I’m really not a comic book guy. Like any growing boy in suburban Americana, I knew most of the popular faces of Marvel and DC — Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, all that. I even watched stuff like Teen Titans or Justice League on TV every now and then, with the latter in particular feeling like this grandiose spectacle that I had to devote my full attention to. But outside of that, I didn’t really read comics. One every now and then, sure. But not extensively.
In my older years, though, I’ve become more and more aware that I missed out on something really interesting. There’s a level of storytelling to be found in the best of the best comics that really resonates with me as an adult, combined with some of the most vibrant and interesting illustrations to accompany the occasionally offbeat typography. Stuff like Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner’s Power Girl series placed its emphasis on lighter stories and dazzling art, all while occasionally tapping into the more obscure elements of the wider DCU. The Weapon X storyline in Wolverine is an interesting spin on the titular mutant’s origin story, portraying him through the eyes of those around him after his initial transformation into a rage-filled killing machine. Even stuff outside of the big two publishers, like 2000 AD or the many horror stories helmed by Vampirella, drew my interest.
But then there’s The Punisher.
Born as Frank Castle, The Punisher is a character who perfectly embodies the violent antihero trope, one who eschews ethics in favor of doing just about anything and everything to fight crime. Whereas Batman refuses to go too far due to his own moral code, The Punisher finds a bitter revelry in the act. Instead of elaborate gadgets, he’s packing heat. Instead of justice, he seeks revenge — the perfect formula for a slew of misinterpretations and misappropriations of his iconic skull symbol. That’s its own can of worms, though.
Based on this alone, The Punisher admittedly sticks out a bit when you think of comic book heroes. Sure, he’s a “hero” in a relative sense, but his methods to accomplish his goals often rival the very same methods of madness utilized by his victims — er, by his foes. How, then, did this character become commercially viable enough to demand his very own game?
Enter The Punisher, which was developed by Volition and published by THQ in 2005. This quasi-adaptation of the titular Thomas Jane film captures the essence of what it means to be Frank Castle by forming itself around a fairly standard third-person shooter core. Once you dig past the surface level, though, what you’ll find is a game that not only embodies the brutality of the character, but one that encourages you to do so to the best of your ability.
Enter The Punisher
The Punisher is weird. It’s not a direct adaptation of the Thomas Jane film, nor is it an adaptation of the character’s comic storylines, nor is it something wholly original. Instead, it’s some amalgamation of the three, retelling some of the film’s events while incorporating elements from his comic run throughout the early 2000s.
It kicks off with Frank Castle in handcuffs, interrogated by officers Molly von Richthofen and Martin Soap in the heart of Ryker’s Island (yes, with a “Y”). Through a series of case files and flashbacks, we’re able to see how exactly Frank Castle got into his current conundrum. What starts as a routine evening for Frank — you know, murdering purse snatchers and shooting up crackhouses — leads to him unraveling a crime syndicate run by the prominent Gnucci family. Soon, he discovers that the Gnuccis are pawns in a much bigger plot.
It’s not the most incredible of stories, but for what it’s worth, it lets you go from A to B pretty effectively. It puts The Punisher into a plethora of violent and over-the-top situations, and it allows for some of his more comic-friendly villains to shine throughout. For instance, someone like Bushwacker, whose main strength comes from his biomechanical weaponry, is much easier to swallow in this setting as opposed to how he might’ve been handled in live-action. Bonus points for featuring Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti in the writers’ room, as the two worked extensively on the original comics. Likewise, Volition writers Michael and Chris Breault do an amicable job of translating the source material to a different medium.
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The game looks fine for 2005. It’s nothing really too impressive, but there’s just enough exaggeration in the character models and visual design to sell the comic book style of its universe. Frank Castle, in particular, is this hulking beast of a man, looking more like a shaved gorilla with a dollop of ink on its cranium than a human being. The returning voice of Thomas Jane oddly works better here than it did in live action, really selling the grit of his character through his furrowed brow and clenched teeth. The game’s ragdoll effects are plentiful, as is its ample gore, and they both provide a visceral satisfaction that you can never really get enough of.
The score, meanwhile, is downright exceptional. I was actually surprised. There were more than a handful of moments where I had to stop and really take in what I was listening to, even if it was during the start of a boss fight or some difficult combat encounter. Composed to varying degrees by Gerard Marino (God of War), Tim Wynn (XCOM 2, Final Destination Bloodlines), Christopher Lennertz (The Boys, Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker), and Corey Jackson, it’s a score that veers less towards edginess and distortion as you would expect. Rather, it’s incredibly grandiose, operatic, even. If you enjoyed Carlo Siliotto’s score from the accompanying film, you’re sure to find some similarities here.
Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands
But nobody remembers The Punisher for its aesthetic choices. No, they remember its gameplay. Specifically, one key aspect of its gameplay.
