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PC | Action | Painkiller

Boxart for Painkiller
Painkiller 54 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 5.0
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.5
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.9

Review: Painkiller

Review by THED-PADDESTROYER | 05/17/2005 | 10:57:18 AM PST

A "mindless"shooter with violence to spare, the lovingly crafted Painkiller is just damn cool.

The past few years have seen the first-person shooter evolve away from its original roots. Gone are the days of the monsters-heading-right-for-you game; squad-based military missions or games in which running and hiding are just as important as shooting and shooting have instead replaced them. Painkiller reaches back to a simple time, and it does so with such panache that you'd be forgiven for thinking it?s one of the coolest shooters in years.

They?re Coming Right for Us!
Painkiller's story: You died, yadda yadda yadda, you're stuck between Heaven and Hell. Now blow stuff up. Okay, it's a little more complex than that but not much. Each level consists of environments to explore and monsters to kill, and the handy-dandy radar takes most of the guesswork out of the exploration. At heart, it's a simple, fast, pounding shooter that doesn?t apologize for being packed with action and low on brains.

But wait; before you go thinking Painkiller?s completely mindless, you have to consider the bosses. The generals of Hell won?t be brought down as easily as their minions, right? So each massive boss encounter is a self-contained puzzle for you to solve with no clues as to how to do it. It?s refreshing in a "figure it out yourself" way, and when you finally bring down that 100-foot-tall beast, you feel like you?ve accomplished something. The waves of bad guys before the bosses vary from evil monks who run right at you to skull-headed demons that grab their own allies for use as (in)human shields. It gets repetitive toward the end, but it?s tons of fun up until then.

One of the most lovingly crafted games in years, Painkiller looks awesome, sounds intimidating, and controls simply and smoothly. The game?s five distinct weapons manage to cover the essentials (rocket launcher, mini-gun, shotgun) while offering some unique innovations. The coolest is the Painkiller, a sort of chainsaw/laser tripwire combo that enables you to mow through crowds or set up traps for oncoming enemies. Once you collect enough souls (left behind by slain enemies), you turn into a demon and go into complete ass-kicking mode, which gives you a shockwave attack that instantly vaporizes any enemy it hits.

A Bit of the Ultra-Violence
It?s refreshing to see a game that makes no apologies for putting you in a room with hundreds of bad guys just to see what happens. Painkiller might not be overly smart or innovative, but it's damn cool, and that just rocks.


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