The Punisher

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on March 10, 2005

Review: For Punisher fans only.

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Gameplay

But even if the filter was eliminated, it wouldn't be enough to lift The Punisher beyond an average rating. Yes, you have a ton of cool killing methods at your disposal, and the action can get fast and frantic at times. But overall, gameplay is pretty basic: you run around shooting enemies, fight a boss, shoot some more enemies, fight another boss, rinse and repeat. Repetitive gameplay is a danger that all shooters face and is something The Punisher tries to avoid, but doesn't quite make it. The developers do deserve credit for trying to keep things fresh from mission to mission, however. Spanning 16 levels in all, you will fight your way through a chop shop, a funeral home, the city zoo, the dockyards, a Russian freighter, even a mob boss's mansion. At the end of each mission, you unlock new weapons which magically appear in Frank's apartment, and can read about your exploits in newspaper clippings pinned on his wall.

As you kill enemies, you rack up style points. You earn bonus points and multipliers by mixing up shooting, Quick Kills, Slaughter Mode, and by not getting hit. If you kill someone during an interrogation, you are penalized points Ц and since the Special Interrogation kills are censored, you will probably be more concerned about preserving points than killing your victim anyway. At the end of each mission, you can redeem your points to upgrade Frank's attributes like body armor, accuracy, longer Slaughter Mode, and increased ammo capacity, along with weapon upgrades like scopes, silencers and under-barrel grenade launchers.

You will need these upgrades as enemies get tougher the further you go. The baddies will eventually don tough body armor and helmets, meaning you will need precise head shots to take them down. For such high accuracy shots, you can enter Fine Aiming Mode which provides an over-the-shoulder zoom view and supposedly finer reticle aiming. I say УsupposedlyФ because Fine Aim is anything but. Instead, it is very twitchy and often causes more frustration than it's worth, especially when the enemies are running around like jittery rabbits, making Fine Aim extremely difficult.

And the enemies do run around Ц a lot. Kudos should go to the developers for making the enemies pretty darn smart (and quite funny; if you can hold off killing them for a few seconds, you can often hear them engage in some hilarious conversations). They will actively search for cover, pop out to shoot, and then duck behind cover again. They can dive and roll just like you can, and can flank you if you're not careful. Enemies will drop their guns if you wound them badly enough, but will then search for another gun to pick up and shoot back if you don't finish them off. They often come in swarms of four or five at a time, but don't worry Ц despite a commendable level of enemy AI, The Punisher is actually a fairly easy game.

Much of this is due to the fact that Frank can take a lot of punishment Ц what other video game character can take several RPG rounds square in the chest and barely get a scratch? As well, enemies don't need a lot of hits to go down (except the armored ones, but even then one head shot will do it), you'll never run out of ammo or weapons to pick up, the maps are very linear, and Frank often warns you about what's waiting up ahead. Despite the smart enemy AI, the bad guys don't vary much; they may look different and eventually pack more powerful weapons and body armor, but they all act the same way. Even the boss fights aren't all that difficult. When you add it all up, The Punisher isn't particularly challenging and as a result, can get a little repetitive and dull. However, the easiness of the game is offset thanks to several annoying gameplay faults.

For example, Frank is a big guy Ц in fact, he's so big he gets caught against walls and door frames even though it looks as if he's several inches away. This becomes especially frustrating when you are trying to duck behind cover and get stuck against something. When you finally do get behind an object, aiming becomes tricky; even though it appears as if you have a clear shot, more often than not your bullets will hit the object rather than your victim. Grabbing enemies is sometimes hit and miss as well; I've run up to enemies and have had to hit the grab button several times before the command registers, all the while taking shots at point-blank range. Also, when Frank's back is too close to a wall, the camera angle shifts such that you can't see what the heck he's doing, not a good thing when the action gets fierce.

Extra, extra!

Depending on the number of points you earn at the end of each mission, you are awarded a bronze, silver or gold medal; the higher the medal, the more extras you can unlock. These include cheat codes, artwork and dozens of comic book covers, something that is sure to delight Punisher fans.

To enhance replayability, you can also unlock two new gamemodes: Challenge, in which you have to finish a level within a certain time limit, and Punishment, which challenges you to achieve a certain number of style points.

The extras are cool, but really don't add much to the gaming experience. Sure, you may want to go back to try and earn a higher medal or beat one of the new gamemodes, but beyond that, replayability is fairly limited Ц especially since The Punisher is single-player only. That's a shame, since multiplayer would have been a nice addition to the game; after all, can you imagine going toe-to-toe with 15 other people all dual-wielding light machineguns?