Developer: The Farm 51
Publisher: Nordic Games
Rrp: £17.99
Released: 31st October 2012
Available on Steam and Amazon
About years ten ago I remember being given Painkiller, it was made by some funny little studio I’d never heard of going by the name People Can Fly. Naturally in my all knowing youth I scoffed at it not expecting a great deal from it. Boy, was I wrong! I remember it blowing me away with its over the top weaponry, superpowers, weird plot and frantic gameplay.
Back in the day when the original Painkiller came out having realistic (or semi realistic) physics was still quite a new prospect. Having the Havok 2 physics engine allowed for some… Interesting things to happen. As sadistic as it sounds I still remember the joyful glee of using the stake gun to literally nail an enemy to the wall and that not every enemy died in the same predetermined death animation.
You may be asking yourself ‘Why am I regaling you with this story?’ Well it’s because ten years later I’m about to play one of its many sequels (which apparently is also a remake… I truly don’t understand how but never mind), Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, made not by People Can Fly but some other developer. Has this developer succeed in recreating the pure visceral fun of the original? Read on and find out.
Painkiller is a run’n’gun FPS (First Person Shooter to those not in the know), meaning that it requires very little thought to play, just run and shoot. Many would consider that a bad thing, I am not one of them. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to not have to worry about objectives, bystanders and all the other stuff that comes with many fps’s these days. This is simple and a bit cathartic, if it moves shoot it until it stops moving. The weapons are over the top and have a good, solid feel to them. They also all have a alternative fire mode (the games namesake weapon even has three modes of attack). My personal favorite weapon is one, which I don’t know the name of, thats primary attack is to rapidly fire ninja stars, it’s alternative is a lightning bolt and if you use the primary at the same time as the secondary you get a large electrified ninja star!
To complete each level you have to kill all the creatures in a set area, usually one that you get locked into. Once you’ve killed all the creatures in that area you can leave and head to the next one which is indicated by a glowing red pentagram on the floor. If you get lost because these areas can be scattered all around levels, there’s a compass on your HUD that tells you where it is.
If, at the end of each level, you have completed the objective (most of which are optional although a few are simply ‘complete the level’) you will be rewarded by receiving a either a gold or silver tarot card. Gold tarot cards give you to have certain benefits when they are activated (using the E button), and silver tarot cards give a bonus to more passive things like life or damage.
At the start of the level you get the option to equip Tarot cards, up to a maximum of five, equipping them though costs money that you collect in the levels.
Ah, the enemies. They’re a varied bunch, take the first level for example. First skeletons who attack you head on, one shot to kill them so not much of a problem. These are followed by armored skeletons, still not an issue two shots drop them (or a headshot). Now it starts to get interesting. Large, armored, shield carrying skeletons who soak up bullets, witches who turn the screen black if not disposed of quickly and mad monks who seem to appear from nowhere. Lastly is the end of level boss, that’s one I won’t spoil.
Once an enemy is felled he will eventually, as there is a short delay, turn into a soul that you can pick up. Every time you collect sixty six of these you become a unstoppable demon that kills pretty much everything in one hit, of course this demon time lasts about twenty to thirty seconds
The story line…. Best forget about the story, it’s terrible and nonsensical, especially when you take into account that this is supposed to be a remake of the first game and a sequel at the same time. I know normally I harp on about how good the story is but in his case I can’t defend it. It’s literally just a vehicle to get you to the next area to kill yet more things, like in the original Doom. The story is told via cut scenes, the voice acting in these is some of the worst I’ve heard in a triple-A title, thankfully these cut scenes are few and far between.
I will say this about Painkiller, it loves the colour brown, sure it has occasional splashes of colour but for the most part it’s just dark brown on light brown on black. The enemy AI won’t be winning any awards either, most just run right at you… But that’s kind of the fun of it really.
The overall verdict of Painkiller: Hell & Damnation? It’s more of the same old Painkiller, that’s not a slight, just a statement of fact. If you want a run and gun shooter you could do a lot worse than this, HOWEVER, it’s much too short for its Rrp, this game can be killed off in about six hours and only has replay value if you’re a completionist.
If you liked that then perhaps try;
Doom 3
Unreal Tournament 3
Rise of the Triad
