Genre: Action Adventure
Developer: Highmoon Studios
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: 6/25/2013
Deadpool – Review
Everyone’s favourite merc with a mouth is finally getting his own game with the self titled Deadpool game from Highmoon Studios. Highmoon proved they could take a popular franchise and create a game loved by both franchise fans and gamers with the War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games. Could they do the same for the Merc with a mouth or would it be another failed attempt like Wolverine Origins?
Story
The merc with a mouth is a lesser known character from Marvel’s pantheon of heroes and villains, though he started out as an edgy villain capable of going toe to toe against Wolverine in the 90’s he has since been relegated to slapstick and comic relief. Deadpool started out as a mercenary for hire who soon found himself dying of cancer, hoping to cure himself he agreed to participate in a experimental program headed up by Weapon X a secret Canadian government program that created Wolverine. Trying to recreate the success they had with Wolverine Weapon X hoped to give Wade Wilson (Deadpool) regenerative abilities on par with the rampaging canadian.
It was a success unfortunately the cancer present in Deadpool wasn’t stopped and continued to eat away at his brain, the regenerative abilities he had gained kept him alive but the constant regenerating brain matter caused him to become insane. You’ll find Deadpool breaking the 4th wall a lot and that is par for the course in the comics as he is one of the only characters who is aware that everything takes place in a comic. Thanks to his run in and befriending of the future hopping mutant Cable he now has the ability to teleport.
Unfortunately very little of this is explained in the game itself, instead it’s relegated to the sideline, assuming that if you bought the game you were familiar with who the character was and his eccentricities. The game does a good job at playing off of Deadpool’s psychotic tendencies, you’ll find yourself playing through a section where its clear everything that is happening is only in his mind. You’ll hear Deadpool argue with his multiple personalities oblivious to everything else that is happening, and the story is the strongest thing in this game.
Unfortunately the story is hard to recommend to those of you who aren’t familiar to the character, which is unfortunate as this is the best adaptation of Deadpool to a video game or movie.
Graphics
You won’t be blown out of the water by anything in this game graphically, it’s not a bad looking game mind you but its clear that Highmoon studios had something other than textures and models to worry about. Cutscenes are both told using ingame graphics and with pre-rendered comic book art to tell more of its zany parts. You’ll find yourself inside of a television studio’s office building, running through a sewer, and on the decimated mutant island of Genosha. None of these levels wowed me and though Highmoon tried to throw in more abstract levels here and there during the game to break up the monotony of some of the sections I found myself getting bored and tired of the environments after a while.
Sound
The sound design of the game is passable though you’ll find yourself getting frustrated with Deadpools limited quips he’ll throw out with fighting. Nolan North of course appears in the game and voices Deadpool and his split personalities, Nolan North has been the voice of Deadpool for awhile now so it’s no surprise that he brings him to life in the game and he provides some of the best lines found anywhere in the game. Unfortunately aside from the spoken dialogue all the other sounds in the game are forgettable, the music doesn’t stand out at any situation other than the heroic triumphant music every time you see Cable.
Though I will say the credits song at the end of the game reminds me a lot of both the Donuts song from explosion man, and it stands as one of the most memorable songs in the game.
Gameplay
Unfortunately this is where the game starts to fall apart, the Deadpool character is insane and one of the facets of this insanity is his love to fight and kill and his inability to be killed. Deadpool and Wolverine have the same problem when trying to turn these characters into fun games, how do you play as a character that can’t be killed? Unfortunately Highmoon couldn’t find a way, and instead you’re left with a character that can’t die being killed dozens of times as you make your way through the game. Like any good modern game you’ll regenerate health when you’re not being hit for a short time, but in a game where you’re running around a small area fighting 20+ enemies that a large majority of them have guns its not fun. Which lead to many situations where I wanted to hide behind cover and fire my pistols at the enemy hoping that I had enough health and bullets to finish the area.
Throughout the game you’ll be acquiring money to spend on upgrading Deadpool or purchasing and upgrading weapons to use. You won’t be acquiring new weapons through story beats in the game instead if you have enough points you can purchase any upgrades or weapons. You start out with Deadpool’s trademark dual swords and pistols and by the end of the game you’ll have twin sai’s that offer faster attacks that cause your enemies to bleed, a large hammer that is slower but causes more damage, a pair of submachine guns, two akimbo shotguns, and a large future energy weapon. You’ll have the chance to upgrade each weapon with larger ammo clips, the ability to have your melee weapons cause bleeding, more damaging, or a better chance to crit.
Though Deadpool is known to go headlong into combat without thinking his friendship with Cable has garnered him a teleporter allowing him the ability to travel anywhere in the world in the blink of the eye in the comics. In the game this comes into play as your dodge move, allowing you to teleport 3 times in a row to get closer to enemies, or to retreat from them. You can upgrade this power to let you teleport 5 times in a row. This also serves as your Arkham Asylum counter move button allowing you to jump across an area to attack enemies before you’re hit.
The game attempts to break up the monotony of these combat areas with the occasional break for a turret sequence or a short Deadpool insanity section where you can walk around interacting with figments of his imagination before putting you back into a combat area.
The game isn’t difficult but cutscenes showing Deadpool being impaled, having his head cut off, cut in half, or any other kind of maiming breaks the immersion after you die several times from being shot with bullets.
Conclusion
Deadpool is a unique character and one that people have a hard time adapting out of his comic book. Highmoon does an admiral job of making this game feel uniquely like a Deadpool game, which is great. Unfortunately the bland combat and the assumption that if you’re playing the game you know who everyone is and their history makes it a hard game to recommend to anyone who isn’t familiar already.
If you’re a fan of Deadpool or the X-Men you’ll enjoy a lot of the craziness in the game as well as the callbacks to the comics. If you don’t know who Deadpool is or if you’re grabbing the game in the hopes of playing a Devil May Cry-esque action game you’re better off looking elsewhere.
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