The Punisher is your run-of-the-mill third-person shooter for most of the journey. Walk forward, shoot things, repeat until it’s over. There’s a bit more going on than just constant fighting, like having to solve a timed puzzle or discovering additional items by running around, but dispensing lead forms the bulk of the action here. The shooting itself is pretty serviceable for the time as well. You have a varied arsenal that occasionally forces you to make some tactical decisions. For instance, you can carry two one-handed weapons in lieu of carrying just one, but you won’t be able to toss grenades while carrying them both. You can only carry one two-handed weapon around, forcing you to prioritize whether a shotgun or a fast-firing rifle would be better for the current situation. It’s all decent stuff.
Survival also depends on your ability to improvise. Frank Castle’s mobility is pretty paltry compared to someone like Max Payne. Outside of a crouch and an occasionally useful dive, you’ll have to use Frank’s penchant for cruelty to shield yourself from most damage. “Shield,” as in taking human shields. Getting up close to an enemy allows you to take them out with a melee attack or hold them hostage, blocking most front-facing damage until they perish, you execute them, or comically toss them away à la Uncle Phil in Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
But then you get to the interrogations.
As mentioned, The Punisher is a man who doesn’t mess around. By using special areas in the environment — or his own bare hands, if necessary — The Punisher can bring a foe down to their knees and violently torture them for information. This can include anything from hidden item caches to hints for progression, like door codes. These interrogations all share a central mechanic wherein you have to precariously balance a bar within a set zone: go too far, and you may end up killing your foe before getting your information; don’t go far enough, and they won’t tell you anything. Keep the bar in the zone for a few seconds, and they’ll crack. When all is said and done, you’re able to then let them go. . . or you can just kill them outright. You’re The Punisher, after all. They also double as a means of recovering health, with environmental interrogations restoring significantly more health compared to your regular interrogations.
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The sheer variety of these in all 16 levels is downright staggering. You can dangle foes out of windows, shove them underneath drill presses and dangling knives, threaten to throw them into wood chippers, meat grinders, piranha tanks, rhino cages, vats of melted chrome, furnaces, jet engines . . . really, there are just too many to count. It’s absolutely comical. But the sheer gruesomeness of some of these almost rivals the likes of something like Manhunt. So much so that, just like Manhunt 2, the game saw significant censorship when it came to depicting these.
To avoid the infamous Adults Only ESRB rating, which would’ve otherwise doomed the game’s sales, every cruel deed you can commit in these sequences is accompanied by a black-and-white filter and a discreet pan away from all the gruesome details. Everything else outside of interrogations, like blowing off heads and limbs with your guns, was kept intact. The PC release does have a fix that can circumvent this bit of censorship, but I’d like to think that it helps sell the brutality in a way that holds up compared to what you’ll find nowadays. In an era where you can just look up every horrifying fatality in Mortal Kombat on your phone, the appeal of graphically dated gore does admittedly feel diminished. Putting a stylish spin on things feels a bit more unique in comparison. Then again, if I was still a gorehound teenager, I’m sure I would’ve gone the extra mile to crank up the intensity.
On top of everything else, you also have Slaughter Mode. Underneath your health bar, a bullet-shaped meter full of blue fluid gradually fills up, allowing you to enter Slaughter Mode as long as there’s still some left to use. In this mode, the world becomes a blur as Frank Castle rips out a pair of knives from his jacket, gains incredible damage resistance, and wipes out his foes with as little as a single button press. If you can’t close the distance, you can also throw either knife individually or both at the same time. It’s suitable for either clearing a room or giving you a quick panic button, as every kill made in Slaughter Mode also refills a bit of your health. Just don’t turn it off prematurely. You’ll use up all of the meter regardless of how long you’re in Slaughter Mode.
It almost feels like the rampant violence makes up for the game’s shortfalls elsewhere.
Just about every boss battle is obnoxious in its own unique way. Either through annoying mechanics, prolonged inactivity, or even just being way too easy to cheese your way through, it’s safe to say that I didn’t really enjoy any of the ones on offer here. The closest thing to a good time I had would be the battle with Bushwacker. Even then, having to deal with waves and waves of weak gangsters simultaneously diminished my enjoyment a bit.
The final boss, in particular, was an absolute joke, with its first phase being defeated by simply standing underneath him and firing upwards without any threat of retaliation. The second phase is just an exercise in wasting time, as he can only be damaged by remote explosives that spawn in a handful of places, along with heavily armored soldiers.
Speaking of which, a curve can be felt when you play The Punisher for the first time. Across three days, there was a definitive shift in how I approached the game’s challenges:
- At first, it’s nothing short of a power trip: Frank Castle is nigh on immortal, and low-life thugs and gangsters are quickly blown away by his explosive arsenal.
- By the midpoint, things slow down a bit: enemies are packing better weapons, there are more of them gunning you down at a time, and you’re more inclined to hunker down and pick off heads from a safe distance.
- By the end, headshots are king: anything short of an assault rifle and a well-placed shot to the head immediately puts you at a significant disadvantage, and while your full kit of abilities is still useful, you’ll occasionally struggle to find an opportunity to really make use of them.
