The exclusive PS3 digital download release of The Punisher: No Mercy brings to the system a decidedly solid multiplayer first-person shooter set in Marvel Comic’s The Punisher universe, complete with characters and settings that Punisher fans may or may not be familiar with, and introducing one or two interesting features to the multiplayer arena shooter genre along the way.

The Punisher: No Mercy places players in an online multiplayer arena as you work with a team of your fellow online players (or by yourself) to complete a variety of objectives, such as surviving enemy waves, taking out the opposing team, or wracking up the highest number of frags (enemy kills) in a set time limit.

Gunplay is nice and solid, and all of the weapons feel suitably punchy and powerful, with a clean, informative heads-up display (HUD) that provides the necessary data (current health, bullets remaining, objectives necessary etc.) with minimum fuss. Violence-wise, No Mercy finds itself in the middle of ultra-violence and teen-friendly, with gallons of blood being spilt, but very little in the way of limb severance or mutilation.

Players will find themselves in all manner of dank and dreary environments, such as warehouses and harbour docks, fighting it out with a range of handguns, automatic weaponry and explosive-based hardware. These spaces are used pretty creatively, able to provide well designed, flowing deathmatch arenas and suitable variations in elevation, with the inclusion of a few environmental hazards to spice things up.

Basic arena-based gameplay applies, as players scoot around these environments picking off their opponents, picking up extra health, power-ups (such as extra speed, shield protection or weapon upgrades) and money which contributes to your final score. If you’re killed, you’re able to respawn re-enter the fray semi-instantly.

What’s at least a little different about The Punisher: No Mercy as an arena shooter is the fact that the number of kills you achieve is tied directly to weapon upgrades – the more kills you make during any given respawn, the more you’re able to upgrade your weapons. Weapon upgrades, as mentioned, also show up as pickups in the game, but it’s nice that you’re rewarded for consecutive kills in this way.

Meeting certain conditions over the course of play, or over the course of a few matches, also nets you rewards and unlocks, for example, achieving a certain number of kills with a specific character will provide you with another weapon, character choice or ability modification (extra armour, speed and more, usable during a match), enabling you to use that unlock in subsequent matches.

Before a match, you’re able to choose which character you want to play as (from The Punisher himself, to Silver Sable, to Jigsaw and other Punisher characters), as well as equip yourself with the weapons that suit you best and the ability modifications you want to use. When you first start out, these choices will be pretty limited, but more varied options will present themselves the more you play and, therefore, the more you unlock.

Playing the singleplayer mode will also unlock further options… yep, a singleplayer mode is available in The Punisher: No Mercy, but it’s a lazy attempt at providing anything approaching a workable story-driven experience, and could instead be considered a suitable training ground for the online multiplayer action that the game was made for. While it’s clear that at least a little work went into this mode, wrapped up in a graphic novel-like presentation, it simply muddies the focus of what should have been pushed solely as an online multiplayer game.

The Punisher: No Mercy does what it says on the tin and a little extra, but don’t expect that extra to be anything special. It’s a straight-up team-based (and solo) online multiplayer game with an underwhelming ‘singleplayer’ component taped on, set in realistic environments (as opposed to stylised Quake or Unreal arenas) with realistic weaponry and a good pace, sporting solid gunplay-based action and well-designed, flowing levels.

While the presentation can be a little lacking, the game proves to be a welcome distraction from other heavy-hitting multiplayer shooters, and the price of entry on the PlayStation Store ($9.99) won’t challenge your wallet too much either, which means The Punisher: No Mercy provides a good ‘bang-for-your-buck’ offering to those looking for a quick pick-up-and-play online multiplayer shooter.

Pros: Good, solid gunplay; well designed levels; on-the-fly weapon upgrading is a neat addition; plenty of characters, weapons and abilities to unlock; already active online community

Cons: Lacking a little something in the presentation; singleplayer portion is a lazy effort; nothing unique to The Punisher universe sets it apart from other games; extreme texture load and pop in

Purchase: