Developer/Publisher: Zen Studios Ltd/Sony
Platform: PlayStation Network
Genre: Multiplayer First Person Shooter
Price: $9.99
Verdict: Sub-average FPS with quick Punisher tie-in
Pros: FPS for beginners
Cons: Repetitive, no one playing online

When I heard that there was going to be a Punisher downloadable game on PlayStation Network, my first thought was “will this be any good?” Unfortunately, Punisher: No Mercy fails to do the license justice. Really, it appears to be more of a sub-average first person shooter, with skins that are based off of characters from the Punisher comic book.

What do people expect when they think of Frank Castle? I think of Garth Ennis’ and Steve Dillion’s awesome take on the character in “Welcome Back, Frank.” But how does Punisher: No Mercy utilize Frank Castle? Imagine a one-dimensional, hoarse, and boring one-line spitting anti-hero cardboard cutout… Yeah, it is that bad.

The game uses the Unreal 3 engine and visually looks sharp – until you actually decide to take a step. In motion, the environments take a blurry sheen that looks like paint thinner was poured on everything. Character models also looked horrendous in motion. It is very much a “nice from a far, but far from nice” kind of graphic portrayal.

Once enemies get close, they look like a hybrid of PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii character models. Even the weapons’ polygons suffered when running around the map! A rifle became a rectangle box in less than ten steps. The sound is good, but when the game itself is this boring, cool sounds don’t mean much.

Seriously, the greatest aspect of the character is that he’s on a mission of revenge. In this game? I find that hard to believe because the single player story was so disjointed.  Transitions were so bad that characters were only introduced during the Mike Deodato-drawn cut scenes.  Sadly, these scenes served no purpose other than to expand an already point A to point B story. The worst part is that it doesn’t even end. I just encountered a “To Be Continued” screen at the end of the single player mode.

The only purpose of the single player campaign is to familiarize gamers with the controls (or lack of), game mechanics (or non-existence of), and game modes.  This was nothing more than a shameless copy and paste aspect of all FPS games released over the last two console generations.

Did I mention that the game is ridiculously short? The single player mode was finished in only forty-five minutes. Adding insult to injury, the only thing that I got out completing the “campaign,” was unlocking new character skins, gaining two new mods, and unlocking a few new weapons. Oh, and those unlocked skins had to load from low-res textures to the Unreal 3 character models during the preview. Granted, the game was supposed to be a multiplayer-focused title, but if the single player was going to be this bad, why include it at all?

The mods play a small role in the game. There are active and passive mods that are available. Active mods are timed upgrades that assist throughout the game. Passive mods, on the other hand, are more defensive and help players survive, sort of. Be prepared for enemies to be able to kill you very easily. Though the game did teach me that a fully upgraded rifle with silencer would sound like a M60 when activating the weapon upgrade mod.

Missions in single player are all variations of multiplayer modes in a standard FPS game. As long as gamers complete the requirements, they are rewarded with a few new weapons and mods that would help in the actual multiplayer. FPS games are known for quick movements and the vertical axis, well not in Punisher: No Mercy. Players can get through every mission without even bothering to raise the crosshairs beyond the default y-axis position.

Unlocking the rest of the weapons happens over the course of multiplayer, a they complete new requirements with either specific weapons or certain characters. What was the best part of my multiplayer experience? I couldn’t find anyone online to play! I even had a match that was built for eight-on-eight and it was actually one-on-one. Finding my enemy on the map ate most of the match’s time limit.

Punisher: No Mercy is a good example of what not to release as a downloadable game. Texture pop-ins, broken and repetitive gameplay, and the non-existent multiplayer, show that most gamers have already given up and moved on. In the end, Zen Studios didn’t know how to use the Punisher license and that’s why gamers left the release so quickly.