Review: The Punisher: No Mercy

Frank Castle's comic universe makes its way to the PSN as a shooter.

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Article written by djhsecondnature in Hot, PS3 Reviews, on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 9:00.

“Powered by Unreal Engine. A good start,” was the initial reaction that my partner in crime and fellow TSA veteran Liam had as we loaded up The Punisher: No Mercy for the first time. Having gone through a seemingly endless gallery of brandmarks and logos (maybe a slight exaggeration) I thought I’d quickly check on the rules of engagement, only to be presented with 51 pages of how to play the game – and no, that is no exaggeration. Deciding that a romantic snog with a skunk would be a more pleasurable experience, we turned off the auto aim and jumped straight into multiplayer, and boy, were we surprised.

The Punisher: No Mercy is the ZEN Studios developed title exclusive to the PSN. Inspired by the Marvel Comics’ Punisher comic book canon you engage in an action-packed first-person shooting frenzy. That’s the corporate sales speak, mind, and now that the boring blurb is out of the way we can get down to business. Imagine Call of Duty mixed with Killzone 2 and you’d be nowhere near what this is like – instead imagine a slightly slower, easier to pick-up-and-play version of Unreal Tournament without the Space Marine suits and weapons and you’re pretty much spot on. Within minutes we’d mastered the controls and were charging around the map hunting each other down in an epic one-on-one, on which Liam was well and truly punished.

There are things that The Punisher does fantastically well and a few that it falls short on, so I’ll get the latter out of the way first. Whilst the game does come packed with a ‘single player’ campaign, do not be fooled by such a title, this is simply four levels where you have to kill a huge number of frustratingly dumb bots in a variety of different scenarios. The sole purpose of playing through such a lonely and empty experience is to unlock a variety of characters and weapons, which can then be used in multiplayer, although watching the beautiful artwork by Mike Deodato that tries to hold some resemblance of a plot together helps make up for it a little. There is also a co-op mode for some odd reason which seems unnecessary and utter pointless. You’ll play it, forget about it and move on to the juicy filling: multiplayer.

Multiplayer is really what this game is about and thankfully it is also its strongest point – what was surprising about it was how good it was. Now, I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from a first-person shooter PSN title that’s priced at less than the Domino’s Pizza I was taking great pleasure in devouring at the time, but I was stunned by its graphical strength. The game is beautiful, relatively, given its format, with a varying colour palette of greys and browns, mixed with vivid greens and oranges. Areas of the environment will explode and change for some unknown reason but it all adds to the fantastic maps. The traditional sounded beats that accompany the gameplay take me back several years to playing shooters on a Windows 98 PC, however, if I never hear the words “it’s time for Punishment again” I will be most pleased. The characters blurt out cheesy one-liners with annoying frequency and in traditional Unreal style there’s an assortment of deeply spoken “triple kill” sounds to be heard.

The starting weapons are, well, nonexistent – it’s just a starting weapon. You do unlock more weapons from trawling through the campaign as well as from achieving certain multiplayer targets – such as a laser-sighted crossbow for long distance headshots. The maps are wonderfully varied and creative, although some are a little bit too large for just two players and more suited to the maximum eight players. With four game modes and eight maps, there’s more than enough content and with online scoreboards, badges and future tournaments and downloadable content there’s plenty more on offer.

The gameplay is not without a few blemishes, like having to press up on the d-pad every game to activate your mic and that if you melee attack whilst reloading it won’t auto-reload afterwards, but nothing that destroys the experience. Other than that, it works as it should: it’s a solid arcade shooter that plays as expected.

Without a strong single player, the game really relies on the multiplayer, and whilst there are a lot of people out there that don’t like to play online unless it’s with their friends, this is the prefect shooter for you – with a much cheaper price than retail releases, its ease of play and general arcade sensibilities. Many would say that as a smaller, less polished version of Unreal Tournament with cheesy one-liners is what best sums up The Punisher: No Mercy, but since when was this a bad thing? Its replay value is extremely high, and although you’ll unlikely play it for huge stretches of time a couple of rounds with a few friends is incredibly entertaining. It may be on the slightly more expensive side of the PSN content, there are few that offer such a fantastic online experience.

Score: 8/10

Comments

Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.

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3shirts | 07/07/2009 09:18
Member
1788 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008

Excellent, I liked the look of this one and it sounds like it’s well worth the money.
commuterzombie | 07/07/2009 09:20
Member
410 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

Sounds good, is the split-screen multiplayer for up to 4 players or just 2? Did you get a chance to see how stable the online multiplayer was?
- LivedeviL | 07/07/2009 09:57
  Member
  283 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
  
  Multiplayer is online only, same with co-op (at least it was on my last check on Saturday)
  - DJ Judas | 07/07/2009 11:09
    Epic
    368 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
    
    Damn, what would have sold it for me is if it allowed 2 local players in splitscreen online, ala Resistance 2 and Halo 3.
    