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Once the soldiers in full armor arrive, you’re going to have to approach things a bit differently. It’s not as if The Punisher is a brutally difficult game, but it’s one that seems to stifle its own best qualities due to the eventual prominence of an end-all-be-all strategy: shoot things in the head with anything that isn’t a shotgun.
Scoring thankfully complements this kind of fast-paced, efficient approach. Taking down an enemy gives you points, and when you take down five enemies in a row without either taking damage or attacking someone innocent, you gain a multiplier. This multiplier increases your overall points whenever you kill an enemy. It’s simple enough, but you’ll also have to introduce some variety into your kills in order to maximize your point potential. Environmental kills, melee attacks, and ordinary shooting all have to be used interchangeably to ensure you can reach the highest score possible.
With the points you accrue, you’re able to purchase useful upgrades to keep Frank Castle armed and ready: better armor, additional ammo capacity, more time in Slaughter Mode, it’s all stuff you’d expect with a handful of ultra powerful upgrades that we won’t spoil for you here. Plus, hitting a certain point threshold will grant you one of three medals — bronze, silver, and gold, with each one being tied to the Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties, respectively. Beyond just bragging rights, gold medals are also one of the only ways to unlock some additional goodies, like comic book covers and cheat codes, which are a nice reward for all your effort. These are also used to unlock additional modes for each level, which introduce their own unique stipulations and challenges.
It’s a weird thing to balance; at its core, The Punisher is a game about The Punisher first and foremost. But it’s also a game that revels in its absurd levels of graphic violence and gore, where an intimately gruesome scene is a bloody dessert on top of something that’s meant to aid your progression. But simultaneously, you’re punished for going through with such a deadly maneuver due to interrogation kills taking points away, which seemingly goes against The Punisher’s modus operandi that can be bluntly surmised as “kill anyone who’s evil.” Combine this with the more fantastical elements of the game, like a brief cameo from Iron Man and Black Widow surviving a shot from a tank cannon aimed at her sternum, and you have this strange mishmash of differing elements that occasionally doesn’t mesh uniformly.
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I can at least appreciate how much the game encourages you to toy with everything it has to offer. I was reminded of PlatinumGames’ MadWorld in that it isn’t that mechanically complex, but the sheer amount of fun it’s having with its violent antics infects you with every subsequent level. There’s a goofiness here — the good kind, the kind that reminds you that you’re exploring an irreverent comic book story compared to the unrelenting grotesqueness of Manhunt. Seeing as how MadWorld took inspiration from games like The Punisher and Manhunt, as well as Frank Miller’s Sin City comics, it’s no wonder that I feel a similar level of enjoyment towards it.
Is The Punisher Worth Playing Today?
Ultimately, your enjoyment of The Punisher will boil down to a few things. Do you like The Punisher as a character? Do you like Thomas Jane? Can you stomach some generic shooter gameplay mixed with some impressive-for-the-time feats of violence?
Unlike Manhunt, whose perverse presentation and overall unsettling atmosphere doubly sell it as a horror experience, The Punisher‘s appeal definitely feels more targeted to the comics crowd. Manhunt rewarded you for pursuing the most gruesome of kills, in both aesthetic and gameplay, making the ensuing violence more prolonged and grotesque while boosting your overall rank. In The Punisher, you can find a similar level of attention aimed towards its violence, but its execution leans far more in the direction of a typical shooter for the day. That, and the occasional fan service for Marvel fans might be lost on those who aren’t familiar with the stories they come from.
I’d be lying, though, if I said I didn’t have a blast with The Punisher. Outside of the game’s bosses and the occasional sore spot, there’s nary a moment I ever stopped having fun, either through the sheer absurdity of the violence on-screen or my own slip-ups accidentally leading to some poor thug’s premature demise. Is it a game that most people would enjoy? Most likely not. It’s definitely something that fits a specific niche.
Within that niche, though? It’s killer.
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Based on my prior experiences, it is worth noting how Volition would seemingly borrow a particular mechanic from The Punisher in some of their later titles. While the beloved Saints Row franchise — and Volition as a whole, actually — is currently six feet under, I couldn’t help but notice how the human shield mechanic shared between the Saints Row games and The Punisher felt eerily familiar. With its effectiveness, its quickness, and even the hilariously over-the-top way you throw enemies away, you can’t help but wonder that the foundation for its use in Saints Row was taken wholesale from The Punisher.
Overall, The Punisher is an interesting time capsule of a specific time point. It was before the MCU. It was within a time period marked by boundary-pushing games and rising concerns over excessive violence. It was a partial movie tie-in, even. But most especially, it marked the perfect kind of middle-ground game that didn’t necessarily move consoles or sell gangbusters but served an audience that was just big enough to justify a full production. The indie scene certainly took over this role in the years that followed, but it’s just not the same.
The Punisher is available on Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC.
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