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As good as mindless action can get

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 27
Date: June 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I almost think of Painkiller like two games. One of them is pure, addictive, incredible-looking, adrenaline-pumping action Nirvana. The other is a dull and sometimes frustrating game when Painkiller deviates from its formula by trying to give you something besides mindless action. Thankfully, the former is what you get to play most of the time, which is why Painkiller is such a great game.

When Painkiller is on, it is really on. This game does "mindless action" as well as any game has ever done. Picture yourself running around the edges of a room, never standing still, shooting at stuff like there's no tomorrow, trying to gun down and blow up dozens of enemies while dodging their punches, axes, swords, and bullets. A wide variety of enemies exists for you to blast into bloody chunks or stick to walls with your stake gun. The generally have simple behaviors. They rush at you, shoot stuff at you, or shoot stuff and then rush at you. There is just enough variety in the enemies though to keep you on your toes and force you to use all of the game's 5 well-balanced weapons. There are enemies that poison you, enemies that slow you down, enemies that take 3 shotgun blasts to kill, enemies that zig-zag when they rush at you, etc. You will quickly learn the hotkeys and alt-fire modes for your weapons and switch back and forth, based upon what situation you are facing at any one second.

The game only has five weapons, but don't be deceived into thinking that this is some kind of shortcoming. They are all really cool and useful, and each has a meaningful and useful alt-fire mode. Thus, the game effectively has ten weapons, all of which you will use frequently throughout the game. The game's namesake weapon, The Painkiller, is like a chainsaw on crack. The shotgun has an alt-fire mode that freezes enemies in their tracks so that you can blast them to bits with one blast. The stake gun is a powerful weapon that showcases the game's rag-doll physics by letting you impale baddies onto walls. The fourth weapon is a powerful chain gun/rocket launcher combo, and the fifth weapon can create a miniature electric storm that fries anyone who comes near it.

A couple of minor upgrades in this game make it slightly different from other run-and-gun shooters. The most notable is the collection of souls, which come from the bodies of your fallen enemies. The souls only stay on the screen for a short time, so you have to run and collect them. When you collect 66 souls, you morph into an indestructible demon for a short time. Thus, the game actually rewards you for not running backwards all day. Another feature of this game is the tarot card system. Tarot cards are basically power-ups that you can use once per level, and that you unlock by accomplishing certain tasks (like finishing a level using only one weapon).

The graphics for this game are gorgeous, and they exist across a wide variety of scenery and environments. Everyone one of the game's 24 locations looks different. All of the scenery is inspired and creative. Painkiller shows an astonishing level of polish and attention to detail that I don't think I have ever seen in a first person shooter. One little example of this is in the game's fantastic Opera House level. All over the Opera House, there are at least a couple dozen paintings on the walls. And all of those paintings are highly detailed and unique. None of them repeat. This is different from most games, where scenery such as this repeats the same five or six items. As I said, this is a minor detail, but it is one of many, many little things that prove that an enormous effort went into this game.

The game's audio is also impressive. Most of it is consistent with the bizarre afterlife setting that the game tries to convey. In most areas you can hear low-pitched moans, whispers, creaks, etc. The exception might be the game's heavy metal action soundtrack, which isn't bad, but seems a bit out of place.

That's the great part. Then there's the "other" game-the one where Painkiller tries to do other stuff, like forcing you to break open a hundred containers on every level looking for gold. Yes, that's right. The game is like Diablo when it comes to breaking open boxes and chests to find treasure. You have to do it, because you need gold to use your Tarot cards. This stuff isn't much fun in RPG's, so it is TOTALLY out of place here. To make matters worse, a lot of the gold and ammo are hidden in secret areas. These areas are insanely hard to find, and just as hard to get to once you do find them. I was able to find over 50% of the secrets in Serious Sam, but I couldn't find 10% of the secrets in Painkiller without help from the message boards. You could spend 2 hours searching a level for the secrets and only find 2 out of 4 of them. Occasionally, the levels are set up in a way that makes it hard to find an exit. Once again, this is when the game is NOT fun. Painkiller would have been better without the material that disrupts the fast-paced action.

The end boss for this game was a huge letdown. I spent a frustrating hour trying to figure out what "magic trick" I needed to beat him. Then I went to the message boards, found out the trick, and beat him in about 2 minutes.

Painkiller takes the old Quake and Serious Sam formula to a new level. While doing so, it also provides an experience that is different from those games, and in some ways, better. If you enjoy defeating swarms of enemies in fast-paced shooters, then you can't go wrong with Painkiller.

