As most of you have heard, Volition was making The Punisher. And yours truly has got his hands on it. So, you want to know how it is?
In all honesty, i am disapointed. Very much. I thought V would do better. My first impression was a striking similarity to Manhunt. As in Manhunt, the game takes place in 3rd person. As in Manhunt, you fight with a variety of weapons, from beer bottles to baseball bats, and to heavy machineguns. As in Manhunt, there is an excess of violence, lots of grusome ways to kill your oponents. And like in Manhunt, the weapons are surrounded by a blue glow, a spitting image of Manhunt. It´s so much like Manhunt, that i´m inclined to call it Manhunt II, the sequel.
Only one diference exists between Manhunt and The Punisher. And that is, that Manhunt was fun to play, unlike The Punisher.
Basically, The Punisher is a "shoot´em up", you pick up guns and you shoot them. After a while, it gets boring. And the fact that the AI is so dumb only helps the party. Watching how the AI runs backwards past you, looking to the other side and shotgun in hand, and doesn´t fire a shot while you stand there laughing at their dumbness, is common throughout the game. And the fact that the player can withstand a huge ammount of punishment without loosing a bit of energy, is shamefull. You don´t even need to take cover. Just run towards them and shoot. They will either miss you by a mile, or actually hit you, but you won´t feel a thing. The bullits are more like pesky moskitoes, you swat them and move on. No harm done. Literally.
Sorry Volition, but you botched it up. You should have been doing FS3 instead of this poor Manhunt lookalike. I know THQ only wants to make easy money, but you should keep up to a certain standard.
Actually, come to think of it, if [V]´s stardards are this low, it´s all the better that they leave FS3 alone. They wouldn´t live up to our expectations.
