“Bang, bang, you’re dead. To be continued!” … Uhm, what?
I’ve never been a big fan of the Punisher, but I do adore comics as much as Frank Castle loves to swear. Not to mention I was never in love with Iron Man until I saw the breakout movie last summer, so I guess you could say I’m as open to playing comic-based video games as Tony Stark is to drinking alcohol. In a lot of ways, The Punisher: No Mercy gives Stark a run for his overabundance of money. The PlayStation Network exclusive acts as an introduction to the Punisher for many, such as with Iron Man. A la Castle, this game had me swearing, and it went to hell like Tony after a long night of booze, partying, women … and did I mention booze?
WHAT YOU’LL LIKE:
Punish this!
No Mercy doesn’t, well, show any mercy. Each level map constantly throws waves—and sometimes literally just that—of enemies at you. The constant bombardment of baddies will probably cause you to re-spawn quite a few times, and the game conveniently gives you the option of switching between unlocked characters and customizing your equipment after your head or limbs are blown off from gunfire (seriously). Power-ups are plenty, and enemies can come out of nowhere, which adds to the fun of fighting off enough thugs to fill a swimming pool … with blood.
"Guess who's the monkey in the middle? You are! Yes, you are!"
When you grow bored of the single-player story or the more intense Skirmish mode, you can spread the lead joy with local co-op or play with up to seven other players online. In addition to a variety of modes and maps, No Mercy lets you face off as red and blue teams, focus on collaborative gameplay, or give everyone the chance to fend for himself in a world of black skull t-shirts and cheesy one-liners.
Death by Unlockables
Besides the fun trivia you’ll encounter on load screens, The Punisher: No Mercy throws a wealth of unlockables at you. From trophies to weapons, mods, and character variation, you certainly won’t run out of excuses to shoot a few dozen heads off or frag someone as one character or another. Some of the available characters include Silver Sable, Barracuda, Jigsaw, Bushwacker—and of course, the Hulk in black, Frank Castle.
WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE:
Frank Who?
As mentioned earlier, No Mercy should take the Punisher and introduce him to the world much like last summer’s Iron Man flick did. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t even bother to try to impress you with Frank Castle’s undoubtedly charming personality—the man, the myth, the legend, or what? The single player mode only offers four measly stages, which means you’ll polish off the actual game in about two hours or less. The story dives right in and sets the Punisher up against his nemeses—ones you might not have ever heard of depending on your familiarity. Half of the game has something to do with a drug called “mind f@$#,” which might as well have been what the developers were on when they created this flimsy game.
Nothing says Mardi Gras like guns and crazy masks. Oh, wait---nice FACE!
The cut-scenes—which bring the illustrations of comic book artist Mike Deodato to life—might be creative in concept, but the style quickly falls flat in comparison to recent games like Infamous, which presents a much more fluid and dynamic style. Open up your comics and follow along for story time, kids.
Kill Me Now
Apart from the more prominent characters, the army of enemies you’ll wipe out don’t come in more than one flavor. In fact, they often shout the same quip over and over, and sporadically at that: “What are you, some kind of hero?!” Even worse, the one-liners Castle utters as he dies easily become annoying; since the game doesn’t reveal any sizable information about him, it just makes him sound emo. Somebody get this guy some black hair dye and a black t-shirt with a … ohhh.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Punisher may have shot up No Mercy itself, because the game came out the front gate riddled with holes. As in there’s barely anything to it. No video game should be this weak—especially when the Punisher’s involved in the slaughter. Tick, tick, boom.
The Punisher: No Mercy
System: PlayStation 3
Developer: Zen Studios
Publisher: Zen Studios
Find: PlayStation Network
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
Want to know more about the game? Just ask! We love to hear ourselves type, and might even say something vaguely resembling an answer to your question(s)…
July 9th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Zen’s last PSN game, ZEN Pinball, was surprisingly great. It’s unfortunate they didn’t put the same effort into this one.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Well f@$# me that sounds bad.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:56 am
What, no spiderman cameo?
oooh… Punisher pinball!