the perfect time to drop this musing. First off, let’s answer anybody who might be asking: “who the hell is Deadpool and why is he being pushed so hard?” Deadpool started life as a Deathstroke ripoff, but has since evolved into one of the best, funniest anti-heroes ever (and probably my personal favourite). He is a horribly disfigured, mentally unstable mercenary who has become renown for his talkativeness and slapstick/meta/fourth-wall breaking humour. He looks a little like Spiderman – but with guns and katanas – with Wolverine’s healing factor and a complete disregard for any form of life, which makes him the perfect hero to base a video game on!
The story follows Deadpool hiring (read “threatening”) the High Moon Studios developers to create an awesome game for him. He hires Nolan North as his voice actor and upon receiving the script for the game, proceeds to go through it in a video game-y fashion with no regard for the fourth-wall or the game developer’s budget. I really don’t want to tell you anymore because it really is something you need to experience for yourself in order to get the most out of the experience. The game is the perfect blend of random humour and good storytelling, featuring appearances by many of Deadpool’s supporting cast, including Cable and a few of the X-men, and of course a few D-tier Marvel villains for him to just completely destroy for his own (and the player’s) pleasure. The story features just nonstop humour and some amazing set pieces and manages to stay consistently funny throughout the entire experience. Nolan North does an absolutely amazing job as Deadpool. I can only hope Ryan Reynolds can hold up as his on-screen representation.
The game does have a few problems. While the story and humour is totally on point – staying true to the character – the gameplay is not so great. It’s the usual 3rd-person action stuff, with you being able to wield a variety of close-combat weaponry, like katanas and giant hammers, each with their own move sets, with the ability to freely switch to 3rd-person shooting whenever you wish. And a huge shoot-out to an actual reason for regenerating health in a game! You can buy new abilities for Deadpool as you progress through the game as well to make him even more deadly. While the combat is fun, gratuitous and visceral, it gets repetitive very quickly and the game doesn’t really try to bring anything new to the formula, which is really the biggest problem with the game overall. The worst part is that the game developers knew they weren’t doing anything new and actively poke fun at this fact WHILE DOING IT! An example is Deadpool complaining about sewer levels while you’re going through the second or third goddamn sewer level of the game. This is a pet peeve of mine and it was a real struggle for me to push through these moments, but I persevered purely because the game is short anyway and I love the character.
Overall, this is a good game though. It pokes fun at video games while being video game-y as hell, but if you can look past this it is a real gem. It stays true to the character of Deadpool, and the writing and voice acting manages to perfectly capture him, which really is the game’s strongest point. I recommend the game to anybody who likes comic books, Deadpool, meta humour, or just to get probably the best taste of the character you’ll ever experience outside of the comics. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ll be excitedly waiting with bated breath for my Deadpool movie (fingers crossed that it doesn’t suck).
Conclusion: 4 sewer levels out of a possible 5
With that all said and done, I leave you with this:
Go see it, it will probably be awesome.
RANDOM MUSINGS 