Deadpool’s character is divisive. He’s not a hero that many have neutral feelings towards. Either you appreciate his caustic, constant dialogue and complete disregard for the fourth wall, or his vulgar and aggressive attitude never wins you over and you’re tired of giving him the opportunity to try. I’m one of the miniature percentage of people who often get tired of Deadpool’s tricks, but I willingly abandon them in favor of jokes that absolutely work for me. His virtual reality video game is performing similarly to his appearances in other media. Both the dialogue and gameplay irritated me at times, but there are many impressive moments and the occasional sturdy joke that surprised me and made me laugh.
No wonder you’re inside Deadpool’s head in Deadpool VR. What begins as a freelance job to return the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to its rightful owners turns into an involvement in an intergalactic reality show whose goal is to travel the universe and collect B-rated Marvel villains and force them to fight for another B-rated villain, Mojo. The plot is basic to the point that Deadpool often emphasizes its predictability, but there’s nothing wrong with that because Deadpool VR isn’t about the plot. It’s about the embodiment of the Merc with a Mouth, sometimes wrongly so.
The amount of dialogue in Deadpool VR is staggering. This becomes even more impressive when you learn that in each of the different Deadools variants, you can play levels with different lines, even in the main story sequences. Unfortunately, most of Deadpool’s jokes simply miss the mark, and Neil Patrick Harris’ performance oscillates between impressing Ryan Reynolds’ approach to the character, indifferently reading lines, and occasionally enthusiastically accepting a good punch line.
What worked for me were jokes that delved into undiscovered video game references and mocked design, such as making fun of doors that inexplicably open when you kill enough bad guys. It’s a shame the game isn’t available on PlayStation VR2, where you can follow my constant eye rolls at jokes that do nothing more than make pop culture references. But when Deadpool waxes poetic about how underrated Vanquish is, or wonders aloud what Jeff Minter-flavored ice cream might taste like during a level inspired by Llamasoft’s visual aesthetic, I can’t support but admit I was charmed. However, the hit rate is overall lower than I would like.
Basically, playing Deadpool involves using his twin guns or twin swords, with the occasional grenade thrown in for good measure. The combat is frantic to the point where I turn up the VR comfort settings a bit more than usual, but I enjoyed pulling off impressive kills. Jumping in the air to kick a villain in the head and in sluggish motion catch a dropped gun in the air to shoot his cohorts is a good idea, but I found it very successful. Overall, I’m tired of swinging swords in VR. I find almost no VR game enjoyable, and Deadpool VR is no exception. Fortunately, gunplay is a solid and entirely viable way to deal with most encounters.
The combat highlights are the boss fights, which aren’t particularly challenging but are fun exercises in superhero choreography that I’ve always looked forward to. However, in between the levels where you chase and defeat bosses, battles are deliberately designed to resemble online modes on multiplayer maps where you play against bots. Playing through these sequences always felt like trudging through the bad parts to get to the fun parts. This made the final act of the game, an extended set of back-to-back fights with collected bosses in these types of levels, disappointing.
Your progress in Deadpool VR will really depend on your patience with the characters. Developer Twisted Pixel captures Deadpool’s tone and rhythm in what he talks about, how much he talks, and how he doesn’t bother taking anything seriously. It can be annoying, but there are good jokes and the action stays fresh for the most part. The recurrent combat rooms become redundant, but there are some impressive on-rails sequences and even some fun but basic VR puzzles that keep most of the elements from overstaying their welcome. I just can’t in good conscience say the same about the character herself. And I’m sure he’ll be mad at me for it.
