Twisted Pixel’s Deadpool VR game puts Marvel’s fourth-wall breaking antihero under contract with the reality TV villain Mojo, voiced by John Leguizamo. Deadpool (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris) is tasked with recruiting Marvel’s biggest villains to join Mojo’s series, and the 30-minute demo I tried on the floor of Gamescom started that process with lots of dismemberment and entertaining snark. Waving around my virtual katanas left me sweaty and eager for another round of slashing and shooting.
Deadpool’s first target is Lady Deathstrike, who is about to become the leader of an order of ninjas. Even though Deadpool says they go way back — taking classes together at ninja school and even making out — she’s not interested. To underscore that point, she has her agents decapitate him, cut off his limbs, and dump his body in a swamp. It’s a bold way to start things off, and from that point I was locked in.
Fun detail: Deadpool also mentions that he went to ninja school with a strong, silent guy who isn’t going to be appearing here because he was “canceled.” I’m guessing that means we won’t be seeing Wolverine in this game, but I’m hoping to be proven wrong.
Luckily, getting diced into bits isn’t game over for Deadpool. He regenerates — with the immersive VR perspective giving a gross level of detail –—and then it’s time to explore a ninja temple and start fighting bad guys for Mojo’s amusement. Deadpool comes armed with a pair of katanas, two pistols, and a grappling gun. You grab the katanas by reaching behind your back and the ranged weapons from your sides. I had a bit of a tricky time figuring out how to reach for my sidearms, but if you look down you can clearly see them — along with Deadpool’s butt.
As Deadpool lampshades, the space is very much inspired by Indiana Jones, with little shrines and lots of death traps. You’ll need to use the grappling gun to ascend walls that are otherwise too tall to jump over, run along walls to get across pits, and slide under rows of blades. Mess up and you’re turned into a pile of limbs, and Deadpool makes fun of you for getting him killed in the tutorial. He also makes fun of Spiral, Mojo’s lieutenant, for embodying the cliché of a voice that explains new game mechanics during said tutorial. Spiral promised to kill Deadpool when this job was over.
Harris has great comedic timing that makes Deadpool’s yapping work, and the rapid-fire meta dialogue is very reminiscent of the Deadpool films. The VR is impressively immersive: I walked around in a little circle to look at all the scenery around me. It’s worth noting there’s a button you can press to avoid those movements if you’re worried about accidentally walking into a wall or getting dizzy.
After a bit of traversal, you get to a huge room where Mojo explains more of his plans, and it’s time for you to kill a bunch of ninja with panache. That means trying to finish them off with headshots and other fun moves. The ninja rush at you in waves, wielding katanas and throwing knives swirling with dark red energy. The shooting is simple point-and-click stuff, but the slashing is more satisfying, as you move your hands in swipes to cut your enemies to ribbons.
When you drop your weapons, you’ll have a brief period of time to reach out with your hands to grab new ones that float in the air. There are also cabinets around the room that can be activated to unleash upgraded guns with limited ammo. After expending these items, you can reach into your holster and go back to your standbys.
Throughout the process, Deadpool relentlessly mouths off, claiming to recognize some of the ninjas and asking if it’s cultural appropriation to kill them with katanas. I was impressed just how deep his dialogue options go, and the jokes spice up what could otherwise be monotonous waves of similar enemies.
At some point, Spiral opened a portal and I got access to Gambit-style cards to toss at my enemies. I don’t know what triggered this: apparently that’s a spoiler. At another point, I got hit and noticed my arm looking all nasty — presumably because it had fallen off and had to be regrown before my suit apparently regrew with it? That attention to detail makes the experience more memorable and feels true to the character.
Each wave of enemies activated a different statue pouring red energy into a central structure that will presumably unleash a bigger boss fight. My demo ended before that happened, but I came away eager to see what happens next. This game is funny, silly, chaotic, and fast-paced — pretty much everything I could want from stepping into Deadpool’s shoes.
Marvel’s Deadpool VR will be released on Nov. 18 on Meta Quest 3S.
