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The Punisher Review
by Doom
Ever since the collapse of the 1990's comic book market, The Punisher has been noticeably scaled back in terms of appearances and exposure. He used to have 4 books at a time; now he has just 1. With the Punisher becoming more and more low profile, it has had a side-effect: the overall quality of the line has drastically improved. Ennis' Punisher stories are literally the best of the character, the movie, while flawed, was successful enough to spawn a sequel, and now, the new video game, aptly titled The Punisher. Punisher goes above and beyond the standard license game - it truly feels like a Punisher game. Punisher features action-packed gameplay, a decent story, and many entertaining ways to kill society's dregs.
Previously, on "Six Feet Under"...
The story opens with Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, in jail, being interrogated by Detectives Soap and Von Richtoffen [a nod to Garth Ennis' masterful maxiseries Welcome Back, Frank]. Through these interrogations, we flashback to a number of scenes - these comprise all but one of the missions the player goes through during the game. The story's a pastiche of Garth Ennis' Welcome Back, Frank [the Gnuccis, the Russian, Frank's neighbors] as well as Ennis' first arc on the Marvel Knights imprint [General Kreigkopf]. Even the brilliant monologue "Do Not Fall in New York City" is an abridged version of the narration in Punisher Vol. 4 #6. This comes to no surprise, as Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti penned the script of the game. They add in a few more elements, such as incorporating Marvel U stalwarts such as Black Widow, Nick Fury, Daredevil [as Matt Murdock, Frank's lawyer], and setting the game after the of questionable quality movie. Thanks to this, The Punisher feels like much how the movie should've really been - filled with one-liners, over-the-top violence and great humor. Thomas Jane reprises his role as Frank Castle, and he nails the persona of the Punisher once again. Jane was one of the high points of the movie, so it's nice to see him to voice the Punisher here. Hey, at least it's not Dolph Lundgren voicing him.
They never expected this out of the unknown soldier's casket!!!
Though just from looking at it, one might expect it to be a simple Max Payne ripoff, which is ironic, as Max Payne's basically Frank Castle if he spoke horrifically bad noirish dialogue. And while Punisher uses the basic engine that Max Payne used, it adds a few new wrinkles to the formula. Namely, the interrogation mode, where the Punisher's able to punch, gun tension, choke and face smash the perp in order to get them to spit out vital information such as where you target's holed up, or the location of a secret weapons cache. This gameplay mechanic never gets old and it's very satisfying to hear your victim go from 'I ain't sayin' shit' to 'Alright, alright! I'll talk!' within 15 seconds. There are even special interrogations [denoted with a white skull over the location and the enemy], such as smashing someone's head into a toilet or throwing a guy to the piranhnas. After interrogating someone, you can also use them as a human shield to take fire for you.
The Punisher's other tweak to the standard third person shooter gameplay is the slaughter mode. Rather than just incorporate bullet-time or something similar, Volition made the slaughter mode in which one can regain health and basically go on a rampage against thugs. Since it'd be so violent if one used guns, you're only allowed knives in slaughter mode. But that's fine because there's not much better than stabbing a guy through the head. This mode only lasts for a limited amount of time, depending upon how much you had in your slaughter bar at the time. Quick kills are another speciality of The Punisher. By tapping 'Q', Frank takes the nearest villain and kills in him one shot or blow, sometimes by hitting him with the gun butt, stabbing him, or even throwing him down the stairs, depending upon the environment. This adds a more manic element to The Punisher, making it even more over the top than it already is.
Man, he REALLY shouldn'tve had gasoline before Castle showed up...
Be warned, there's a lot of violence in this game. More violent than Grand Theft Auto or even Manhunt. So violent, in fact, that the developers had to turn the really violent scenes to black and white [as well as blur them] just to keep from getting an AO rating. Thankfully, the PC version should have a hack to keep everything in color about...oh, 7 hours after it's released. Even with some scenes put in B&W, the game itself is still very violent. Frank has a variety of weapons, from your standard shotgun and pistol, to flamethrowers, rocket launchers and even throwing knives. But, like the comic, the violence is completely over the top and not meant to be taken seriously. So while the image of the Punisher putting a grenade down a thug's throat and shutting his mouth might be disturbing in any other context, it's hilarious here.
Controls are similar to Max Payne's. It's the standard WASD control scheme used in most shooters [W-A-S-D being the directional keys, for those who don't know]. I don't play many shooters on the PC, especially because I'm left handed and have become accustomed to using a mouse with my left hand. However, I found WASD to be accommodating and easy even for a beginner such as myself.
Petty vandalism never ceases to amuse me.
Nothing too impressive is seen in the graphics, but they're on par with other shooters of its ilk, so there's no real negative to the graphics; they're not the best, but they're solid. They get the job done. Likewise, the music's fairly generic, so I won't go into it any further. To contrast, the sound effects are killer. Every scream, every broken bone sounds like it should.
I'll teach you with a knife!!
Unfortunately, there are some more pronounced weaknesses to the game. The AI isn't the best - for grunts it's pretty good, but some of the bosses make some stupid mistakes. For example, when I fought one of the Gnucci brothers, he stood still for at least 10 second while I shot him before trying to get away. The game suffers a bit thanks to the occasionally poor AI; however, this isn't really a game where you should care about the consistency of enemies. This is a game about stabbing guys in their eye and stuffing a grenade in their mouth. Also, the replay value isn't too great after everything's unlocked, and the game's admittedly a bit short. Clipping issues are also prevalent; sometimes enemies would fall through walls or get stuck in doorways. This shows that Volition's heart was in the right place when making this game, but they had neither the time nor the money to fix everything that could've raised the game from 'very good' to 'excellent'.
omg bullseye not have his stupid mask in this version!!!! not accurate too comics
There's a load of unlockable content buried within the game - from comic book covers to alternate costumes to videos. Volition really went all out with this game, and it shows. There's also a challenge mode [some of the challenges being 'interrogate six different ways in 3 minutes'], a medal system which gives you points to buy upgrades such as better aiming and a rocket launcher.
The Punisher, despite its flaws, is an incredibly fun game to play if you want to blow off some steam and take down massive numbers of thugs and criminals. It's a very well made game, and the developers obviously put a lot of thought and time into it. Though it's no Half-Life 2, it's one of the better shooter games out recently [yes, I like it even better than Halo] for the PC and is worth the purchase, even at the steep price of $50.
Yep, the big Russian guy's right where I left him. In the fridge, next to the vegetable crisper and left of the milk.
How many needles of black tar heroin to make this game good?: 0
What made up George W. Bush word would best describe this game?: Shockenaw
Most uncomfortable moment: The black and white scenes.