Not much more than boobs and dick jokes!
Like dick jokes and boobs? Then Deadpool is for you! Like a story that makes sense with new enviroments and likeable characters? Then maybe you should go play something else. In Deadpool by High Moon Studios you play as the "Merc with the mouth" Wade Wilson otherwise known as Deadpool. You start off in Wades apartment listening to your answering machine where you receive a call from High Moon Studios President Peter Della Penna telling you their going to pass on a Deadpool game. After an explosion at the stuio Peter calls back and says they'll do it and a script is on the way. Thats about the only thing in the game that makes any sense at all.
Deadpool wants to take charge and make his own game rather than following a script. This is something that works for Deadpool as a character who's fully aware of himself and the world he is a part of. It is not however something that works for a video game. The story very rarely makes any sense because our anti-hero is continually doing whatever he wants while every other character in the game is following a script. Deadpool attempts to be clever at every turn yet only really pulls it off twice in the 8 hour playthrough.
The mechanics of the game are very similar to that of the "Batman: Arkham" Series. You have light attacks, heavy attacks, an evade/dodge/counter button. You can fire your guns like any third person shooter with aiming by pulling the left trigger and shooting with the right. Just like the Arkham series when an enemy is preparing to attack you an icon appears above their head giving you plenty of time to counter the attack. Nothing ground breaking here but noone really expected there to be. Players familiar with the Arkham games will feel right at home.
You can unlock a few extra combos and weapons by spending your DP points earned from combos and kills. The unlock menu gives you the option to unlock two melee weapons and three additional guns as well as four thrown items. A flashbang, explosive grenade, land mine and a bear trap. You can also Upgrade each weapon to Unlock a special move for each as well as upgrades for our protaganist himself.
Keeping Deadpool on the attack builds your power meter in the form of "Momentum" once your "Momentum" meter is full you can unleash a super move in the form of a pole dance kick or break dance combo attack. These are helpful in sticky situations but never really do the damage you'd expect out of a super move.
The game spans 7 levels. You'll play in a sewer, an office building, a riddled island, an ancient tomb, and a enemy stronghold. Once again nothing groundbreaking. And for a universe so large and expansive this is really a missed opportunity for High Moon Studios.
You fight the same 4 or 5 enemy's the entire time with a few mini bosses and some big baddies to keep things interesting. Somewhere in the convoluted story they explain the lack of new enemies with a cloning process.
Really the most satisfying part of Deadpool comes in the form of Stealth Kills. You can slaughter baddies by sneaking up behind them and with the push of a button unleash a cringing attack the usually leaves our foe headless or armless or just plain smashed into the ground. The opportunities to do this are few and far between and there are only two or three animations for each melee weapon.
Occasionally your rewarded with a retro level, or nod to another popluar gametype which is usually explained by the game being over budget. These levels only come around a couple times and are way too short. They almost seem like a reward for the shitty level design you just spent an hour running through.
Deadpool is a mess of a game and I'd be hard pressed to recommend anyone waste's $50 of their hard earned money on it. It's definatly not the worst hack-n-slash out there and if you insist on playing it borrow it from someone who wasted their money on it or just get it from gamefly.
There's not much, if any, replay value here. You do get some challenge missions that you are forced to play at least 3 times each if you want to earn a few extra achievements. You'll visit the same maps you just played through and have 3, 4 and 5 minutes to dispatch the same enemy's you've been cutting to pieces all day. You don't have to reach a certain score or combo length to earn the medal your looking for. You simply have to survive. An easy task to say the least.
There are no collectables to find tucked away. No extra costumes to unlock. No extra difficulties to reward your efforts. Another missed opportunity.
Deadpool is his own worst enemy. If he had simply followed the script this game may be worth so much more. All though the story that was there wasn't very good to begin with he made it so much worse by doing his own thing. It really goes to show how hard it's going to be to make a convincing movie out of the character. On paper a character that's fully aware of their universe and constantly breaks the 4th wall is unique and intersting. In a movie or game however it's irritating and never as humorious as it should be.
Deadpool gets a 5 out of 10.