Now this is how you make a violent game.
You play as Frank Castle, your normal, everyday vigilante badass who has a score to settle with the people that killed his family. Not content to rest on his laurels and wait for the Johnny Law to come by and serve justice, Castle takes it upon himself to brandish his own form of punishment to those he deems necessary, or those unfortunate enough of getting in his way. He has his gun sights firmly set on the seedy underworld. You will have access to a formidable arsenal to help you accomplish this goal; everything from pistols to flame throwers will be at your disposal throughout the game. Each weapon has its own special kill that you can execute with it which helps you earn style points.
Style points are important for a couple of reasons: They enable you to purchase upgrades for Frank such as body armor, weapon accuracy, ammo capacity, etc., as well as earning a medal at the end of a level. Depending on which difficulty you’re playing on you can earn one of three medals ranging in order from bronze (easy), silver (medium) or gold (hard). Each medal has a certain amount of style points pre-assigned to it; simply completing a level does not necessarily mean you will earn a medal. You must meet the minimum amount of style points to earn each respective medal. Style points are awarded for various reasons: Pulling off special kills, using specific objects in the environment to dispatch enemies, or even conducting a successful interrogation that yields valuable information earn you points. You can capture and interrogate any enemy in the game, and depending on who that person is you may unlock special flashback sequences from the comic series (actual covers used for the comic series that you can later browse and view at your convenience). This adds a bit of replayability to the game since you never know when or which enemy will yield a flashback sequence. You will have to play the game multiple times in order to unlock every cover since one play through will not be enough.
During your gleeful crusade of revenge you will find come across various locations in a level marked with a white skull hovering above a specific object. These are the special interrogation spots are used to scare the bejeezus out of enemies, and employ a more “persuasive” method of coaxing out a confession of information (like a tank full of electric eels, or a drill press, etc.). Once you acquire the required info you are faced with a moral dilemma: Do you take the high ground and let the pathetic, sniveling thug live, or do you just kill him instead with whatever insidious object you just terrorized them with? If you decide to “punish” the bad guy at that interrogation spot you take the risk of sacrificing precious style points. Whereas if you let him live and execute him in a quick kill fashion you actually gain points. It is disappointing for a game that boasts being able to kill your enemies in the most gruesome ways possible that you actually end up getting penalized for taking advantage of these special kill spots. That is the whole point of why you‘re playing this game, correct? Also sprinkled throughout the game are other special kill spots marked with a gold skull. These spots allow you to kill your victim in a violent way without sacrificing style points, and you actually earn bonus style points when you take advantage of these areas, however they are few and far between. I must admit there is a certain satisfaction ramming a drill press through a guy’s skull, but after the first time through the novelty of these sadistic executions wears off and you will find yourself instead playing for the style points.
To make comparisons to another third person shooter out there this game plays and controls a lot like Max Payne, but on steroids and with a hell of a lot more attitude. Max Payne utilized the now almost ubiquitous “bullet time” feature, and the same is somewhat true with Punisher. Aptly labeled “Slaughter Mode,” this is a mode where time slows down allows you to rampage through a level impervious to enemy gunfire. Wielding two big Bowie knives, you get up close and personal with your enemies by inflicting some downright nasty executions. You just have to witness these attacks to understand the sheer brutality. Words cannot fully convey the feeling of seeing two twelve inch combat knives being shoved up through some guy’s neck and hear him gurgle as you toss him aside like a limp noodle. Not exactly quality family time. The game only supports Xbox Live Aware enabling you to be signed in on Live and receive invites, as well as advertising to all your friends what game you are currently playing.
The world of Punisher is decent enough. The game uses a mix of CG and in-game cut scenes to guide you along the Frank’s path of revenge. Heads explode, bullets leave individual holes and limbs are severed. The game utilizes the Havok physics engine and to great effect (strictly speaking for the character models). Bodies slump realistically after taking a bullet to the head or fly backwards when taking a shot gun blast point blank to the chest. In-world objects can be manipulated as well, but with no substantial effect on gameplay. It never gets old running through a level watching rag doll physics at work. I remember one level where you need to escape out on to a window washers scaffolding. As I proceeded a body crashed through a window above me, and I watched riveted as the body hit the scaffolding and cart-wheeled all the way to the bottom and I saw it impact. It is moments like these that the physics really show off.
While Frank Castle is rendered well, most of the bad guys you kill throughout each level will leave you feeling a sense of déjà vu (didn‘t I just kill this guy two rooms back?). The game relies heavily on recycling the same generic character models. It feels like you are killing clones instead of unique, individual scum who deserve hollow point justice. But then this game was never about individualism; it’s about killing low life’s in the most violent way possible!
The aural atmosphere consists mostly of the staccato of gunfire interspersed with the screams of dying men crying out in sheer agony. Each gun has its own unique sound accompanying its outburst of hot lead. About the only thing this game has in common with the movie is the voice acting. Tom Jane lends his voice talent to the role as the Punisher. His delivery gives that extra bit of believability and credence to this dark character. The supporting voice actors provide a solid performance with their characters mainly being the boss characters. Each thug you interrogate will either whimper in fear or tell you to screw off convincingly enough. All this takes place in beautiful 5.1 Dolby Digital® surround for those who have a home theater system. The script is not for the faint of heart as it does employ some rather colorful language throughout the entire game which definitely earns it the “Mature” rating. And oh yeah, you can kill people in very bad ways as well!
There are a ton of goodies to unlock such as concept art for the game and a lot of cover art from the actual issues of the comic series. As well as movies and cheats, not to mention there is the task of earning each of the three medals for each level. There are specific level challenges such as getting through an entire level without picking up a weapon, or getting through a level within a certain amount of time and killing a certain amount of enemies, etc. There is a hefty dose of replay value here if you choose to accept the challenges depending on your tolerance to go back through and play each level again.
The sixteen levels should not take more than ten hours to complete on “Easy.” It can easily be beat in a weekend’s rental. The game is fun, don’t get me wrong, but the core game play mechanic of just running around shooting people coupled with the special kill moves that can start to feel gimmicky after your second or third time through starts to get repetitive. But if you are anal about completing the game with every mode then there is plenty of replay value here for you. I really had a lot of fun playing this game despite the repetitiveness it starts to suffer from. It may appear to be a Max Payne clone, and the violence is sure to make waves with your local senator but damn, killing in a game was never so much fun!