Painkiller: Hell Wars
If you're thinking to yourself that the name sounds familiar, then congratulations, you win a cookie. Painkiller was originally developed for the PC back in 2004 and for some reason it has taken two years to get to the Xbox. Let's just say that those two years meant a lot. If this game had come out back then it may have been a different story, but as it stands Hell Wars is plodding and menial.
In Painkiller Hell Wars you play as the already deceased Daniel Garner. You're caught between heaven and hell and find yourself having to kill demons in order to get your ticket to your real afterlife. Everything about this game will remind old-school gamers of their glory days blasting through the original Doom or Quake. In that regard, Painkiller succeeds. There are quite a few nostalgic moments and a certain feeling of familiarity looms over your shoulder. Then again, once that sensation wears off you'll realize just how linear and boring the gameplay truly is.
Gameplay:
Here's the basic premise of Painkiller in a nutshell: grab a gun, kill some demons. That's literally all you're going to be doing from the time you start the game to the moment the end credits roll. There is no room for exploring, no groundbreaking physics engines to tinker with (though what's here is adequate), and no engrossing story to get attached to. Simple is as simple does, now go kill something.
It has been a long time since I have sat down with a game (let alone a FPS) structured like Painkiller. The 20+ stages are broken down into micro areas meaning that you'll often be locked into place and forced to sit through a load screen when you want to go somewhere. The only problem is between you and the next area stands a gazillion demons that you have to kill before you are allowed to leave. If you find yourself waiting at the exit and you haven't been given the go-ahead yet, that means there is one straggler still kicking around waiting for you to render them into dog food.
Of course the chance of there actually being a lone enemy milling about on the screen is miniscule at best. It's not because you may have missed them somewhere along the way it's because the AI does nothing but charge at you and blindly fire in your direction. In this day and age of sophisticated CPU enemies I became bored to tears after an hour or so with Painkiller's gameplay. Don't these demons duck for cover? What about flanking you? I guess it really doesn't matter though; they are demons after all, not humans. Even so, it's a shoddy set up that makes the game feel archaic. It also doesn't help with its longevity either.
So the AI is terrible and the stages are mind-numbingly linear; what else is there to the game? The selection of weapons is inventive, but nothing more than average in today's FPS marketplace. From a shotgun to rocket launcher, Painkiller tries to take its own spin on the tried and true weapons of mass destruction. Each weapon even has a secondary functionality much like Perfect Dark, but it's nowhere near as inventive or fun. The Painkiller weapon itself is the single greatest achievement that this game offers in the armament department.
Part spinning blade of death and medium-ranged wonder, the Painkiller was my favorite weapon and tool of choice in most cases. Running on unlimited ammo and useful in just about every circumstance, the Painkiller almost makes you overpowered in a game that is already skimpy on AI. Fortunately you can tinker with the difficulty of the game and get a slightly different experience each time.
As far as controls are concerned Painkiller Hell Wars is as traditional as it gets. The triggers operate primary and secondary firing functions while the two analog sticks move your character and the A button makes you jump. Weapon selection is the only thing that doesn't quite fit into the console set up. By pressing start you can map a weapon to the D-Pad for quick cycling, but if you want to grab something that you don't have room for on the pad you have to pause the game and open up a menu. It's a little bothersome but nothing that truly impacts gameplay when you get right down to it.
Multiplayer is where Painkiller's feather in the cap really rests. With a wealth of modes to tackle and a decent selection of maps, things heat up once you get on Xbox Live. That is, to say, if you can get enough people for a loaded map. The gameplay is fast and furious in just about every mode. It's easy to see that the game's engine was built more for multiplayer than the single player experience. Unfortunately the amount of players that you'll come across in this game isn't anywhere near the pool that stays up late at night playing other FPS. When you do get a match going, the action is smooth for the most part, but some choppy lag will creep in no matter what.
Graphics:
Utilizing graphics that were decent back in 2004, Painkiller is a step behind the times in terms of visual presentation compared to the rest of the market. Don't misunderstand me; this game has some fine textures, character design, and animation. My beef with the graphics here come from frequent framerate issues, glitches, and repetitive environments. Cut scenes are filled with compression and poor resolution as well so those don't do anything for the game either. Two years ago things looked a lot better on the PC but in the time between then and now the graphical gap has widened.
Audio:
With a booming heavy metal soundtrack Painkiller Hell Wars lets you know when your adrenaline should get going. Whenever an enemy pops up the game lets loose a riff and it doesn't stop until the last demon has been vaporized. Sadly it's an effect that grew weary on me after some time with the game. Some decent, yet repetitive, voice acting spills through from behind the heavily metallic veil of the soundtrack along with the potluck collection of weaponry effects.
Conclusion:
In the end is Painkiller Hell Wars worth the $30 price tag? Well, it really depends on your perspective. If you're a first person fanatic and long for a game as simplistic and mind-numbingly fun as the original Doom then you'll get the most out of this title. For the rest of us though, there are better FPS on the market. Dated mechanics, poor AI, linear gameplay, framerate issues, and an all around feeling of repetition really plague this game. Thanks to the multiplayer facets Painkiller Hell Wars may find a cult following on Xbox Live, but everyone else can get by with a rental.