Most of these folks are right....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: April 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I agree 100% that this program is everything it should be. A fierce battle to the end. Lots of levels. Over a dozen hours of gameplay (on medium difficulty) , and some excellent AI. The levels are sprawling and the 'baddies' are very eclectic. A huge assortment of very intense battles with one very powerful weapon named 'The Painkiller'. This thing could slice through solid steel. And, it leaves quite a mess behind. Especially when you pull out the blade. The weapon selection is limited to , i think, 6 weapons. But, they all have a secondary fire, and that comes in quite handy. So, there's really a dozen weapons. Yes, it's a lot like what we are to expect Doom 3 to be. Much more shallow than we expect Half-life 2 to be. And, a definite stepup from Serious Sam. A blast all the way through ,if you're someone who believes that a shooter should be just that. Only a shooter. No side-missions that have you running around doing RPG stuff. Just direct, messy, in-your-face blastin'. I love this game.

Entertaining

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: May 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was unsure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. First, I never played Serious Sam, but I did play Will Rock, and I can say that this game is exactly the same type of game. You move along, hords of baddies pop up, and you run around blowing them away. And of course, at the end of each level, is a boss to a kill. It is as simple as that. For me, although I did enjoy this game, it does get a little boring, I prefer a litle more depth to my games.

As for the good things, the graphics are excellent. This is the by far the best part of the game, so I hope you all have a good system. The baddies are very cool, and there are loads of different kinds. It sounds good, and the background music is a nice touch.

The biggest problem I have with the game, is that it is limited by only itself. This game could have been really awesome if there was more too it. The story behind it is unique, and the game sets a very compelling, and dark mood. The 4 or 5 cutscenes are very well done. This game has all the tools and potential to be great, really great, but lacks any substance to get there.

All and all, this is a good game, worthy of purchase as long as you know there is nothing more then running around shooting things, and from time to time that can be relaxing. I also have had no problems technically with this game, and I know a lot of people are complaining about it. I will not say the game is technically perfect, but for me it works fine.

Dark, Scary and Action Packed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is pure non-stop action. You will not be left in a big boring empty level trying to figure your way out or figure out some boring time consuming puzzle. There is no "wait here for half an hour and snipe" either. The weapons are mostly short range, so for most part you get up-close and personal with gruesome looking creatures. Most monsters are armed with melee weapons too, so this makes a great close range fighting scene with bodies flying around and gut splattering action.

The graphics are incredible, and extremely detailed. The screenshots don't do justice to this game. The levels look incredibly well polished, and the monsters are just very beautiful and scary looking as they try to impale you. The special effects are very nicely done, for example when you get hit by a monster, it is the best "getting hurt" effect I've seen in a game so far.

The physics are incredible. The monsters dangle around realistically as you part your way through a sea of undead creatures.

The sounds are great, the ambient noises really add to the scary feel of the game, especially since the levels are already very dark and scary looking.

It runs very nicely with all the settings set to the highest on my computer: P4 2.8, 1GB RAM, GeForce4 Ti4600.

Stupid you!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was wary to buy the game after reading several negative reviews, but thankfully I did anyway, and am fully satisfied. It is exactly what was promised, fast paced, mindless killing, That's even part of the damn story! "Kill everything you see!" It says to use CD #3 to start up, what the hell's wrong w/ that? And it runs perfectly, smooth and crisp. Just lower all the detail. A unique idea they added, which I love, is to completely customize your cross hair, minor but fun. The multiplayer is great. What else do you want for the genre? If you don't like mindless killing, go buy SOMETHING THAT ISN'T MINDLESS KILLING. There ya go, problem solved. dumasses

There's nothing quite like nailing a zombie's head to a wall

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game to test out my new system (and graphics card) because of what I had read about the graphics. Well, the graphics are indeed well done; combined with the realistic physics engine they made me realize that I enjoy watching a well-animated mutant ninja corpse flipping through the air, ultimately being riveted to the wall by a spike impaled in its head. Since I never realized this would hold my attention for 10 or more hours, the game was well worth the $20 investment for this bit of self-awareness alone.

This game has "guilty pleasure" written all over it and it's better for you than the half-dozen Big Macs you should deprive yourself to buy it.

Awesome game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I guess some are having problems running this game but I have not seen any issues. I have an old Ti4200 with just an amd 2400+ and 256meg ram and it runs just a tad slow but there is no way I am turning down the detail (High)!

