The Punisher

The Good
Ah poor old Frank Castle, his family got slaughtered by a bunch of gangsters while in a picnic in N.Y’s central park, so during the last two plus something (I think) decades he’s out seeking revenge, even something beyond revenge, total catharsis more like. If I’m not mistaken this is the second time Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) and his quest to purge society, gets transferred into a computer game. I can only vaguely remember a game on the old Amiga named “Punisher – the circle of blood” which was also a shooter, I can hardly remember any detail of that game, so my info here will be inaccurate. Punisher also got transferred in the coin-op genre as a beat-em’ up style game during the early 90’s. I’ve read a couple of dozen of Punisher’s issues back in the beginning of the 90’s decade and to be honest he’s my favorite Marvel hero. I much prefer his unbelievable stunts and gun blazing havoc, than any other flying, wrecking, wall climbing hero-creature.

In this game you play the Punisher (well who else would you thing of?) himself. It’s a third person perspective shooter game. Marvel gets largely involved in the development of the game, mainly with the comic’s original writers. So this is gotta be good… Well… sort of…

First of all, added to the shooting menace of the plot there are some action elements, like the ability to capture enemies, interrogate them to find further info vital to the continuity of the plot, smash their faces or use them as a shield in gunfights. Additionally there are some special interrogation spots, scattered on appropriate places on a level that make the game more interesting and resembling more to the comic’s look. In the same style as interrogation there are special kill spots, where the Punisher kill his captive in a special way according to the surroundings, ie: throwing people out of balconies, windows and cliffs, smashing their heads on power presses, get their faces eaten by piranhas etc. There’s a good variety of imagination here.

The plot itself turns around like a snake. At first Punisher is after the Nucci’s (Italian mafiosos), then the Russians come in along with some nukes and if that wasn’t enough the Yakuza pays a visit only to be revealed that behind them is Jigsaw, one of Punisher’s worst enemies. Talking about Punisher’s enemies the game includes several of his foes and friends. On the foe celebrity cast we have: Jigsaw of course, Bushwacker, Bullseye, the mighty Russian and others. The friends that join the massacre party are Black Widow (an x-Russian spy, now teamed up with SHIELD) , and Nick Fury.

The characters (friend or foe) are modeled nicely with a good level of detail, the Punisher’s model is simply excellent. Added the fact that the player can unlock 3 different skins from the comic eras: 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000. Equally beautiful are the weapons where you can find all of Punisher’s classic tools of his trade including his dual .45 ACP pistols, the Vietnam era M-16 assault rifle, the M61 machinegun (in this game the M61 proves useful actually, as it offers a bit more accuracy than in any other game of the same genre), Dual Ingrams, Flame thrower, anti-tank rocket launcher, shotgun, among many others.

The scoring style of the game is laid out in an unusual way, so in order to get a high score and earn medals for each mission you have to kill as many enemies in a row without taking a single hit. The more you kill, the higher the score multiplier gets, but if you get a hit the killing row score gets added to the overall score and the multiplier resets back to zero. In other words big score means loads of kills without being hit, tough stuff.

Also getting a high score will allow you to purchase many combat useful upgrades such as higher ammo quantity packs, larger magazines, increased shooting accuracy, increased damage sustain, grenade launchers attached to some guns etc.

The Bad
Well, the biggest disappointment of the game is the game itself. Here we have a release by THQ, developed by Volition and Marvel comics is also involved in the works. Having not seen the game, one can expect that this is a major blockbuster. Well… I’m afraid it is not. It’s more like a quick dip for the cash than anything else, before the Punisher movie loses it’s freshness. Thankfully the havoc physics engine gets employed here and saves a bit from the total disaster this would have been otherwise.

First of all, the 3d modeling and graphics. Take out the punisher model, take out the foes and weapons and all you have left is a joke really!!! The level modeling simply sucks, I’ve seen better modeling than that in games 3-4 years ago. Seeing this game, makes it really difficult for one to believe that Volition has developed the superb Red Faction, 3 years ago or so (among other superb games). This game seems like it’s been developed on an extreme rush. So expect no jaw drops or excitement about the graphics and the modeling.

