Remember how I mentioned in the review for Batman: Arkham Asylum that it was the comic book game to drag the rest of the series away from the mire it had left itself in? Well, here is another game that does the exact opposite and almost single-handedly managed to sink it back in and plug it pretty deep.
What the reason was to get this game out is beyond me. It’s not that it’s a bad game to look at; in fact there are some really nice touches, such as the lighting and texturing to create a nice, gloomy environment to kill things willingly, but the rest of it is just so below par that it should take up professional golf.
The Punisher: No Mercy follows Frank Castle as he battles not only some of his most well known foes, like Barracuda, Microchip and all, but he is also fighting his inner demons, but the story line really feels more like a bolted on extra, mainly because there are only 4 chapters, which are only there to show you the different game types available. Deathmatches are obviously the main part of the FPS diet, but there is also a horde-like Survival mode, where you must go on for as long as you can while constant waves of enemies come at you.
The music is fine, thumping out the dark guitar riffs you would associate with something of this style, but the audio will drive you loopy by the end of it. The Punisher himself sounds like he’s Christian Bale with a head cold and the rest of the vocal talent don’t sound too hot either. It’s almost like someone took rejects from a cartoon series and offered them money to talk nonsense. Strangely enough though, this isn’t the funniest thing for me. Call me crazy, but when there is music playing through a level, even on First Person Shooters, like Unreal Tournament for example, you don’t expect the tunes to take a break while you’re selecting your weapons and then suddenly jump back in when you hit the battlefield again. Its little things like that which gives the game a disjointed, almost rushed out feel.
The most chronic part of the whole thing is the gameplay, which borders on criminal, which in an ironic way seems to befit a title involving the extermination of convicts. In these modern days of gun games getting churned out with almost calculated efficiency, you expect the AI to be of a good quality and be able to fend for themselves up to a point. We don’t ask for much, just enough to make things interesting by spicing them up a bit. This is as spicy as a stale loaf, with the computer controlled opponents just mincing about like even THEY don’t want to be there, which is bad enough. The fact you then have to start the chore of killing these makes it worse. There is just no soul or character here. I understand that the game costs a lot less than some of the major players in the market in this genre, but when you can pay an extra three pounds for something like Battlefield 1943, which, to be frank (although based on this game, who would?) pees all over it.
I do get the feeling that many people will heed warnings to keep away, mainly because of the one other horrendous aspect of this, the online aspect. I waited and waited for someone, ANYONE to come and join a game, while the PS3 tried constantly to find me someone to battle against. Five minutes passed and I didn’t even get a sniff at a match, which shows me that even people who went out and bought this don’t want to play it over the web. The fact the single player is so dull probably made people wonder if it was even worth the effort.
Then you also have the fact that pretty much all the weapons are locked until at least halfway through the annoying single player campaign, which means that even if you don’t want to play it any other way than against human opponents, you’re going to HAVE to if you want a decent gun of any description. Even some of the code is just so bad it’s funny. If you’re playing survival, don’t be at all surprised if the match announcer starts telling you that there will be a next wave in ten seconds and then proceed to not only be unable to count from that point down to one without missing numbers, but as you’re waiting and refilling armour and health that some straggler from the last wave is already getting a head start and killing you without you even realising.
To sum it up, this is seven pounds worth of tripe that I wouldn’t even feed my dog. The AI is awful, the layout dull and the story is readable on the back of a postage stamp with it being so short. You could really put that money to better use on the Playstation Network, with one extra pound getting you one of the most loved RPG’s of all time, Final Fantasy VII. Why on earth when you have stuff like that waiting on the store would you go for this instead?
Zen should stick to the pinball side of things, which is where they truly excel, instead of being involved with something quite as daft as this. If you’re a big comic book fan and can spend extra money, buy Batman: Arkham Asylum. If you can’t afford to spend any extra, go out and actually buy a comic. If you have the money and aren’t a true fan of the genre, go and buy something else on PSN and enjoy it more, but whatever you do DON’T buy this, as it is the most boring, monotonous shooter I have played in many a moon. The game name is spot on at least, as it’s punishing me for playing it and showing no mercy as it gloats after taking my money. Avoid.
VideogameUK verdict: 4/10
