Painkiller

Lets face it: when you get down to it, there are two kinds of shooters on the market. Big, expensively made, high quality ones, and then the ones that no-one gives a flying crap about. Take, into consideration, the contrast between Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 and a game like "Project Snowblind" for the PS2. I'd much rather get a Tom Clancy game than Project Snowblind any day, because I know good and well that any Tom Clancy game beats a halfassed attempt at a shooter game.

Now, welcome to Painkiller. Original yet not very popular, Painkiller tends to step out of the typical shooter boundaries and become somewhat interesting in points. Gone are the traditional AK47 and Pistol combinings of typical shooters. In this game, the whole scenario is rather simple: You're God's hitman, killing demons in hell. Sure, its sacreligous. Sure, its a stupid plot. But at least it's not "YOU MUST SAVE THE PRESIDENT.. AGAIN!"



Painkiller shines somewhat at its original weaponry. The main weapon(s) you have are very interesting- a stake gun (Which makes use of the Havok physics engine to throw the bodies around and stake them to the wall) and some form of what you might want to call a whirly blade thingy that can suck up and shoot rocks. Not to be confused with the gravity gun, the little whirly thingy can suck up peices of a wall, but naturally, there's not that much detail to it, so I wouldnt get too excited over it.

The other weapons are somewhat interesting of themself, but none of them really match the fun of staking an enemy to the wall like the Stake Gun can. Of course, the game (Amazingly) knows this, and keeps you using the stake gun more than any other weapon available. At least Dreamcatcher knew what was cool and what wasnt.

The issues with this game are the issues one finds in any low-key shooter game. The enemies tend to all look the same, act the same, and generically don't have a d***ed bit of sense to them. Taking the stake gun to them is never a hassle for anyone. There are other enemies like the Witches that appear in the sky, but they appear much less frequently than the other enemies.



Another issue I had with the game is that the levels feel somewhat cheap. The game makes you feel like you are ALWAYS running around in a stereotypical level, and I didnt feel any kind of expansiveness or great level design that I was supposed to.

However, as a plus for this game, the graphics are very well done. You can tell that the textures in the game are as clear as day, and don't suffer from the typical blurriness of some textures you see in cheaper shooter games. The models themselves are pretty well done, but I wasnt impressed as much with the actual 3D as I was with the textures.



As for my opinion, I give this game two stars. I wouldnt call this a bargain for the price, nor would I really call it anything for the price- it's all up to the player. If you're looking for a game that's different than your typical shooter game, this might be the game to pick up. However, if you're looking for a cheaply priced game that equals in quality to some of the newer more expensive games, this isn't the game I'd pick up.

2 star(s) out of 5

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