NOTE:  This review will focus more on the PS4 port of Deadpool. For my full review of the game on the previous console generation (Xbox 360), click HERE.

Whether you’re a fan of them or not, rereleases of popular games from last-gen aren’t going anywhere. While some of these remasters are a great way to introduce someone to a franchise they may have missed: Case in point last month’s Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection which offers fantastic value for those who were Xbox loyalists over the past nine years; Or come at a bargain price, such as the Darksiders 2: Definitive Edition that launched at $29.99, even in Canada, most are seen as a quick way for a publisher to make a fast buck. When it was announced that Activision’s Deadpool would be joining the likes of the above mentioned titles in getting a current-gen facelift, it came as little to surprise. After the announcement of a Deadpool movie coming to theatres early next year and the resounding love of its first trailer, the character’s popularity is certainly on the rise once again so from Activision’s perspective, why shouldn’t they join in on the Deadpool hype? But there lies the problem with this game, it’s too easy to see the dollar signs behind its existence. While publishers have used reissues such as this to gague interest in continuing a franchise, Deadpool is just an over-priced attempt to cash in on the character’s resurging popularity, which is a shame because at the right price point, this version of Deadpool is a highly recommendable game.

When it was released during the summer of 2013, I was one of the few defenders of Deadpool and upon replaying it on PS4, my opinion hasn’t wavered. Though it’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, Deadpool is a respectable character action game featuring some solid fighting mechanics mixed in with gunplay, over-the-top set pieces and wacky humour that make playing through the too brief campaign an absolute blast. Unfortunately as this is a straight port of the game and little else, my main issue with Deadpool hasn’t been addressed whatsoever, and that issue is the lack of content. Deadpool feels like an old-school DVD that features the movie and just the credits as the bonus features. There’s no hidden goodies like comic book covers or costumes to unlock which reduces replay incentive unlike Activisison’s Spider-Man and X-Men titles, and the only other extras on the disc are a series of bland challenge maps that won’t hold your interest. An interesting note that I discovered last night is that right now, there’s no names on the leaderboards for said challenge maps, so if you ever wanted to see your name at the top of one but don’t have the time to commit to a hyper competitive game, by all means, pick up Deadpool. 

The back of the game’s package promotes the fact that the added DLC from the PS3/Xbox 360 release are on the disc which would lead you to believe that this is the definitive edition of the game, but as that amounts to one or two challenge maps and costumes, it’s downright insulting. Activision is positioning this as a “budget title”, which is laughable as it’s only $10 less than the above mentioned Uncharted collection which features three games and $40 more than the Darksiders 2: Definitive Edition which is a twenty to thirty hour game. What a game costs should never factor into how much enjoyment you derive from it, as I’ve paid a lot of money for some terrific games that were only a few hours long, but even Activision’s Prototype Biohazard Bundle is $20 less than this game, and that features two games.

A worry I had with this game stemmed from the poor performance of Activision’s current-gen edition of Prototype in that in ran worse than the PS3/Xbox 360 versions, and that worry was not offset when I found out the studio responsible for bringing Deadpool to the PS4:

For those unfamiliar with Iron Galaxy, they’re the studio who were responsible for porting Batman: Arkham Knight to the PC this year. The port of that game was so bad that the game’s publisher WB Games issued refunds for those who purchased it, pulled it from stores for months, and it only recently came back for sale in a still less than perfect state. Having played through Deadpool from start to finish, I’m happy to report that other than a few hiccups here where things seem to stutter for a second or two, this is an otherwise faithful port with no game breaking bugs or glitches. For those who want to pick it up now or at some point in the future, at the very least you need not fear an unplayable, buggy mess.

Whether or not you should buy into this version of Deadpool depends on many factors. If you’re a huge fan of the character and missed out on this game somehow and no longer have your last-gen machine lying around, it may be worth looking into. If however you do happen to have either your PS3 or Xbox 360 hooked up to your TV still, there’s little reason to spring for this edition at the current asking price when the other versions will suffice at a fraction of the cost. Perhaps when the movie comes out in February, which now that I think about would’ve been a better time to release this game instead of the crowded month of November, this game will have dropped price a little to make it more attractive, but right now despite being a very solid and funny action game, Deadpool is not worth its present asking price on the current generation.