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The Punisher
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 'justice' and 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 “The Punisher”
in every single way imaginable. With that said, the Punisher is a
mixture of third person shooter meets the ultra-violence of Grand Theft
Auto San Andreas.
It should also be noted that The Punisher is probably the most violent
game that I have ever played on the PlayStation 2 which matches the
psyche of Frank Castle perfectly. You are given an arcade score that
takes into account how stylish you were in killing your foes and you are
rewarded points accordingly. There are also 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. 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 game also features a challenge mode, and punishment mode with
certain tasks that you have to do within a certain amount of time. These
range from killing a certain amount of people within a certain amount of
time, to using six different weapons to kill enemies with. These turn
out to be fun and add a little life to the game after you beat it. Your
reward? You unlock different Punisher comic book covers from different
Punisher comic book series’ over the years as well as concept art from
the game. Play the game on hard and reach a certain preset level of
arcade points and you even unlock cheats.
Graphically, The Punisher is a hit and miss affair on the PlayStation 2
and even though the console is almost 5 years old, there are enough
games out there at the moment (Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the
Sith and GTA: San Andreas) that proves the console still has some life
left in it. The most impressive feature of the game is the character
model of Frank Castle who looks perfect as The Punisher and almost
appears to have walked out of a comic book. The other characters in the
game, whether the good guys or the bad guys have all been professional
created and match that with some impressive texture details and the
developers have done a brilliant job at recreating the world of the
Punisher. The only downside to the graphics are the sometimes mediocre
backgrounds that look all too flat and washed out but fortunately there
are enough special effects (& gore) to almost forgive this aspect of the
game.
The voice acting of the title has also been professionally created and
Thomas Jane once again reprises his role as Frank Castle who perfectly
captures the dark humor and gravely bad ass nature of the Punisher. Jane
delivers his lines perfectly, and the dialogue is 100% Frank Castle.
Fans of the comics will get a kick out of some of his one liners
throughout the game. This should come as no surprise as Punisher scribes
Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti penned the story for the videogame. The
other voices found in the rest of the game are not as good as Jane’s
performance, but makes up for it with its humor. You will hear people
say 'Oh sh*t, it’s the f*****g Punisher!' and some crack heads will ask
you if you’re that 'finisher' dude. There’s definitely a lot of cursing
going on in this game, but I found that it adds to the humor of some of
the dialogue. That combined with the different reactions that enemies
have to your murderous ways makes the voice acting fun. The musical
score and sound effects of the game also match the 'dark tone' of the
title and they all interact perfectly with the gaming environment.
In conclusion, The Punisher is a fun, violent romp through New York that
is as much gratifying as it is brutal. Those of you that are not fans of
the source material will still have fun with this title, although a rent
would probably satisfy your urge to play. Those of you that are big
Punisher fans on the other hand will purchase this game and kill to your
hearts content. Not since Mortal Kombat II have I played a game that
actually had the blood and gore enhance your experience like The
Punisher does. Wow!
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