It’s been more than a decade since gamers have had a dedicated game to Marvel Comics’ Merc with a Mouth and we learned during Summer Game Fest that Meta is all-in on its upcoming Marvel’s Deadpool VR.
The game is developed by Twisted Pixels and Oculus Studios, and the team worked closely in collaboration with Marvel Games on the upcoming title.
I had the chance to play through some of the game and speak with Lead Designer Phil Therien and Director of Animation Matt Schmitz about working with Marvel on the game and how they are making Deadpool VR its own unique-yet-true-to-Marvel take on the beloved Merc.
The team dropped the official red band trailer on Friday to reveal the game, which is a single player experience.
Just like Marvel has taken risks with the Deadpool IP in theatres, the company has been all-in on the partnership with Twisted Pixel.
“We’re Twisted Pixel so we like doing kind of crazy, edgy stuff and we’re wondering ‘Is Marvel going to be cool with this?'” Therien recounted, noting that Marvel Games was encouraging them to “go further.”
“[They said] Deadpool could be more crude, or Deadpool could be more hardcore,” Therien said. “So it’s been super fun. They’re challenging us to find the right tone.”
Wade in Deadpool VR will be voiced by Neil Patrick Harris and Ryan Reynolds dropped a his own humorous jab at the casting with a reply video of his own (all in good fun, of course).
When asked about the choice to cast Harris, who shines in the reveal trailer, Therien said they considered a lot of people for the role — Ryan Reynolds included.
“I think once it all came down to it, Neil was perfect,” Therien said in a chat during Play Days. “We have a lot of writers that have written a lot of the dialog for the game, including Joe Kelly who was one of the Deadpool writers in the comics. So when Neil came in and read the lines that were written for him, it was just meant to be.”
“What ended up being the decision for us was our own unique spin on Deadpool,” Therien said. “So our own voice, our own actor, our own lighting, but in a way that is familiar for people. That way we can bring some new, but without being jarring.”
I got to play for about 30 minutes where I felt like I was literally dropped into not only a comic book, but also inside Wade’s body. With comic book dialogue boxes and genuinely funny Deadpool-esque humor and gory situations, it genuinely felt like I was problem solving (and killing) as Wade in the most wacky ways.
“If you put it all together, that’s the equation that results in all of the decisions we’ve made,” Therien said. “Like the art style that is comic-driven, Neil Patrick Harris that has a unique voice, and then the fact that we’re exploring all kinds of cool spaces that people may not have been to in the Marvel Universe.”
Those places in Marvel canon include Symkaria, Mojo World, Yashida. This also includes big Marvel baddies that may be new to some Marvel fans as well, including Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red and Flag-Smasher.
“Marvel’s Deadpool VR features an all-new original story. After being pulled through a portal to Mojoworld, Deadpool sees a chance to get rich—like really rich. He signs a sketchy contract without reading any of the fine print and then it’s off to visit a bunch of locations from across the Marvel universe, battling against iconic (and not-so-iconic) villains. It’s real metaverse stuff—in the Marvel Universe sense, not the VR one,” Meta said about the plot in the reveal of the game on Friday.
Deadpool and his unique abilities mean that you’ll be able to creatively battle your way through the campaign, from his iconic arsenal of weapons including guns, grenades and katanas, to throwing your own severed arm to stun your enemy before decapitating them.
“We designed this game to have the combat feel like you’re playing as Deadpool would get through combat,” Schmitz said, noting how creative you can get. “With the grapple gun that we’re talking about, you can tug enemies toward you and cut them in half with your sword, you can punch people with a grenade and stuff it in their mouth and they go flying and blow up.”
That Deadpool-esque creativity also show itself in the way that Wade problem solves through the game.
“Deadpool doesn’t look for key cards to open doors,” Therien said. “Like, he would be likely to grab two electrical wires and join them together, shocking himself to near death. But that’s how Deadpool solves problems. So I think if players put themselves in the mindset they are Deadpool, the way they’re fighting and the way they’re solving problems, it’s very liberating. Because in video games, if you lose an arm usually your character is dead. In Deadpool, it’s a minor inconvenience.”
The game will feature weapon upgrades, think Boomerang Katana and laser sights among them, along with other unlockable items. There are some secrets interspersed through the game and Schmitz said players will be able to come back to and find things you may have missed the first time through.
A huge aspect of development for the team at Twisted Pixel was making Deadpool VR as accessible to new and longtime fans of virtual reality — this includes including ways for people who suffer from motion sickness to be able to find the game accessible.
Developers said that if you’re able to pinpoint what makes you motion sick, you should be able to tweak or turn off or enable the applicable settings, i.e. vignettes, turn-snapping, and other VR-specific settings.
There is also an accessible sitting mode that also includes modifications to other accessibility settings like weapon selection.
Marvel’s Deadpool VR is releasing exclusively on the Meta Quest 3 and 3S later this year.
