Second Look - Deadpool (Game) (PS4)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Deadpool.

Back in 2008, Daniel Way started his run on the Deadpool comic, which ran for 63 issues and ended in 2012. This run would give Deadpool more mainstream popularity, to the point he became the new “Wolverine” for selling Marvel comics, and served as many peoples’ gateway for the character, myself included. While the 2016 Deadpool film would expose the character to an even wider audience, including those who had otherwise never seen an X-Men film, the character also had one other notable mainstream release in 2013, the Deadpool video game developed by High Moon Studios, best known for the Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Fall of Cybtertron games, and written by Daniel Way. Although Acitivision would delist the initial PS3, 360 and PC release just a year after launch, a PS4 and Xbox One re-release would follow in 2015, likely to tie in to the film’s pre-release hype, followed by another permanent delisting in late 2017. Both releases garnered a mixed critical reception.

Back when I played the game in 2013, I had fun with it in spite of its faults and hoped for a sequel that never came. Fast-forward to now and our goal of catching up with the X-Men film series before the release of Deadpool & Wolverine inspired me to take another look at the game, this time through the PS4 port, and see how well it held up over a decade later. As a representation of an earlier point in Deadpool’s history, I still enjoyed the game for its writing, but the gameplay didn’t hold up very well.

When Deadpool’s pitch for a video game starring himself is rejected by High Moon Studios, he forces them to cooperate by setting off explosives at the studio and gets to hire Nolan North as his voice actor. High Moon sends him the script, written by Daniel Way, but he finds it boring and draws over it with crayon. Per the script, Deadpool attempts the assassination of media mogul Chance White, only for him to escape with the Marauders, a group comprised of D-list villains Arclight, Blockbuster and Vertigo. Following a fight with Arclight, Deadpool finds White meeting with Mr. Sinister, who has White killed once he has what he needs from him. Angered by the loss of his bounty, Deadpool sets his sights on killing Mr. Sinister, running into various members of the X-Men along the way.

Since I consider the Posehn and Duggan run the best run out of the Deadpool comics I’ve read, Daniel Way’s writing style took some getting used to, since I hadn’t read his material in years. At some point during the first couple levels, however, I got back into the rhythm of it and found myself laughing out loud throughout based on its the tonal consistency with Way’s run. Deadpool obliterates the fourth wall, with several lines addressing the player directly and clever ideas I hadn’t seen implemented in a video game before or since, such as a segment where Deadpool walks out of the camera’s view and the player independently follows him around a corner. He not only repeatedly references that he’s in a video game, but occasionally runs into glitches or calls a higher up at High Moon to demand more budget to fix certain scenes. At times, he’ll even make outside references like a then-popular Xzibit meme, a parody of slow-motion segments in Call of Duty or an acknowledgment of how Rogue can fly in the game but not in comics running at the time. Even the character bios, which help make the game more accessible for the uninitiated (and can be viewed separately in the main menu), can contain some light humor (the Cable bio has lived rent free in my head all these years).

You even get a glimpse at the script at the beginning.

Despite the lack of a fourth wall, however, none of the meta humor feels too forced compared to contemporary meta humor. It helps that it never calls anything out by name, like acknowledging that the Call of Duty parody is referencing Activision’s biggest game without outright saying “Activision” or “Call of Duty”, referencing the difficulty levels of Doom upon starting a game without saying “Doom” or referencing the Xzibit “Yo Dawg” meme without saying “Xzibit” or “Pimp My Ride”. This approach, where the jokes aren’t spelled out, helps the humor feel more timeless and lets the joke stand on its own without necessarily requiring familiarity from the player (unlike, say, anything made by Squanch Games).

As for the story itself, it works well as a Daniel Way Deadpool story and could only work in the context of a video game, plus it’s consistent with itself and Way’s comics run, but it does have its shortcomings. One particularly noticeable one is that most of the X-Men who appear, apart from Cable, go underutilized outside of a sequence where Deadpool saves Rogue and she absorbs his powers, initiating a sequence where she’s playable with a stripped-down version of his move set. Despite hyping up Wolverine, Domino and Psylocke, they don’t do much of anything and spend almost the entire time on Genosha unconscious from Deadpool crashing the Blackbird. The only explanation I can come up with is that it’s Deadpool’s game and they’re just secondary characters within his story, but this approach leaves a lot of potential jokes on the table, especially ones aimed at Wolverine.

 

Although there is a jab at certain players.

Across the game’s eight Chapters, players go through a rather simple gameplay loop of going between combat and platforming sequences. Deadpool’s platforming arsenal doesn’t have too much complexity with its mixture of double jumping, mantling and wall jumping, as well as the much-appreciated lack of fall damage. The addition of teleporting does add a wrinkle to navigation, both in and out of combat, as it lets Deadpool avoid certain obstacles or recover from a great enough height with ease, though it does have cooldown if you do it twice in rapid succession (an Upgrade can extend the number of teleportations to five and I noticed you can teleport forever if you press the Circle button rhythmically). Deadpool can interact with certain objects with L1 and, in certain contexts, sneak up on enemies and execute them, though players should keep in mind that using guns in this case will create noise and alert nearby enemies.

