We love a game where the genre of background music changes depending on the ethnicity of your enemies.
The Punisher is an honest character. In a world of goody-goody, boy-scout superheroes who seem keen on saving the world through no-kill rules and putting their enemies in jails with revolving doors instead of cells, The Punisher gets shit done. He picks up a gun and goes out in the street and shoots the bad guys to death. It isn’t complicated by anything else. They’ve done bad, he kills them, they can’t do bad anymore. There’s no risk of recidivism, of reoffending, of getting away; they’re dead, and it’s done. He's cleaning out the bowels of New York City, one pull of the trigger at a time.
The Punisher is a dishonest character. He, and his fans, and his writers all hold the belief that treating a symptom is treating a cause. Drug addicts and purse snatchers and rapists and jaywalkers and protesters all meet the same end of the same barrel of the same gun, mowed down for “being criminals” and nothing more. Non-violent offenders, first-timers, gang members fresh out of getting jumped in — every criminal gets shot to death. There are no second chances, no degrees of justice, no punishment too severe. If you’re one of the lucky ones, maybe you won’t get tortured before your head gets blown off as retribution for being addicted to heroin.
The matter to ultimately keep in mind is the fact that The Punisher is a comic book character for children. Teenagers with behavioral problems, at the oldest. These mass-market superhero comics have exceptionally rarely been intended for actual adults; there’s a reason that Frank Castle debuted in a twenty-cent Spider-Man comic, and not in the middle pages of Arcade between shit by Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman. Much as the most diehard Punisher fans would like to pretend as though The Punisher has ever been telling a mature story for mature adults, this can only hold true when in direct comparison to other superhero comics from the same parent company. Certainly, The Punisher is as dark as Marvel is willing to get, but what you ought to take away from that sentiment is that these stories are the darkest that Marvel is willing to get. Take The Punisher seriously, and you’ve already lost long before you began.
The 2004 movie tie-in game mostly seems to understand this. Despite coming out shortly after the movie and bringing back Thomas Jane to play Frank, there’s little that the game actually has in common with the film; aside from a set piece or two where The Punisher has to take on a legally-distinct version of Kevin Nash’s character in his apartment, the game is far more faithful to the comics than Jonathan Hensleigh’s version was. Fuck, the movie took place in Tampa instead of New York. There's an unwavering adherence to the comics present here that reveals The Punisher as the absurd little aberration in this world that he is; throughout the runtime of the game, the grizzled angel of death that is Frank Castle has to share screen time with goofy characters like Nick Fury and Iron Man, all kitted out in their magic power armor that they use to fight human waves of color-coded Russians and Italians. The Punisher will grab some Yakuza guy in a bright-pink Steve Harvey suit and shove a gun in his mouth until the Yakuza screams “it’s my birthday!”, giving Frank a burst of health. You then blow his head off, and Frank quips “last one”. The game is well-aware of how stupid this all is, and assumes that you’re as in on the joke as it is. Don’t think too hard about it; everyone knows this is silly.
A core mechanic of the game lets you take human shields, which can absorb an inordinate amount of bullets and then be interrogated to recover any lost health. You can also press the L1 button to throw them about fifteen feet ahead of you, at which point I immediately clocked that this was a Volition game. The Punisher seems like it wants to be Max Payne at first glance, but it’s actually Saint’s Row. The controls are remarkably similar, as is the tone; The Punisher himself is taking all of this very seriously, but it’s all so ridiculous that you as the player clearly aren’t expected to. The gameplay loop is simple to start, but gradually demands more of you; starting enemies will die in a shot or two to the chest, but foes later on will be kitted out in Arsenal Gear Tengu armor that essentially requires you to land perfect headshots if you want to deal any meaningful damage.
This all comes together to create an inverse enjoyment curve. You start the game mowing down whoever crosses your path in a very wish-fulfillment-styled rampage, but spend the latter half slowly walking around the battlefield with a human shield and taking potshots at enemy heads with the most accurate weapon that you have. Shotguns are basically invalidated as a weapon type the second that enemies put on bulletproof vests, and you’re limited from that point on to little more than your choice of the AK-47 or the M16, and whatever handgun you can get ammo for. Regular enemies die to headshots just as easily as the guys who showed up dressed as the Combine, so there’s a massive compression in what you’re able to do as a player the further into the game you get. The optimal strategy is to take a shield and fish for headshots, and that’s about all you’ll be doing for the final three hours of playtime. Two of the bosses can only be damaged with explosives that get dropped by the adds they summon, which is about as fun as it sounds.
