Painkiller: Battle out of Hell Review

Painkiller: Battle out of Hell is the quickly constructed expansion to Painkiller, one of the better first person shooters released in 2004. This expansion adds 10 new levels, new weapons, and expands the multiplayer mode a bit. It has a budget price of $20, but is it worth it?

First of all, the game story picks up where the last one left off. The name is rather deceitful though, as instead of battling OUT of hell, you are actually battling into hell. Yes, you manage to escape hell in the intro cutscene. Then, you spend your time battling through various levels in purgatory to fight back into hell and stop Alastor, Lucifer’s successor.

You get to explore this magnificent story in all of two cutscenes, the intro and the outro. Surprisingly, this isn’t even a big deal. Although even the original game had more, story was never a really big part of Painkiller. A game like this only needs a foundation of a story to give reason to all the blood you’ll be shedding. And believe me: you’ll be shedding a LOT of blood.

Graphics in this game look just as great as they did last year. Even following the release of Half-Life 2, these graphics stand their ground. High-res textures, great modeling and animation are all present in this game. It also helps that the game has a very distinct sense of style. Just like the original Painkiller, every level in this expansion is different, which provides a great sense of variety. It is very satisfying to be killing different enemies and running around new places each and every level.

Audio quality has not really decreased or increased in this game. You’ll still get some pumping hard rock as you hit action in the game, which is just screaming adrenaline. It gets its job done, but it’s rather generic stuff. Sound effects sound just as great in this game as in the original. Your weapons actually sound like they’re doing plenty of damage. Voice acting in the cutscenes is passable, though nothing spectacular.

Gameplay was the highlight in the original, and this expansion is no different. The game plays fundamentally similar to the original. You’ll be running from place to place shooting down hordes of enemies. This is really entertaining because you fight different enemies each level, and it’s very satisfying killing (most) of them. There is an odd issue, though. Some enemies just don’t react to being hit in a satisfying way. This is important to me, because I want to feel like I’m doing damage to these enemies. Fortunately, this is only for a few select baddies.

Another curious thing is that the first level takes place in an orphanage. The level plays out very similarity to the Asylum level in the original, concerning the spooky factor and whatnot. However, instead of shooting crazy people, you’re shooting children! I was personally rather surprised, because this is the first time I’ve ever shot children, possessed or not, in a first person shooter. The media is always complaining about violence in GTA, but at least the GTA games don’t have any children running around. Something just feels weird about shooting children…even if they want to eat my brains out.

Besides that, most of the levels are pretty fun and unique. My favorite was actually the second level, which took place in a haunted amusement park. My inner child took great pleasure in slaughtering wave upon wave of evil clowns. This level also has an on-rails section, which is a first for Painkiller. The developers take the concept very literally, and sit you down on an insane (on-rails) rollercoaster, loop-de-loops and all.

The other levels are functional, but they aren’t as standout as the first two. One such level is the Leningrad level. This should be interesting, killing zombie soldiers and tanks, right? Not really, this level is just an exercise in frustration, with plenty of hidden snipers and tanks that do ridiculous amounts of damage. Speaking of which, the default difficulty has been ramped up significantly this time around, though it sometimes seems unfairly. There are far too many enemies with explosive weapons that take off a lot of your health quickly. In addition, there are now positively stupid jumping puzzles. Run-and-gun action doesn’t mix well with lame jumping puzzles. What makes these worse is the absolutely ridiculous load time that you must sit through EACH time that you wish to load your game, even on a “quick load”.

The two new weapons you get in this expansion are pretty cool and serve their job well. One is a five bolt sniper rifle/bouncing grenade launcher. The bolts are actually useful at close range, because they’re powerful and essentially similar to the stakegun. The bouncing grenades more often than not end up bouncing right back in your face. The other new weapon is a machine gun/flamethrower hybrid. This is one is more useful overall, as the machine gun part is quite powerful, and the flamethrower is just fun to unleash upon crowds.

The final addition to the game is two multiplayer modes: capture the flag and last man standing. These aren’t really all that interesting, and don’t compare to some of the original ideas for modes in the original. It does expand the rather simple multiplayer mode a bit, though, which is always a good thing.