Written and contributed by G. “Galiene” Jones

July 20, 2004

Having played many first person shooter (FPS) games, when I first read about the Painkiller plot, my initial perception was – “Here’s another wanna-be good FPS game with some guy trying to escape from hell. Ho hum.” There was a demo, and it was free so what the heck I gave it a whirl anyway. Was I ever surprised at the demo!

I was hooked from the starting point of waking up in the village crawling with zombies. The atmosphere was dark and hazy, making it a bit hard to see. Looking down I saw my only weapon was what looked be a spear-like gun with sharpened wooden stakes as ammunition. Then I heard eerie moaning sounds and the dragging of decayed limbs approaching. Mmmm, let the carnage begin! By the time I had made my way through the village of the damned, found some new weapons and collected souls, I had made the decision to buy the game when it was released. That day has come and gone and I have since been playing the single-player and multiplayer version of Painkiller. It is that good.

Gameplay

If you’re a fan of FPS games with the style of DOOM, Half-Life and Serious Sam — then Painkiller is one you will enjoy playing well into the night. Despite the whole been-there-done-that with some guy desperately trying to shoot their way out of Hell, Painkiller provides a unique approach to being “trapped in hell”. With the addition of a distinct narrative idea and nearly endless evil to combat, the game developers People Can Fly take off with a well-done game. And the graphics … whoa, the graphics! But, I’ll get into that later.

There are three difficulty levels to choose from. Daydream, aka “easy”; Insomnia offers a bit of a more challenge, but to the experienced FPS gamer may be left wanting more; and Nightmare is, well, a nightmare. Pick the difficulty level you want to play and you’re off. You can decide to go down a different path and select a different difficulty later, but this is done at a cost – you will have to start the game from the beginning.

Starting the game, you are Daniel and your wife is Catherine. After rushing into the car to escape the downpour of rain, you whisk off down the road off to celebrate your wife’s birthday. Despite the heavy rain and thunderstorms going on around you, you reach over to take Catherine’s hand and give her one of those “you’re the greatest thing that ever happened to me” smiles and there is a twinkle in your eyes. Well maybe you should have saved that smile and look for another time, because having taken your eyes off the road, you slam into an eighteen wheeler and you got it — killing you and also “the greatest thing that ever happened to you”.

When you wake up you instantly know you are not in Be Safe Memorial Hospital recovering from the car wreck. You are very much dead and waiting in a limbo room. Here you meet Sammael – a somewhat creepy angel. After your conversation with Sammael in the afterlife’s waiting room, you learn that Catherine has made it through to Heaven but you have been dumped in Purgatory, with no clue as to why you are there — after all you was a good little boy and a model adult during your lifetime, right? Yeah right, everyone has secrets good ole Daniel. Sammael let’s you know there is a way to escape Purgatory and join your wife within the pearly gates. Just do God a little favor and kill Lucifer’s four generals. Why should you do this? Because the four generals and their thousands of minions are preparing to launch an assault on Heaven. Ok, but really, why should you do this? Well since you don’t have anything else to do except for perhaps wonder around in limbo crying about your crappy luck, you agree to do the deed. Kill the demon generals that roam the depths of Hell and you’re home free … well not “home” but you get the idea. Sounds simple right? Well not quite! As you will learn later, creepy Sammael failed to mention to you some “minor” details about the demon generals. For instance, they are about three hundred feet tall, and so protected that they are nearly incapable of being damaged with mere direct hits.

So the trek “home” begins. Obviously there is a lot of kill and kill and kill again, but Painkiller also requires some thinking as each level has an objective. When you first enter a level you must understand what your goal is and how to achieve it. The objective is not necessarily about gore and mayhem. In order to be prepared for the higher levels you must unlock the different Black Tarot card at the end of each level, and this is done only by successfully completing the level’s objective. These tarot cards give you power-ups and extra abilities, such as increased dexterity, increased speed, and morphing into demon-mode. You will need these tarot cards to help you complete objectives and eventually get of Hell.

As Daniel makes his way toward his goal, he meets Eve – yes the Eve from the Adam and Eve couple. A scantly clad Eve (no magnifying glass required here!) offers to help Daniel with some advice about Lucifer’s generals and their minions. Now not to harp on the very much naked Eve, but come on People Can Fly — a stacked female character, shirtless, with her long hair barely covering her front, in a place where demons are crawling about and where the weather is damp and cold? You lose points on that one People Can Fly.

Let’s talk about firepower. Daniel has five weapons to select to use in killing the numerous fiends within Hell. There are some entirely unique weapons – stake gun, the Electro driver (shuriken cannon), the painkiller, the shotgun and minigun/rocket launcher. While there are only five weapons to choose from, they are balanced. Each has a distinct purpose and can deal out a significant amount of damage. Certain weapons are more useful against a particular Lucifer general boss, so experiment and learn their capabilities for wasting the bad guys.

