Here’s the exact moment I realized I had underestimatedDeadpool VR. I’m running at a guy full speed, Desert Eagles in both outstretched hands, and I’m squeezing the triggers as fast as I possibly can, filling his chest with dozens of .44 inch holes. He’s tanking the hits better than I expected, so when I’m about ten yards away from him I go into a powerslide. Just as I’m about to pass between his legs, I drop the deagles, pulled to katanas off of my back, and slice clean through both of his femurs. I turn around just in time to see both legs fly off in either direction. Moments later, I’m beating a guy to death with those very same legs.
You could put a move like that in a regular game. You could go into a slide and press the light attack button and, if you were lined up correctly, you and the enemy would lock into the leg chop animation. But you could never have the kind of free form experience Deadpool VR offers. You can slide, you can unsheath and swing your swords, and you can chop off limbs. When you put all of those things together, you get a magical moment that feels completely improvised and hilariously excessive - which is exactly howDeadpoollikes to fight.
Crushing Some Virtual Chimichangas With My Rainbow Unicorn
To be honest, the whole Deadpool schtick is wearing pretty thin. Hearing a Marvel hero say the F word and quip about getting pegged was novel at first, but after three movies, it feels like the joke has run its course.Deadpool & Wolverinemade a staggering $1.3 billion at the box office though, so maybe I’m alone in being over the merc with a mouth.
If you’re still cool with the Pool, there’s plenty of crass fourth wall breaking to enjoy in the upcoming VR game. Neil Patrick Harris steps into Reynolds’ spandex for this one, and while he’s just doing his normal Neil voice, it still sounds like he’s doing an impression. The writing has a lot to do with it, which has all of the puns and penis jokes you’ve come to expect, but NPH also kind of just has a post-irony quality to his speaking voice. Was Barney Stinson Deadpool-coded all along?
There’s a lot of potential in exploring his meta commentary through VR, and I hope that’s something the game leans into. Deadpool makes a joke in the trailer about finally getting to feel what it’s like to be inside him, and in the level I played he acknowledged both VR and that I was wearing his skin, so to speak. Putting Deadpool in a new medium creates the opportunity to critique and lampoon that medium Deadpool-style, and I hope the game really goes for it in the same way that it’s going for the gratuitous violence and over-the-top action Deadpool is known for.
Unlimited Ammo And A Healing Factor? It’s Good To Be Wade
Even though I have one foot off the Deadpool train, it’s hard not to love the regenerating degenerate when the action is this good. I love a VR game that doesn’t try to hold you back, and Deadpool is the perfect character to push the limits of movement and comfort in the medium. It has all of the standard optional settings to help you overcome motion sensitivity and disorientation, but if you’re a real VR sicko like me, you may really go wild.
I’m talking about jumping ten feet in the air and landing on a dude’s face with a drop kick. Blocking bullets with your swords as you run up to a pair of snipers and chop both of their heads off in one swing. Pulling out your grappling hook - yes, Deadpool has a grappling hook in this one - and swinging across a warehouse likeSpider-Manwhile tossing grenades everywhere in a very non-Spider-Man like way. It’s a hyper-violent playground, and you’re the king of the sandbox.
This is what VR was made for. Too many games try too hard to translate regular games into VR, when the best experiences are always the ones that you canonlyhave in virtual reality. Deadpool VR is one of those games. It offers a kind of free form action you may only achieve when your eyes aren’t locked to the direction your guns are pointed and the only limitation is your own twisted imagination. A good Deadpool game should give you the freedom to creatively dismember and disembowel your enemies, and that’s something that can really only be achieved in VR. I don’t know why it wasn’t obvious before, but after playing it myself, this feels like the ideal Deadpool game, and a perfect example of what VR has to offer gaming.
