Deadpool: The Merc With A Mouth Review

While High Moon Studios is best known for developing the great transformers titles of this generation, they are ready to step up to a new challenge from their friends over at Marvel.

They were selected to bring Deadpool to life in his own original game. Can the crew at High Moon pull it off or is the merc with the mouth doomed to live out the rest of his career in the pages of comics.

Deadpool is an interesting character–emphasis on interesting–and High Moon has done a great job capturing that and putting it into the game. His real name is Wade Wilson and after being initiated into the Weapon X program and becoming a mutate (not mutant) he gained the ability to regenerate from any damage he receives very quickly, thanks to Wolverine’s DNA.

An unintended side effect of the testing done on him in the Weapon X program however left him horribly disfigured and quite insane. Deadpool is an expert marksman, swordsman and well trained in most martial arts. Combine that with his insanity and you have one of the most arrogant, funny and just all around crazy characters in video game history.

The game starts with Deadpool relaxing at his place listening to his answering machine full of messages from the X-Men Domino and Peter Della Penna from High Moon Studios rejecting his idea for his own game. After some “explosive negotiating” Peter decides to make the game and sends over a script that he edits slightly.

He then sets off to find his newest contract Chance White, a corrupt media mogul. Eventually Mister Sinister messes up his contract so he makes it his mission to mess up Mister Sinister leading to fights in sewers, skyscrapers and Genosha–the island of the largest mutant massacre in history.

Deadpool is a fast and frantic ride through the mind of a mad man with guns. As Deadpool you get your standard handguns and his swords. While playing through the game you will find coins and do combos to get DP to buy new weapons and upgrade existing ones. Eventually you end up with a nice arsenal of weapons with everything from a set of sai and bear traps to Cable’s pulse rifles.

Getting combos going is easy but keeping them going can be frustrating. The combo system looks nice letting you attack just about anyone on screen with a combination of guns and swords. The problem I ran into a lot however was once I got the combo up there I would get stuck on a bench or desk, get hit and loss the combo. In my first playthrough this was really annoying because I needed that DP for upgrades and weapons. The next playthrough it didn’t really bother me too much to loss the combo since I still had the upgrades from my previous game.

Other then sometimes getting stuck on things in combat the gameplay is great. Changing from swords to a shotgun and back mid-combo is easy and looks great. Countering is a tricky beast that requires quick reflexes. When the counter icon appears over a bad guy’s head you have to tap your counter button, which is the same as your teleport button.

If you mess up the timing you either get hit or teleport away from danger but if you get the timing right you send anyone in front of Deadpool flying into the air where you can really unleash on them with any weapons you like. Try countering, then laying down a land mine–it’s a blast!

Deadpool constantly breaking the forth wall and interacting with the player is great and leads to some interesting conversations and game style changes. At a few points throughout the story the gameplay changes a little. You might walk into a room and have the game turn into a side scroller style game for a little bit or find a chest like you would in something like Final Fantasy and have him open it only to talk about why he stopped playing JRPGs. These little sections of the game are great and makes you feel like you’re not just running around killing wave after wave of people.

Graphically the game is hit and miss. The gameplay looks good aside from a few frame rate drops here and there and Deadpool occasional walking in mid-air instead of on the thing he’s standing on. Cutscenes for the most part look good. Deadpool and Cable’s characters are highly detailed but the rest of the people look more cartoonish and I think it was meant to be that way. It might not be the most beautiful game out there but its certainly not the worst.

The voice acting in the game is great. That should be no surprise since Nolan North is the voice of Deadpool and the voice in Deadpool’s head. Nolan as Usual does a fantastic job bringing the character to life as well as capturing his demented side perfectly. Listening to him crack jokes as he shoots, Stabs and Blasts his way through Mister Sinister’s clones is hilarious.

The music choice for the game is superb as well. From beginning to end the hard rock style music hypes you up. At no point did I ever feel like there was about to be a boring part of the game simply because the music and constant jokes keep you locked into the fun.

It’s a love it or hate it type of game. If you enjoy Duke Nukem for its hilarious dialog and jokes, and God Of War for its beat-em-up, wave after wave style gameplay–you will absolutely love Deadpool. If those aren’t really your cup of tea you might want to consider waiting for this to drop in price or for it to end up in PlayStation Plus.

Overall it’s is an OK game with a very high fun factor. Some frame rate drops happen, and it might not be the most polished game out there, but you will have fun playing the game over and over again.

[7/10]