Review: Deadpool - The Video Game

I'm not a big gamer person or anything. There's only a handful of games that I actually play on a semi-regular basis; any Elder Scrolls game, The Sims, and LEGO games. Though, recently a game was announced that got me interested in playing. Deadpool. 

For anyone who doesn't know, here's a quick blurb from Wikipedia: 

DeadPool (Wade Winston Wilson) is a fictional character, a mercenary and anti-hero appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, Deadpool first appeared in The New Mutants #98 (Feb. 1991).

A disfigured and mentally unstable mercenary, Deadpool originally appeared as a villain in an issue of New Mutants, and later in issues of X-Force. The character has since starred in several ongoing series, and shares titles with other characters such as Cable. The character, known as the "Merc with a Mouth", is famous for his talkative nature and his tendency to "break the fourth wall", which is used by writers for humorous effect.

Deadpool was ranked 182nd on Wizard magazine's list of the Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time,^[2] ranked 45th on Empire magazine's list of The 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters,^[3] and placed 31st on IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.

Deadpool is definitely a strange character, which makes him all the more fun. He wasn't used very much in the cartoons, but he has an ever growing fanbase. When the game was announced with a trailer released at San Diego Comic Con in 2011, I honestly went nuts for it.  Here's the trailer. Warning, there is a lot of CGI blood and a mild bit of swearing: 

The trailer really did nail the character down perfectly.  I was anxious for this game, though there was nearly a year long wait for it. During that year, I forgot when it was scheduled for release. What can I say, I've been busy with lots of things, like Cowabunga Corner. Then this week, we get another trailer, the launch trailer. My anxiousness returned and I immediately pre-ordered the game. Here's the launch trailer, basically same warning as before: 

When I was able to play the game, I was so giddy with anticipation that I was laughing at the simplest fart jokes the game had. So far, I've put in maybe 10 hours of game play. I'm taking my time with it and trying to explore every nook and cranny I can find. That's the nice thing about this game, there's always something around the corner for Deadpool to make a comment about it seems. The talking really doesn't stop, just like in the comics; one character, three voices. 

The story itself does play out like a comic book. And it should, it was written by one of the current Deadpool writers, Daniel Way. I thought that was a nice touch for the game and is definitely something more comic book based video games need to do. I believe the Batman Arkham games did have Paul DIni and it definitely helped make it a great game. And honestly, you never know what is going to happen next. It is all very random and all for a great laugh.

From what I've played so far, I have loved the characters that were added in. We get Wolverine, Cable, Rogue, Domino, Psylocke, Mister Sinister, and a whole bunch more. The voice acting has been great. I love Nolan North's portrayal of Deadpool, perfectly psychotic. John DiMaggio is doing very well as Wolverine, his voice is very, very close to Steve Blum's voice from the Wolverine and The X-Men cartoon. 

The game itself looks great. It may not be the best CGI game to be made recently, but I still find it to look awesome. The gameplay, however, isn't as awesome. There's clearly bugs in it as a lot of times Deadpool will get stuck on the tiniest of cracks on a rock, which then will require jumping for him to move forward. There are other times that he'll get stuck as though he's still behind a curtain or box, even though you can see space between the character and the item. There was one time that he got stuck in run mode when all I was trying to do was go around a rock. It took brining up the menu screen and going back to gameplay mode to get unstuck.

My biggest complaint though, is the controls. I play on a computer. The mouse decides which way to turn as well as controls the guns, while the keyboard controls the running, swords, teleporting and menu commands. Using the mouse for direction and guns is no problem, but using the keyboard is a bit of a problem. There are two different sword commands, Q & E. Teleporting/Counter Attack works with the B button. Long range teleporting will eventually work when you are instructed to use it by hitting V. Jump is the normal spacebar button. F button will direct you to your objective location when you are alterted to it. To interact with an object, you have to use the U button and sometimes you have to hold the U button down until the character recognizes it. To throw grenades, you hit the G button. To lock onto a target for firing, hit and hold the X button. The Z button gives off a stronger attack with guns. Holding the combination of Shift and Spacebar gives you a momentum attack. ESC is the normal menu screen. The Backspace button is your weapons and upgrades screen. Overall, it just feels like you're all over the place on the keyboard. I haven't checked into the capability of remapping the keys yet. Though I do know the screen tells you which key to press from time to time, so I'm not sure if they would update if it was remapped. 

The game isn't a bad game overall. There are quirks that make you want to rage, but then the script sates you enough to be happy with playing it.  

If you're a Deadpool fan, I do recommend this game. It's classic Deadpool and provides a lot of laughs. But if you're wanting a story intensive game with good controls, this might not be the game for you, at least not at the current $40 (as PC download) and $50 (PS3 and XBox 360) price tags. I know I'm going to try to get my money's worth out of it as a Deadpool fan.

This game is released Activision, so it makes me curious how the new TMNT games are going to turn out.