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Pardon the dust! This page includes some jargon that hasn't been added to the site's glossary yet. I'll be around to fix this later, but sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. |
Review: Painkiller: Black Edition
At a Glance
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How to Save and Pause:You can only save your progress while playing a level - however, there is also an autosave that triggers every time you reach a checkpoint. To pause the action, press ESC to bring up the game menu. Time needed per session:Many levels can take over twenty minutes to clear, so plan on playing for at least 30 minutes.
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Does this game pose issues for Christian players?
 | Yes The large amount of gore is an obvious issue, and the game's heavy demonic theming doesn't help matters. |
Screenshots
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/painkiller_black_edition_0.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/painkiller_black_edition_1.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/painkiller_black_edition_2.jpg)
Game Overview
Painkiller is sometimes said to be Serious Sam's darker and edgier cousin, and after playing through both games, I can see the resemblance. Both of them are about over the top FPS action, and their emphasis on fighting large hordes of enemies at a time gives a similar feel to the gameplay. However, while Serious Sam leans heavily towards cartoony designs and silly antics, Painkiller wanted its story to be taken seriously, and that meant a dark and grim adventure.
And grim it is: the story opens with a tragic and bloody car accident, making it very clear to all involved that our protagonist and his wife very definitely died young. But while she was whisked off to Heaven, Daniel got stuck in a dirty Limbo dimension where monsters regularly came up and attack whomever they can find.
After surviving on his own for a bit, Daniel was contacted by Samael, an archangel who had a simple proposition for him. It seems that Lucifer has been a naughty boy, building up an army to attack Heaven before the appointed time. The angel explains that Heaven can't directly move against Lucifer without risking open warfare between the realms and bringing about Armageddon prematurely, but as an independent agent, Daniel is free to act, and in return, some rules would be bent a little to allow him to reunite with his beloved in Heaven.
Now armed with the titular Painkiller and a magical map, Daniel is off on a journey to find the generals of Lucifer's army, kill them, and then follow them back to Hell to give Lucifer himself a beating.
Gameplay-wise, this is a fairly typical FPS. You'll battle through large environments, fight an impressive number of unique enemy types, gather weapons, and loot plenty of treasure along the way. While it's not impossible to get lost, you'll usually be confined to a specific area when there's a fight going on. Once the monsters are dealt with, the walls will lower and a glowing red pentacle will appear to show you the way to the next battlefield.
But while this game does follow the more traditional FPS design, it also manages to include several new mechanics. One of these new twists is that every weapon has two firing modes. This can be demonstrated with the Painkiller weapon itself: it can be used as a melee weapon (Pain) or as a lethal projectile attack (Killer). As this is your default weapon, it doesn't require ammo for either mode, and its surprisingly large damage output makes it remarkably effective for a starting weapon.
Another new mechanic has to do with what happens after enemies are slain: they'll leave their souls behind as clouds of green gas. Collecting these souls restores some of your health, and this is intended to be the main way you heal during the levels. But there's an additional feature: every time you absorb 66 souls, Daniel will briefly transform into a powerful demon. During this demonic state, time slows down and you can rip enemies apart with your mind. It only lasts for a few moments, but it's more than enough to do some serious damage. The only catch is that you'll need to learn how to avoid triggering it at a bad time - otherwise you can easily waste it.
The last mechanic of interest is a set of cards known as the Black Tarot. You'll earn these cards by completing special tasks during a level, and once you have them, you'll use some of the treasure you've collected to place them in active slots. Once placed in an active slot, you'll gain their benefits during future levels. These cards also come in two types: Silver cards, which automatically take effect as long as they're equipped, and Gold cards, which can only be triggered once during a level via a keyboard command.
Of course, this assumes that you'll be able to actually use the Black Tarot. You see, Painkiller's difficulty settings don't exactly work like you'd expect. Instead of just controlling things like how much damage monsters deal or how many monsters spawn in a level, the difficulty options also controls whether or not you can collect souls, if the Black Tarot can be accessed, and which levels are available. This feels slightly unfair, and it's one of the rougher edges on this gem of a game.
On another note, Painkiller: Black Edition also comes packaged with the Battle out of Hell, an expansion pack that offers ten more levels to fight your way through. Compared to the main game, it's not really that great. In fact, it feels more like an afterthought considering how random its locations are.
All in all, if you can put up with some less than stellar boss fights and the large amount of grime and gore present throughout this game, you'll probably enjoy it. It definitely has a unique charm and most of the levels are worth exploring. Personally, I prefer Serious Sam's goofiness over this, but that's just a matter of opinion.
And grim it is: the story opens with a tragic and bloody car accident, making it very clear to all involved that our protagonist and his wife very definitely died young. But while she was whisked off to Heaven, Daniel got stuck in a dirty Limbo dimension where monsters regularly came up and attack whomever they can find.
After surviving on his own for a bit, Daniel was contacted by Samael, an archangel who had a simple proposition for him. It seems that Lucifer has been a naughty boy, building up an army to attack Heaven before the appointed time. The angel explains that Heaven can't directly move against Lucifer without risking open warfare between the realms and bringing about Armageddon prematurely, but as an independent agent, Daniel is free to act, and in return, some rules would be bent a little to allow him to reunite with his beloved in Heaven.
Now armed with the titular Painkiller and a magical map, Daniel is off on a journey to find the generals of Lucifer's army, kill them, and then follow them back to Hell to give Lucifer himself a beating.
Gameplay-wise, this is a fairly typical FPS. You'll battle through large environments, fight an impressive number of unique enemy types, gather weapons, and loot plenty of treasure along the way. While it's not impossible to get lost, you'll usually be confined to a specific area when there's a fight going on. Once the monsters are dealt with, the walls will lower and a glowing red pentacle will appear to show you the way to the next battlefield.