Painkiller’s monsters and locations themselves are tied to the particular Lucifer general they serve. This game has some of the coolest monsters I have ever had the pleasure of killing. The monsters demonstrate splendid artificial intelligence (AI), often using one another as shields and dodging behind objects to avoid your shots! When monsters die, they leave their souls behind. Collecting/absorbing each soul restores one hit point to Daniel. Collect sixty-six souls and you morph into an invulnerable demonic form for twenty seconds or so. Time the sixty-sixth collection right and you can take on this destructive demonic form just when you are being swarmed by enemies – and rack up some quick kills!

Painkiller breaks a few FPS rules about moving and shooting — and this is good, very good! Delivering the ability to push most movable objects (boxes, crates, and even vending machines) to a new spot in order to reach a higher position, seeing your wooden stakes nail monsters to a wall and watching the monster dangle trying to free itself until it dies, and the well done AI adds an essential element of realism.

There are checkpoints throughout the game, which trigger an auto-save. These checkpoints are often before and after a difficult spot. You can also save the game at any point in the game, if you choose to. Unless you are playing hardcore, by your own “I’m not going to save nowhere else except for the checkpoint auto-saves”, save your game often. Trust me. If one of the demons kills you, then you are permanently in Hell. This means you must start the level over, or from the last checkpoint and that last checkpoint may have been a significant amount of time ago.

Graphics

The graphics in Painkiller are simply amazing! There is a lot of glorious visual appeal to enjoy. A bit resource hungry, you will need a high range computer to experience the game at its peaked graphical settings. However, you can still run the game smoothly on a mid-range machine, once the details are adjusted. Even a casual glance at Painkiller’s levels is proof that they’re not clumsy designed. The levels are designed very specifically and intentionally to work the way they do. The art direction and graphics of Painkiller are astounding and I often found myself revisiting certain areas I had already cleansed just to marvel in the detail of not only the bloodbath, but also the textures, lighting and layout of the surrounding buildings, objects, and outdoor elements.

Painkiller presents Purgatory in an disconcerting, dreamlike landscape where your location, and the geography, seems to vary depending on your state of mind. A high-class opera house could be next door to a cemetery, a deteriorating factory, a Venetian city, or an asylum. Although while it seems the locals are disconnected, the levels in each of Painkiller’s five episodes exhibit a common thread, however subtle, that ties the locales together.

The screenshots do not do the game its graphic justice. The flapping of the demon’s wings, the decayed face of the walking dead, a wall collapsing under the weight of a monster or from the rippling of bullets, to the intricacy of a torch flickering make Painkiller’s graphics a splendor to see. Not to mention the Lucifer general’s who will make you tremble as you look up and realize you barely reach the cap of their ankle! Truly the most impressive bosses I have seen in any game!

Painkiller make use of a new codebase called Pain Engine to handle rendering tasks. Called the Pain Engine. It is easily competitive with Lithtech, Crytek, Gamebryo, and Unreal 2.0, the four major licensable engine properties on the market today. The physics of the Pain Engine is experienced when you shoot an enemy at close range with the shotgun. It is blown back and realistically lands on whatever is in the way. Another example of the Engine is when an enemy dies against a wall; it will slump over properly. If Pain Engine is easy to develop for, I can see People Can Fly making crazy money off its marketing plans.

Sound
Game music and sound effects for the weapons and monsters add good value to the gameplay and are done very well. You will hear the muttering of the ninjas (how I despised those dark ninjas!), the shrieking of Banshees, the sound of the wind blowing in the seemingly deserted cemetery, the scrapping sounds emitting from graves, and then the increasing pulse of heavy guitar music. The pace of the music is an alert to you that Lucifer’s minions are nearby and coming after you. So music = be ready to kick major monster booty.

Wrap Up

Since the release of the game, there have been a couple of patches. Download them and install them. They improve game stability, load times and a few texture problems. While I have also played Painkiller online, the multiplayer popularity just doesn’t seem to be there at the moment. I often have to search and search again for a server running a game with a few players to cause mayhem with. This is most likely due to the instability of the multiplayer mode. However, if you’re just looking for some good classic deathmatch battles, then you’ll be happy. I prefer the single-player mode myself.

To sum it all up, kudos to People Can Fly for having done an amazing job on their first game. While Painkiller can be about exploration, locating secret areas, finding holy items, the crux of the game is about killing everything in sight, gaining access to the Black Tarot Cards, and moving to the next level. And guess what? That is fun – a lot of fun!

(G. “Galiene” Jones is a contributing reviewer for GamersOnly Network. Send feedback & comments.)