Deadpool Review

Every once in a while a video game comes around that is simply begging you to have anything less than a divisive opinion about it. It presents genuinely interesting and compelling moments followed by atrocious or down right face palming annoyances. It's no surprise these mixed feelings accompany a video game starring Deadpool, one of the most polarizing comic book characters in recent memory. A fourth-wall-breaking, reference dropping, sarcastic psychopath that is found either lovable by some or despised as everything wrong with modern comics by others. I tend to fall in the former category when exposed to Deadpool in small doses but this game tried my patience. If Deadpool the video game has any notable achievement it's the pitch perfect depiction of its titular character. High Moon Studios whose previous work includes the Transformer Cybertron games attempt to make a highly self-aware parody of modern action games, a feat that even the most talented developers would be hard-pressed to pull off. The main issue stems from the games outright mockery of systems, mechanics and tropes found in similar games only to directly implement those exact features in the game. It's hard to point and laugh at something that you are unabashedly mimicking.

Deadpool is a very basic third-person action game with a simple combo system and rudimentary shooting mechanics. The game play itself feels very poorly executed with a few context sensitive actions mapped to the same button leading to moments when your intended action is replaced with your death. Add to that an unforgivably bad framerate that drops into the single digits and an unwieldy camera and you have an absolute frustrating mess. The games humor is also not its strong suit though it will repeatedly attempt to convince you otherwise. But having said all these bad things I actually did enjoy portions of the game, going so far as to laughing at a few moments or simply smirking at the unconditional absurdity on display. Deadpool is a game with tons of heart but a limp in its step and no filter on its mouth means it can wear the players patience thin.

(2 out of 5)