It ends up as little more than a game that’s mostly okay, which used to be something that was celebrated when a licensed title pulled it off — even more so if it was a movie tie-in game. Aside from a few good laughs and some initially interesting gunplay, there’s not much to this. It can’t manage to be more than a version of Blood on the Sand with about the same gameplay quality and a less interesting final product. Even as ridiculous as Frank grumbling “I’m gonna kill every inmate on Riker’s Island” is, he still can’t reach the heights of Fiddy going after his fucking skull. I’d suggest that anyone who’s thinking about this ought to go try Blood on the Sand instead, but the average Punisher fan probably draws the line at being asked to play as a black guy.
I was originally going to format this review as a comic storyboard, but I wrote too many words for that to be viable. For your consideration, here is an album of Punisher doodles that I left on the cutting room floor.
The Punisher is an honest character. In a world of goody-goody, boy-scout superheroes who seem keen on saving the world through no-kill rules and putting their enemies in jails with revolving doors instead of cells, The Punisher gets shit done. He picks up a gun and goes out in the street and shoots the bad guys to death. It isn’t complicated by anything else. They’ve done bad, he kills them, they can’t do bad anymore. There’s no risk of recidivism, of reoffending, of getting away; they’re dead, and it’s done. He's cleaning out the bowels of New York City, one pull of the trigger at a time.
The Punisher is a dishonest character. He, and his fans, and his writers all hold the belief that treating a symptom is treating a cause. Drug addicts and purse snatchers and rapists and jaywalkers and protesters all meet the same end of the same barrel of the same gun, mowed down for “being criminals” and nothing more. Non-violent offenders, first-timers, gang members fresh out of getting jumped in — every criminal gets shot to death. There are no second chances, no degrees of justice, no punishment too severe. If you’re one of the lucky ones, maybe you won’t get tortured before your head gets blown off as retribution for being addicted to heroin.
The matter to ultimately keep in mind is the fact that The Punisher is a comic book character for children. Teenagers with behavioral problems, at the oldest. These mass-market superhero comics have exceptionally rarely been intended for actual adults; there’s a reason that Frank Castle debuted in a twenty-cent Spider-Man comic, and not in the middle pages of Arcade between shit by Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman. Much as the most diehard Punisher fans would like to pretend as though The Punisher has ever been telling a mature story for mature adults, this can only hold true when in direct comparison to other superhero comics from the same parent company. Certainly, The Punisher is as dark as Marvel is willing to get, but what you ought to take away from that sentiment is that these stories are the darkest that Marvel is willing to get. Take The Punisher seriously, and you’ve already lost long before you began.
The 2004 movie tie-in game mostly seems to understand this. Despite coming out shortly after the movie and bringing back Thomas Jane to play Frank, there’s little that the game actually has in common with the film; aside from a set piece or two where The Punisher has to take on a legally-distinct version of Kevin Nash’s character in his apartment, the game is far more faithful to the comics than Jonathan Hensleigh’s version was. Fuck, the movie took place in Tampa instead of New York. There's an unwavering adherence to the comics present here that reveals The Punisher as the absurd little aberration in this world that he is; throughout the runtime of the game, the grizzled angel of death that is Frank Castle has to share screen time with goofy characters like Nick Fury and Iron Man, all kitted out in their magic power armor that they use to fight human waves of color-coded Russians and Italians. The Punisher will grab some Yakuza guy in a bright-pink Steve Harvey suit and shove a gun in his mouth until the Yakuza screams “it’s my birthday!”, giving Frank a burst of health. You then blow his head off, and Frank quips “last one”. The game is well-aware of how stupid this all is, and assumes that you’re as in on the joke as it is. Don’t think too hard about it; everyone knows this is silly.
A core mechanic of the game lets you take human shields, which can absorb an inordinate amount of bullets and then be interrogated to recover any lost health. You can also press the L1 button to throw them about fifteen feet ahead of you, at which point I immediately clocked that this was a Volition game. The Punisher seems like it wants to be Max Payne at first glance, but it’s actually Saint’s Row. The controls are remarkably similar, as is the tone; The Punisher himself is taking all of this very seriously, but it’s all so ridiculous that you as the player clearly aren’t expected to. The gameplay loop is simple to start, but gradually demands more of you; starting enemies will die in a shot or two to the chest, but foes later on will be kitted out in Arsenal Gear Tengu armor that essentially requires you to land perfect headshots if you want to deal any meaningful damage.