There's no shortage of platforming here.

When Deadpool encounters enemies, he can plow through them with Gunkata, which combines light and heavy melee attacks with a variety of guns. During different melee combos, players can fire Deadpool’s gun with R2 for a direct hit, though firing the gun at any other time results in hip firing towards the rather honest aiming reticle. If players want a more accurate shot, they can aim with L2, which also locks on to enemies, and even switch shoulders with R3 (you can’t manually change targets during a lock-on and moving the right analog stick breaks the lock). No matter how guns go off, however, they have limited ammo that must be replenished with the appropriate ammo pickups. The same applies to various grenades that Deadpool can throw with R1. As players unlock more of Deadpool’s weapons, they can cycle between them with the D-pad (depending on the type), but they can also pick up and use Heavy weapons dropped by certain enemies. Swapping to a different weapon can make all the difference in certain situations, as can understanding the timings for counters, which are tied to the same button as teleporting and killing stunned enemies. One somewhat advanced technique I picked up on that the game doesn’t mention is that you can cancel any attack into a teleport, offering a quick escape even in the middle of a combo.

Heavy weapons offer more power, but you can't jump.

Of course, enemies can still overwhelm you if you’re not careful, even on the lowest setting. As such, the game also includes the Momentum mechanic, which can help even the odds. Successfully landing attacks builds up a few Momentum gauges, which grant access to a different Momentum Attack when full, but taking too long otherwise will slowly drain all gauges. Since just attacking can take a while, you can also boost Momentum with Tacos, either dropped by enemies or found throughout the environment. Deadpool also maintains his healing factor and will heal naturally if he doesn’t take damage for a certain period of time, which may require looking for a safe space in the middle of a firefight.

Deadpool doesn’t kill enemies for no reason, though. Killing enemies and searching around the environment will earn the player DP (Deadpool Points), which help with unlocking and upgrading different weapons with special bonuses like faster DP gain, damage boosts and new Momentum Attacks. The fact that different Upgrades are locked behind how many kills players rack up with each weapon discourages leaning on specific weapons throughout the game and incentivizes mixing things up. You can also buy Player Upgrades, which increase the power of Deadpool’s abilities, including slowing Momentum loss or buffing his Teleporter. If you’re unhappy with how you’ve assigned DP, you can choose Reset Upgrades in Settings, but be warned that you will lose all of your DP and will have to build it back up. I also noticed that restarting from a checkpoint will remove all DP that you’ve earned between Checkpoints, though you won’t lose any of the Upgrades you’ve bought in the interim (something I’m sure someone could exploit).

The Upgrades menu (everything unlocked).

A sample of the Upgrades for one of the weapons.

While I like the idea behind the Gunkata combat style and appreciate the twists that encourage mixing things up, none of that takes away from how repetitive the game feels. The core gameplay loop doesn’t change much outside of certain setpieces and players won’t face much enemy variety. This comes to a head during the final chapter, where the countless waves of enemies highlight the game’s shortcomings and feel like a grind to the final boss. It doesn’t help that the final boss encounter itself feels lazy, as it consists of fighting all of the previously defeated Marauders at once, followed by over a dozen copy-pastes of Mr. Sinister clones before you finally defeat the real one (and even then, in a glorified cutscene). Some additional variety would have helped the game’s longevity, though at the very least the campaign’s short length means it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

 

Although the experience isn't glitch-free.

As for the graphics, Deadpool still looks okay, though its unpolished appearance dates it a bit and I sometimes noticed some “blinking” in the textures when turning the camera. Subtitles also appear a bit small, even on a large TV, and Deadpool telegraphs stealth opportunities by entering a sneaking animation as soon as the opportunity presents itself, which did affect how I could navigate an area at one point. That said, I appreciated the attention to detail, like how Deadpool’s teleportation consistently chars the ground, that each weapon has a unique animation (including stealth kills) and how Deadpool takes body and costume damage during combat. I also liked how the game visualized the other voices in his head at times and thought that some hand-drawn cutscenes add a unique touch of humor. 

You have no control over this animation.

On the other hand, while the game features great voice acting, Deadpool himself has a limited number of combat barks that lose their humor after hearing them enough times (ex. “If I cut you, do you not bleed?”). I also heard the audio quiet down at some point when the music looped, though I don’t know if this was exclusive to the PS4 version.

For some extra replay value, Deadpool features a set of Challenges, where you must defeat three waves of enemies within a time limit, determined by the chosen difficulty (Bronze, Silver and Gold). Players can also choose between ten Stages, eight that are unlocked through playing the campaign and two more available as DLC (included on the PS4 release). It’s not much, and it only highlights the repetitive nature of the game’s combat, but it doubles as another (slow) method of earning DP.

How your performance is graded.

While Deadpool’s first (and so far, only) official video game outing has issues that I find harder to ignore now, I would still recommend it to Deadpool fans who don’t mind a different take from other portrayals. If nothing else, it still has a great sense of humor that feels in-character for the time and helps keep the otherwise repetitive experience more engaging. Unfortunately, physical media is your only legal option and I hope you can find it at a good price.