Painkiller Black Edition

I played this game not long after it came out, and remembered well the adrenaline rush of hordes of oncoming enemies, different in every level of the game, along with the sometimes awe-inspiring, always interesting maps. The weapons are also fairly unique, not least the Painkiller itself, which with enough skill you can actually take out a lot of enemies without using any ammo. You’re given three difficulty levels to choose to start. An experienced PC FPS player should find the ‘Nightmare’ difficulty eminently doable whilst still presenting a good challenge. The game involves the use of tarot cards, some of which are operative throughout a level some of which you can only use for a short time. Collecting these cards is reliant upon completing levels according to various rules (eg killing every enemy) and to be honest i didn’t; really bother with it. Although you have to collect every tarot card to play the fourth and hardest 'Trauma' difficulty level The game does have some annoying bossfights but there are some very good walkthroughs available which allow you to get through these without working out what you need to go as you go. My only negative memory of the game first time round was painfully slow load-up times every time you started a level or opened a previous save – but on a modern PC these are on longer a problem. The game has plentiful checkpoints but just as importantly has a great quicksave function which allows you to save as many times as you like. My only criticism is that it’s a little unstable, crashing at various times and requiring a complete restart of my PC (even ctrl-alt-del couldn’t help). Also the cutscenes in the original Painkiller game kept crashing for some reason. Admittedly knowing the ‘plot’ as I did, I wasn’t bothered about that but it's still disappointing. The scenes were fine in Battle out of Hell though.

Painkiller is an uncomplicated FPS where the only objective is to mow through wave after wave of enemies. There is a story but most people wouldn't care about it, it's seems to be completely incidental and is only driven forward by a cutscene for each chapter. The original game ships with four chapters of 4-6 levels each. Rather than there being a logical progression between levels, each level has it's own "theme". For example, there's a level named "City on Water" which has a Venice-type feel to it, there's a level in an opera house, on a military installation (complete with a UFO!), and so on. The game bolsters a pretty exaggerated - and in the end fun - ragdoll physics system. Prepare to see enemies doing backflips from a shotgun blast up close, and getting pinned to walls with the stakegun. Again it's something that really works very well with the overall design of the game. The visuals are good, with each level having a unique design. The models and textures are very good, and the game offers excellent performance despite there being a real calamity of enemies, projectiles, and destructible objects on screen at least once in almost every level. The sound and music is pretty rudimentary - but in no way missing any key features. Despite all the firing going on in the game, the weapon sounds never really get tiresome, with one exception - a nailgun of sorts you find later in the game. There is an upgrade system in place whereby you can gain special powers by unlocking a card on each stage. Doing so requires you to complete a certain objective for that stage, adding somewhat to replayability as you can replay any stage at any time. You get the Battle out of Hell expansion with this purchase, which adds another chapter of levels with new monsters and weapons. Multiplayer is in the game but the servers aren't exactly crowded. The multiplayer options are pretty much the basics, not much to add about them. On the negative side the loading times can be cumbersome, especially as you're prone to die a lot on some bosses. Replayability (short of going through it again for fun in a year or so) is limited, the only real reason being gathering all extra cards for different upgrades.

So I bought a used copy of the original retail boxed version of this game, but I'd wished I bought it here instead. It works reasonably well on a MacBook Pro through CrossOver Games, if you're willing to put up with some noticeable graphical glitches (notably some texture smearing and/or untextured walls and characters). But even with those glitches I was grinning from ear to ear as I ran headlong into hoardes of shambling monstrosities with my spinning blades of doom. I just simply can't get over how fun this game was. If you don't have it, you should, and given how the Steam version is linked with their DRM, GOG is as good a place as any to buy it.

The levels are original and entertaining the combat is amazing. I had a blast playing this and was sad after I beat every level. Recommended for all shooter fans, buy this game.

This is one of those games that I play for the sake of shooting hundreds of enemies with crazy insane weapons and nothing more. I don't care about the story, the characters, none of that. It is just a pure simple joy to shoot waves of incoming enemies in this game. This is a hard core FPS done right. No finicky stick to cover mechanics, just pure reaction time and hand-eye coordination. :)