Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 19/Dec 03:30

Painkiller – Review

Cooperative multiplayer FPS titles have also seen a rise in popularity over the last few years, with titles such as Sker Ritual, Killing Floor 3, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, and many others. These titles often offer the satisfying experience of blasting enemies to kingdom come, while getting rid of many of the stressful competitive components that often draw in a certain type of gamer. Painkiller is one of those fairly recently released titles that sadly got swallowed by our backlog. Even so, we’re more than happy to present you with our review of this hellish FPS. For the most part, Painkiller has a lot of charm, but it does lack some substance here and there. Story Painkiller isn’t really heavy on story content, but the gist is basically that you’re sinners in purgatory who are getting a chance to redeem themselves. You’ll be instructed by Metatron to fight Azazel’s demon hordes to prevent them from reaching Earth. It’s a very basic premise that doesn’t really get fleshed out that much, but it’s an interesting enough narrative to tie things together. We highly doubt a lot of gamers will pick this one up for its storyline, though. Graphics We would be lying if we were to say that Painkiller didn’t immediately remind us of DOOM: The Dark Ages, albeit with enough original aspects to diversify itself. The somewhat medieval fantasy vibes work great here, and we quite enjoyed tearing up enemies with our arsenal of cool-looking weapons. The different environments were still diverse enough, but we did notice that most of the game’s areas looked a bit similar. Painkiller is simply a good-looking game, which does add to its overall appeal. Performance was also great, even on older gaming rigs. We didn’t experience any hiccups, but we mostly played with bots backing us up rather than other players. Sound As a whole, the sound design of Painkiller is fairly decent. You’ll be treated to a heavy rock/metal soundtrack that ups the adrenaline levels. The music itself sounds a bit generic, but it’s still quite decent. There’s also a bit of track variety, which is certainly a plus. The sound effects are also rather good, and it’s satisfying to hear enemies being blown to smithereens. We particularly liked the audio feedback when impaling enemies with stakes, as it sounds rather gruesome. There’s also a bit of voice acting present in the game, which is always a plus for more generic FPS titles. This also includes a bit of banter between the different characters when playing through a level. Gameplay Painkiller is a multiplayer-oriented FPS where you play through fairly short stages in purgatory, slaughtering demons to earn redemption for your past sins. The game could best be described as a DOOM meets Warhammer 40,000: Darktide experience. You pick one of the available characters, and you play through the levels to unlock new stages, rank up, and earn currency to unlock new weapons. The game also uses a tarot card system, where you can equip two cards to gain active or passive boosts for the levels you’ll play through. The biggest issue is already visible from the start, and that’s that Painkiller doesn’t actually have that much content on offer. There are only nine main levels available, as well as an arena-like mode, which will only amount to five to six-ish hours of gameplay, depending on the difficulty settings and the people you play with. If you’re not a fan of playing with others online, you can also play in the offline mode with bots backing you up. The bots are actually decently programmed and make a proper contribution to the experience. Most levels are around half an hour long, with some levels being slightly longer than others. Most levels consist of killing enemies, but also completing certain objectives, such as killing enemies in a specific radius to fill blood barrels or killing boss enemies. While all of this is fairly enjoyable, Painkiller ends up feeling shallow and generic. If that’s what you’re looking for, however, you’ll probably still have a great time. All in all, the gunplay is really satisfying in Painkiller, and the weapon diversity makes sure that you’re able to switch up your loadouts. Weapons can be upgraded individually, which does motivate players to replay levels to upgrade all of the available weapons. The available characters also offer small variations in terms of base stats, where one may offer more base HP and another may offer more weapon damage. It’s a fairly standard system, and it’s satisfying seeing your arsenal grow stronger. Sadly, due to the lack of content, you’ll probably give up playing before actually upgrading everything. Conclusion Painkiller does have a solid foundation for an enjoyable multiplayer FPS experience, but it eventually falls short due to somewhat generic gameplay mechanics and a lack of content. Even so, the gunplay is enjoyable, the weapons are nice to mess around with, and upgrading your weapons is rewarding. If the game were only half the current price, we would have an easier time recommending it, but as it currently stands, we suggest waiting for a hefty discount. If you’re a fan of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and you’re looking for something similar, then it might already be worth looking into this one.