 |
| I got it out of a taco truck. |
Rating: 3 out of 5 Dual Sledgehammer Shots to the Face
Plot
Synopsis: Deadpool gets his
own game, which is actually a major part of the plot. Following that what starts out as a routine
job taking out a media mogul turns into a trek across Genosha to deal with Mr.
Sinister.
The Good:
-This game is super fucking Deadpool. There’s swearing in it and they don’t skimp
on the violence either.
-The story is hilarious and written by former Deadpool writer
Daniel Way which makes this a worthy inclusion into his run as one of the best
Deadpool writers ever (the last few Deadpool arcs not withstanding). I’d gladly take this over anything after
issue 50 of the series.
-Great cameos from Cable and Wolverine. Domino, Psylocke and Rogue also make
appearances but their presence is really downgraded to eye candy.
-Deadpool comments of the D-List status of his enemies
(Vertigo, Arc Light and Blockbuster).
-Tons of fourth wall breaking including Deadpool calling
Nolan North as well as constantly calling and yelling at High Moon producer Peter.
-Deadpool’s apartment, highlights include petting a dog,
making pancakes, eating pizza through your mask, pooping and listening to your
neighbors have sex while you surf the internet.
-There are these little character trailers, some can be played optionally during the story, some are accessible through the main menu but they will bring you up to speed on who everyone in the game is in case you are fan new to the X-Universe in hilarious and entertaining news clip style segments.
-A good selection of weapons, four guns (pistol, shotgun,
machine gun and laser rifle) and three melee weapons (sword, sai and hammer),
all wielded dually, plus four thrown weapons (flash grenade, frag grenade, bear
trap and mine). I would have liked to
have seen knives as one of the throwing weapons but what you have is good. My favorite, and probably the most useful on
big enemy types, was the bear trap. You
throw that down, they get trapped and they you can go to town on them with a
pair of hammers or dual shotguns. I
would have also liked to have seen one rifle that wasn’t dual wielded as the
duel wield laser rifle looks stupid, I’d rather it was just one gun you held
with two hands with a zoom. You don’t
often get into long distance confrontations though so it doesn’t really matter.
-Gun-kata. You can do
gun-kata with all the guns and they all look pretty badass.
-The set pieces are really great and break up the usual
action quite well.
-You really fell like Deadpool, it’s a great time spent with
the character, you are given everything you need to know about him and it feels
like a true Deadpool experience.
-At one point you play as Rouge having absorbed Deadpool’s
powers and get to kick-ass with her.
-Great soundtrack.
The Bad:
-The counter/evade button gets tricky and more often than not
instead of countering I evade which gets frustrating because of the next bullet
point…
-…later enemies block a lot, the best way to get around this
is to use the counter but since it’s a little tricky you end up teleporting and
you continue hitting basically a wall which then causes you to lose your combo.
-Grinding for DP points to buy upgrades is a chore. Lower the prices of the upgrades or increase
a players haul or institute some kind of found freebie type bonus’ but I’m on
my second play through because I ended the game with around half the total
upgrades. Ideally a game should end with
pretty much everything earned, with a second play through leaving you feeling
incredibly OP while you get those last few major upgrades.
-Enemies get cheap even on normal difficulty. At the end of the game I found myself getting
continuously beat on and defeated by hordes of regular enemies which lead me to
exhausting much of my arsenal and when it came time to fight Mr. Sinister (or
rather his army of clones) I found it almost impossible. At one point you are fighting 5 of these boss
level enemies at a time and it gets really frustrating as they are all
incredibly powerful and incredibly cheap.
-The X-Ladies are just basically hollow, minor window
dressing. Psylocke and Domino don’t even
get introductions in game, you can find intro’s on the main menu in case you’re
curious what Deadpool has to say about them.
-There really should be more ammo for everything or an
infinite ammo upgrade. For being
Deadpool I found myself out of ammo a lot and having to run down gun wielding bad
guys.
-Combat gets repetitive pretty quickly.
-The gunplay could use some work, the lock on isn’t great and
there is no cover system. Granted it’s
Deadpool, Deadpool doesn’t take cover but it leaves you feeling especially
vulnerable during the larger gun battles.
-There’s very little replay value and the challenge modes
aren’t that fun.
-The jump feels really floaty and unsatisfying. I wasn't able to do any sort of precision platforming. The game asks you to do very little precision platforming though so it works out.
-The counter attack follow up for the sai is you throwing the
sai. I found myself getting pounded on
every time I tried to use it. In the
game the sai is described as the weapon to use for building combos but on what probably
could have been the most useful move you pretty much open yourself up to a guaranteed
free hit.
-The game is short, around 6-10 hours, but I was ready for it
to be over when the ending came.
-There isn’t a lot here for non-Deadpool fans. Everything here has been done better by other
games and the only thing that makes this game is that it’s Deadpool.
The Ugly:
-Not much ugly here, game looks great and plays great. There is this weird sound effect when you get
low on ammo that I found way more annoying than helpful.
Final
Thoughts: Despite everything
good I have to say about this game I’m actually giving it a reserved and
respectful 3 out of 5. I loved my time
with the game and am halfway through my second play through, as a fan of
Deadpool you couldn’t ask for a better game, it is the perfect game for
fans. But, that, its greatest strength
is also its greatest flaw. Without the
Deadpool there really isn’t a whole lot here.
Strip out the story and the character and the gameplay is really no
better than an average Dynasty Warriors style hack n’ slash. Which makes it a good thing that the game is
written so superbly and the character so accurately portrayed. But even with those unless you are a fan of
the Deadpool’s, or at least interested in becoming a fan of Deadpool’s, then
there also isn’t a whole lot here for you.
If someone asked me what things were the essential Deadpool that every
fan must experience to truly understand the character I would point to
Wolverine: Origins issues #21-#27 and this game.
But, again,
strip out the fandom and you have a pretty grindy, repetitive game. The run and gunning isn’t all that great (the
lock on being the worst part of that), the melee combat really boils down to
mashing buttons and the story, if you aren’t familiar with how Deadpool does
it, will probably just be confusing and, at times, gross. So the score is heavily modified by if the
player is a Deadpool fan and by how much.
If I were being non-objective, speaking purely as a fan, I would give
this a 5 out of 5 or maybe even a 6 but really, if you look at it and admit it’s
flaws it simply doesn’t live up to that.
If you like Deadpool, or want to see what the hype behind Deadpool is,
then get this game. It is well worth the
full retail price, I just hope we get the Hit-Monkey game that Full Moon
originally promoted (granted as a smokescreen for the Deadpool game), maybe as
DLC. I can always dream.
No comments:
Post a Comment