Fluid Gameplay and controls are important to any game. Most of the missions are fairly straightforward. As you walk through the various missions, you'll find shooting the enemy is the most prudent thing to do. Sometimes the game will throw you a twist. Sometimes the enemy will take an innocent hostage, forcing you to go to what most games would call Sniper mode, but Volition calls Fine Aim mode. In this mode you can get a better aim of the target to shoot. Shooting the innocent bystander will cause points to be taken away from you. Take too long and the enemy will also shoot the innocent causing loss of points. Interrogation is an important gameplay device in the game.

You get far more information about the enemy and the story by interrogating enemy prisoners. To interrogate an enemy in the game get close to them and press E. This will make the enemy a shield that can also block an enemy shot. Press A, D, S, or F to get into interrogation mode. The mouse comes into play! here. To interrogate the enemy, simply move the mouse up and down to cause the interrogation bar to fill. If the interrogation bar stays in the orange for 3 seconds, the enemy might (especially if there's a skull icon on top of their head) tell you information that'll flesh out the story. Sometimes you will be given the opportunity to do a special Interrogation. Slaughter Mode is similar in concept to Bullet-Time in Max Payne, or the effect in Painkiller where everything slows down and turns red. In Slaughter Mode, you heal faster, take less damage, and move faster. In the interface, a blue bar denotes slaughter mode time on the left side in the HUD.

One neat thing about this game is the use of Quick Kills. Quick Kills are done when you get up close to an enemy and have the choice of interrogating them or killing them. There are a variety of ways to kill the enemy using QKs. One QK had The Punisher slit an enemy throat. Another had The Punisher throw his rifle into the arms of the enemy then kick the enemy to the floor. Another QK had The Punisher shooting the enemy in the head at point-blank range. Part of the fun of the game is the ability to use the environment to cause a nasty death or interrogation. An example of this has the Punisher holding an enemy over a piranha tank. If you take the Interrogation too far, the enemy will go into the tank and die with a big splash.

The Punisher has a veritable arsenal of weapons available to him during the game. You start with the standard pistol, which holds 8 shots. Ammo is plentiful in the game, as dead enemies drop them after they have been killed. Weapons in the game include a machine gun, a 5.56mm Assault Rifle, a 7.62 Assault Rifle, a Automatic Shotgun, a Sniper Rifle, a Anti-Tank weapon (LAW), a Flamethrower, among many others. Each weapon has its own ammo store, its own damage properties, and can be found on enemies, and in levels. Other weapons like a baseball bat can be found on levels, but aren't kept. Controls are through the WASD standard to move Forward, Right, Backward, and Left. This is the standard movement controls of many a third-person and first-person shooter over the years. T is the button used to change weapons, making changing from a machine-gun to pistols or grenades the simple matter of pressing one button. The mouse is used to move the targeting cursor. These are standard controls found in every action game and are easy to master. The mouse is also used in Interrogation mode, so I would suggest buying a sensitive mouse.