But while this game does follow the more traditional FPS design, it also manages to include several new mechanics. One of these new twists is that every weapon has two firing modes. This can be demonstrated with the Painkiller weapon itself: it can be used as a melee weapon (Pain) or as a lethal projectile attack (Killer). As this is your default weapon, it doesn't require ammo for either mode, and its surprisingly large damage output makes it remarkably effective for a starting weapon.
Another new mechanic has to do with what happens after enemies are slain: they'll leave their souls behind as clouds of green gas. Collecting these souls restores some of your health, and this is intended to be the main way you heal during the levels. But there's an additional feature: every time you absorb 66 souls, Daniel will briefly transform into a powerful demon. During this demonic state, time slows down and you can rip enemies apart with your mind. It only lasts for a few moments, but it's more than enough to do some serious damage. The only catch is that you'll need to learn how to avoid triggering it at a bad time - otherwise you can easily waste it.
The last mechanic of interest is a set of cards known as the Black Tarot. You'll earn these cards by completing special tasks during a level, and once you have them, you'll use some of the treasure you've collected to place them in active slots. Once placed in an active slot, you'll gain their benefits during future levels. These cards also come in two types: Silver cards, which automatically take effect as long as they're equipped, and Gold cards, which can only be triggered once during a level via a keyboard command.
Of course, this assumes that you'll be able to actually use the Black Tarot. You see, Painkiller's difficulty settings don't exactly work like you'd expect. Instead of just controlling things like how much damage monsters deal or how many monsters spawn in a level, the difficulty options also controls whether or not you can collect souls, if the Black Tarot can be accessed, and which levels are available. This feels slightly unfair, and it's one of the rougher edges on this gem of a game.
On another note, Painkiller: Black Edition also comes packaged with the Battle out of Hell, an expansion pack that offers ten more levels to fight your way through. Compared to the main game, it's not really that great. In fact, it feels more like an afterthought considering how random its locations are.
All in all, if you can put up with some less than stellar boss fights and the large amount of grime and gore present throughout this game, you'll probably enjoy it. It definitely has a unique charm and most of the levels are worth exploring. Personally, I prefer Serious Sam's goofiness over this, but that's just a matter of opinion.
Points of Interest
Lots of hidden surprises
With the exception of the boss arenas, levels are packed with all sorts of things to find or destroy. Treasure - usually in the form of gold coins - can be found almost anywhere, but there are also hidden holy relics and other secrets lurking about. Finding them can be tricky, as some require you to perform rocket jumps or venture into other hazardous areas.
Fun weapons
Almost every weapon in the game is something weird and unique - examples include a gun that fires huge spiked logs or the gun that rapidly shoots throwing stars. All of them are also useful, which isn't something you can say about the toys most FPS will give you.
Cutscenes can be accidentally skipped
This is more of a warning than a complaint, but pressing any key during a cutscene will instantly skip it, and there's no way to see it again without also replaying the level. Note that this does include opening the Steam interface or taking a screenshot.
Somewhat unstable
The main game occasionally has trouble with collision detection, which allows objects to wander or get stuck in places where they aren't supposed to go. There's a chance that this will crash the game with a Lua error message.
The Battle out of Hell expansion seems to much more unstable, as it likes to randomly crash to desktop without warning. Thankfully, there's an autosave that usually works.
The Battle out of Hell expansion seems to much more unstable, as it likes to randomly crash to desktop without warning. Thankfully, there's an autosave that usually works.
Concerns and Issues
Very graphic violence
This game showcases blood and grime before any weapon is even discharged, as your enemies are almost uniformly covered in stitches, dirt, and dried blood by default. Most even sport long broken fingernails for that extra ick factor.
Beyond this, it's possible for your weapons to blow an enemy apart in a single shot, fling them around, pin them against a wall, or otherwise do more than just kill them.
Beyond this, it's possible for your weapons to blow an enemy apart in a single shot, fling them around, pin them against a wall, or otherwise do more than just kill them.
Dark subject matter
As if the fact that we're wandering through Limbo and Hell isn't already dark enough, there are also some unsettling locations, such as a mental hospital teeming with violent and possessed patients. The Battle out of Hell expansion pushes things even farther, as it begins with you exploring an orphanage of demonic children, some of whom can continue attacking after their torso is blown off.
Partial nudity
One of the few people Daniel meets in his journey is Eve. Yes, as in Adam and Eve. She's topless, though her long hair covers pretty much everything. Hilariously enough, in the expansion pack, she was given a bra - apparently someone thought that nudity was somehow worse than shooting up an orphanage.
Demonic references
It's probably obvious at this point, but while you'll usually be fighting evil dead humans, demons and even Lucifer himself make appearances throughout the game and its expansion. Then you have things like magical Tarot cards, Daniel transforming into a demon as a powerup, and the omnipresent pentacles in the art design. It's not much of a stretch to say there's more demonic references in this game than Doom.
A new look at Hell
In an interesting twist, this game depicts Hell in a very unique and very pointed way. Instead of showing us a Hell that consists of fiery lava and brimstone, Hell appears as a World War I battlefield that's frozen in time. It's a world where war must be fought, cannot be won, and rest is unknown.
This paints a remarkably vivid picture of our own capability for cruelty that is absent from many depictions of Hell. It's also a little sobering considering that you've just spent hours shooting people.
This paints a remarkably vivid picture of our own capability for cruelty that is absent from many depictions of Hell. It's also a little sobering considering that you've just spent hours shooting people.