ertain jaded gamers have been known to complain that modern FPS titles are too complex and stray from their roots. Those people, along with many others, should be more than satisfied with Painkiller, a shooter in the grand old style. Puzzles are typically nothing more complex than killing everything in sight, and levels usually funnel you from one encounter to the next with barely enough time to reload. These frantic fights are the emphasis and strength of Painkiller.
The recent demo of Painkiller, though entertaining for a while, really doesn’t do the full game justice. The retail version is vastly more engaging, with some of the best enemy variety around and lots of unlockable special powers. Complete a level while fulfilling a special goal, like a time limit or weapon restriction, and you’ll receive a Black Tarot card. These can be equipped to add either a constant or one-time effect, and come in quite handy. Taking half damage or getting double ammo from boxes is as useful as you’d think, especially on the harder difficulty settings.
The ever-changing encounters that you must face are the saving grace of Painkiller. Developer People Can Fly uses 26 different enemy types (plus bosses) perfectly. Just when you start getting bored with annihilating the grunts of the first chapter, a 350-foot-tall boss appears. After that, enemies start having more ranged attacks and explosives, which totally changes the rules of engagement. Guys with swords aren’t a big problem when you’ve got a shotgun, but charging a 400-pound chain gun-wielding demon isn’t the best idea ever. Of course, using a rocket launcher is good way to turn the tables back around.
Brilliant level design is the other way that Painkiller remains minty fresh despite being a straight up run-and-gun fragathon. Killing the exact same five baddies can be an utterly different experience when you’re in a tiny corridor rather than an open courtyard. The way the stages are set up, with both terrain and enemies, gives players plenty of opportunity to explore the potentials of the available weapons and figure out how to use them most effectively.
The weaponry (or lack thereof), however, is my one big knock against Painkiller. There are only five to choose from, and though the alt-fire modes are very different from the regular attacks, 10 is hardly a huge number of ways to blow stuff up. They’re still fun to use, but I found myself defaulting to the trusty old shotgun a bit more than I’d like to. Additionally, they are horribly unbalanced for multiplayer – the combination chain gun/rocket launcher is approximately 378 times more effective than anything else. This makes all but one of the multiplayer modes (the one where everybody switches weapons at regular intervals) boring, and severely limits this title’s replay value.
Sub-par online play is hardly fatal to Painkiller, though. The outstanding graphics, unparalleled physics, huge levels, tons of unlockable cards, enormous bosses, and gameplay variety make this a must-have for anyone who pines for the glory days of Doom.