This all comes together to create an inverse enjoyment curve. You start the game mowing down whoever crosses your path in a very wish-fulfillment-styled rampage, but spend the latter half slowly walking around the battlefield with a human shield and taking potshots at enemy heads with the most accurate weapon that you have. Shotguns are basically invalidated as a weapon type the second that enemies put on bulletproof vests, and you’re limited from that point on to little more than your choice of the AK-47 or the M16, and whatever handgun you can get ammo for. Regular enemies die to headshots just as easily as the guys who showed up dressed as the Combine, so there’s a massive compression in what you’re able to do as a player the further into the game you get. The optimal strategy is to take a shield and fish for headshots, and that’s about all you’ll be doing for the final three hours of playtime. Two of the bosses can only be damaged with explosives that get dropped by the adds they summon, which is about as fun as it sounds.
It ends up as little more than a game that’s mostly okay, which used to be something that was celebrated when a licensed title pulled it off — even more so if it was a movie tie-in game. Aside from a few good laughs and some initially interesting gunplay, there’s not much to this. It can’t manage to be more than a version of Blood on the Sand with about the same gameplay quality and a less interesting final product. Even as ridiculous as Frank grumbling “I’m gonna kill every inmate on Riker’s Island” is, he still can’t reach the heights of Fiddy going after his fucking skull. I’d suggest that anyone who’s thinking about this ought to go try Blood on the Sand instead, but the average Punisher fan probably draws the line at being asked to play as a black guy.
I was originally going to format this review as a comic storyboard, but I wrote too many words for that to be viable. For your consideration, here is an album of Punisher doodles that I left on the cutting room floor.
I know everyone sings the praises of licensed super hero games like Spider-Man 2 and Arkham City, but I wanna shine a light on this game for a change. While I don’t think its gameplay is amazing and by the end it runs out of steam, I think this is probably the best adaptation of a comic book character in sprite.
Punisher is a character that really needs a writer with a good understanding of the character to really do a good job writing him. Making him too nice and you could make him generally uninteresting and another basic mercenary for hire Marvel super hero, and if you write him as a murders monster you lose that connection to the reader which makes Frank Castle an interesting character. I personally think Garth Ennis who is the writer for this game is one of the few writers who has probably the best understanding of what The Punisher is and what he isn't. He isn’t a by the books mercenary who just occasionally goes out of his way to break the geneva convention, what he is is an extremely depressed and violent man who through a warped sense of right and wrong will do some very morally questionable ways, and then other times he’ll do funny stuff like suffocating The Russian with a giant fat guy. The game does an amazing job with that characterization with the addition of the interrogations minigames. You’ll have to scare the ever loving shit out of crooks by doing all shorts of stupidly violent thing like hanging them over a meat grinder, curb stomping them, pushing their body into a wood chipper, pushing their head into a bear trap, tangling them over a hungry shark, and many many more. After a certain point these methods of killing people go from gratuitously over-the-top; to flat out ridiculous doing a really good job capturing that very over-the-top nature of Ennis’s work on Marvel Knights and Max. It’s a damn shame that most of this game has been censored to hell and back but oh well you can just mod that stuff out and play it the way Volition meant it to be, violent as hell and
When it comes to adapting a character from one medium to another a lot can get lost in the translation (Hell I went on a whole tangent about that in my Deadpool review) but I feel the general essence of what made Garth Ennis’s runs so great did make it to this game still intact, sure the basic gameplay is nothing to write home about but it’s still really fun, the run and gun style of gameplay the Saints Row series would spawn off from is still leaps and bounds better than it has any right to be, and the arcady nature of it’s score system really does give way to a lot of replayability, it’s a really great time license tie-in jank aside. If you like Garth Ennis’s run of Punisher then I think you’ll get a lot out of it, and if also like weird esoteric 6th gen games that’ve been mostly forgotten by the general public and are only remembered by weirdos who unironically laugh at Family Guy jokes then it’s 100% for you.
