Once the novelty of its lewd title character wears off, what you're left with is a generic action game.
Pros:
- Deadpool's lowbrow, outrageous, fourth-wall breaking humor shines through
- Clever meta-commentary on the video game industry
- Deadpool looks good and his animations are appropriately crazy
Cons:
- Stale level design
- Terrible camera
- By-the-numbers combat system
Ahh, Deadpool. You've risen from your humble origins as a one-note enemy of Wolverine to one of the most iconic characters in all of comicdom. A lewd, tragic, fourth-wall breaking agent of chaos whose puerile humor belied a deeply broken and unraveled character, Deadpool brought some much needed irreverence to a medium in desperate need of it. And now, nearly a quarter century after his debut, he's managed to worm his way into a video game. The good news here is that this is very recognizably Deadpool - his classic foul-mouthed, boundary-pushing, fourth-wall breaking lunacy is beautifully realized as he mercilessly skewers video games in a myriad of ways. And yet, as hard as he tries, he can't fully escape the licensed game curse he aspires to subvert. Put simply, Deadpool simply doesn't cut it once you break down its merits as an actual game, and what we're left with is a parody that ultimately suffers from becoming the kind of generic, mediocre brawler it parodies.
Unlike Duke Nukem Forever, whose writing was nothing but lazy references and half-assed attempts at self-awareness, Deadpool's self-referential goofiness works because you could tell the writers had a real affection for the character and his off-the-wall brand of humor. Hell, the opening of the game says it all: after forcing Half-Moon Studios to fund his game with a bomb (no, seriously), Deadpool gets a chance to hang back and distract himself with his apartment's little niceties before going out to slice some thugs. Such 'niceties' include jamming with his air guitar, taking a dump while he properly censors himself, and even reading a comic recounting his origin. It's a helluva way to kick things off, so much so that it's tempting to just stay there and ignore the actual game entirely. It helps that Uncharted star Nolan North is around to deliver the Merc's zany motor-mouth, and it's clear he's having the most fun of his career, giving a delightfully manic, off-the-wall turn that ranks among the finest voice-performances in all of video games.
Indeed, the writers' deep reverence for the Merc-With-a-Mouth shines through at every turn, from the endlessly amusing back-and-forth between the separate voices in his head (represented by captions with different text), to a segment where the player can slap a guy by repeatedly pressing a button, leading to lines like 'this is because the player wouldn't stop pressing X!' Other self-aware jabs in the levels abound, like a segment that shifts to a pixellated corridor that turns into a Gauntlet tribute, to which Deadpool remarks 'I love 8-bit games' (and the captions respond with 'we ran out of money and this is what you get.'). It's hard to think of a game as jam-packed with jokes as Deadpool, and while his lewd, puerile, over-the-top brand of humor isn't for everyone, those who could surrender yourself to the character's special self-deprecating brand of crazy will find one of the funniest games out there.
Eventually, though, I had to stop dicking around and get to the real game, and this is where things took a turn for the worse. As soon as you start, you're greeted with the fairly typical arsenal of moves - a light attack, a heavy attack, and a teleport system for quick maneuvers - and it has all of the markings of a mediocre beat-'em-up. The gameplay mostly revolves around beating up numerous enemy clones, which is explained via the plot by Dr Sinister creating a clone army. Okay, so obviously the limited enemy types often present in these types of games is part of the joke. That doesn't make it excusable. Perhaps strong combat mechanics would, but the combat in Deadpool is as by-the-numbers as it gets. As mentioned, you have your typical light and heavy attack, plus a teleport system which also acts as a counter when prompted. And, of course, the classic combo meter that fills up as you rack up kills. The problem here is that there isn't much nuance to any of this, it's just your standard button mashing combo system against waves of unidentifiable enemies. At the very least, Deadpool's animations are fairly cool, which adds a fittingly hectic feel to the various combat encounters. Unfortunately, unless you find yourself changing weapons very often, even these start to get old pretty fast.
Aside from your typical slashing, there's also guns thrown into the mix, and their implementation is...meh, at best. Sure, they all feel the way they should - pistols are your standard weapons that have moderate rate of fire and range, shotguns are good for close combat pummeling, and machine guns are fast and furious - and it's certainly satisfying to mix a shotgun blast to the face in the middle of a sword combo. Sadly, though, the gunplay is also held back by questionable mechanics. For one, switching to your guns automatically changes the camera to a behind the shoulder perspective, which is disorienting in the middle of pummeling bad guys with the standard third person view. And the targeting system, while not exactly broken, isn't exactly fully functioning, either. You can lock onto an enemy you're facing via the left trigger, but it doesn't always work as it should. Sometimes it focuses just to the side of the enemy, sometimes it will simply switch you to the standard over the shoulder view, forcing you to press again until it gets it right, and in general it just feels too loose to really be effective.
Other things Deadpool throws in to mix things up don't really work either. There's a fairly well-paced loot system, where you can upgrade weapons and buy new ones from the credits you pick up from enemies. It's a nice idea in theory, but I didn't find the upgraded swords and guns much more effective than the ones I started out with (those stupid endless clones!), so you'll likely try each sword out once and go back to the standard dual swords. And there's the health system. Deadpool is light on the typical health packs. Instead, he has the power to regenerate after not taking damage for a few seconds. And it's a system I'm not particularly fond of. Levels like to flood the screen with enemies who can quickly turn Deadpool into Swiss cheese, forcing players to run away until his health is back up. Having to run from enemies in a beat-em-up is never much fun, and it's a problem that's exacerbated during the boss fights, which all follow a pattern of whack a few times, run away, and repeat until they're dead.
And there's the greatest enemy of them all - the CAMERA!! Like virtually every 3D brawler out there, the camera has a lot of trouble following the action often leading to enemies getting cheap shots in. And it doesn't help during the rudimentary platform sequences. Often times, the awkward angles make it difficult to jump where you're supposed to, leading to lots of cursing as you fall off ledges. To be fair, Deadpool can't actually die from falling - if he falls into the abyss, he just teleports back up - but being unable to progress simply because the camera won't give you a good idea where to go is annoying nonetheless.
It's telling that the best moments of gameplay are those that deviate from the norm. A turret sequence involving a sentinel's foot makes for a hectic, exciting minute of blasting. Another sequence, a trippy, bizarre ride through a tunnel of love (with DEATH) is fun in a WTF!? kind of way, as is a late game homage to old 2D platformers. But these are brief interludes, and they're all but forgotten by the time of the final level, which is nothing but a parade of all the bosses fought earlier in the game. They weren't much fun the first time around, and fighting them all again is just mind-numbing.
Graphically, Deadpool also looks unimpressive. While some of the levels display some artistic flair, like the aforementioned Gauntlet-inspired segment, most of the environments look fairly plain, with bland scenery and flat, dated textures. The framerate also fails to hold up during the numerous hectic combat encounters, and while Deadpool himself and his combat animations look great, the rest of the characters aren't much to look at. There's only so many soulless clones you could look at before you're ready to move on.
When it comes down to it, Deadpool is a conundrum; it is both a wild, energetic meta-commentary on the corporate product that makes up the videogame industry and corporate product itself. Much like the comics, he is an acquired taste. Either you find his poop jokes and relentless self-awareness hilarious or the most obnoxious thing on Earth. For those with a taste for the tasteless and insane there is certainly much entertainment value to be had from playing as this brain-damaged comic lunatic. But ultimately, the decision of whether or not you should plunk down your hard-earned cash for this ultimately comes down to how much mileage you get from the main character's larger-than-life personality and not from the trite, repetitive gameplay. Rent first.
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 6
Sound: 8
Value: 5
Overall: 6/10