The Bottom Line
Well by now you must have gotten the picture about this game. It’s an average third person shooter which I’m afraid the only market it aims for is Punisher’s fans and nothing more. Bad news is that if you’re a Punisher fan, this effort will somehow disappoint you. You know marketing has only done harm to this world, the same it did to this game cause with just a little more bit of development this title would have been huge! Better luck next time Frank…

The Good
When Frank Castle’s family was gunned down by mobsters he became The Punisher. As judge, jury, and executioner, The Punisher is a one-man war on crime. “Every muzzle flash,” he says, “means another dead monster.” Spanning the events of Garth Ennis’ “Welcome Back, Frank” storyline and acting as a semi-sequel to the 2004 The Punisher movie (Thomas Jane voices Castle), the game finds Castle caught up in a gang war between the Gnuccis, Russian mobsters, and the Yakuza. Lurking in the background is The Kingpin and another classic Punisher villain whose origin is rewritten to incorporate events from the movie.

After an opening cinematic shows The Punisher’s capture after wiping out a Yakuza base, The Punisher spends the bulk of the game in an interrogation room as Officers Soap and Maggie recount The Punisher’s recent exploits. Most of the 16 missions composing the game are flashbacks beginning with a tutorial level set in a crack den. Acting out of character, The Punisher starts the game unarmed (or as unarmed as he gets).

The Punisher’s first goal is to interrogate a criminal. Walking behind a criminal, The Punisher grabs him and then has several options. Castle can punch or choke information out of a criminal, if there’s room, he can smash their face into the ground until they talk, or he can threaten to shoot them until they talk. Using the analog stick, the player must apply enough pressure on the criminal to keep a bar in the red zone of a meter. Too much pressure results in the criminal’s death. Interrogating criminals gives Castle information and also restores some of his health.

Some characters have a floating skull above their heads. These characters provide more useful information (locations of weapons cache, key codes for doors, etc.) and provide more healing. Usually found near these characters are special interrogation points. Using the environment, The Punisher can threaten criminals with truly gruesome endings until they talk. Tame at first, merely slamming a window down on someone, these interrogations build to threatening to throw criminals to sharks, put their faces in deep fryers, or going to work on them with a laser.

The interrogations are the game’s greatest feature. Everything else tends towards straight forward combat, simple running and gunning. The interrogations, however, are sadistically sophisticated and require a touch of skill. But in a strange schism, The Punisher is punished for taking the interrogations too far. After getting the information, if you go ahead and run someone’s face into a circular saw, the game knocks off a few points and switches to a bizarre monochrome mode during the kill. If you kill someone outside of interrogations, it’s a good thing, during one, it’s not.

I mentioned that The Punisher starts out unarmed, but it really doesn’t matter since he can kill any non-boss character by walking up to them and pressing a quick kill button. Depending on what he has, The Punisher might simply snap a neck, impale someone with a knife, or, more elaborately, shove a flamethrower in their mouth and watch their head light up or cram a grenade down their throat. When armed, he can blow off heads, and after killing enough, he can enter Slaughter mode and rapidly kill dozens of enemies with bloody panache. Of course, none of this is in monochrome. Allegedly the ESRB threatened an AO rating if the interrogations were in color allowing that it’s not so much what you see, but the palette from which it draws.

Most missions begin in Castle’s apartment. Here you can upgrade The Punisher based on the points you’ve earned; buying better armor, bigger magazines, and the like. You can also review news clippings in the War Journal, check out the Armory, look at unlocked extras, and enter the War Zone. The War Zone is where you find missions. There’s very little mission selection in terms of story, usually completing one level unlocks the next one. However, you can replay levels to gain more points, earn medals, or play Challenge or Punishment modes which unlock extra features.

Most of the levels are require moving from points A to B while killing everything in between. Some end with boss battles and one with a rescue. In terms of objectives, there’s little variety, but the levels themselves are varied and interesting. The game is set in New York City (not Tampa) and is entrenched in the Marvel Universe. The main bosses are major villains from The Punisher’s past, one level incorporates a tour of Stark Labs, and S.H.I.E.L.D. makes a few appearances. The Punisher is a standard third-person perspective action game, but gets points for being more than a movie tie-in and drawing heavily on Garth Ennis’ Marvel Knights series.