Punisher is a character that really needs a writer with a good understanding of the character to really do a good job writing him. Making him too nice and you could make him generally uninteresting and another basic mercenary for hire Marvel super hero, and if you write him as a murders monster you lose that connection to the reader which makes Frank Castle an interesting character. I personally think Garth Ennis who is the writer for this game is one of the few writers who has probably the best understanding of what The Punisher is and what he isn't. He isn’t a by the books mercenary who just occasionally goes out of his way to break the geneva convention, what he is is an extremely depressed and violent man who through a warped sense of right and wrong will do some very morally questionable ways, and then other times he’ll do funny stuff like suffocating The Russian with a giant fat guy. The game does an amazing job with that characterization with the addition of the interrogations minigames. You’ll have to scare the ever loving shit out of crooks by doing all shorts of stupidly violent thing like hanging them over a meat grinder, curb stomping them, pushing their body into a wood chipper, pushing their head into a bear trap, tangling them over a hungry shark, and many many more. After a certain point these methods of killing people go from gratuitously over-the-top; to flat out ridiculous doing a really good job capturing that very over-the-top nature of Ennis’s work on Marvel Knights and Max. It’s a damn shame that most of this game has been censored to hell and back but oh well you can just mod that stuff out and play it the way Volition meant it to be, violent as hell and
When it comes to adapting a character from one medium to another a lot can get lost in the translation (Hell I went on a whole tangent about that in my Deadpool review) but I feel the general essence of what made Garth Ennis’s runs so great did make it to this game still intact, sure the basic gameplay is nothing to write home about but it’s still really fun, the run and gun style of gameplay the Saints Row series would spawn off from is still leaps and bounds better than it has any right to be, and the arcady nature of it’s score system really does give way to a lot of replayability, it’s a really great time license tie-in jank aside. If you like Garth Ennis’s run of Punisher then I think you’ll get a lot out of it, and if also like weird esoteric 6th gen games that’ve been mostly forgotten by the general public and are only remembered by weirdos who unironically laugh at Family Guy jokes then it’s 100% for you.
Faz falta, nos dias de hoje, a coragem de criar jogos tão audaciosos e criativos como esse "The Punisher" de 2004, que captura a essência de um personagem tão denso, brutal e implacável como o Justiceiro do universo da Marvel. Havendo muitos momentos bem divertidos e viscerais em meio às ações do Frank Castle no jogo, com muitas fases memoráveis e uma progressão bem divertida de se jogar, onde ao contrário das outras mídias (com exceção dos quadrinhos), que por muito tempo suavizavam a brutalidade do personagem, esse daqui não pega leve em nenhum momento nesse aspecto, dando total liberdade ao jogador para utilizar as várias mecânicas centrais de tortura nos criminosos na sua gameplay, oferecendo inúmeras variações para executá-los, seja nos botões mais tradicionais do jogo, até em ocasiões frequentes de interrogatórios especiais ou execuções diretas do Justiceiro usando dos ambientes do mapa em pontos específicos (marcados por uma cor laranja para execução e branco para interrogatório).
O sadismo nesse game é tão grande que mesmo após você conseguir a confissão ou informação de algum criminoso, você pode tranquilamente terminar o serviço com ele da forma que você está ameaçando fazer ou só o deixar viver, sempre dando a escolha final ao jogador, que mesmo que você perca alguns pontos por matá-los após a entrega da informação nos interrogatórios, não são todos os pontos que você perde sempre equilibrando os pontos e novamente não tendo tanta consequência em meio a isso, sendo quase sempre à mostra para o jogador ver as execuções. Falando um pouco desse tal sistema de pontos, seria como se fosse o dinheiro do game, para você utilizá-lo com upgrades para o seu personagem, como alguns desses upgrades que são o clássico de aumentar a vida (que aqui seria o colete) ou o tempo de duração do modo frenesi que é um modo similar ao "Modo Fúria" do "Trevor" no "GTA V", em que o personagem entra em um estado de insanidade onde no caso do Castle, ele não leva dano e pode ir para cima dos inimigos tranquilamente lançando suas facas ou executando da forma convencional com o botão "Q" que pense num modo daora e divertido de usar.
Alguns leves spoilers nessa parte, então para quem for jogá-lo de alguma forma ainda, pule para o próximo parágrafo é que: acredito que uma das fases mais memoráveis desse jogo é a que o Frank Castle entra dentro de um caixão em uma cerimônia que seria para um dos chefes do crime daquele distrito que o mesmo tinha executado, que pense num momento divertido e marcante sair do caixão com tudo atirando nos mafiosos, além de tantos outros momentos como a própria missão final no presídio que faz referência a prisão de Alcatraz, e as várias outras partes em que surgiam os personagens famosos da Marvel nesse game podendo ser apenas uma aparição, ou uma verdadeira companhia para auxiliar na missão, como a Viúva Negra, o Matt Murdock, o Homem de Ferro, entre tantos outros que era sempre legal e era até que corriqueiro isso ocorrer em meio a campanha.
