Living in Deadpool’s Crazy ****ing World

Marvel’s merc is bringing his guns, swords and one hell of a mouth. 

In the grand scheme of heroic standards, Deadpool comes up short on all counts. He’s not reliable. He has no standards or code of conduct. When acting rationally he will likely sell his services to the highest bidder. And then kill said bidder for the heck of it. He swears like a sailor. He talks to himself. A lot. In fact, generally speaking, there’s no reason Deadpool should be the protagonist of anything anywhere.
Yet here we are, with Deadpool -- a crazed mercenary known as Wade Wilson -- not only starring in countless Marvel comics, but now in his own video game. But what makes this bizarre mercenary such an unlikely hero is exactly what makes him a fantastic lead character in a game. Most starring roles seem to go to the same generic males, with grim, determined faces and shaved heads. Deadpool defies all of those standards in every way imaginable -- and we’re better for it.

Whee!

I recently had a chance to not only watch a demonstration of High Moon Studios’ Deadpool, but go hands-on with segments of the game as well. Keep in mind, it's due out in late June, so what I played is likely pretty close to its final form. That’s both good and bad.
Make no mistake, Deadpool’s gameplay won’t set any new standards. It’s a frantic, fast-paced third-person action game, where players chain melee and gun-based offense together to slaughter (with plenty of blood) waves upon waves of soldiers. Countless games have done this before, and I saw nothing here that really stood out as different or original. However, it is executed well, and that is extremely important. The game’s controls felt good, and chaining melee attacks to longer-distance weaponry worked fluidly, allowing Wade to redirect his onslaught in any direction with minimal effort.
The only significant hindrance during combat was the game’s camera, particularly when using a teleport ability. The hamsters running that camera did not like it when I teleported, and had trouble quickly determining an ideal angle based on my destination. I found myself using that defensive escape/counter move less and less, as the benefit was not worth being disoriented.

"I WAS IN THE POOL!"

High Moon has built out Deadpool’s core mechanics with a usual assortment of upgrades and expansions. Wade gains ‘DP points’ which serve as a currency of sorts that can be used to upgrade attributes and weaponry. Some combos and moves will unlock as the game progresses as well, ensuring players feel some sense of differentiation. A wide range of guns and melee weapons are available as well. Deadpool’s health will also recharge over time -- a representation of his healing factor, even though many games use similar mechanics with shields. Again, fairly standard fare, but all very much necessary and expected.
Where Deadpool completely defies expectations, however, is through Deadpool himself. Wade Wilson is a crazy man, with crazy ideas, and apparently the folks at High Moon, Marvel and Activision are just crazy enough to let him get away with it.
It's a fine balance to make Deadpool work as a slapstick, comedic anti-hero. He’s so manic and so oppressively bizarre that it’s easy to get lost in the silliness and lose what makes the character, and his bizarre adventures, so funny. That’s why it’s so impressive that High Moon, in conjunction with frequent Deadpool writer Daniel Way, figured out how to make him work. The wit and level of humor here is extremely juvenile, low-brow and often idiotic, but it’s so self-aware and tongue-in-cheek that it clicks into place.

Who says chivalry is dead?

High Moon wouldn’t get into details about how many mutants from the X-Men universe would make an appearance in the Deadpool game, but it was fantastic to see the studio understand that its lead character works best when put next to relatively normal heroes. He needs that comedic ‘straight man’ to work off of, to react to. Case in point: the stoic warrior from the future, Cable, who happens to be a longtime ally (and ‘frenemy’) of Deadpool.
You might expect some sort of epic team-up, but you’d be wrong. This game doesn’t operate that way. When Cable arrives to deliver critical plot information, Wade greets him by singing a “Who the **** is that?” song to make sure the player has the proper context. Then, as Cable attempts to relay the intel, the game shifts to Deadpool’s inner thoughts, where his brain begs him to make the pain stop. Deadpool then shoots himself in the head, and Cable storms off - but not before stabbing a quick note to Deadpool’s chest. In the end, the plot is delivered to the player, but in the strangest way possible.
And that’s just a taste of the game’s bizarre humor, which is perfectly representative of the character, and precisely why he has become so popular over the past decade. Deadpool doesn’t operate within typical hero rules. He defies traditional comic book hero standards, and that’s probably why he actually brings a sense of freshness to games as well.

Who needs to look to aim?

Throughout my hour with the game, many f-bombs were dropped. Heads rolled. Blood was shed. Voice actor Nolan North, as Deadpool, called himself on the phone. Achievements were freely handed out for doing absolutely nothing -- as Deadpool mocked them, the player, and the very game he was in. The game’s script was mocked. And there was a blow-up sex doll. Rainbows. A flying tiger.

Nothing makes sense in this game. Yet everything makes sense. This world, as realized by High Moon, doesn’t change how you’ll play a game by any means, but that almost serves as the perfect contrast for everything else. Most games hook you with gameplay and story. Deadpool hooks you with a crazed, unpredictable lead character. You want to keep playing because you want to see what will happen next. And that’s pretty cool.