The Bad
The game just feels wrong. I asked Paulie what he thought about The Punisher and he said, “You mean the tank simulator?” I said, “You mean how he barely takes damage?” “No, I meant how controlling him is like driving a tank, but you’re right he is like a tank.” “Yeah, he doesn’t react to getting shot. But neither do the enemies.” Enemies react as scripted, spawning where needed, resembling a lesser clone army. The Punisher can grab them with no problem and use them as human shields. They don’t struggle and they don’t talk back.

Every boss battle relies on learning patterns and then adopting a rinse and repeat method of attacking. A helicopter engages Castle and he must shoot it down with a rocket launcher. So Castle snipes the gunmen aboard the chopper, runs forward to grab rockets, runs back to kill enemies spawned behind him, fires rockets at the chopper, shoots at the gunmen which have respawned aboard the chopper, and runs forward to grab respawned rockets, etc. One maddening boss battle involves waiting for a single grenade to respawn so The Punisher can throw it to stun the enemy and move in for a few head shots.

The game’s cinematics are stunning, but cutscenes using the game’s engine and in-game animations look unfinished. The Punisher has this permanent sneer expression, which is so unnatural it breaks mimesis. Pressing the dodge button makes The Punisher do an awkward, stiff forward roll even if there isn’t a place to roll forward to. It’s not obviously buggy save for major clipping issues regarding the final boss battle. The oversized boss kept getting stuck on corners forcing me to reload.

Sound is similarly a mixed bag. Great score (probably from the movie), but odd transitions to a rock soundtrack occur. The Punisher also has a hearing disorder. If he’s not facing the person speaking to him, he cannot hear them. The weapons sound fine, but explosions are muted and ambient sounds don’t make an impression.

Controls are awkward. One analog stick moves The Punisher and the other one controls the camera. Pressure on the analog stick also controls whether The Punisher runs or walks, but walking is useless since stealth is only achieved by crouching.

The Bottom Line
The Punisher (2005) isn’t better than The Punisher (1990) and in some ways it’s worse. After 30 years, The Punisher is still a compelling character. He’s a little bit Rambo, a little bit Bernard Goetz. Death Wish meets Falling Down. The Punisher kills criminals, and that’s cool, but what makes him interesting is how he does it and why. The Punisher presented here is simplified. He’s a man with guns marching forward and mowing down opposition. With the exception of interrogations, The Punisher is every other game featuring men with guns and their countless targets.

The Good
The graphics were excellent as well as the game play, but once it's linear and doesn't offer free-form. Though there many ways to kill a person. One new feature it adds to the gameplay is interrogating the enemy using a variety of environmental hazards, like a drill, or a car crusher. Either way, it's those things that will get your buddy talking fast depending on how far you go before he submits. I like the comic references, almost common like the Max Payne series, as you collect nostalgia bits from the original and newspaper headlines as you make your rounds killing the bad guys. The plot thickens after a few levels and is able to keep my attention span high. Their are a few puzzles in the game that require knowledge and a bit of luck to pass, since some enemies can't be killed by brute force or bullets. So the Punisher allows you to use your imagination a bit to get the job done.

The voice acting is professional quality and done by the actor Thomas Jane, who was the Punisher in the movie edition.So there are a several good credentials to take note.

The Bad
The controls, are a bit awkward, especially when you run and try to do a clothesline. But you pretty much move like Max Payne, almost to say its a Max Payne clone. The torture scenes are done in old-fashioned black and white nostalgia, but becomes an eyesore in the game and it'll cause headaches. There is a now a patch to remove it and it does help.

The AI in the game is pretty easy, even for the boss, and there are some enemies that are pretty hard to kill, but with AI, there's little to do with them since they're repetitive, shoot and kill, scripting commands. There is a difficulty slider, but it really don't do much in terms of AI. Not the AI you would see in Half-Life 2 or F.E.A.R. except harder makes you even more vulnerable to bullets.

