The Punisher

Written by John Nieves  on February 01, 2005

Review: If throwing a guy in a wood chipper is wrong, I don't want to be right...

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Gamers intuition can be a dangerous thing. This intuition is what tells you that The Bouncer is going to be amazing when it releases, or that Katamari Damacy looks like it's going to suck. Gamer's intuition may have both surprised and disappointed me in the past, but I love when it holds true when dealing with games that not everyone believes are going to be good. The Punisher represents this kind of game. I've heard that this game is a Max Payne rip off from other reviews which I think is a bit misleading. Considering that Max Payne totally stole its story straight from the pages of the Punisher comic books, it's hard to swallow that The Punisher is a rip off of something that ripped of something else in the first place.

Although all the hardcore Punisher fans are salivating at the thought of controlling a virtual Frank Castle, everyone else that simply likes a good videogame probably thinks they don't have much to look forward to if they played this game based on a hybrid comic book/movie version of Marvel's resident vigilante. This has much to do with the fact that videogames based off of comic book characters still receive a bad wrap despite the recent success that some major players in the comic book industry have had in the videogame industry. The problem is that with every Spider-Man 2 and X-men Legends videogame, you have a Blade, Fantastic Four (shudders), Superman (shudders even more) and Catwoman videogame that completely overshadow any positive stride that has been made in recent years. This combined with the fact that Punisher has a borderline mainstream/cult following, it makes it reasonable for the average gamer to be skeptic and not exactly enthusiastic about a Punisher videogame. Now, I'm not here to tell you to throw away all skepticism out the window and fork over your hard earned $50 bucks without regard, but I am here to tell you that you should at least stand at attention and not write this game off completely before giving it a fair shake.

For the uninitiated, The Punisher is about a man named Frank Castle who was once on the more ethical side of the law until a mob family by the name of the Saint's wiped out his entire family and left Castle for dead. Miraculously, Castle survived and vowed to get revenge on the Saint's and every other scumbag in New York. The thing is that Castle has his own idea of УjusticeФ; he fights fire with fire. During his adventures, Punisher will see the likes of Kingpin, Bullseye, Jigsaw, and even Ironman makes a cameo appearance. The game's story really drives the point as far as how low Castle thinks of his enemies. Castle is still just as dirty, brutal, and sometimes even more cold-blooded than his adversaries. Frank Castle lives up to the name УThe PunisherФ in every single way imaginable.

The Punisher is Volition's first attempt at a console non-RPG game that didn't have the words Red or Faction in it. Given that fact, this is definitely an important addition to Volition's catalog of developed games because it can help define whether or not it has the chops to develop a game outside its realm of comfort. So can a company that has never done a third person action title strike gold on their first try? Read on and find out.

Let me just make a statement here and then expand upon it. I have never played a game before with this much violence and brutality. The Punisher is the guiltiest of pleasures. In a game such as GTA: San Andreas, the sandbox-style gameplay gives you a choice. You can either be senselessly violent, or you can decide not to attack pedestrians and hookers, sticking to the task at hand. Although the task at hand isn't necessarily legal, or ethically just, the choice to be as violent or as non-violent as you can is still there. With The Punisher not only is the choice not there, being violent is applauded. You are given an arcade score that takes how stylish you were as you killed into account and gives you points accordingly and kill you will. Telling you that there are various ways to kill your foe in The Punisher is an understatement. There is literally over 100 different ways to kill someone in this game. Kills run the gamut from quick kills, to special kills, interrogations, and special interrogations. No matter which type of kill is done, they are all ultra violent and made me gush like a schoolgirl. Quick kills basically consist of non-interactive death animations that are at a touch of a button. With one push of the square button, you can stick a knife either under someone's chin, or through the top of their head, you can throw your shotgun at them and while they catch it, either shoot them in the head with your handgun or stab them in the face, you can even shove a grenade in your enemies mouth and watch them run around like a madman for a second until it explodes in their mouth; brilliant! Use a quick kill while holding a crow bar or butcher's knife and you end up sticking it halfway through someone's head. It doesn't get much brutally splendid than this!

The big addition that brings a much needed shot of originality to The Punisher is its special interrogations. These environmentally dependant interrogations take place anywhere you see a white Punisher skull splash. The whole point of the interrogations is that when you push a bad guy enough, they give you information. When you go into interrogation mode, you will see a meter with another smaller meter within it. This smaller meter is the zone you want to keep their fear between for at least three seconds so they tell you what you need to know. This is done with slightly pressing the analog stick up and down. This takes a bit of practice to perfect, but that's what makes it fun. Certain enemies scare easier than others, so go too far and you might just kill them. Some of the information is used to add small layers to the back story while some enemies try to bargain with you by promising to go into the next room and tell the rest of the men not to shoot at you. The fun part about these situations is that there is a chance that he is just setting you up to go into a room full of guys waiting to shoot at you. This wrinkle definitely adds to the fun of the game. Some guys will even lead you to weapons not seen before. Little does the poor bastard know that you will need someone to test the weapon on once he gives you the weapon (flamethrower anyone?). There was even one instance where Castle puts a remote charge on a guy and you hear him say, УThis remote charge should keep him honestФ. I never found out because I simply could not help the temptation of setting off the remote charge as he tries to talk five of his comrades to let me through.

Another cool addition to these interrogations is flashbacks. Sometimes an enemy will make a plea for help that hits close to home for Castle such as someone yelling out УCome on, I have kids!Ф or УI just got married!Ф. When they say these, their voice echoes and Frank has a flashback. These flashbacks consist of actual panels from Punisher comics. This is definitely a nice touch that lets you know that Volition did their homework when it came to bringing the Punisher to PS2 and Xbox.