'Punisher' is a pretty bog-standard arena-based multiplayer shooter, which plays in a very similar way to Unreal tournament or Quake 3.

 

 

The ‘single-player’ is basically a tutorial in how to play the game (seriously, does anyone need one of these any more?), and lasts a paltry 30 minutes or so. These levels were totally laughable due to the shambolic AI of the bots. They will run straight at you with terrible accuracy, and by the time you’ve shot a few you seem to get some magic upgrades, which then makes you even more powerful than them, allowing you to mow them down brutally and efficiently as soon as they start running straight back at you. It’s even more hilarious thanks to the abysmal animation previously mentioned.

 

Each of the four levels only takes more than 5 minutes simply because of the huge kill counts you are required to get. This is the only game I’ve ever played with a single player lasting less than an hour; yet incredibly, I was bored by the end as I found it terribly repetitive.

 

None of the modes or weapons feel remotely new or innovative; and coupled with poor sound effects, all the weapons feel like pea-shooters. This includes the explosive weaponry, which is completely unbalanced, as one or a maximum of two shots will kill and enemy even if they land remotely close to them. Anyone that finds one of these weapons then has a huge advantage, especially if they then rack up a few kills, giving them further weapon and health upgrades over the competing players.

 

 

The upgrade system could have worked nicely, but it just makes the first person to wrack up a couple of kills way too overpowered, giving them an advantage from which the other player/ team is unlikely ever to recover from. Overall, the experience felt lazy and untested, and didn’t exactly fill me with high hopes for the multiplayer.