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Uninspired, boring game play

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 15
Date: March 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

ok. Most of us expect some cliches when playing a FPS. It's part of the genre, fair enough, but there is no excuse for unispired level design, creatures, lame enemy A.I. and boring game play. Do the graphics look nice? Sure. Is the sound decent? It's ok. It won't scare the wits out of you like System Shock 2 or Doom, but it'll do. Is it fun? Absloutely not. Most of the attacks can be avoided by side stepping (strafing). The enemy is far from engaging and the levels have a rehashed "boring been there done that" feel to them ...

Gets old fast

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: May 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Admittedly interesting up front, after playing for even 20 minutes had me yawning.

Each fight is remarkably identical. Yes, the enemies are different looking, but it's the same door closing behind you and same 2-3 dozen monsters sailing in on you from all sides. The truly most annoying part of it is the exact SAME heavy metal music that plays during EVERY SINGLE skirmish. I mean, come on, is it too hard to have a few different tunes?!

The graphics are average at best. Games like Max Payne 2 and FarCry leave this one in a much lesser league. The physics of Painkiller are touted in many reviews, but they are remarkably basic when compared to a top-notch engine like in FarCry.

Weapons are unique looking and functionally interesting but don't do enough to help the game out.

Controls are limited (no crouching, lying prone, etc.). There really is no 'use' function or any cerebral challenges to figure out. The game leads you in a single direction and it gets remarkably boring and repetitive fast.

There are plenty of FPS games that blow this one out of the water. Several years ago, I may have been impressed with the visuals, but I still would have found the game dull to play. Borrow a copy to try out. I personally do not think it's worth even $10.

a mind numbingly repeatative Serious Sam clone.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: May 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I should have read more online reviews of this game before I wasted my money on it. Let me say that I did not enjoy Serious Sam. Serious Sam, as with this game, is a bunch of wide open areas with tons of bad guys swamping you at every turn. The weapons are woefully inadequte for mass combat. The boss levels are tedious and aggravating. There is a serious lack of ammo in relation to the number of bad guys you encounter. There is a variety of weapons, but in most cases only one or two weapons are useful at any one time. I have a good system and video card (amd 3200 64 bit, 512mb ram, geforce fx 5200) and I have to turn most of the graphics stuff down or else it runs completely sluggish. This is typical of a Dreamcatcher FPS.

The good aspects of the game are that it looks great. The levels are detailed, spooky, and dark. The Asylum level is nifty with the background screams and such. There are definitly some fun parts of the game.

Overall, unless you enjoy mindlessly circling hoardes of monsters and using your quicksave constantly, I would advise against purchasing this game. This game is two steps backward as far as FPS games go.

Seriously, it is decent eye candy, but worthless as a FPS.

Rip off..

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

..unfortunately. The game is bug ridden and all patches to day didn't fix even half of it -- patch 1.20 (the latest one) makes matters worse, it breakes the game on W9X machines and PCF failed to fix it w/ the last 3 weeks.. The MP mode only works in theory and there are almost no servers up w/ the version that may run on your setup (1.0, 1.15 or 1.20 -- not that it does matter, MP is unplayable). No map editor is/will be available and the technical support is a joke. Funny thing is that DC snnounced the "Painkiller Extension Pack" that is supposed to fix the MP mode -- great, another $20 for something that was promised to be part of the game.

Besides that it's an ok game if you look for SP Quake like action.

Bottom line -- before buying check the Painkiller forum @ (...)

What the hell is this????!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: August 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

You gotta be kidding me... This is why I threw my DOOM game away! All this game is about mindless shooting! No plot to the game at all, just run around and kill things! Hey! I LOVE FPS but this is ridiculous! This is the first game I've bought in a LONG time that isn't worth the money. Oh sure, the graphics are ok, even a bit spooky, but geez, gimme a break! It must've been designed for mindless gamers without any other purpose other than to shoot things... What a waste! You go from one level to the next, mindlessly shooting creatures. Over and over and over again... Don't waste your money! Buy Far Cry. It's by far the best game out so far...

Really a Starship Trooper game!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 12
Date: May 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Before you can fight monsters, you have got to fight all the bugs in just installing this stupid game. It took me 6 trys because of freezes and having to reboot. About a hour latter when I got it loaded. AfterI down loading a giant 49 mb patch to get it to work. Now when I try to start it, I getting the same error. "cd/dvd emulation software has been detected. Please disable all cd/dvd emulation software and re-start game" After disableing clone cd I still get this error. What a crap. This may be a cool game if I could get it to work. My advice: ONLY BUY THIS GAME IF YOU CAN RETURN IT EASY WHEN IT DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!!! If you are a sucker, buy it from me off of ebay (I got it as a gift) plus I am a sucker for asking for Dreamcatcher's inferior software.

If only it worked....

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: April 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

[Boot-Crash,Boot-Crash...] Its the Painkiller Polka!

