Deadpool
Developer: High moon Studios
Produced: Activision
Release Date: 28/06/2013
Format: PC, PS3, Xbox360
Nolan North has showered us with his uncanny pipes in countless videogames throughout his tenure. From the wisecracking Nathan Drake of Uncharted fame, to Captain Walker of Spec Ops: The Line- Nolan North continues to lend his verbal versatility to the games industry.
Yet this accolade alone sells Deadpool’s appeal straight into stardom. Constant fourth wall breaking and silly, intimately sarcastic humour drips and cascades down every paw of screentime the character has in this, his own game. Yes, that’s right- Deadpool is the star of this brash, comic inspired action game. The irony is though; the joke is firmly planted on its ornate spandex.
Smothering you right from the start in its slapstick- you tear up a script to a game made about you, whilst slouched on a couch in your compact apartment. References to the development studio- High Moon are made whimsically- with the tongue in cheek comic satire, and you’ll cringe and giggle at how irreverent it all is.
The real story revolves around Deadpool’s scripted contract to assassinate a media mogul. This goes awry when an evil baron appropriately named Mr Sinister, saves him and escapes Deadpool’s clutches. Later Sinister kills off Deadpool’s contract, so he takes it upon himself to kill Mr Sinister. The story is a slapdash act of combining superhero stalwarts to fight an antagonist who’s never fully explored. The characters are given comic book interludes, which are flashy, but do a poor job making them feel relevant. The less to be said about the story the better, but as a base to roll out Deadpool’s witticisms, it does a serviceable job nonetheless.
Deadpool is a balletic action game. Chaining together combos and dicing enemies with bullet holes are the name of the game. The bulk of the experience has you wisecracking your way through mission objectives, whilst temporarily being locked in a room or corridor that you have to force open magically by slaying all living corpses in your wake- a good metaphor, as the AI is completely brainless. They’ll fire at you for sure, but they are definitely not smart. The greatest amount of damage they inflict is with the numbers backing them. In short, there’s nothing that lead can’t solve here.
Enemy archetypes are basic and unexciting. You get your regular rank and file infantry soldiers, morbidly obese creatures who will belly flop you, and furry brutes who give you the most convincing reasons to evade and parry. No matter who you’re up against, the rote repetition of the action never ceases to bore. You will defeat enemies in the same way countless times over, rarely with any stand out moments.
Deadpool mixes up the action by consistently switching up between guns and projectiles. An uzi to the face can be met with a blunt force whack with a sledgehammer. Yet, no matter how you play, both feel extremely lacklustre. Each enemy has a small health meter above their heads, but it takes an obscene amount of button bashery to drain the meter dry. It feels a bit like the Arkham games with guns but without the finesse. A bright B/circle button prompt will appear over their heads when they’ll attempt to strike, and just like those games, you’ll be able to perform a swish counter. Except this time, the counter will just stun your enemy momentarily. There is a special combo that Deadpool can perform by filling a meter, but these too feel ineffectual and slight. For all of Deadpool’s badass antics, it’s too bad that carving up opponents feels useless.
Adding to the futility is the erratic camera and targeting system. Aiming at a selected target becomes very difficult when there are multiple foes on screen. Locking on is clumsy, and requires you to shift the analogue stick slightly to latch on to your chosen victim. You’ll easily find that you inflict the most damage when in close quarters.
Produced: Activision
Release Date: 28/06/2013
Format: PC, PS3, Xbox360
Nolan North has showered us with his uncanny pipes in countless videogames throughout his tenure. From the wisecracking Nathan Drake of Uncharted fame, to Captain Walker of Spec Ops: The Line- Nolan North continues to lend his verbal versatility to the games industry.
Yet this accolade alone sells Deadpool’s appeal straight into stardom. Constant fourth wall breaking and silly, intimately sarcastic humour drips and cascades down every paw of screentime the character has in this, his own game. Yes, that’s right- Deadpool is the star of this brash, comic inspired action game. The irony is though; the joke is firmly planted on its ornate spandex.