Enfim, mesmo com problemas relacionados ao sistema de mira que realmente não é perfeito, onde ao se usar a mira precisa em vez da mira livre, a retícula mexia em conjunto, sendo bem questionável para acertar o tiro desse jeito, entre outros, o jogo ainda diverte bastante, tendo dezesseis missões ao todo, em que todas elas são bem divertidas e prendem bem o jogador, onde todo o jogo tem um certo charme por trazer um estilo de quadrinhos mais pela forma de apresentar suas legendas, em que me entristece não ter como adquiri-lo hoje em dia, só havendo como jogá-lo por sites que disponibilizam esses tais "jogos abandonware" (abandonados pela empresa) pela Internet, mas não resta esperança para que um dia quem sabe venha de novo as lojas digitais para comprá-lo, ou que tenha um atual jogo do Justiceiro que beba das mecânicas trazidas nesse aqui, com tantas abordagens similares para apresentar a faceta real e sombria desse personagem tão interessante da Marvel.
O sadismo nesse game é tão grande que mesmo após você conseguir a confissão ou informação de algum criminoso, você pode tranquilamente terminar o serviço com ele da forma que você está ameaçando fazer ou só o deixar viver, sempre dando a escolha final ao jogador, que mesmo que você perca alguns pontos por matá-los após a entrega da informação nos interrogatórios, não são todos os pontos que você perde sempre equilibrando os pontos e novamente não tendo tanta consequência em meio a isso, sendo quase sempre à mostra para o jogador ver as execuções. Falando um pouco desse tal sistema de pontos, seria como se fosse o dinheiro do game, para você utilizá-lo com upgrades para o seu personagem, como alguns desses upgrades que são o clássico de aumentar a vida (que aqui seria o colete) ou o tempo de duração do modo frenesi que é um modo similar ao "Modo Fúria" do "Trevor" no "GTA V", em que o personagem entra em um estado de insanidade onde no caso do Castle, ele não leva dano e pode ir para cima dos inimigos tranquilamente lançando suas facas ou executando da forma convencional com o botão "Q" que pense num modo daora e divertido de usar.
Alguns leves spoilers nessa parte, então para quem for jogá-lo de alguma forma ainda, pule para o próximo parágrafo é que: acredito que uma das fases mais memoráveis desse jogo é a que o Frank Castle entra dentro de um caixão em uma cerimônia que seria para um dos chefes do crime daquele distrito que o mesmo tinha executado, que pense num momento divertido e marcante sair do caixão com tudo atirando nos mafiosos, além de tantos outros momentos como a própria missão final no presídio que faz referência a prisão de Alcatraz, e as várias outras partes em que surgiam os personagens famosos da Marvel nesse game podendo ser apenas uma aparição, ou uma verdadeira companhia para auxiliar na missão, como a Viúva Negra, o Matt Murdock, o Homem de Ferro, entre tantos outros que era sempre legal e era até que corriqueiro isso ocorrer em meio a campanha.
Enfim, mesmo com problemas relacionados ao sistema de mira que realmente não é perfeito, onde ao se usar a mira precisa em vez da mira livre, a retícula mexia em conjunto, sendo bem questionável para acertar o tiro desse jeito, entre outros, o jogo ainda diverte bastante, tendo dezesseis missões ao todo, em que todas elas são bem divertidas e prendem bem o jogador, onde todo o jogo tem um certo charme por trazer um estilo de quadrinhos mais pela forma de apresentar suas legendas, em que me entristece não ter como adquiri-lo hoje em dia, só havendo como jogá-lo por sites que disponibilizam esses tais "jogos abandonware" (abandonados pela empresa) pela Internet, mas não resta esperança para que um dia quem sabe venha de novo as lojas digitais para comprá-lo, ou que tenha um atual jogo do Justiceiro que beba das mecânicas trazidas nesse aqui, com tantas abordagens similares para apresentar a faceta real e sombria desse personagem tão interessante da Marvel.
Action game with lots of high-octane action that's exciting to play through all guns blazing, unfortunately story is just average
m16 dan çıkan beş-elli altının avrupa çöpü moderatörlerin götten vücutlarına giriş yaptığı gerekçesiyle silinmeye maruz kalmıştır
tbf i havent played any of the max payne or read any punisher comics but this is easily one of my favorite super hero games that had some super fun combat but damn near the end it definitely started to drag a bit
frank castle is the best vigilante because he discriminates against and kills italians
the true punishment is trying to get this to work on modern pcs
This game was so goddamn fun. Had an absolute riot playing every moment. Still pretty repetitive so it’s not perfect but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself thoroughly.