    Too few games value this feature, and even more are avoiding local multiplayer all together which is even more sadening
  - commuterzombie | 07/07/2009 13:28
    Member
    410 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
    
    Nuts, oh well, no sale for me then!
haz360 | 07/07/2009 09:22
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365 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

Not sure about this. Think I’ll wait for Battlefield 1943 this Thursday
- BlingOnMyWrist | 07/07/2009 20:30
  Member
  1357 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
  
  AH! Good thing you’ve reminded me! I don’t know whether to decide between this and BF. If The Punisher is so similar to Unreal Tournament (which I own), should I just stick with UT and get BF?
  
  Maybe I’ll get both! Oh no… See what you guys did?! I’m going to be broke now!
  - Alex_Assassin_08 | 07/07/2009 21:51
    Member
    735 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
    
    Get both, Punisher is 7 quid and Battlefield a tenner, and there both great games.
    
    Battlefield will obviously be better, but Punisher is very addictive and easy to pick up and play!
Amphlett | 07/07/2009 09:25
Member
1003 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009

Thanks David for the review, spot on, covers all areas.
What do you think the longevity of this title is? i.e. Will you be playing it at the end of August or even the end of July?
- djhsecondnature | 07/07/2009 14:31
  Team TSA: Media
  815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
  
  I see it being the type of game that I’ll pick up quite often but only for short bursts. Very much like a puzzle game like Bejeweled. So I can see myself still playing this at the end of the year, but still not for long periods of time as its just so good for a quick play.
  - Amphlett | 07/07/2009 16:28
    Member
    1003 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
    
    David, thank you for the reply.
    My concern for this game then surrounds the number of people playing online after a couple of months. If it doesn’t hold your attention for long spans there may not be enough people online to get a decent game going.
DarthSharkey | 07/07/2009 09:29
Member
1038 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

I bought this on thursday and it is great fun to play, I agree with the score and a good review.
I like it when FINN shouts “You’re F’ing dead” in his Irish accent.
flatspikes | 07/07/2009 09:34
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483 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009

Nice to see this get a good solid 8… I notice most other reviews have been less than kind to this title though…
mpb1955 | 07/07/2009 09:49
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693 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009

I got this on release and was disappointed. It is just another Unreal tournament with different characters and maps. The single play “story” mode is really non existent as it is just an unreal tournament against bots. Yes there are some amusing quotes but these soon get repetitive. As for longevity it would struggle to last a week on my list. If you liked Unreal Tournament and you no longer have it then this might be something for you. If you did not like UT then give it a miss.
- LivedeviL | 07/07/2009 10:00
  Member
  283 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
  
  I beg to differ, if you’re hit and miss with UT3 and love the Marvel characters it’s a defo.
  
  I agree that single player is a bit pants though
  - mpb1955 | 07/07/2009 10:40
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    693 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
    
    I guess the Marvel tie-in may make it more interesting.
deepmenace | 07/07/2009 09:58
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245 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

the fact that this maxes at 8 players put me off.

if it had 4 player split screen i’d buy in an instant.

this review has, however, stuck in my brain and i fully expect to follow thru with a drunken post-pub purchase. thanks…
- commuterzombie | 07/07/2009 13:30
  Member
  410 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
  
  Yeah, I hear you. It’s a real shame that the only 4-player split-screen FPS on the PS3 is Warhawk, which I don’t think is setup to work for a free-for-all deathmatch (never played it though so I could be wrong).
  - colmshan1990 | 07/07/2009 13:34
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    945 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
    
    Resistance: Fall of Man (but not resistance 2) and COD4 both have 4 player split screen and I’m sure there are many more!
  - Kevling | 08/07/2009 12:10
    Member
    1849 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
    
    Warhawk is third person, not first… but you definitely can play deathmatch in it.
    What about Cell Factor? Doesn’t that support splitscreen?
djdustb | 07/07/2009 10:33
Member
1207 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008

Think I may have to get this for a bit of local multiplayer fun as it is cheap enough to take a risk on.
YOURMUMANDME | 07/07/2009 10:41
Member
629 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008

I enjoyed this too , I only have 2 issues with the game though :-
• Some of the trophies seem impossible to get ( I know longeveity is essential in a shooter but come on )
• Laaaaaag , seriously , I usually have quite a fast connection but this was ridiculous .
Lorcan | 07/07/2009 11:45
Team TSA: Writer
1132 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008

I really wasn’t expecting much from this and so I hadn’t even followed it but you’ve suddenly made me think I might actually get it!
Great review!
crestfaller | 07/07/2009 19:35
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53 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

Does it support a keyboard/mouse like Unreal Tournament did? That would be fun..
Mick939 | 07/07/2009 20:59
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676 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

I was also suprised with how good it is another brilliant psn exclusive.
Alex_Assassin_08 | 07/07/2009 21:40
Member
735 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

I was pleasantly surprised by this game. Vividly reminds me of Unreal Tournament

best impulse buy ever
Snebjnr | 08/07/2009 02:21
Member
1532 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

Another 8 out of 10, hmm must be pretty good then.
I aint fussed for it, but will keep it in mind lol

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Review: The Punisher: No Mercy

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