Despite the popularity of superheroes in the video game space, there aren't too many full superhero games in VR. There are even fewer of them in the Meta Quest ecosystem. If you're only counting licensed fare, then there are only two titles. Both Batman: Arkham Shadow and Marvel's Iron Man VR are on the Quest, and both are very good VR games. Oculus has decided to add another superhero VR game to its lineup with Marvel's Deadpool VR. It should come as no surprise that the game is also pretty good.

You play the role of the titular Merc with a Mouth. When the game begins, you've been hired by S.H.I.E.L.D. to go after a group of anarchists led by Flag-Smasher. The group stole the Helicarrier, and the only course of action is to blow up the whole thing; it's perfect for someone who is adept at death and destruction. Just when he's about to defeat Flag-Smasher, though, Deadpool gets pulled into a portal aboard the falling Helicarrier and knocked unconscious. He later wakes up in Mojoworld, where he's given the chance to become rich and famous. All he has to do is hunt down and bring in some of Marvel's infamous villains to be part of Mojo's ongoing shows. The task is easier said than done.

The setup for the game is good, and the inclusion of some lesser-known Marvel characters is nice, but the main draw is always going to be the humor. The game is absolutely loaded with fourth-wall breaking and real-world references, all delivered with Deadpool's sarcastic and flippant attitude. Most of the characters you meet are either ignorant of how Deadpool is or tolerate him as a means to an end. All of this is laid on as thick as possible, so your interest and enjoyment of the game are going to be heavily dependent on whether you're a fan of the character and humor style, as it almost overpowers the gameplay.

Marvel's Deadpool VR is essentially a traditional first-person adventure, which seems like such an obvious thing to say for a VR game, but the designation really fits. Instead of having the option to warp from spot to spot, you'll move to where you want to go by using the left analog stick as if this were a normal console game. You'll engage in wall-running, performing jumps and slides, and using your grappling gun, which you'll need when traversing gaps and avoiding traps. The puzzles are light to almost nonexistent, and while there is some wiggle room to explore an area, most of the game is pretty linear with an obvious path laid out for moving forward. When compared to most other action games in VR, there's quite a number of things to do.

Of course, combat is a big part of the game, and most of it tends to take place in small, varied arenas where you need to wipe out waves of different enemy types before you can move on. By default, you have dual pistols at your side with infinite ammo, and you also have dual katanas. There's no hard rule about what you can and can't use, so you can go around slashing everyone, shooting everyone, or mixing it up by firing with one hand and slashing with another.

If the game stopped there, the fights would still be enjoyable, but they'd be glorified shooting galleries that we've seen in countless other VR games. It only takes a few kills to realize that the game lets you do more than just shoot and slash. Killing an enemy often means that their gun or other weapon will fly into the air, letting you grab it and use it. Kill a ninja, and there's a good chance that a kunai will fly out for you to grab it and throw it at another foe. The same thing happens when you shoot a soldier and can grab their shotgun to use on their friends. All weapons can be thrown, so you can chuck a machine gun at someone once it runs out of ammo or throw your own katanas at an enemy to pin them to a wall while you unload more bullets or slash them to bits with your other sword. The grappling gun can also be used to pull enemies toward you for a kill, and you can also perform dive kicks while shooting or slashing at the same time. There's a slow realization that the game is giving you the power to perform every cool and silly move you've seen in the movies, so combat is very involved and fun.

Every inventive kill you perform is named, and you'll end up getting money for it. That cash can be used in between missions to buy cosmetics and weapons. For example, you can buy swords that act like boomerangs when you throw them. Since you're the star of a streaming show, inventive kills also give you ratings, and reaching a threshold in a fight means you can get one of these weapons for the duration of that skirmish. As cool as kunai and grenades are, it can't beat being able to use Gambit's energized playing cards to take down everyone in a fight. The variety and inventiveness of the combat system is the game's real strong suit, and it keeps every engagement fun if you're willing to be a little unorthodox.