Extremely fun Max Payne like game, tons of brutal kills and the coffin shootout is still top tier
Most based and redpilled game I played in a while.
You shoot dodge and wear a trench coat, but no bullet time:( also I remember the torture minigames being so cool to me as a kid, but now they just make me a bit nauseous. Last one: why is this game so damn long?
An oddly high effort tie-in game that does make you feel like the Punisher. Story is basic Punisher stuff mix matched from the comics that came out shortly before it. Gameplay is solid, besides a few issues, mostly in how you get health and bosses. Health isn't an issue early on, enemies do nothing and you cut them down like butter. It is around the halfway point, when enemies start getting armor and better weapons. There are two ways to heal in this game, unless you buy the most expensive upgrade in the game, successfully torturing enemies, which normally gives a lot, or killing them in rampage mode, which gives a little. Now, the ability to successfully torture gets harder as you go on, so rampage becomes your only way of healing. Some later levels become an absolute endurance run with lots of cheese. The bosses are pretty much all terrible.
Only other comment, this game is shockingly dark for a video game. You violently and brutally torture people, a lot. The game also frequently pushes you to then kill said people once you have what you want. Visually it's nothing impressive, but the context is just... very interesting for a game from this time period.
Only other comment, this game is shockingly dark for a video game. You violently and brutally torture people, a lot. The game also frequently pushes you to then kill said people once you have what you want. Visually it's nothing impressive, but the context is just... very interesting for a game from this time period.
Até hoje esperando um remake desse jogo pra que ele possa receber continuações.
Os interrogatórios, as animações de quick kill e a variedade de armas eram a sedução do game. Até hoje tenho lembranças de como foi treta derrotar o Russo na fase da ilha.
Os interrogatórios, as animações de quick kill e a variedade de armas eram a sedução do game. Até hoje tenho lembranças de como foi treta derrotar o Russo na fase da ilha.
Bu oyunu sevmeyen t0p oğlu top fransız filmi izleyen kowwattır.
Like a mix between Max Payne and Hitman Blood Money, with a little sprinkle of the PS1 spider-man game. Max Payne's inspiration is the most obvious: shoot dodging in new york as a vigilante just goin and killing bad guys. Blood money is the ingredient with the apartment, upgrades, weapons, hit list, and stuff like human shielding and flashy accident kills. And the final perfect ingredient is the spider-man ps1. That game was a cool game where other characters crossed over willy nilly and it felt like a comic book. Frank narrates and it's written in yellow comic narration bubbles, with some familiar faces visiting you on your journey. It feels like a part of the marvel universe but not to the point where the world feels small.
These are all coincidences, right? totally? WRONG! Max Payne narration is in this game. You can dual-wield ingrams. Coincidence? at this point, if you're calling coincidence you're either a dumbass, a stupid person, or both. Hitman blood money choir is in this game's soundtrack. Not only that, you pop out of a casket with a machine gun killing all the funeralgoers. Coincidence again? Absolutely not!
And there's a secret other inspiration I never told you about. What if I described to you.. you airdrop into a jungle filled with soviets trying to shoot a nuclear weapon guarded by a tough tall Russian man with blond hair who gets set on fire and continues to chase you and you escape the place on a plane with your newfound buddy? You'd say that's obviously metal gear solid 3 snake eater. You'd be right, but you'd also be right if you said it was one level of the punisher.
So why am I giving this game such a high score if it just copies off the best games ever? That's easy: number 1, it rules. It's awesome. number 2: It came out before blood money. And if there's even a one percent chance that this game in any way influenced or inspired the greatest videogame ever made then we need to treat this game as royalty.
Now the games own merits: The interrogation system is genuinely fantastic and im shocked how new superhero games especially batman have not used the system. I obviously used the fan patch that restored the extremely gory and violent torture minigames and it was great. The only problem about it is you lose points for killing a guy in the torture minigame. Probably put in there to penalize you for failing it and going too far. But even if you get the information out of him and THEN kill him in the torture minigame it still loses points. But if you pull him back into shield and quick kill him you get points. It's kind of a sucky oversight.
The level variation is extremely awesome. Crackhouses, chop shops, zoos, mgs3 jungles, towers, jails, you name it. But the last 2 or 3 levels get kinda ridiculous with the number of armored enemies they throw at u. Those guys reward a slow playstyle with the rifle where you go for headshots and it's not really fun.
Anyways it's super awesome and a great surprise. And make sure to download the uncensored patch otherwise what's the god dam point?
