Deadpool (Xbox 360) Review

Deadpool is maybe one of Marvel’s stranger anti-heroes. The self titled “Merc with the Mouth” he is something of a pariah in the comic world. Spending the majority of his lewd and misogynistic violence-fueled stories breaking the fourth wall and playing up the fact he’s a comic book character. He’s wisecracking, offensive, violent, crude, juvenile and gratuitous in every sense of the word – so basically he’s screaming out to be a video game character!

Highmoon Studios, they of the recent and decent Transformers games, had a choice with Deadpool. He comes in two varieties from my limited time with the comics over the years. He’s either really offensive, childlike and an aggressive clown with a blood lust… or he dials back the clown part a little.

Highmoon have chosen to dial-up the puerile humour and go with the overly comedic Deadpool. There are a 1001 jokes, gags and pratfalls thrown at you right from the moment you load the main menu – you’re presented with Deadpool slung in his chair watching TV whilst scratching at his nads with the remote etc. This is not high-brow comedy here people this is dick and boob jokes galore.

For the most part the comedic onslaught just passes you by. The occasional thing will make you chuckle or elicit the odd “hah!” but mostly you’ll just be thinking “yeah, that’s funny” or it’ll just blend in as background noise – it’s only when you stop and digest what’s being said you realise the content. Pro tip, maybe not play with the windows wide open and the sound system cranked as you’ll get some weird looks from the neighbours! As mentioned the comedy is juvenile at best, for example Deadpool is talking to someone on the phone and then stops and shouts “Talk to my dick a minute!”. A chuckle, but not exactly aiming for Woody Allen comedy here.

Game play wise Deadpool is an odd fit of parts of the Batman Arkham franchise, mixed with poor platforming sections and a limited, but not terrible, brawling third person shooter. Think a super violent and 18 rated Ratchet & Clank with loads of dick jokes, breasts and without the creativity and great level design. It pulls it’s playbook right out of some of the trashy movie tie-in games that nobody played back in the 90’s and 00’s. That said I found it oddly compelling in a similar way that I did playing Raven’s Wolverine game a couple of years back.

Graphically things are mixed. Environments are drab and fairly uninspiring. Deadpool is well animated and crafted but the enemies and other objects in the world just seems a little lacklustre. Frame rate issues dog the game too at times.

Sound is where the game takes a step to the big-boys table thanks to the superb conviction of Nolan North – yes he of Uncharted and 1000001 other video games manages to commit 110% to the ludicrous Deadpool character. He really hams it up and it’s a masterclass in how great voice work can lift a game.

The single player game is probably over in about 8 or so hours and offers little to go back and play through for, unless you really love dick jokes. The difficulty rating goes wildly all over the place as you head into the last third of the game and it can become more than a little frustrating at times on the mid to higher difficulty settings. Some longevity can be had from the challenge mode, especially with some good friends and some beers, but ultimately you’ll be done with the game reasonably quickly.

Final Thoughts

Deadpool is a real love or hate kind of game. This is based mostly on your love, or ability to endure, the main character. You’ll know after about 5 minutes if this is the game for you or not and I appreciate it won’t be for everyone.

The game is low on longevity, high on gimmicks, low on originality and high in juvenile hijinx. That said I just can’t seem to stop playing it. It’s one of those guilty pleasure titles that you kinda wince at when when people nose through your game collection. It scratches the same itch as Wolverine for me. Simple fodder that I can just slip into and not think about anything.

The jokes are an onslaught and they do indeed become more than a little grating towards the end. The repetitive combat, poor platforming, shonky frame rate and bland graphics can’t be saved by the brilliant voice work of Nolan North – but nobody can deny the man commits to the character with all his might.

I can’t recommend it for all. I heartily suggest playing the demo and judging if it’s your thing. I definitely recommend it as a rental or a budget purchase once you’ve given the demo a shot. Deadpool fans I think will know what to expect and will at least get a kick out of seeing their Marvel character of choice in action – all be it slightly repetitive and shallow action.

I know I should dislike this game a whole lot more than I do but I just can’t seem to do it.