Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, can go rather unnoticed to those who aren’t really Marvel fans or don’t know that Marvel Universe too well. But to those who do know him, love him and couldn’t believe it’s taken game developers this long to give Deadpool his own game title. Sure he has appeared in various other games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2 and Spiderman Shattered Dimensions for example. This time however, he is out to make it on his own. And trust me…he does.

Being a big Deadpool fan myself, (check out my profile pic) I was worried that High Moon might ruin Deadpool just as the film Wolverine Origins did (I don’t care what anyone says, that was not Deadpool). Would they leave out his language, maybe cut down on the gore or how over the top he can go? Well…no…no and no. High Moon really have got Deadpool right down to the dot. Pretty much 2 minutes into starting the game and I was already laughing.

Sure you might need to have a certain sense of humour to enjoy the way Deadpool acts in certain parts, but if you didn’t have that humour you wouldn’t like Deadpool anyway! One of the best things that they got right are the voices in his head. He has two styles of voices (if you want to call it that) the yellow box voice who is more immature and enjoys fun, and the white box who has a little more common sense than the other. But then he has his own voice and they have 3 way conversations about the way the game is going. Yes you’re playing this game with the main character knowing it’s a game.

As you know, all games have a script, but DP really isn’t happy with following one. He doesn’t bother reading the main plot lines and just generally messes around or (in one certain scene) goes a bit further because of the pure boredom he is going through. When he starts arguing with the voices in his head it just gets funnier and funnier the more you listen to them. It’s funny with him talking to the other Marvel characters that make an appearance (Wolverine, Cable, Psylocke, Mr Sinister etc) speaking like he doesn’t care or how it should include him because it’s his game.

Like most expected, Deadpool is your typical hack ‘n’ slash title. The constant pressing of ‘X/Square’ for light attacks or ‘Y/Triangle’ for heavy attacks. You can mix the two together to get better combos and build your meter higher. The higher you manage to get your combo meter, the more momentum you will acquire. The momentum is used for occasions where you may be overwhelmed with bad guys, activated by holding the LB/L1 button and pressing one of your face buttons. Which one depends on what upgrades you have already brought. The more you buy the better your momentum moves become. The ‘B/Circle’ button is your dodge button. However, Deadpool doesn’t just dodge, he teleports out of there! Sure he doesn’t teleport far (would make the game alot easier), but while you are teleporting you don’t take any damage from enemies. So you are graced with a couple of seconds invulnerability. This will save your skin on many occasions.

When you’re in your upgrade screen, you will notice that you have the option of buying different weapons for DP to use. For melee you have the swords, Sais and Hammers. While for guns you have the handguns, machine guns, shotguns and pulse rifle. Each weapon is suited for a different play style. The swords are your default all rounders, the Sais are extremely quick but weaker, while the hammer is powerful but alot slower to strike. Same with the guns, all of them have different rate of fire and bullet damage. You will very quickly be able to pick up which weapon is better for what scenario.

Deadpool, just like his good old friend(?) Wolverine, has a kick ass regenerating ability which gives him the ability to recover health (or put body parts back together it’s that good!). It’s because of this ability that there aren’t any health packs or pick ups in the game (although you can upgrade the length of your bar). To recover health all you need to do is not take damage for a few seconds and it will kick in. It’s where that lovely teleporting ability really helps. Soon as you think you may die (which happens alot on the hardest difficulty) teleport and run out of there to heal up.

The campaign missions themselves are quite long, but there is no indication when you finish one section of the story and start another. The only way to tell is via the achievement/trophy pop ups during gameplay. But of course, these only help during your first playthrough. There are checkpoints all throughout the campaign as it would be a huge problem to start from the start of each level every time, but some of these check points can seem very far apart. Especially when you are playing on the harder difficulties. Many times I have struggled to get through one section on hard (way it should be played) to die on the section immediately after only to be pushed back to where I started struggling. Finding the right balance for checkpoints can be tough though. If they had too many the game would become really easy, but have too few and people get annoyed by doing the same section over and over.

Primarily, as I’ve already stated, Deadpool is a hack ‘n’ slash style game. However, during the playthrough of the campaign, you will come across different styles of game. Within the first mission it will turn into an over the top 80’s type. Further on in the game you go down a rusty green pipe (any guess?) and then you’re in a side scrolling game. I’ve only just finished a tiny first person shooter style breach as well. So it’s piling all these different styles into Deadpool, not only to make you laugh at the things DP says, but maybe to spice it up a notch instead of having the same style all the way through the game. Once you are done with the campaign, you do have a challenge mode where you have to kill waves of enemies in certain times to acquire a medal. This mode does have a leaderboard, so there is something that will keep you competing with your friends once you’ve had enough laughs with the main story.

Deadpool has surprised me purely just because of how well High Moon have done in capturing the Deadpool we know and love from the comics. If you enjoy reading his comics or just like what you’ve seen on him from the other games he’s appeared in, please try this game. It’s a must have for any Marvel fan. I have enclosed my walkthrough of the Ultra Violence difficulty below for you to see what the gameplay is like for yourself. Be warned though, Deadpool’s swearing is present.

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