Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Old-school"

Really, after finishing Painkiller a couple of times, I couldn't just say "Meh, I finished it again" and hit the uninstall button, just to forget it in a matter of couple of days. No, Painkiller's brutality and infinite amounts of desecrated demonic corpses just couldn't let me. I had to take the dose again.
The amount of blood and gore in this game is unmeasurable, and it's all fueled by very strong instrumental heavy metal battle music which riffs will make your hair act like it's been under electro shock therapies. And the mix? Adrenaline pumped kill-em-all massacre, with bunch of pentagrams, non-human voices all over the place and other satanic stuff.
Painkiller even has a story, well, at least it does. The protagonist Daniel Garner has died along with his chick in a nasty car accident after hitting a truck with his race-like car, and his soul was sent to Purgatory He's instructed to kill 4 Lucifer's generals in order to weaken the Hell's army that is about to attack Paradise. Those generals are in fact 100+ feet high bosses! I mean it, they are ENORMOUS! Largest enemies I got to see in a game yet!
This is all depicted using the PAIN engine, which actually looks great, and the requirements aren't that much high. The audio component is very well done, so if you like blood splattering sounds, this will be a holiday for your hearing.
Killing demons will not be your only hobby here, you can also gather their souls to turn into the super-duper demon who tears all the limbs in a single hit!
I won't tell about weapons (alright, the Stake Gun, which fires large stakes and can totally disseminate the enemy if fired from close range) and locations. If you like run'n'gun shooters or if you're just a sadistic f*** eager of committing massacres, Painkiller will grant your wishes and leave you wanting more!