That's what happened after I installed this mess. I knew that I was in trouble when the package contained 3 CDs and there was a message on the box stating: "Whoops, we messed up, use CD #3 to start the game, not #1...Duh." Uh-Oh!!

And of course, after installing this game, then downloading the patch (ALREADY, the developers have a patch? Why does'nt Dreamcatcher just finish testing the game before they start selling it??) the darned thing still does'nt work.Worse yet, its an exception that is not handled since there is no error message: Just "Boot" then "Crash"!

I know what you are thinking: "Well, you must have a bad system, it works fine on my machine." First, I have over 300 games loaded on my PC - from Microsoft Pinball to Dead Man's Hand - and they all work. I have the latest version of DirectX loaded and my video card is an 128 MB ATI 9000 series, my sound card is an Audigy 2 and my computer has a Gig of RAM and it is a P4 2.5 Ghz.

But that really is'nt the point. I expect a complete game when I plunk down some serious $$ for one; not some patched-up mess. I should'nt have to rebuild my entire PC to run this game when over 300 others (including games released in the same month as "Painkiller") work perfectly.

This is just a sloppily slapped-together piece of code. Don't waste your time on it until they fix ALL the bugs.

Heaven's hitman has no hands

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: January 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is most similar to Serious Sam than any other game I can think of except whereas SS is mainly in large open spaces with hundreds of opponents, this one is more commonly in large rooms with dozens of opponents. That's OK - it's pretty much what I expected.

But what I don't like is the way you have no way to stack items except to repeatedly hit them randomly until they fall the way you want them. Then you better quick save because as soon as you try to jump on them they'll fall down and you'll have to start again. All the surfaces except the floor seem very slippery and moving on them is another exercise in frustration. I quit at the military base because I didn't spend $20 to waste 30 minutes randomly hitting tanks to stack them up so I could move on.

Most of the secret locations and holy items are almost impossible to reach unless you are prepared to spend a ridiculous amount of time on it. I'm not - I have a life - and it doesn't include this stupid game.

Heaven's got a hitman? More like heaven owes me a refund.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: October 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this game. Okay, wouldn't you agree that a good game can stand on its own regardless of how much it ages? There are so many other games like this that there is nothing original, I got about half way through level three before I called it quits.

Pros:
- Graphics

Cons:
- Extremely poorly done storyline, wouldn't have changed a thing without it.
- Shoot one enemy that blows up and scatters everywhere unrealistically then move on to the next to do the same.
- Atmosphere does nothing; I would've felt the same if the game was set to daylight.
- Enemies are lame, skeletons with swords? Monks with flying axes? Skeletons with a magical staff that annoyingly slows down your movement? Please.
- I love metal music, but the metal here grants no adrenaline rush what so ever. It's very soft and the music doesn't change.

Mindless action isn't always a bad thing... but this is truly as mindless as something gets. I think you have to have an empty skull and be really bored to be able to stomach this game, want some quality mindless action? Play Serious Sam 2 or Doom, forget this.

Feels like an old amature Doom map...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 22
Date: February 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Beautiful engine? Yes. Real-time physics? Yes. The first time I shot an enemy and he stuck to a wall hunched over I had to run and tell my wife I was so excited... she didn't see the excitement. Really, it's awesome to see. The steak went strait through him and into the wall and he sat there dangling like a rag doll.

Does this game display some of the new graphics advancements we've been hearing about for the last couple years? Yes it does. It displays them in bright vivid detail like I've never seen before. Unfortunately this game feels more like one of those old amateur Doom maps where someone put 10,000 monsters in a single room just so you could put a cheat on and blast them all away with a BFG . There is a constant and full barrage of monsters ALLLLLL the time. The level design is breath-taking, but because you're constantly running (backwards) away from monsters that are relentless in their pursuit of you, you never get a chance to look around and take in the eye candy. Which brings me to the monsters. While I was playing (more like running for minutes on end backwards away from monsters) I felt myself longing for a little more intelligence in the enemies. They always follow directly behind you; they're not smart enough to realize they can cut you off if you're running in a circle. It reminded me of a cat chasing a mouse at the end of a string as you go in circles around the kitchen table. The cat never realizes that if it sits still, the mouse will come around again and it can catch it. Considering the fact that all you seem to do the whole game is run around in circles away from enemies you'd think they'd include a little "cut-off = yes if player_a = running_in_circles, end if" in their A.I.

The game sends a constant deluge of enemies, both big and small, and I felt as though my hands were tied behind my back because the weaponry I was given was not apt for the situation. I mean, come on, 50 screaming stupid monsters running after me, at least give me a machine gun with a ton of ammo. What am I doing? Shooting small logs out of a gun. But I won't get into the weapons, since they probably didn't include them all in the demo.

There aren't any puzzles to figure out. Just ballzout start-to-finish action. If your idea of a fun game is running from 50 enemies at once and you enjoy a total lack of strategy, this is probably your game.
My verdict? Leave your brain at the start menu because you won't need it to play this game.

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