It’s not often that I get buyer’s remorse but that’s exactly what I got after paying ten bucks for The Punisher No Mercy game on the PSN.  The game looked promising enough after seeing all the trailers and hype that went along with the game.  It appeared to be slam packed full of goodies for a PSN game and at 10 bucks to boot what could go wrong.

Sadly a lot went wrong with the game.  The first disappoint came in the single player aspect of the game.  I was given the impression the game would have a strong single player element to it but silly me for thinking that.  Turns out the single player aspect is nothing more than an introduction to all the different multiplayer types on the different maps the game has to offer with a comic story line tossed in the middle of it.  Very similar to how Unreal 3 handled its single player.   The game is meant to focus on the multiplayer side of it and to be honest it could do without the single player side at all.  Playing the single player side will unlock characters and weapons for you to use but really there is no advantage to one character over the other.

The game is built on the Unreal engine so again I had some really high expectations for the game.  The controls are rather sloppy for a FPS game.  Aiming dead ahead of you is fine but forget about turning quickly to the side or even behind you for that matter to defend yourself.  Getting shot from any other direction other than head on was instant death for me as I struggled to get my character to turn in a timely manner to face my would be opponent. 

The graphics themselves were also lacking.  The environments are really nice and the maps themselves are rather large and full of places to run around and cause havoc.  Sadly the character models themselves are very poor.  It takes a few seconds for the characters to fully render and their overall animation is rather poor.   The HUD itself looks really nice but the constant updates of who killed who that appear on the left of screen are just is too large and kept taking up valuable screen space.  The voice work in the game is some of the worst I have heard in a game yet.  The punisher sounds like a watered down Duke Nukem and the constant banter that happens during a match gets old really quick. Thankfully it can be turned off.

The gameplay for the most part felt kind of out dated.  The action is very fast and the screen is full of characters running, jumping, and just spray and praying really.  The overall feeling reminded very much of early FPS games like the original DOOM and Quake games.  The game features characters, weapons, and upgrades that can all be unlocked through playing either the single player game or the multiplayer.  You have your standard weapon of your choice, a close range weapon of your choice, and even passive and active upgrades for you to use.  Each map is filled with tons of power ups to be gotten.  Simply walk over any one of them either full up your armor, health, or even temporarily boost your speed or weapon.

In the end the game is a fast paced spray and pray game filled with tons of violence and familiar faces from the Punisher universe.  The game is easy to pick up and play but lacks a solid control scheme and doesn’t offer a whole lot to it.  If you enjoy the nostalgic feel of games like DOOM and Quake then this game is right up your ally.