Hats off to the engineers on this one, it is completely out of the box different. I have been getting full body shivers for hours on end playing it, its that good (and creepy). Never had those before the whole game.

The HUGE level monsters, and I mean HUGE! (one is 100 feet tall and turns into a very cool tornado!) will certainly get your attention. Also, this game doesn't have just a few nasties that populate the fight scenes, they have over 20 of the strangest creatures ever, bar NONE! The weapons are also very cool (I have only seen 3 so far but I'm only on level 6). You use special cards for power ups throughout the game which is different as well. The sounds are just fantastic, I love picking up the gold coins.

Now if D3 or H2 can beat this (or even just match), than this will certainly be the most incredible year for games ever!

It's mindless carnage and not very deep but fun nonetheless.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game is very simple. Shoot anything that moves, harvest objects, survive to the next level. Forget about a learning curve, there really isn't one. It's as straightforward as first-person shooters get.

A lot of thought and effort went into the realims of the motion of objects and enemies; what they call "rag doll physics." As a result, the carnage is quite graphic. Many players have touted the creepy atmosphere, I found the cemetery, town, and hell levels particularly eerie. But I found the monster designs to be more impressive. Monsters walk, talk, attack, and die each in a unique fashion.

The game suffers in only a few respects.

Firstly, there isn't a lot of variety beyond the environment and the monsters. Each level is pretty much just like the rest, pure first-person shoot-em-up. There's no real strategy to employ beyond using natural cover to avoid getting shot.

To add variety, there are side objectives to achieve to improve one's odds of surviving (through collection of "Black tarot cards" that grant special powers) and some of these can be very challenging but most are not (see below). The boss levels start very hard but taper off in difficulty. In fact, the game does not seem to progress from easy to hard to harder levels but bounces up and down in difficulty. Moreover, I began the game on Nightmare difficulty and was able to complete all the required levels in less than 25 hours of play. However, there are 2 bonus levels that are not playable unless you collect a minimum number of Tarot cards, so you will likely find yourself replaying easier levels just to get to the levels you missed.

In the end, however, the game delivers what it promises. Outrageous zombie mayhem to a background heavy metal soundtrack and enough gore and blood to satisfy anybody's need for senseless violence.

A cool game but $40 is too much money!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

PainKiller is basically Serious Sam in the occult world.

Unique weapons, unique monsters and an almost fully destructible environment is what this game has going for it.

It is a typical first person shooter, the enemy AI is predictable, you have the typical objectives and undynamic levels to finish. This game definitely has the been there, done that 1st person shooter feel to it.

Your main weapon is called the PainKiller. If you master this weapon and its abilities, it is basically the only weapon you will need. To get to some hidden spots and secret areas you will need to use the alternate mode of this weapon and an object(like a table, coffin, cart) to climb or jump higher to the secret spots and hidden goodies.

The weapons and weird monsters make this game fun. There is nothing like using your stake gun to nail a zombie to a wall only to beat him to death with your PainKiller. lol

In summation -
This game is worth playing, especially at night in the dark with head phones on. Don't skip this game...but don't blow $40 either!
I got a copy from a friend that did not want it any more. If I had paid $40, I would have been very PO'd! Don't spend that much. Wait till it goes on sale or hits the discount rack. If you are going to buy it, make sure you download the update 1.15 because this game did have some serious issues right out of the box!!!

PainKiller has potential. If the developers see where they went wrong in this game and correct those issues, a PainKiller 2 could be a wicked product to look forward to.

Entertaining Serious Sam/Quake clone

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game takes a lot from games like Serious Sam, Quake, and Will Rock. There are countless frenzied enemies rushing towards you inwhich you have to haplessly slaughter while using various firearms. The story is pretty "eh" but that's to be expected from these types of FPSs. Also, the downloaded patch required to play is kind of large.

The weapons, albeit limited, are pretty nice, except they could have been better geared towards massive combat. More weapons and ammo placement within levels would have been a major plus.

Graphics in this game are gorgeous and really set the mood, but require a pretty hefty system. I had to turn down a lot of the graphical settings on my P4 3Ghz/1024MB DDR PC3200 RAM/FX5700 256MB system. The physics system is amazing.

Sounds and music are great and fitting. The metal soundtrack and spooky ambient sounds/music really make you feel as if you're kicking butt in Hell.

The controls are okay but the keyboard movements (walking, etc) are rather sluggish.

This game is worth the money as it's pretty fun, but don't drop anywhere near $35 unless you have a rather hefty system and like mindless massive firearm combat in Hell.

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