The music score stinks and doesn't match up to par with the voice acting. For a drama game you expect something more like an opera, but all you get is some freaky guitar riffs when things get complicated. Doesn't really set the atmosphere at all.

There's no replayability whatsoever, once you beat the game, you get the ending movie and several cheats unlocked, you can always up the difficulty a bit, but still the AI is the same, except bullets will hurt you 2X. And there's no free-roaming allowed, just simple linear gameplay.

The Bottom Line
I could say its another Max Payne clone, but it does serve it's intentions like in the movie. It's a run and gun type of game that follows its root and storyline. So if you're a fan of those types of games, you could add this to your collection. Otherwise there are better games out there in the bargain bin..to look for.

The Good
The Punisher, was one of the first comic book characters to tread darker territory. Frank Castle, AKA, The Punisher, saw his family executed, born of that tragedy, he became, the gun-totting anti-hero. And inspired two poor Hollywood films, and a slew of video games. The games unlike the films are for the most part very enjoyable, from the DOS game that plays like a free-form game, about 10 years before GTA hit the scene, to the arcade Beat em Up, one of Capcom’s finest games. Since then it had been some time since a Punisher game, but the wait was well worth it.

In The Punisher, you are of course, Frank Castle. Based on the newer comics, we have a somewhat grittier Punisher gunning for the Gnucci Family. The game’s story unfolds as the Frank, tells it to two cops that are interrogating, him after his most recent arrest.

Cutscenes, in between levels, advance the story. It is fairly well written, and unfolds at a brisk pace. Written by the scribes of the comic is also a nice touch. Throughout numerous levels, Castle regales the police with his tales of a vigilante. Taking on the Gnucci’s, A rouge U.S. general, the Yakuza, and many super villains, from The Russian, to Bushwhacker. There are also cameo’s from a few other Marvel Superhero’s including, Iron Man.

Levels often have an interesting design, there is Castle’s apartment, and of course Central Park Zoo. During levels The Punisher, kills his way through. With 3rd person gunplay, quick kills, torture, and slaughter mode. Gunplay involves two guns, a main gun, such as am M5 or Shotgun, and a secondary gun, .45’s and Desert Eagles, as well as grenades. Guns are unlocked during missions.

The quick kills are pretty unique, when you approach a foe either from behind, or front, you push the “X” button to execute a quick kill. There are many different kills, often depending on how you approach the foe, implements of death include, knives, guns, crowbars, and even a T.V.

In Torture mode, The Punisher attempts to get info from his foes, using an array of devices, from his pistol, to a band saw. It plays sort of like a mini-game. Where you slid the stick to increase pressure and get the villain to spill their guts before you literally do just that.

Slaughter Mode, occurs when The Punisher’s blue bullet bar is filled. During this time he goes into a rage, and uses knives to kill all foe’s foolish enough to get in his way. This has often been unfairly compared to Max Payne’s bullet time, yet is not that much like it, sure you are pretty much invulnerable to attack, like Max, but can only use knives, no guns here.

There are also many unlockables. From comic book covers, to codes, upgrades, and flashbacks from The Punisher’s career. And The Punisher does not kill innocents so do not try it sickey.

The Graphics are good. Not Doom 3 quality, but pretty good, considering that this is a multiplatform game. Lighting effects are nice, when it comes from your guns.

The sound department is solid as well. Sound effects are loud and sound realistic. And both original and licensed music abound. The voice acting is very good. And includes the voice of Thomas Jane, whom played The Punisher in the most recent film, he plays a better Punisher here than he did in the movie.

The Bad
Among the unlockable items, one key thing seems to be missing. There are NO alternate skins to unlock, all comic book games should have this feature, even the horrible Batman Begins game had this.

The game is a little to easy. And for those that can not stand violent games, be warned, this is one of the most violent games I have ever seen. The same goes for those that find gratuitous language offensive.

There could have been more super-villains, and why is it that some levels are just poor while others are amazing?

I know it is in the comic, but the thing with Castle’s goofy neighbors is idiotic.

The Bottom Line
Fans of action, and comic inspired games will find a lot to like here. And all the unlockables add to replay value.