These are all coincidences, right? totally? WRONG! Max Payne narration is in this game. You can dual-wield ingrams. Coincidence? at this point, if you're calling coincidence you're either a dumbass, a stupid person, or both. Hitman blood money choir is in this game's soundtrack. Not only that, you pop out of a casket with a machine gun killing all the funeralgoers. Coincidence again? Absolutely not!
And there's a secret other inspiration I never told you about. What if I described to you.. you airdrop into a jungle filled with soviets trying to shoot a nuclear weapon guarded by a tough tall Russian man with blond hair who gets set on fire and continues to chase you and you escape the place on a plane with your newfound buddy? You'd say that's obviously metal gear solid 3 snake eater. You'd be right, but you'd also be right if you said it was one level of the punisher.
So why am I giving this game such a high score if it just copies off the best games ever? That's easy: number 1, it rules. It's awesome. number 2: It came out before blood money. And if there's even a one percent chance that this game in any way influenced or inspired the greatest videogame ever made then we need to treat this game as royalty.
Now the games own merits: The interrogation system is genuinely fantastic and im shocked how new superhero games especially batman have not used the system. I obviously used the fan patch that restored the extremely gory and violent torture minigames and it was great. The only problem about it is you lose points for killing a guy in the torture minigame. Probably put in there to penalize you for failing it and going too far. But even if you get the information out of him and THEN kill him in the torture minigame it still loses points. But if you pull him back into shield and quick kill him you get points. It's kind of a sucky oversight.
The level variation is extremely awesome. Crackhouses, chop shops, zoos, mgs3 jungles, towers, jails, you name it. But the last 2 or 3 levels get kinda ridiculous with the number of armored enemies they throw at u. Those guys reward a slow playstyle with the rifle where you go for headshots and it's not really fun.
Anyways it's super awesome and a great surprise. And make sure to download the uncensored patch otherwise what's the god dam point?
This is so dangerously close to still being well worth your time in 2022. It's full of lovely little details, not just nerdy comic book references. Things like Big Frank changing up his costume depending on the level, individual unique reloads for each weapon depending on whether you're dual wielding/holding a human shield and, of course, the ludicrously violent interrogations/special kills, which you can see in their full uncensored glory with a small mod for the PC version. The levels are fairly varied and the shooting, for the most part feels good.
The issues lie with the fact that this is a game that came out just before the Xbox 360 and that standardisation of controls between PC and console. I played this with a keyboard and mouse and it felt really awkward at times - this is definitely a game that will be way better with a pad - but I was stuck with the PC release because I wanted to see the uncut gore. Such is my life.
Although fundamentally a bit generic, the source material and the aforementioned little touches make this a little more memorable than similar titles and with a few tweaks to the controls and if there's ever decent pad support for the PC version, you can easily stick an extra star on this.
The issues lie with the fact that this is a game that came out just before the Xbox 360 and that standardisation of controls between PC and console. I played this with a keyboard and mouse and it felt really awkward at times - this is definitely a game that will be way better with a pad - but I was stuck with the PC release because I wanted to see the uncut gore. Such is my life.
Although fundamentally a bit generic, the source material and the aforementioned little touches make this a little more memorable than similar titles and with a few tweaks to the controls and if there's ever decent pad support for the PC version, you can easily stick an extra star on this.
The violence is through the roof, enough so that the special interrogations and kills were originally shown in black and white and at forgiving angles (although there are unofficial ways to remove that) and honestly it would be too much if the graphics were any more realistic. It's what really sets the game apart from the long list of third person shooters that are out there; not many games let you use drill presses, table saws, electric wires, fork lifts (etc, etc) to torture criminals before you kill them. But if you take it more as a B-Movie game trying to entertain you with the most ridiculous kills possible, it can be pretty fun. (My favorite was holding a member of the mob over the edge of a pier until a shark jumped out the water and bit him in half.) It was also pretty cool to see the Marvel license used, you get to fight with Black Widow, Nick Fury and even Iron Man makes an appearance. Overall, a pretty fun and well done game but definitely not for the squeamish.
Can we go back when Marvel didn't appeal to irl soyjacks?