Marvel's Deadpool VR gives you a number of areas to visit, and one run through the campaign will take you toward the high single digits in terms of number of gameplay hours. The stages are long, with loads of small battle arenas and fun boss fights, even if some fall into the trope of whittling down enough health to trigger a quick timer section that needs to be passed to reach the next stage of the boss fight. That puts the title around the gameplay average for a modern AAA shooter, which is quite lengthy for a game in VR that isn't being split up into parts. The game also adds a few features to keep players returning long after the credits have rolled. There are a few areas in each stage that you can explore to find hidden comic books. There's also a ton of cosmetics to unlock, including alternate Deadpool skins that give you all dialogue. There's also the Kidpool option that sanitizes the game in a way that's both ridiculous and cool, making it worth experiencing.

One interesting thing to note about the gameplay is that it doesn't fall back into using VR game "tricks." You can't go around and pick up random objects for giggles. You can't poke around and mess with every cabinet and drawer you see. Not everything reacts accordingly to katana slashes and shots beyond the presence of standard bullet holes. Beyond specific slashes, there's nothing that stands out as being exclusive to the VR space; you could port everything to something more traditional and lose very little in the process. This isn't necessarily bad, but it's worth noting if you were looking to explore more of the game world.

All of that movement brings up the topic of guardrails for comfort, and the game has a number of them. You have the usual snap turning with various degrees of movement for each snap. There are blinders whenever you're moving forward or backward, and that can also be dialed in to several particular levels of intensity. Camera shake can also be turned off, and the game is only playable from a stationary position. This can be a shame for those with spacious play areas because the game doesn't compensate for those who want to walk around. Instead, it forces you back into position if you use your actual legs for walking around instead of solely using the analog sticks.

The one problem with some of these guardrails is that the HUD doesn't do a great job of handling their presence. You'll never notice this if you stand still, but if you move around and have the blinders on to narrow your vision, the HUD gets covered up, and the amount of coverage over the HUD depends on how big those blinders are. You'll move around in a battle quite often, so there's a very good chance that you'll miss out on opportunities to use special weapons for the fight. That means you may miss out on points that boost your end of battle rating. Thankfully, those guardrails don't cover your full screen health indicator, but it is worth noting how the guardrails can unintentionally make the game more difficult.

There is another issue in the gameplay department: the controls. Getting the grappling gun is a finicky affair. You can reach behind the small of your back with either hand, and there's a good chance that you'll pull out a handgun instead, which is normally accessed by grabbing the sides of your waist. Most of the time, this occurs outside of a fight, so the bug isn't too bad, but when you consider that some stages of a boss fight ask you to use the grappling hook, you'll be thankful for the long lead time needed to perform the action when you see how often you'll snag the wrong type of gun for the job. While we were told that there's an option to use the thumbsticks to switch between the pistol and grapple gun, we didn't actually find that option while playing the game.

Graphically, Marvel's Deadpool VR looks very nice. The game adopts a cel-shaded look with heavy use of comic book stylings in the environment and characters. In VR, it looks great with only a bit of aliasing seen on some of the finer points of some of the characters you meet. The game is built with Unreal Engine, and the only issue has to do with the usual texture pop-in that has become an unfortunate hallmark of the game engine. It's not very prevalent here, though. The frame rate holds steady, with no juddering present.

As far as sound goes, the game does a very good job. The music and sound effects are fine, but the more notable aspects of the sound come from the voice cast. Neil Patrick Harris takes on the role of Deadpool, and while the voice is unmistakably him, the delivery works so well that Harris' presence in the role doesn't feel out of place. The rest of the game also sports a good deal of notable actors like Kelly Hu, Jeff Fahey, and John Leguizamo, who turn in performances that are very good but don't immediately give away who they are. Those performances are bolstered by a script that works very well without giving anyone terrible lines or time to dwell on a few jokes that may not hit as well as expected.

As stated earlier in the review, Marvel's Deadpool VR is a good game overall. While the title may not contain the usual expected elements in a VR title, it helps the medium become more mature by being as long as an average non-VR title and by being more than a glorified shooting gallery. Except for the grappling hook issue, the game controls well and plays spectacularly. Combat is inventive and features diverse weaponry. This is a well thought-out title that fans of action games and Deadpool will enjoy, provided they haven't gotten tired of his antics yet.

Score: 8.0/10