Painkiller Review

Another guest review by Barnsy.

Painkiller tells the story of a man called Daniel, after dying in a car accident, Daniel Garner finds himself in purgatory, which is somewhere between heaven and hell. He's given a choice that's not much of a choice at all: The forces of hell are planning to wage war on heaven, and Garner must single-handedly head them off at the pass, while also setting his sights on the four generals of Lucifer's army.

Now this is an interesting premise to me, it's a hint of Spawn, with a dash of Hitman and a hell of a lot of possibilities, unfortunately they don't really deliver, now don't get me wrong, this game is interesting and quite good in a way... BUT! if you don't like simple, no plot games, this probably isn't for you, this is Religious Quake, it's a no nonsense, run around kill whatever moves and pass through the level unhindered.

The game play is very stalled, the levels all progress the same way, you walk into a room, doors close and lock you in, and you have to defeat all the enemies that spawn into the room, once defeated a single door will open and you will walk into the next room, where.... The doors will lock and you have to kill every enemy that spawns in until the door opens (do you see a pattern developing?)

However, there are interesting touches to keep you entertained, my favourite weapon is called the stake gun, now it doesn't fire prime rib, or T-Bone at the enemies no, its wooden stakes that will pin foes to the walls at any given opportunity, the rag doll effects are great and enemies will writhe and die, or hang uncomfortably if you'd happen to catch them by the leg! All good fun stuff!

Sound and graphics are very good, sounds are atmospheric and suit the various levels, the graphics of the buildings and various locations are also well put together but lack the panache of games such as the Suffering, many of the Resident Evil games and Silent Hill.

AI is nothing special, all enemies will simply charge towards you swinging weapons and

Attempting to hurt you, there is no explanation to why they are there, who they are or what they do exactly, the game lacks depth along with its story, and as I have mentioned above, painkiller really is a throwback to the early days of first person shooters, it certainly will not stand alongside games that revolve around heavy plot content and vast expansive levels.

Now I don't necessarily think this game is bad, it's just not for me, I have become a plot junkey, I've become addicted to games that tell me a story, I've just finished playing the suffering and that is a game!

But Painkiller performs a purpose, if you enjoyed Quake, Doom, Unreal then this is a game you will enjoy, its pretty, well constructed and flows at a fairly quick rate, if though you prefer something more substantial then this will not be for you!

It's a game that can be picked up and played every once in a while, not heavy on concentration, its lightweight and not built to last, the levels are repetitive but have some interestingly different boss fights, the five targets of the chapters are the generals of Lucifer's army and they all stand at about 130 feet high, it's a very impressive fight but not the fist time we've seen it in a game!

There are multiplayer options in Painkiller, the standard game types can be found and as with most multiplayer games, it all depends on the online community playing the game as to how successful and enjoyable you can make it.