Story
On a stormy night, Daniel is taking his wife Catherine (Not that Catherine!!!) to dinner for her birthday. Tragically, the storm makes it hard to see, and the car crashes into a truck, killing both Daniel & Catherine instantly. Afterwards, it is reveal that Catherine ascended to Heaven, but for some reason Daniel was sent to Purgatory. An angel by the name of Samael comes to Daniel to tell him that there’s something within his soul (Which is never revealed) that’s preventing him from ascending to the heavens above. In order to purify his soul, Daniel must travel all over Purgatory and kill the four generals of Hell. When these generals are dead, then Daniel will be allowed to ascend to Heaven, and be reunited with Catherine.
To me, this is a badass story! Granted, the very, very beginning is incredibly lame, but past that it feels like it’s a story from an epic book. A soul in need of redemption, wandering all over the land between Heaven & Hell, fighting all sorts of abominations, this feels incredibly epic. It would even make for a good movie, if it was used properly, and the story wasn’t mangled (At least not massively mangled).
Setting
Not many games can lay claim to producing a vivid afterlife (Doom 3 & Dante’s Inferno are other good examples), but Painkiller can. In this case, the developers created a unique version of Purgatory, and to anyone who’s read the second part of the Divine Comedy, that name is quite familiar. Whereas in that book Purgatory was the neutral ground in the afterlife where souls went to cleanse themselves, in this game Purgatory is still neutral ground, but it has become a battleground for the forces of Heaven & Hell. Already that sounds awesome, but this awesomeness is increased when each of the levels feels like a timewarp. As you travel through the episodes (there are 5 in total, excluding the Battle Out Of Hell expansion), you wander through the ancient Middle East, the Crusades, and all the way into modern times in some levels (Two words.....Military Base). The levels look & feel very realistic, and even the more fantastic locales seem real somehow. I can’t really explain it.
Characters
Like Duke Nukem 3d and many of the other character-lacking games I’ve reviewed, this is one of Painkiller’s weaknesses. While there are some characters in the game, there’s not much to them. The main character, Daniel, is somewhat angsty & tragic, but there isn’t much else. You only get a glimpse of Daniel’s wife Catherine, Samael the angel comes in as a dark & mysterious guide, but you’re rarely given any advice from him, and Eve (A character that appears right after you kill the first boss, and it’s never really said whether she’s the Eve or not), has a sultry & mysterious vibe, but like Samael you’re not given much else (Although, she does have a little more screen time during the cut scenes). Even the devil, who you discover towards the end (Spoiler!), has just about nothing in terms of personality. Now in Duke Nukem 3d a lack of characters was a strength, in Painkiller it is a big weakness, given how grand & epic the story is.
Gameplay
What made Painkiller such a hit, and still continues to make it a hit, is how basic yet fun gameplay. It harkens back to the old days of first-person-shooters, where the mechanics came down to the following: you’re in a area with enemies, you kill them to move on, you look for weapons/ammo/health & armor/secrets, repeat. Considering that this was released in 2004, the gameplay still manages to feel fresh. Whereas a lot of older games, and some modern games, that follow this formula feel slow & dated, you & the monsters move around swiftly, and the action is top notch.
Speaking about the weapons, Painkiller has a motley collection of destructive devices for you to use. You first weapon is the Painkiller (Hence the game’s name), a staff-like weapon with blades that unfold in the front, and the blades can also shoot out to form an energy beam. There’s also a shotgun, a wooden stake launcher, rocket launcher, and a gun that shoots shurikens. While the primary fire modes have their place, each of the weapons have secondary fire modes as well. The shotgun can also fire ice rounds, the stake launcher can lob grenades, the rocket launcher can become a chaingun, and the shuriken launcher can unleash a small stroke of lightning. To add to this variability, two of the weapons have a 3rd attack option, with the Painkiller shooting out the blades in a fan & the shuriken launcher creating a electro-mine when the left & right mouse buttons are pushed together.
You’ll need this weapon variety, as the enemies in Purgatory are numerous. You have monks with axes & torches, zombies that throw their own flesh, bikers with miniguns, and a huge assortment of demonic & undead baddies. In an interesting twist, many of the monsters can interact with each other: for example, the biker units can be taken by the skull bikers, and be used as temporary meat shields. There are plenty of other monster interactions, both between other creatures, and with themselves. An example of a monster interacting with itself is the mummy-spider (That’s not it’s real name: that’s it’s description), as it can kill itself & release a small swarm of spiders that attack the player.
The multiplayer was a big hit when the game first came out, and it’s still pretty fun. Although the modes are standard (Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, etc), it’s just as fast as the singleplayer (It might be faster), and it incorporates dedicated servers, which are rapidly disappearing from PC games in this time.
Graphics & Sound
This time around, I’ll be starting off with the sounds. One thing that makes Painkiller great in this regard is the music. You essentially have two tracks for each level: you have a song during combat, and you have a song for when you’re out of combat. The combat songs tend to be louder & bombastic, and the calmer music is more mellow & steady. Regardless, the songs provide for plenty of atmosphere, and a lot of work was put into them. Even if there wasn’t any music, Painkiller still has plenty of audio atmosphere, as many of the levels have noises that you hear every so often, such as rain, thunder, tumbling rocks, and all other sorts of sounds that create tension, suspense, and awe. It also helps that the monsters & weapons have some good noises behind them as well.
Graphics are another matter. With the selected levels in the HD remake, they look absolutely incredible, thanks to the power of the Unreal 3 engine. With the original graphics engine, we still have some great looking levels & enemies, but time has caused them to age with an imperfection or two. Occasionally when the enemies die they clip on themselves (As an example, the hoods of the Dark Monks will clip into their bodies if their heads were shaking), and blood splatters sometimes seem weird on multiple surfaces (A blood splatter on a flat wall can trickle down sometimes, and if there’s a diagonal/angled surface below a wall, then it looks like the blood splattered directly on the diagonal/angled surface). If these flaws were around when the game first came out (It was released in 2004), then I didn’t notice them then.
Finally, the last thing I’ll talk about is the physics. While it really doesn’t relate to graphics or sounds, it’s unique enough that it at least deserves to be mentioned here. The physics, while not incredible or even remarkable, do add a little more to the game. When the enemies dies, sometimes their limbs fly all over the place & bounce off surfaces, or their bodies fly back against a wall, or a small selection of other things. As far as the environment is concerned, you can cause a chain explosion of wooden TNT barrels, shoot down object to crush enemies, or you can shoot down object to clear your path. Again, the physics aren’t remarkable, but at least it’s entertaining.
Overall & Rating
It’s not the most perfect game by any stretch, but Painkiller is a fun game. There’s a kickass story, some great gameplay in both the singleplayer & multiplayer, great sound effects, and fair graphics. It’s a shame that the cast of characters is incredibly weak, and the otherwise nice graphics have a flaw or two in it. Again, it’s not the be all & end all, but Painkiller is the game for those that simply want action & fun.
Painkiller gets a 7 out of 10.
See you all next week. Until then, stay Otaku!
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If you were wondering: Yes, I do know about the HD remake from a couple months back. I don’t consider it a real remake for two reasons: There are only a handful of levels from the original & mission pack (In total, there’s 14 out of the 35 levels available), and some of the mechanics have changed enough that it doesn’t quite feel like the original game. I might review it if someone sends it to me for free, but more than likely I won’t even get near it.
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