The Punisher: No Mercy will leave gamers begging for mercy over how bad it is

Why can’t The Punisher catch a break? The character is a fan favorite when it comes to the comics as the books have the perfect mix between satire, social commentary, dark humor and of course ultra violence. All of those things make the perfect mix for a movie and video game yet The Punisher keeps on having film and game adaptations that are crap. The first Punisher movie was just ok as Thomas Jane turned in a good performance but the film was just lacking that Punisher vibe. The recent reboot of the film franchise, Punisher: War Zone, captured the ultra violence and slight satire vibe of the books but featured a terrible story and acting. The Punisher has fared slightly better in the world of video games as his last appearance in 2005 when Volition released “The Punisher” as it featured a nice interrogation mechanic and integration with other Marvel comic characters but it was still slightly missing that Punisher feel. Now four years later Frank Castle is back with The Punisher: No Mercy, a PSN exclusive that has players taking on the crime world in a game that is so bad that it would make Frank Castle cry even more than he did over the death of his family.

The basic jest of The Punisher: No Mercy is that it’s an online multiplayer game. Up to 8 players can battle online in various arenas in the basic game modes of Death Match, Team Death Match and so on. Accompanying the online modes is one of the weakest single-player games I’ve ever played. It almost feels like false advertising to call it a single-player mode as it is just the multiplayer mode played with AI bots. The maps are the same with the power-ups in the same places along with the same annoying Unreal Tournament like announcer. The only thing that makes it worth being called “Story Mode” is the inclusion of short comic cut scenes that have laughable voice acting and are just barely cohesive. Having a set-up for a level where the Punisher goes into a drug-induced dream where he’s facing off and subsequently killing all his friends and allies is interesting but once you step into the game and it has the same presentation of the multiplayer mode it just takes away any impact the premise had. The “Story Mode” levels also make no sense since it’s just you taking on the endless waves of enemies as you try to kill 400 enemies in 13 minutes. Blasting fools Punisher style may have been fun but it isn’t in this game.

It’s also a bit misleading for the Story Mode to be called that since it’s only 4 levels that ends with a “To Be Continued” message. I assume the story will be continued in countless DLC packs that will cost $5.99 but bring nothing new to the game at all except more lol worthy cut scenes and maps that lack any character.

No Mercy has decent visuals with some nice fire effects but the use of Unreal Engine 3 rears its ugly head as models suffer from the typical problem of details loading on character models and objects when nothing taxing is going on during the game. The rest of the visuals are purely forgettable unless you’re a fat and desperate geek and want to salivate over the character model of Silver Sable.

The biggest offender in the long list of things the game does poorly is how horrible the enemy AI is. We all know in most fps games the AI will try to be somewhat challenging, whether it’s through flanking you or taking cover. In the case of Punisher: No Mercy the enemies simply walk towards you, at times in a straight line, and simply shoot at you. Where they spawn makes no sense and at times they’re literally bum rushing you from all angles which can be quite annoying since there isn’t a map so you may get a few cheap deaths due to two enemies spawning behind you.

There is no method to the horrific madness that happens in the single-player campaign. It’s just walk around killing the mindless zombies that are the AI enemies until you fulfill whatever kill requirement that is needed in the level before the time limit is up. The weapon upgrades you pick up or the Perk like abilities that you can use do absolutely nothing and have no power of force behind them.  Then once you complete level 4 the game is over and you’re greeted with a completely vague ending that you’ll either think is a tease for the future content that will be released or you’ll go into a fit of rage over spending $10 for the game and its so-called “Story Mode”.

Even if you bought No Mercy to enjoy the multiplayer modes it doesn’t get any better. Most players will just be spamming the rocket launcher and the game still isn’t fun despite the user customization of the special abilities like having increased weapon damage or walking faster. The game is mostly playable as there wasn’t any noticeable lag but the game just isn’t fun to play as the controls and the power of the weapons are either too weak or it’s a case of 1 hit kill with the rocket launcher.

The Punisher: No Mercy is just crap. There’s no other way to describe it. If you’re bored and are looking for a cheap PSN game to play then avoid this game at all costs. Don’t let the $10 price fool you into thinking it’ll be a slightly enjoyable game that will be nothing more than action fluff as that simply isn’t the case. The Punisher: No Mercy is a disjointed mess that has one of the shallowest single-player experiences I’ve ever played along with having a multiplayer portion that seems like it’s an updated version of a crap game from 1996. If you’re a hardcore Punisher fan and were desperate for the new adventures of Frank Castle on the PS3 then you’re sorely be let down as Punisher: No Mercy is a failure on all fronts.

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