Painkiller: Special Edition

Painkiller: Special Edition has one huge focus: shoot everything that moves. You have no teammates, no puzzles to solve, no complicated levels to wander through; only endless amounts of enemies and a decent variety of weapons. You may be thinking that it will get repetitive, but it actually will have you guessing at what the next level will be like, what kind of enemies you might encounter, and what the bosses will look like. To begin this review, I will discuss the game play, then go on to graphics and sounds, and finally end with a judgment on replay value.

To begin, Painkiller: Special Edition has no cut scenes. You start off with a stake gun and get right to the shooting. This weapon can pin your enemies to the wall when shot if they are close enough to one. You eventually get more weapons, like a shotgun, nail gun, and a handful of others. And although this may seem like a limited amount, they all have their advantages and you won't be asking for more. Each level varies greatly, and they are all very well designed. From a military base to an ancient Egyptian style level, they all look fantastic and it does not get repetitive. You go through these maps, with an arrow on the top of the screen to help you in the right direction, and throughout the level you take on literally hundreds of enemies. There are over 70 kinds of monsters to kill, and they change depending on the level. What makes this game so interesting, in my opinion, is the bosses. When I saw the first boss, I was simply amazed. The developer, Dreamcatcher, was not playing around when they did the bosses. They are massive in size, and for each one you have to figure out their weak spot. This can prove to be fun and challenging at the same time, and really adds to the already awesome game play.

For graphics and sounds, I would say they are great for the time of release. Painkiller hit the shelves on April 12, 2004, so for then the visuals were really good. Great shadowing, nice special effects, good texturing on buildings, and above average 3d models all contribute to top-notch graphics for that time. The sounds are also worth mentioning. Each level seems to have specific sound effects that help give a feeling that you really are in a haunted mental hospital or out on a military base.

Finally, replay value seems to be average in Painkiller: Special Edition. In this version, there is no multiplayer. I recently picked it up, and it was lying in the "cheap-game" section, or the "bargain-bin" area of BestBuy. I know the original did have multiplayer when it first came out, but I will not discuss this because the Special Edition version does not have it included. There are four difficulty levels in the single player campaign, so you can go through it several times and it gets harder after every one. Without any multiplayer, I must say replay value is average at best, even though the single player is very good.

In Conclusion, Painkiller: Special Edition is a great first person shooter that really focuses on simple, yet very fun, game play. If you have the money, which in this case is only $10, and a decent computer, I would highly recommend it if you are a fan of shooters.