Gamescom: Deadpool preview

There's a reasonable chance you haven't heard of Deadpool. He's one of the lesser-known superheroes in the Marvel universe. Despite his relatively low profile however, he's been granted his own off-the-wall, darkly comic action game. Prefer your superheroes when they stop the action to sing along to 'Crazy'? Then Deadpool is the game for you.

Truthfully, it's hard to really gauge what the game will play like at this early stage. It's very definitely taking its cue from the familiar third-person action adventure template though as Deadpool creates carnage on the hunt for Chance White, a shady billionaire media mogul, in our recent demo. If one thing is clear however, it's that the action promises to be intense as Deadpool engages in a mix of ranged and hand-to-hand combat across the platform and light puzzle-based levels.

During our demonstration, for instance, we got to see the eponymous hero twirling two hefty hammers simultaneously to bash in the brains of his foes, barely pausing for breath as he took control of a heavily-armed chopper to rain down red hot, bloody fury on his enemies. It might be gratuitously action-heavy but the real star of the show is Deadpool's deranged character, with his fourth-wall breaking split personalities proving a real highlight as he wisecracks his way through the game.

As the game's designers put it, Deadpool is the ultimate A.D.D. warrior - or, alternatively, the merc with a mouth. He's fully aware that he's in a video game and doesn't much like his fellow superheroes, making an occasional exception for the X-Men's buxom Psylock. It all makes for a silly, entertaining and surprisingly unique take on the action genre.

We're looking forward to seeing more of Deadpool before it's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 release next year.