Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

Ever since Half-Life, the First person shooter genre has been typecast as a genre that is supposed to suck you in and make you feel like you're playing an interactive action flick, and now a days to pass as anything more than "standard" or "mediocre" you have to have obligatory puzzles, sprawling levels, some kind of plot, objectives, and some overarching goal. So for many, Painkiller was a little jarring and didn't have much appeal, as it met none of those goals, yet to some, like me, this was its strength. Painkiller has a "plot," I guess, but like its ancestor, Doom, it really has no purpose. This is all the plot you need: Demons are on Earth, you have a blade and a gun, GO KICK THEIR ASSES. Painkiller is a blatantly old school approach on shooters, and in a sort of reverse Half-Life move, it's just the breath of fresh air the genre needed.

Painkiller is set up much like a Doom game, there are 4 episodes, each with a multitude of levels. Some are short and small, others are large and expansive, but they never feel rushed and they also feel varied. The gothic architecture is nice and even on a fairly dated engine, you can tell a lot of work went into the visual design. All the monsters look as menacing as they should be, and bosses are still a visual treat, almost on the level of the creatures from "Shadow of the Colossus," although to be fair not as memorable. Levels are frantic and fast paced, if you aren't shooting at something, you are doing it WRONG. Even the short period of time where you have to walk to a checkpoint should last no more than a minute, and thanks to an arrow you'll never get lost.

The game is brutal, once again recalling the days of Doom. Not only is this one tough cookie that will make modern FPS players wish they had taken a lesson in Doom or Quake before stepping into the genre, its got enough fake pixelated blood to fill at least a billion gallon sized jugs. Blood splatters and drips off of walls, sprays from bloody stumps, slides down floors, and even continues to bleed once your enemies limbs or ragdolls spin across walls. It's not realistic, but it's cathartic and fun, once again recalling the gory halls of Doom. It's a shame that the bodies vanish, but with so much carnage on screen, its probably for the best because even modern computers might bog down when using the "Keep bodies" cheat and you just cleared out a room full of nasties.

My main complaints are that soul sucking feels like a chore, especially since bodies take forever to release their soul and at the same time, you won't be able to move fast enough to reach the soul at the other end of even a small room if you're too far away before it vanishes. On top of this, the "tarot" system is half baked, and for completests, they will have to do trials requiring olympic strength to get those cards, which breaks the flow of the action and can bog the game down a bit. Also, loading times. Even on a brand new top of the line 2009 PC, PK's levels will take a painful minute - sometimes even 2 - 3 minutes- to load. The game also is a tad short, while there is replay value to be had for people looking to challenge themselves further as well as the aforementioned trials/tarot stuff, I would have liked the game to be a bit longer. Going back to Doom again, each episode was 10 levels long, but in Painkiller, each episode is only 5, making it half the size.

Another shining point of this game are the weapons. When you say to someone "There are only 4" they might scoff, but then you have to realize that the weapons are 2-fers, and they kick ass. All you need to know about them though, is there is a gun that shoots shurkens and lightning. SHURIKENS AND LIGHTNING! What more do you want!?

Overall, if you are looking for a complex, genre shattering FPS... Go look somewhere else. But if you want to unwind, if you want to relive the glory days of Doom and Quake, Painkiller is awaiting you in your nearest bargain bin - and it is one bargain you won't regret. Do your part and give this sadly misunderstood game a home. As stated in my classification, this game is "Just plain fun." That's all it is. Fun. Bucket loads of gory, mindless fun.