Painkiller is a game where
you either love it, or hate it. Developed by
a new studio from Poland, People Can Fly, Painkiller
is one hell of a debut. I'm reviewing both Painkiller
and the expansion pack Battle Out Of Hell, which
is basically more of the original game.
It features the same kind of
gameplay as Serious Sam, but it looks a lot
better than not only 2001's Serious Sam, but
also 2005's Serious Sam II. Although not by
much, as Serious Sam II was a spectacular looking
game.
The difference is Painkiller
is much darker with levels taking place in cemeteries,
cathedrals, asylums, castles, palaces, monasteries,
an orphanase and even a very twisted and unique
version of hell. In fact the entire game takes
place in Purgatory (though why there is a funpark
or Leningrad in purgatory I don't understand).
This is where Painkiller really
shines; the levels look fantastic. Released
early 2004, Painkiller hails above just about
everything from 2004 and previous. With the
exception of perhaps Farcry and Halflife II
(neither of which I've played so I can't confirm),
Painkiller is the best looking first person
shooter up until 2005. This mostly comes down
to a great looking engine, great gaming effects
and flawless textures. The set-peices and architecture
is all fantastic, however the game is let down
slightly by its lack of vertical gameplay. The
same problem Serious Sam had, the levels are
all too flat. There's very little vertical variation
(apart from the insanely vertical climb that
was Stone Pit in the mission pack). Which means
all the gameplay is in huge flat areas.
The other major flaw in the
gameplay is it's focus on checkpoint type gameplay.
You enter a room, a door behind you appears
out of nowhere trapping you in, and you fight
through hordes of enemies until the doors open.
Enter the next area and the same tactic applies.
The entire game runs like this, and it becomes
one mindless battle after another.
Fortunately, after battling
through way too many realistic shooters lately,
I was eager for some high-paced gaming action.
But this can get old after a while. It also
doesn't help that just about every enemy in
the game requires 1-2 hits from the shotty and
seems like the same enemy as the last just with
a slightly different close-range weapon or projectile.
There's very little enemy variation. Even so,
there's more variation here compared to a realistic
shooter that features the same human enemies
throughout the entire game.
The models all look great.
While some are a little silly (puking or burping
at you as an attack), they aren't as cartoony
and out of place as Serious Sam's enemies.
There were plenty of great
weapons to use, absolutely tonnes of ammo for
them all. The game on normal difficulty really
wasn't that hard at all, but does force you
to replay at higher difficulties in order to
unlock the secret levels (bad idea People Can
fly!). Alternatively you can download Powermad
and unlock them anyway, but all three hidden
levels were pretty short. The BOOH hidden level
was just a poor boss fight.
A lot of players won't like
the repetitive arena style horde combat, but
I enjoyed it. With fantastic design which is
completely different on every single level (there
are 24 in Painkiller and 10 in BOOH) makes Painkiller
one of my favourite games. Pity about the sequels...
