What a massive disappointment. I had this game on my wishlist for years and finally got a copy and started playing last week….I really wanted to like this game but it’s just a slog.

The positives are the punisher is cool as fuck, lots of cheesey action movie one-liners and the game pulls no punches with the gore and M rating. The selection of guns and upgrades are pretty decent and the challenge modes and medals along with being able to pick your load outs gives the game some replay value. The shooting is decent and the rage mode is fun. The interrogations especially all the environmental ones are creative and there’s a shocking amount but here’s where the problems begin…

Why am I penalized for killing a guy after I get information from him then use whatever torture method to kill him? But if I extract info from him then just shoot him in the face my score goes up? Also why the black and white filter when one of these kills are done but not other ones like when I put a dudes face in a bear trap?

The boss fights are some of the worst ever with bullet sponge enemies that run away from you in maze like environments especially on the hard difficulty. Healing isn’t practical because you have to interrogate an enemy to heal so I’d find myself grabbing a goon and walking away with them to interrogate them then go back to shooting the boss. The stick mini game when interrogating was also very janky sometimes and took a lot of the fun out of what should have been some over the tops moments.

I can’t stress how putrid the boss fights are.

My last complaint is why no bullet time? Was the game too afraid of being a max Payne clone? It should have embraced it because the diving shooting just isn’t nearly as fun.

Really bummed by this. Maybe I’ll pick it up again at some point but I can’t recommend this one.