Smothering you right from the start in its slapstick- you tear up a script to a game made about you, whilst slouched on a couch in your compact apartment. References to the development studio- High Moon are made whimsically- with the tongue in cheek comic satire, and you’ll cringe and giggle at how irreverent it all is.
The real story revolves around Deadpool’s scripted contract to assassinate a media mogul. This goes awry when an evil baron appropriately named Mr Sinister, saves him and escapes Deadpool’s clutches. Later Sinister kills off Deadpool’s contract, so he takes it upon himself to kill Mr Sinister. The story is a slapdash act of combining superhero stalwarts to fight an antagonist who’s never fully explored. The characters are given comic book interludes, which are flashy, but do a poor job making them feel relevant. The less to be said about the story the better, but as a base to roll out Deadpool’s witticisms, it does a serviceable job nonetheless.
Deadpool is a balletic action game. Chaining together combos and dicing enemies with bullet holes are the name of the game. The bulk of the experience has you wisecracking your way through mission objectives, whilst temporarily being locked in a room or corridor that you have to force open magically by slaying all living corpses in your wake- a good metaphor, as the AI is completely brainless. They’ll fire at you for sure, but they are definitely not smart. The greatest amount of damage they inflict is with the numbers backing them. In short, there’s nothing that lead can’t solve here.
Enemy archetypes are basic and unexciting. You get your regular rank and file infantry soldiers, morbidly obese creatures who will belly flop you, and furry brutes who give you the most convincing reasons to evade and parry. No matter who you’re up against, the rote repetition of the action never ceases to bore. You will defeat enemies in the same way countless times over, rarely with any stand out moments.
Deadpool mixes up the action by consistently switching up between guns and projectiles. An uzi to the face can be met with a blunt force whack with a sledgehammer. Yet, no matter how you play, both feel extremely lacklustre. Each enemy has a small health meter above their heads, but it takes an obscene amount of button bashery to drain the meter dry. It feels a bit like the Arkham games with guns but without the finesse. A bright B/circle button prompt will appear over their heads when they’ll attempt to strike, and just like those games, you’ll be able to perform a swish counter. Except this time, the counter will just stun your enemy momentarily. There is a special combo that Deadpool can perform by filling a meter, but these too feel ineffectual and slight. For all of Deadpool’s badass antics, it’s too bad that carving up opponents feels useless.
Adding to the futility is the erratic camera and targeting system. Aiming at a selected target becomes very difficult when there are multiple foes on screen. Locking on is clumsy, and requires you to shift the analogue stick slightly to latch on to your chosen victim. You’ll easily find that you inflict the most damage when in close quarters.
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The guns, as well as attacks and new weapons can be upgraded through a simple and boring interface. The system requires points, which you can find in collectible form, as small discs spill out of bested foes. Upgrades include recovery combo attacks to make up for lost multipliers and health regaining breaker attacks. New weapons include a sledgehammer, sais and blades, each with their own special combo chains. There’s no lack of munitions either- with shotguns, duel wielding Uzis, and electrically charged pulse rifle, as well as tactical alternatives like bear traps to use at your disposal. The tools are standard, and do a humdrum job of making you feel badass.
Being a superhero and all, Deadpool relies of a regenerative health system and Tacos to refill health. Losing a chunk of it often finds Deadpool dashing around like he had lost the script he was running on. Finding cover feels very silly in a superhero action game, and there isn’t a sensible alternative for the mechanic to lean on. So each heated skirmish can devolve into mad dashes for cover.
Deadpool does ring out with some inspired ideas. Homages to the side-scrolling action game and 8bit classics show Deadpool earnestly imitating these designs to fleetingly prove to the player that it has more to offer. There are also strange, narcotic segments towards the end of the game, which show an inspired amount of creativity- and will allow you to believe for a second- that Deadpool is more than a mindless action game. On top of this, there are inviting nods to you playing a videogame, with jaunts around Deadpool’s apartment and a sequence where you search for your number one fan, with a very humorous conclusion. The fourth wall breaking sarcasms never let up either, granting the player with continuously funny lines of dialogue, whilst being mocked by Deadpool.