Great TPS, awesome kickass Punisher action, great Iron Man and Black Widow cameos, end boss is nuts (as hard as it was), fuck censorship, the way they handled alternate costumes is really stupid, Thomas Jane voice acted goodness, takes inspiration both from comics and the kino '04 movie and last but not least, you can feel the Saints Row DNA in this (a lot of the moves here especially transfered over to SR3) as it's also made by Volition, a whole 2 years before Saints Row 1
also Bullseye resembling both his Daredevil (2003) and comic book appearance
Used the uncensored mod and widescreen fix, look up ermaccer, you're welcome
also Bullseye resembling both his Daredevil (2003) and comic book appearance
Used the uncensored mod and widescreen fix, look up ermaccer, you're welcome
One of my favorite games from my favorite character.
The punisher is a very violent game when you have to kill and even torture some of the scum thugs, and the main character is voiced by the Thomas Jane itself, the real punisher movie.
The punisher is a very violent game when you have to kill and even torture some of the scum thugs, and the main character is voiced by the Thomas Jane itself, the real punisher movie.
I rarely replay games that i finished. This game is that good that made me play it again. Finding out things that i didn't knew were there or i could do the first run elevates this game for me.
Game is solid if repetitive. Thomas Jane's performance carries here. He's Frank Castle in the same way Kevin Conroy was Batman to me. Perfect. Do yourself a favor though and try to get the PC version functioning. The uncensored version is the way to go.
I remember stuffing a dude's head in a furnace. What game lets you do that nowadays just for fun?
yeah, i like it. sure it has some bad boss fights, but it's really fun. am i cancelled for that? probably. i don't even know anymore!
Honestly, this is so underrated it hurts. Awesome game. Really makes you feel like a happy psycho lol. The shooting is satisfactory and the interrogation scenes are quite creative. It also have a lot of references and cameos to other Marvel characters.
I fucking love this game so much, I adore this shit
What a massive disappointment. I had this game on my wishlist for years and finally got a copy and started playing last week….I really wanted to like this game but it’s just a slog.
The positives are the punisher is cool as fuck, lots of cheesey action movie one-liners and the game pulls no punches with the gore and M rating. The selection of guns and upgrades are pretty decent and the challenge modes and medals along with being able to pick your load outs gives the game some replay value. The shooting is decent and the rage mode is fun. The interrogations especially all the environmental ones are creative and there’s a shocking amount but here’s where the problems begin…
Why am I penalized for killing a guy after I get information from him then use whatever torture method to kill him? But if I extract info from him then just shoot him in the face my score goes up? Also why the black and white filter when one of these kills are done but not other ones like when I put a dudes face in a bear trap?
The boss fights are some of the worst ever with bullet sponge enemies that run away from you in maze like environments especially on the hard difficulty. Healing isn’t practical because you have to interrogate an enemy to heal so I’d find myself grabbing a goon and walking away with them to interrogate them then go back to shooting the boss. The stick mini game when interrogating was also very janky sometimes and took a lot of the fun out of what should have been some over the tops moments.
I can’t stress how putrid the boss fights are.
My last complaint is why no bullet time? Was the game too afraid of being a max Payne clone? It should have embraced it because the diving shooting just isn’t nearly as fun.
Really bummed by this. Maybe I’ll pick it up again at some point but I can’t recommend this one.
The positives are the punisher is cool as fuck, lots of cheesey action movie one-liners and the game pulls no punches with the gore and M rating. The selection of guns and upgrades are pretty decent and the challenge modes and medals along with being able to pick your load outs gives the game some replay value. The shooting is decent and the rage mode is fun. The interrogations especially all the environmental ones are creative and there’s a shocking amount but here’s where the problems begin…
Why am I penalized for killing a guy after I get information from him then use whatever torture method to kill him? But if I extract info from him then just shoot him in the face my score goes up? Also why the black and white filter when one of these kills are done but not other ones like when I put a dudes face in a bear trap?
The boss fights are some of the worst ever with bullet sponge enemies that run away from you in maze like environments especially on the hard difficulty. Healing isn’t practical because you have to interrogate an enemy to heal so I’d find myself grabbing a goon and walking away with them to interrogate them then go back to shooting the boss. The stick mini game when interrogating was also very janky sometimes and took a lot of the fun out of what should have been some over the tops moments.
I can’t stress how putrid the boss fights are.
My last complaint is why no bullet time? Was the game too afraid of being a max Payne clone? It should have embraced it because the diving shooting just isn’t nearly as fun.
Really bummed by this. Maybe I’ll pick it up again at some point but I can’t recommend this one.
God I used to love playing this. Another one of those rare games that I always liked coming back to, mostly for the amount of creative kills that could be done, made for a very fun action game.
Melhor jogo da Marvel, só Deus sabe o quanto eu amo esse jogo