Painkiller Black Edition

First off, pardon the pun in the title. I say pun, because in this game you play as a man who fights his way through not just Purgatory, but Hell itself. There's more to the game's story than that, but it can all pretty much be summed up with "Demons bad. Shoot demons". That's really all you truly need to know. And shoot demons you will. With a vast array of inventive weapons, including the titular Painkiller. Basically a hellish eggbeater which doubles as a laser-thing. Because that's another thing about this game. You have alot of variation here. Very rarely do you fight the exact same monsters in more than one Chapter. The locales are all very varied, as you at one point go from a modern military-base to an ancient arabian palace. You will also get your fair share of fun weapons to use. There aren't many, only about 7, but each one has an alternate firemode that's completely different from the primary fire. The Stake-launcher for instance primarily pins baddies to walls with a satisfying "thunk" and "Splat", but it also comes completely equipped with a grenade launcher. Another really nice thing about this game is the soundtrack. But then, being an old Metal-head, maybe I'm biased. There is very much a Heavy Metal-feel to this game. Both in terms of the music-genre and the magazine. Personally I think this is a good thing, but if that's really not your thing, you might want to look elsewhere. For everyone else, this game's just straight-up fun. And great for blowing off abit of steam as you wade through the hordes of hell, and re-painting the ceiling with whatever's left of them when you're done.

It's graphics hold up and you don't need a new system to run it well. I recall tricky boss mobs, very nice creepy sound track and wonderful overall atmosphere, play with the lights out if you dare! Lots of difficulty if you want it and includes an expansion, great game, highly recommended! My other favorites include Unreal Tournament (first one) and Doom II for their crazy replay value with all the custom maps that were out there at the time.

This shooter is definitely entertaining and hails back to the original Quake in terms of style and gameplay. Guns are overall creative and satisfying to use overall. The major sticking point that loses it a star for me is the bigger enemies. When fighting a boss or even just a larger-than-normal bad guy it doesn't feel particularly engaging or challenging. Part of the reason for this is that any and every weapon you use still does appreciable amounts of damage, even from far away. As a result the bigger enemies end up feeling like giant bullet sponges devoid of serious challenge. That aside, it's still an entertaining game, if a bit mindless.

This was an AWESOME experience. Played this more times than I can remember, even collected all the cards and got the second ending. It got to a point where my friends started to wonder if there wasn't any other games on my system. The most memorable moments are the boss fights, for me, the bigger and tougher they are, the more fun I have. Hordes of enemies, unique bosses and even more unique weaponry, an atmosphere that evokes loneliness and psychological tension, with heavy metal to stimulate your senses. Every stage and every setting was well thought out. The ONLY downside I had to this was the location of some of the cards. All in all, for it's time it was a great FPS, too bad there weren't many people on the Multiplayer side of it, as the stages were different when everyone were doing vanilla multiplayer, guess it was ahead of it's time

This First-Person Shooter is on the twitchy side, but unlike in Doom and its ilk, you have mouselook, checkpoints that both heal and save, and an unbelievable arsenal. In the base game, you only have 5 weapons, but not only does each one feature alternate fire with completely different ammo, they also fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. Despite having so few weapons, the game is designed in a way that makes them count, so few, if any, get neglected. This comes bundled with the Battle out of Hell expansion pack, which adds 10 new levels and 2 new weapons, which are even better than the ones you'd already had! The weapon design is very creative, and even though you don't have as much variety as in a lot of Shooters, what you have remains consistently both fun and useful. The levels are mostly designed well; they're not labyrinthine, and you usually have something guiding you on top of that. Occasionally, you'll get one that's really frustratingly designed. Or a boss fight; the final boss fight of the base game is INFURIATING. Overall, though, there's a lot of fun to be had, if you're into the visceral. The visuals look good, and while it's not a neon explosion, there's enough color that it doesn't look like it's made of mud and stone. There's a lot of variety in enemies, too; it's rare that you run into the same ones in even 2 different levels. The story is what it needs to be, and doesn't go much beyond that, but creates a decent lore, and your main character is a good, gruff tooth-kicker. The music is... well, if you've ever listened to a Rock station in 2004, it's that; not much more can be said. The sound effects are pretty good - many guns pack that cathartic punch - but I did notice that some of the grunts were from other Shooters I've played, but it's been so long that I don't remember which ones. Overall, if you like First-Person Shooters, you'll probably have a great time with this.