The Punisher – XB – Review

Long ago, when I was a collector, I came across a
fascinating story– in The Amazing Spiderman #129. It appears that
someone had a mind to kill the spectacular web-slinger, and had an arsenal of
weapons to accomplish his goal. He failed, but his impact in the book left an
impression so great that he was spun into being a legend of his own. Many books,
games and two movies later, he is back on the XBOX to wreak havoc against
evil crime in New York City.  Despite a somber narration and thin storyline to
tie it together, THQ has delivered a well
above-average game that will provide many hours of gruesome killing (and
interrogation!).

The small amount of press I read prior to its
release all had one thing in common: a need to compare it to
Max Payne.
Luckily for me, although I have a good knowledge of MP, I have never played it
and am not jaded. I am able to review The Punisher with more "fresh" eyes and an
open mind. What a concept…. judging a game on what it does, instead of what it
does– compared to _____.

First, the game starts with an "ending" of sorts.
You witness Punisher (aka Frank Castle) in an interrogation room of a police
station. The game unfolds as a flashback. How the story is told is left to
the player. Though you are not free to do any story you wish, the
action is left completely up to you. As you complete levels, you are taken back
to the present, in the room, and the story continues after the cut scene. This
gives you a nice break and chance to rest your trigger finger.

You are provided a limited arsenal of weapons and
ammo, but can pick more of both as you progress. You will progress, if you have
any shooter-action skills at all. This is not a hard game to pick up. The
third-person perspective has you waling through various levels killing whatever
gets in your way. What makes it easier is that a lot of potentially tense
scenarios are made simple by your ability to zoom in with the crosshairs of your
chosen weapon and pick off bad guys without fully entering the killing zone. I
am a good sniper (versus run-and-gun chaos), so this suited my style very
nicely. You can patiently creep along a wall until you get a good bead on
someone then "POP". Lights out.

You also have the (useful!) ability to grab an
opponent and interrogate him. This is done by grabbing him and using the thumb
stick to place pressure on him– be it with a choke hold, gun-to-the-head
pressure or other such means. If you juggle it just right, he will "break" and
spill secrets. Many of them are totally useless, but you will occasionally get
something of value. Then, you can kill him, or use him as a shield as you
continue. Letting him GO is not an option. Darn. Frank is a man bent on
vengeance, and being nice is not one of his strengths.

The game has its standard fare of predictable
action. You slink through various gritty venues looking for the Boss. Your
weapons get better and so does your ability to take hits and succeed in general.
Just the act of interrogation can win you points for "style". It does get
harder, but at a reasonable rate. On the Hard setting, you are open to more
rewards and secrets. There are some nice surprises to be found. I won’t spoil
it, but I will say that there is a certain fellow out there that was most
recently seen battling another Marvel Comics favorite. He was fun
to take down. Challenging, but a thrill. ‘Nuff said.

The sounds are quite subdued. The music is slow,
and almost non-existent. Owning the gritty, metal-edged soundtrack from the
film, it is odd to have a game (loosely based on the movie) that plays
mellow tunes in the background as you kill and conquer. The various grunts and
moans are sometimes misplaced, while the voice-acting is not great– though The
Punisher, himself, sounds very good.

The graphics are very nice. I did have to turn up
the brightness for the sake of my TV and eyestrain, but the mood is supposed to
be dark and full of shadows. I did not encounter typical pixel glitches, but
would not be too shocked if some were out there. It moved as smooth as it
looked. The camera was a battle sometimes, but easy enough to get used to. The
ability to see your opponent clearly from far away is more than nice visuals,
it’s a key to succeeding with tactical sniper-shooting. This wouldn’t be
possible if the graphics were not as strong as they are.

It was nice to get away from the First Person
Shooter for a while and play something different. It took some getting used to,
but warms up fast. I was a bit frustrated with the weapons situation, but if you
play at the Hard level, there are cheats to get unlimited ammo and such.
Actually, I doubt they’re much needed. It is not hard to learn and move along.
The game is comfortable and forgiving enough to do well– without resorting to
cheats. How refreshing! It’s hard enough to live with the idea of the cursing,
body-count and gruesome interrogations (barely got the "M" rating according to
one of the developers)… without the guilt of having to cheat to do it!

Gameplay: 7.5
Walk around and kill bad people. Avoid the "innocents" and get to the
bosses. It’s that hard, and simple. It’s easy enough to learn and get
going quick. That’s nice, as I was eager to just drop the manual and get on to
the action. It’s a straight-forward action shooter, but still well done.

Graphics: 8.0
I loved the dark areas– and the fact that I could still see well enough to
get the job done. The targets stand out above the background layers, so there is
little doubt of what your objective is. There are a lot of things laying around
to just shoot for the "heck of it", and they are clearly identified. The cut
scenes are nice, and the characters move smoothly.

Sound: 6.5
The weakest part of the game is an element that, in this type of game, can
really kick it up a notch. The music did not fit the action, and the (villain)
voice-acting was sub-par. Frank sounded fine, but the rest of the "noise" was a
distraction rather than an enhancement.

Difficulty: Easy
I hesitantly rate that as easy, but only in that it is simple to learn, and
provide you exercise patience for long-range shooting, you will get very far,
very fast. That’s a good thing, and refreshing. Look… making a game super-hard
is not equal to making it good. Ninja Gaiden is an example of Hard=Great, but
there are far more games that mistake difficult with challenging. I don’t want
it to be easy to walk through, but want it easy enough for me to concentrate on
depth rather than needing eleven fingers to execute a move.

Concept: 7.5
I liked the idea of the game being a flashback– letting the player decide
just how deep to take it. There is not total freedom to do whatever you want,
but how you go through the levels is left to you. You do not have to interrogate
everyone, but choose how often and to what extent it is done.

Overall: 7.5
Super-hero games are cursed. Most of them are horrible. Recent exceptions
such as Spiderman 2 make it worth trying new ones. The game plays well, and
provides a good geek-thrill to us comic fans. It’s not the best shooter I have
played, but still feels fresh and has enough extra to it to make it stand on its
own. You don’t need to know the comic character to get something out of this.
The story and character information unfolds as you progress. You don’t know
why he is on a rampage, but if you stick with it, the secrets will unfold
and that develops nicely. It has a good replay factor and had me "missing it"
when I was unable to play. I did not feel insulted by its difficulty (not all of
us have 20hrs a day to master complex button techniques) but felt challenged
enough to feel as if I had accomplished something as I went along. Being a fan
makes this even more sweet, but it will engage anyone that’s up for this kind of
challenge. THQ makes good games, and they didn’t skimp here.