Excessively violent, but a great playing, enjoyable game as well.

To all the parents out there in video game land, The Punisher is one of the most violent video games of all time. Take the Mature ESRB content rating seriously on this one. If your youngster is not able to drive himself to the mall and use money he made at his part-time job to pay for this game, then he should not be playing it. This game takes killing to a completely new level with hundreds of different ways you can commit gruesome acts of murder. But despite the intense, all-too-realistic blood, guts and gore, I had a blast playing it. I just hope that doesn't make me a sociopath.

For those that don't know, The Punisher video game is based on the Marvel comic book and focuses on the alter ego of a Vietnam veteran named Frank Castle. Castle, his wife and his two children are the unwilling participants in a mob crossfire that leaves only him alive. After recovering from his wounds and realizing that the police will do nothing to find the killers, he becomes the vigilante known as The Punisher. Then, he kills everyone.

Which is incidentally the concept behind most action/adventure games on the market. Most of them have a goal like saving the princess or stopping global terrorism. As well, most of them have opposing forces that are trying to keep you from your stated mission. When these unfortunate slobs happen to get in your way, you are totally justified in their utter annihilation.

At its core, The Punisher follows these basic rules. The game is presented in third person perspective and plays like a typical shooter. You'll get handguns, shotguns, uzis, automatic rifles, and grenades to name a few. You'll run through the level blasting away at drug dealers, rapists, murderers, and gang-bangers. You'll fight an occasional boss or two and maybe save a few hostages. And if that was it, you might ask what the big deal was. I would too.

How this game really breaks the mold and really makes you feel like The Punisher is the way you interact with the enemies. When at a distance, it's business as usual and your only recourse is your weapons. Close range, however, is a completely different story. When you get up close and personal you are confronted with a plethora of foul alternatives.

The most often used is the quick kill. When in melee range, The Punisher will grab the unsuspecting villain and perform some form of mercy killing with the kind of panache that only The Punisher is capable of. Some involve slitting throats or stabbing tops of heads or faces or breaking necks. Others even involve the villains doing themselves in.

If merciful quick kills are not your bag you still have some other options. After you grab an enemy you can drag them to certain highlighted areas of the level and perform special kills that resemble the stage fatalities of the Mortal Kombat games.

Though it's not an original concept (games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid have done it) The Punisher can grab enemies and use them as human shields. Unlike the other games, you can actually hurtle your shield towards other enemies causing damage to those in the vicinity and giving you time to slip behind cover.

The last of The Punisher's close proximity abilities has to do with information extraction. The acquisition of information is key to any successful war; knowing really is half the battle. In The Punisher, you learn what the enemies are up to by very masterfully torturing the information out of whatever riffraff happens to be left alive. Unfortunately, torture for the sake of information extraction is an all too exact process. Too little force and the subject doesn't take you seriously. Too much force and they end up dead (you lose points). Just the right amount and they spill the beans. Some interrogation techniques are easier to perform than others, and some are only possible in certain areas of the level. These are generally the more gruesome of the interrogation techniques, but they are rather cool and award more points than the normal ones.

One thing to note, as an aside, is that interrogating enemies rejuvenates The Punisher and increases his health. If you can find a secluded area, you can effectively interrogate the entire enemy army making the game much easier, but at the same time quite boring.

Related to the health bar is The Punisher's "Slaughter Mode Bar." The energy in this bar comes from killing lots and lots of bad guys and when used causes The Punisher to go into Slaughter Mode. You really have to see it to appreciate it, but this is basically what happens. You watch yourself flip out onscreen, hands in tight fists as you scream towards the sky. The entire screen washes out into an eerie gray blur where the only things left in color are your enemies. Their screams are muffled by your incredible rage to the point that it doesn't even feel like it's you. You are virtually invulnerable as you go to town, foe after foe falling dead at your feet in a whirlwind of destruction. Then when the bar finally runs out you come back to your senses, shake yourself off, and proceed as normal.

This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest aspects of this game.

The cool features don't stop there though. They just go on and on and on. There are listed here in no particular order and with no regard to continuity. For one, you can spend style points back at The Punisher's apartment to buy upgrades like a larger Slaughter Mode bar, grenade launcher attachment or better accuracy.

Another lets you revisit any of the levels at varying difficulty levels or with specific goals to gain more points to spend on upgrades. You can unlock special concept artwork, Comic book covers, and cheat modes like "One Shot Kills" and "Unlimited Ammo."

Though it's not really a feature, per se, the game has tons of Marvel Comics Easter egg content and several encounters with other heroes from the comic book universe. Any Marvel Comics fan will feel right at home.

Wrapping up the "extra features" are the hilarious ending credits. I was literally crying they were so funny. That's all I'm going to say about it though, you'll have to play it yourself.

So what is the final verdict of The Punisher video game? I'll be honest with you, at first I didn't think it was my type of game because of the excessive violence. My first impression was that it was trying to use excessive violence as a gimmick and I was inclined to write it off as one of these crappy games that get ripped to shreds in the review process. The more I played it, though, the more it grew on me. By the end of the game I was so into the subtle Marvel Comics references and the fantastic game play that I found myself not wanting to put down the controller. I'd still suggest renting it first just to decide if it's a fit for you, but this game at least has collection potential. You'll just have to decide for yourself.