The Punisher (PC, XBOX)

(Herald rating: ***)

Revenge and justice are themes central to The Punisher, the latest video game based on characters and story lines plundered from the vaults of comic book merchants Marvel. Meet Frank Castle, a human terminator hell-bent on taking out the gangsters who murdered his family.

Once, he had a soul - now, like Charles Bronson's character in the Death Wish movies, Castle's reason for existing is to rid the world of evil-doers. And the game's selling point? He has more than 100 unique ways to punish crime at his disposal.

Method number one was ramming a thug's head into a gate, in the zoo of all places. That was after I'd tortured him to extract information about a kidnapping. Interrogation is essential in The Punisher. But sometimes it is tricky to get hardened mobsters to talk. That's where the industrial drill comes in handy.

The interrogations require you to toggle a few keys for several seconds, keeping up the intensity, which is shown as an on-screen bar. Keep the bar full for the required time and the crim will crack.

Other than that, The Punisher is a fairly standard, third-person shoot-'em-up game with relatively interesting settings and reasonably lush graphics.

The novelty though is in adopting unusual methods of killing people, a characteristic of the game that puts it in the adults-only category. The Punisher leaves blood and gore is his wake employing an arsenal of pistols, shot guns and machine guns to pursue justice. Knives and throwing daggers are also used for more visceral and personal killing.

Trying to play the game using a computer keyboard and mouse isn't ideal. The game is better suited to the Playstation 2 or Xbox consoles.

Enemies will stumble, dive for cover and crouch behind pillars, making them seem more animated. But the artificial intelligence, as so often is the case, tends to disappoint. The enemy is relatively easy to kill and Castle will walk through a hail of bullets and stay standing. Despite that, he can only take so much punishment and will eventually collapse in slow-motion, his leather trench-coat spreading out like a burial shroud.

The story cutaways explain the noble mission Castle is on, but his morality is warped. He will commit mass murder to save the life of a single kidnap victim. It is no surprise that The Punisher's catch phrase is: become the ultimate anti-hero. Don't think about this game too deeply or you're likely to be disturbed.

* (R18) (PC) $90 (PS2 AND XBOX ($110)