Deadpool isn’t a great looking game, in fact it approaches high-end PS2 quality at times. Rain effects are some of the worst seen in this generation, and the environments are drab and cookie cutter. With office buildings, sewers and degraded cities to wonder around- there’s little exciting about where Deadpool’s wit takes you. There are inexcusable bugs to frown upon too. Occurrences where Deadpool is stuck floating in the air, may make you restart your machine or otherwise think about throwing it into your nearest pot plant. The frame rate also chugs whilst in heavy action scenes.
Content is minimalist too, so if you expect to plunder into some multiplayer or co-op, your needs won’t be met. However, there is a challenge mode, composed of re-purposed levels from the campaign. Each level has a Bronze, Silver and Gold tier of difficulty, and your job is to kill everyone before the time expires. That’s it, there’s nothing more exciting to the endgame than to have this filler side content thrust in our faces.
Deadpool the videogame is at odds with the medium that its on. The humour and fourth wall breaking wise cracks are in full service, but as an action game it falls quite short. It’s still an enjoyable rollercoaster ride, with a few inspired ideas sprinkled on top. But this is no delightfully sumptuous cake, it’s more a Marylands cookie, it’s sweet, it’s got chocolate chips in it- but it has no substance, it has no glamour and doesn’t satisfy your cravings. Best enjoy a sampling of its taste via rental- as there’s nothing to hold your attention for long thereafter.
James Davie 6/10
Being a superhero and all, Deadpool relies of a regenerative health system and Tacos to refill health. Losing a chunk of it often finds Deadpool dashing around like he had lost the script he was running on. Finding cover feels very silly in a superhero action game, and there isn’t a sensible alternative for the mechanic to lean on. So each heated skirmish can devolve into mad dashes for cover.
Deadpool does ring out with some inspired ideas. Homages to the side-scrolling action game and 8bit classics show Deadpool earnestly imitating these designs to fleetingly prove to the player that it has more to offer. There are also strange, narcotic segments towards the end of the game, which show an inspired amount of creativity- and will allow you to believe for a second- that Deadpool is more than a mindless action game. On top of this, there are inviting nods to you playing a videogame, with jaunts around Deadpool’s apartment and a sequence where you search for your number one fan, with a very humorous conclusion. The fourth wall breaking sarcasms never let up either, granting the player with continuously funny lines of dialogue, whilst being mocked by Deadpool.
Deadpool isn’t a great looking game, in fact it approaches high-end PS2 quality at times. Rain effects are some of the worst seen in this generation, and the environments are drab and cookie cutter. With office buildings, sewers and degraded cities to wonder around- there’s little exciting about where Deadpool’s wit takes you. There are inexcusable bugs to frown upon too. Occurrences where Deadpool is stuck floating in the air, may make you restart your machine or otherwise think about throwing it into your nearest pot plant. The frame rate also chugs whilst in heavy action scenes.
Content is minimalist too, so if you expect to plunder into some multiplayer or co-op, your needs won’t be met. However, there is a challenge mode, composed of re-purposed levels from the campaign. Each level has a Bronze, Silver and Gold tier of difficulty, and your job is to kill everyone before the time expires. That’s it, there’s nothing more exciting to the endgame than to have this filler side content thrust in our faces.
Deadpool the videogame is at odds with the medium that its on. The humour and fourth wall breaking wise cracks are in full service, but as an action game it falls quite short. It’s still an enjoyable rollercoaster ride, with a few inspired ideas sprinkled on top. But this is no delightfully sumptuous cake, it’s more a Marylands cookie, it’s sweet, it’s got chocolate chips in it- but it has no substance, it has no glamour and doesn’t satisfy your cravings. Best enjoy a sampling of its taste via rental- as there’s nothing to hold your attention for long thereafter.
James Davie 6/10
