Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is both a remake and a sequel to 2004’s Painkiller game. And going from graphics and gameplay, it could have easily been released back then aswell.
Hell and Damnation is a fast paced FPS game where you play as Daniel Garner, a guy who has died and has spent death killing demons in hell and purgatory. The only light in his miserable life was his wife Catherine. He has spent countless years listening to the lies of demons that have tormented him with promises of seeing her once again. The beginning of the game see’s Death appear to present Daniel with a deal. Deliver 7000 souls, and see Catherine again. While this is an overarching story, it’s not really thought about while going through the majority of the levels.
From that point, the game turns into something similar to a kid’s football game, where everyone on the pitch runs around frantically after the ball, except you are the ball (gun in hand), with the players places taken by hordes of demons. You run, they follow, get them in a nice line a shoot like crazy, and repeat. Enemies slightly vary, but all behave in the same fashion, and baring the larger boss type enemies, no further tactics are required. AI was certainly not top of the ‘to-do’ list, and there were many occasions where I found enemies running straight into a wall, or standing still completely. There were a number of times when one of the larger enemies stood still staring at a pillar, allowing me to run around shotgunning it at my leisure. To accompany this is an overly repetitive guitar riff which plays over and over every time you are involved in a battle – it is most certainly not a “soundtrack forged in the same furnace as the weapons – Heavy Metal” that the back of the box claims.
Painkiller plays through a number of different locations, from graveyards to monasteries, all of which are painted with the same bland paint brush, with a lot of greys and browns of offer. Helping you complete each section are a number of fairly cool weapons, but most act the same way, even if they do look different. There are slight changes in fire rates, but with no need to reload on the majority you’ll just be mindlessly firing whichever is selected, until you run out of ammo, which is scattered around in plenty of places on the levels.
Tarot cards are introduced to spice the game up a bit, and are unlocked during levels by completing certain objectives such as collecting a certain amount of coins, finishing a level in a certain amount of time etc. The cards can then be purchased at the end of a level (using the collected coins which are found on fallen enemies, or by destroying boxes) to be used on the next level. The effects of the cards vary; taking less damage, slowing down time, increase your health and more. They can be activated only once during a level, so you’ll need to pick your timing.
Control wise you’ll find it to be a stock FPS affair, there is little more than shoot, move and jump, with no need for reloading, melee, the only other function is to use the tarot cards.
Online mode, while present, may aswell be non-existent as there were no games to join. There are the standard deathmatch and survival games on offer if you were to find someone to play with
This is a full retail release, but not a full retail price which is good to see. But it feels as though it belongs on XBLA or in the recycle bin of the developers PC. It really plays like it is a lame movie tie in type game that is rushed out for release that only diehard fans would want to play and end up being disappointed anyway.
All Painkiller did for me, was painfully kill any desire that I had to play the game. A tragic love story, is a tragic game. Avoid.
