This Marvel Game Definitely Got Deadpool Right, But Wow It’s Restrictive

I am a big fan of virtual reality. I don’t play it quite as much as I would like due to how physically involved it is, but I love getting lost in it when I do decide to put on the headset. When I heard there was going to be a Deadpool game in VR, I was immediately excited. While some would rather a new traditional Deadpool game that’s more of a third-person action game, the mix of VR with Deadpool’s antics was extremely appealing. With that said, I recently got to play about an hour of the game across two separate levels. It was fun, but I also had a lot of hang-ups with it.

VR is a very slippery slope as you are inviting players into an immersive world. In my opinion, for it to truly work in most cases, it has to be very detailed and imagine a wide variety of things the player will choose to do. You inhabit the character, his hands are your hands. It’s not like viewing it through a third person camera where there’s a disconnect between you and the character through the TV and controller. It wants to give you the fantasy of being whoever you are playing as — and that rings true in Marvel’s Deadpool VR, but with some caveats.

Marvel’s Deadpool VR Has a Lack of Interactivity

When I think of Deadpool, I think of a guy who is extremely joyful with regards to killing. He loves a fight and is often forced into situations where he has to be creative with taking down a room. Marvel’s Deadpool VR has… some of that, but not as much as I think it should have. There were times where my creativity was rewarded, such as throwing my katana and it pinning the enemy to the wall or using a grappling hook to pull someone into my blade. That’s always satisfying and is the kind of experience you want in a combat-heavy VR game, but when things don’t work as they should, it shatters your immersion.

For starters, Deadpool can’t punch, slap, or even grab anyone. His hand just phases through their heads instead of colliding with them. A character like Deadpool should be able to grip on to an enemy and throw them around or use it to make them more vulnerable to an attack. Even being able to use an enemy as a meat shield to protect you from a hail of incoming bullets would be great, but none of that is possible. I try not to be too nitpicky with games, but when you have two fully working hands where you can control each finger individually, it feels odd that you can’t use them to hit or interact with people on a deeper level.

This extends to random objects in the environment as well. You really can’t pick anything up that isn’t a defined weapon or something that’s essential to a mission. It would be great if Deadpool could throw more random objects that are just lying around at people or use make everyday items into impromptu weapons. Having more interactivity with the world makes the world feel less like an illusion and more like a fully three dimensional space to utilize.

Marvel’s Deadpool VR Still Manages to Be Fun in Spite of its Flaws

Even though I long for a greater degree of interactivity on par with games like Bonelab, Deadpool VR is still very fun. There are a lot of tools at your disposal for clearing the onslaught of enemies you’ll face such as grenades, shotguns, pistols, katanas, assault rifles, and even Gambit’s magical playing cards. While Deadpool has his own dual handguns and katanas, enemies will drop their guns so you can pick them up and empty them into some poor soul before throwing it at another person’s head.

Combat is thrilling when you’re mixing and matching your arsenal together as well. You eventually gain a grappling hook that lets you swing around the environment and slingshot yourself into the air. Once you really master it, it can be a really effective form of combat and traversal. I was swinging around like Spider-Man while shooting people like Max Payne, sometimes even trying to throw my sword while soaring through the air just to see if I could skewer someone before I touched the ground.

Deadpool can also run on walls a la Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, allowing you to move across gaps while also blasting enemies with your dual pistols. The action always carries a sense of momentum. If you’re standing still, you’re probably playing the game wrong. It’s all about moving around your environment, causing as much mayhem as you feasibly can.

Marvel’s Deadpool VR also packs some exciting set pieces that are a bit more scripted, but give you a proper sense of scope and scale with over the top action that feels grand because you’re right in the middle of it. One of the earliest sequences has Deadpool on a turret that he uses to not just blast away enemies Rambo-style, but also to blow open a new path for him to continue on his mission.

Marvel’s Deadpool VR Captures the Humor of the Merc With a Mouth

I was a bit fearful of how a VR Deadpool game might go with regards to the humor. It could get very tiring and obnoxious to hear endless sexually-charged, crude jokes for hours on end, but to my surprise, the writing is very sharp. That’s not to say it has anything that’s really unexpected, but it kept me laughing and enjoying Deadpool’s never ending banter. Of course, that could change in the full game, but I never tried to tune out what Deadpool was saying. There’s also some great slapstick humor that makes creative use of the VR format.

My demo opened with Deadpool’s severed head laying on a table, across the room from the rest of his body. As nothing more than a helpless set of eyes and ears, I had to control Deadpool’s separated body and move it over to his head. However, there was an unaware scientist in the way. So, as one would expect, Deadpool brutally slammed the scientist into the table over and over… and over again. Gore is a bit part of Deadpool VR and one of my favorite little details in the game is that Deadpool himself can have his arms severed in combat, making that hand temporarily useless. You can then look down and see it growing back, aging from a tiny baby arm to a fully adult one. It’s a clever little touch that never failed to make me smile.

Neil Patrick Harris also does a great job of making Deadpool his own while still retaining the kind of voice and tone that you’d expect from this character. This is likely assisted by the fact he had so much dirty, but charming wit in How I Met Your Mother, so he knows how to walk the line of saying scummy things while also being a charismatic presence.

Ultimately, while I long for a bit more depth to Marvel’s Deadpool VR‘s level of interactivity, it is a fun game. There are some immersion-breaking elements, such as Deadpool’s hands phasing through people like Casper the Ghost, but there’s joy to be had in hearing Wade Wilson commentate the various bloodbaths that you create. I’ll be curious to see how the game stands up in an extended playthrough, but it seems like the team at Twisted Pixel is doing a solid job of giving you new toys to play with the more you progress to keep things fresh.

Marvel’s Deadpool VR releases on November 18th for Meta Quest 3 headsets.