Painkiller

"The line between Heaven and Hell has never been so fun"

Gameplay
-I have to admit when I first popped in Painkiller I was a bit disappointed by the first stage. All I did was go around killing a bunch of monsters throughout the level (which happens to be what you do through the whole entire game). I soon realized after the first stage that I was very wrong. Having one weapon isn't a whole lot of fun, but having 5 with alternate abilities and some that you can combine powers is awesome! Each level's goal is self-explanatory. You basically go through and mow down all the monsters in your path. You can then collect souls from the monsters which puts points toward your health. If you collect 66 souls during the game, your character morphs into a demon and becomes invincible for a few seconds. Very cool effect! There are checkpoints available once you clear an area, which fully heal you (not on higher difficulties) and save your game. There are also sub-missions within each level that require you to do something specific such as kill a certain amount of enemies, collect gold, use only one type of weapon, etc. If you complete these sub-missions, you get access to special cards that enhance your abilities such as making you faster, deal 2x damage, take half damage, etc. The gold you collect is needed in order to place these cards in use. Great gameplay, NONSTOP ACTION! 9/10

Story
-Hmmm lets just say the story isn't very good. Your character goes by the name of Daniel Garner and during a car accident, you and your wife are killed. Your wife is sent to heaven, while you are stuck in purgatory. And basically God wants you to kill Lucifer. Daniel is confused to why he has to go about doing this. … 4/10

Graphics
-Wow! Amazing! The physics engine in Painkiller is absolutely amazing! If you have ever played Max Payne 2, you probably liked the ragdoll physics because it was cool to see bad guys flop all over the place. Boy oh boy, Max Payne is nowhere compared to the physics engine utilized in Painkiller. And it's all thanks to havok 2.0. Enemies blow up and fly exactly how they would in real life (or it does a good job of making you believe it does). There is an abundant amount of interaction between objects in the Painkiller world. Barrels blow up sending debris in all directions, guts are splattered all over and once they hit a wall, the blood sprays and stays on it. The bosses are also an amazing feature to behold. They are the hugest things that you have ever encountered in a FPS. The only problem I had with the graphics is that it chugs a bit when there are too many things going on, but that's also because I'm running a 1.7 GHZ 384 ddr ram. Besides the very minor flaws in chugging, the graphics are outstanding. 9.5/10

Replay
-Great great amount of replay. The biggest reason is because of the physics, the game just looks more artsy when you send an army of undead skeletons flying in different directions. Very creative in the sense that you will kill the monsters in different ways. You can also replay and go back through the game and collect the cards you have missed from the sub-missions. What reason is there not to replay the game when you can take out over 300 enemies on one level with different weapons in multiple ways? 8/10

Final Verdict
-This is an absolutely fun game! I am not reviewing Painkiller's multiplayer, just single player, and I'm sure if I did I'd probably give it even a higher score. It's a kind of game where you don't want to finish too quickly because you want to savor all of its goodness. On another note, I was actually going to wait for this game and pick it up on Xbox. Let's just say I'm really glad I didn't especially with the patches and fixes that you'd want from a PC version. I can't wait for the expansion! If you don't want to get too into stories and just want to pick up a game to play, this is the game for you. It has all the action, graphics, and gameplay you need. 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/04