Painkiller Black Edition

What if they had a child?! the Son would be the Painkiller! XD Did you play and enjoy the games mentioned above? If so, buy Painkiller because you won't regret it! I strongly suggest you look for the (unofficial) "Randomguy7's Fix Compilation" patch as it will resolve the performance issues on modern machines. Keep this tip! And let's kill some demons... HAHAHAHA...

Ok. Not great or good. Mechanics of gameplay are simple but not great with feedback. The graphics are fine and the sound is fine. I found it to be dull after about 45 minutes.

The key difference in Painkiller's gameplay compared to classic 90s FPS is interacting with levels. Levels in DooM, Quake, Hexen, Duke 3d, Blood and others, were not just arenas for slaughter. They were a labyrinth to be explored. In Painkiller there is no labyrinth, only the Minotaur... actually 20 minotaurs, and medusas, and harpies, and hydras ... all on the same arena, charging right at you. There are no keycards, no messages "this door is opened elsewhere", no exploration of your environment. Yes, some levels are not linear at all and have quite a number of secrets to be found, but forcing a player into a closed arena with monsters to kill every single time changes the feeling of the game significantly. This is why I don't agree when people are comparing Painkiller to Quake, DooM or Hexen. Yes, you can bunnyhop (which wasn't even a part of original single player Quake, I believe this started in Quake world). Yes, the visual and sound design is demonic and medieval/mystic. But the basic gameplay formula is different. The Quake of 2005? More like Serious Sam of 2005. If this sounds fine, play this game. After all, it is good at what it does. 3.7 / 5

Painkiller is a good game but lacks true atmosphere. First of all the goal in painkiller is too destroy everything in your path much like Serious Sam but not quite as entertaining. While it is fun it gets repetitive and boring after the first play through. Basically you get dropped into a level which has 2 or 3 different enemies and a couple of waypoints, so it is linear as it can be. There are no keys, no levers or objectives... just follow the arrow on the top of the screen and you are good to go. The levels: Its has some of the nicest level design I've seen a while in a game but also some of the most bland ones. The a look at the Asylum, the first thing that catches your eye is the beautiful sky and silhouette of the building. While a bit cramped its a very good level overall. Then it has levels like the snowy bridge, bland.. boring and dull. With dead-ends everywhere in the container area. This is the ultimate corridor shooter type level. While levels like the opera house has huge indoor area. It ranger from bad to good with some being excellent. Then there are some of the so called secret areas, really some of these aren't even close too secrets. In the train station tunnels you have this chest staring in your face lying just next to the path you need to take and thats a secrets area? Come on. Half of the secret and just areas which you usually don't visit because they are of the killing path. But with a little extra exploring to see some of the nice level design you can find most of these. Then the enemies placement, well it goes basically like this. Enter an area, enemies gets spawned, kill em move to next waypoint, repeat. While Painkiller offer quite a bit of different enemies only 2-3 and sometimes 4 are used in one single level. So this add to the blandness. However the boss fights are cool but also mostly easy once you figure out how to kill them. Graphics: Not much to complain about the graphics it has great textures, physics, atmosphere but sometimes the level design could be better. Sound: Also good, with great music to back up the action. Gameplay: Well for me this is a mixed bag. While I like shooter a lot this one just doesn't give me the epic feeling of satisfaction Serious Sam, Quake and others gave me. There is nothing to do but to keep the firing button pressed. No keys, artifacts, levers, buttons, objectives of any kind. And you walk in a straight linear path all the time. Okay most other games also a linear in some way but this one doesn't do anything to hide it so to speak. And mostly you visit areas in levels only once. Also the game looks dark and evil with gruesome enemies but it doesn't give me that scary feeling at all. Overall its a good game, all the mechanics work in harmony, controls feel good so does the weapons but its not fun enough to do more than once. I recently did a second run but I really had to force myself to finish it. Especially since it has no co-op.

Unfortunately, I can't give it more than 2 stars. Maybe for someone may be fun, but for me its just a repetition of the same gameplay, the same arena with different colours or themes, repeated a thousand times. At least another arena shooters try to put in a little of humour to give a reason to keep playing ( or something to keep the gameplay fresh), but the game takes itself to much seriously, and the story to support it is plain trash and clichè. So, even if for some its enjoyable, its a niche game at best : both gameplay and story are unworthy of mention, and the only thing that can save it is its soundtrack. Sadly, I try to play it for years and it will be years before I'll forget how bad it is and pick it up again.