No nonsense shooter
Gameplay:
To cut a short story long, you and your wife are killed in a car crash and she is sent to heaven and you head to purgatory, here a gate keeper to heaven makes you a deal, you are to help fight off satan's horde from attacking heaven.
That's about as deep as the story gets. You then get some over-powered weapons and kill! This to some people is a boring, repetitive style of gaming but it is instant fun. In some respects the type of fun in Painkiller is similar to games such as Grand Theft Auto, for example using a stake gun and pinning enemies against a wall is both satisfying and frikkin' awesome!
The levels are very well designed and extremely varied, from cemeterys to catacombs right down into hell itself. You battle through each section of a level in small peices.
Throughout the game you pick up souls from the bodys of your enemies, these both boost your life and when you've collected enough put you into demon vision. Demon vision is basically a single hit kills style for a short period. On harder difficulties you can also get tarot cards which give you additional bonuses on the next level, however this is disabled on Daydream(easiest) difficulty.
Graphics:
The game may seem a bit dated to some people now in 2009, but in my opinion it still looks very good. Running on the Havok engine you get partially destructible enviroments. Lighting effects are good adding superb atmosphere to the game.
Sound:
Talking of atmosphere, Painkiller's audio has lots of it. The background sound is both eerie and sets a freaky mood. However, if you wish during battle you can have heavy metal playing which does add to the fun.
Multiplayer:
Although Painkiller supports multiplayer online and over LAN, it's very weak indeed. There is no co-op mode and the gameplay gets very repetitive with the very few maps available.
Overall:
If your looking for a great shooter without waiting around for a story or long tutorials(to which Painkiller's simple gameplay doesn't need one), then this game is for you. For less than £10($15 or there abouts) for the Black Edition which has the original game and expansion on 1 DVD, it's a complete bargain.
I give this game 8.5