A FPS with a Heaven and Hell theme. Many great levels and bosses to kill. Fun weapons and unique powers. Addicting.
The game's plot isn't too complicated despite the theological overtones, and can be literally interpreted as a war of good versus evil where neither angel nor demon army has been able to gain much success in the neutral battlefield between heaven and hell. The tide is about to turn when Daniel and his wife are killed in a car-crash, and Daniel who hasn't lived an altogether pure past, is given a chance to join his wife in heaven if he agrees to destroy Lucifer's four generals who are also planning to invade heaven with their armies. And why doesn't God simply use an angel instead of a human to do his killing, or why doesn't God simply wipe out the demon generals and their armies with a wave of his hand? The cut-scenes will explain a little about this, that angels are forbidden to enter hell, and demons cannot attack heaven, an agreement made by God and Lucifer; but apparently Lucifer is okay with going back on his word. So you are hired as a hitman by heaven to kill the generals and thereby will prevent the invasion from ever taking off. The first game is divided into five chapters, each with its number of levels before meeting up with a general, and finally leading up to a battle with Lucifer.
What makes the game interesting are the bizarre weapons you can use that mixes archaic and contemporary functions. You begin with the Painkiller (a staff that can spin multiple blades on one end or be used to fire a glowing orb that sticks to your enemies and eventually disintegrates them). You will also obtain a Shotgun (primary fire shoots like a regular shotgun but secondary fire will freeze opponents to where you can shatter them). When you gain the Stakegun, you'll find that it will act like a high-powered, sniper weapon that shoots wooden stakes and can pin opponents to a wall but also can fire grenades. Then there is the Chaingun, fires like a mini-gun and also acts as a rocket launcher. The last weapon is the Electrodriver, shoots ninja stars (shuriken) and the secondary function fires a stream of electricity. The Painkiller and Electodriver also have a special attack function, press both primary and secondary fires at the same time and Painkiller will shoot spinning blades and the Electrodriver will fire electrified shuriken.
Throughout the chaos of killing demons and blowing up objects, you will gain souls and gold. The souls will regenerate your health. When you collect 66 souls, you morph into a demon, giving you temporary invulnerability, and you simply run up to other demons and attack to tear them to shreds. Gold can come from destroying objects, and sometimes when killing demons, that will allow you to equip tarot cards at a price. There are two types of tarot cards, the silver and the gold. You gain tarot cards only when meeting certain objectives for a level. Silver card effects will last permanently when equipped, and each gold card can only be used once per level for a temporary amount of time. The special powers of each card ranges from giving you a higher initial health, halving the damage of demons, allowing you to demon morph with less souls, sucking souls towards you to lessen the time to gather them, dealing out higher damage, reloading weapons at a higher rate and so on. In addition to collecting souls and gold, you will find ammo usually inside objects and health orbs that glow red or green, will find holy items in secret areas (worth more than gold), and come across the occasional skull mask (that upgrades your weapons to shoot straighter and deal more damage for a time) and armor (protects you from damage and eventually falls apart when struck too many times).
When you first begin the game, you will be able to play the Daydream or Insomnia difficulties. Playing either of them (though I recommend beginning with the Insomnia mode for an overall better challenge) will allow you to gain up to 22 tarot cards that will unlock the Nightmare mode (that also unlocks the Prison level with a new tarot card). If you gain the 23rd tarot card you will unlock Trauma mode (will unlock the Forest level and the 24th tarot card). When you gain 24 tarot cards, you will see a different cut-scene when finishing the game. Despite my disappointment with the cemetery level, each level thereafter seems to become more colorful and exciting. Maps are larger, demons become much more difficult especially those with guns, the background to most levels are very detailed, and the buildings (certainly on the Babel level) are amazing to behold. Whenever you do get a moment between all the fighting, take a look around and appreciate the artistic talent of the programmers. Also the fighting does get very intense. With the more powerful weapons and explosions, demons can literally be thrown across a room or simply obliterated into a bloody mess. Like other shooters where it's you against many, you learn quickly it is important to keep moving or to find yourself trapped and surrounded. You also will have to experiment with jumping techniques as a few levels require you to jump quickly in succession to reach hard-to-reach secret areas.
The demons come in many varieties and are appropriate to the themes of each level, all taking a form of earth's dark history. As mentioned before you begin at the Cemetery, killing various zombies and banshees; at the Atrium level, you take on monks and psychonuns; in the Catacombs, more zombies and vamps; in the Cathedral, monks, psychonuns and the vamp max; and at the Enclave level, you fight Necrogiant (the 1st demon general on your list) - the theme is obviously about Death and at places devoted to the dead.
Next will be the Prison (available only in Nightmare mode), fighting hell angels and bikers, also can be difficult since most of the demons carry chainguns; then to the Opera House, where you are attacked by ninja, samurai and lokhi (twisted, human-like creatures that crawl on all-fours and release spiders when killed); then to the Asylum (a nicely-done level inside a mansion devoted to torture) where you destroy amputees and freaks; at the Snowy Bridge (an out-of-place but very large level where you climb platforms on a gigantic bridge and eventually ride a trolley to the peak of a mountain), fighting more ninja, samurai and lokhi, sometimes on ice; at the Town (a medieval town in the middle of a riot, showing many buildings on fire and hangings among the streets), facing amputees, leper monks, zombies and witches that fly across the sky on broomsticks; and then to the Swamp level, where you fight Swamp Thing (the 2nd demon general that erupts bubbles of gas and strikes with a bizarre, vegetation-like arm) - the theme being that of Famine/Disease.
Then to the Train Station (can be a difficult level when trying to get the tarot card, putting a hamper on your health regeneration), being attacked by commandos and skeleton soldiers (resemble WWI soldiers in gas masks); the Abandoned Factory (a very large and fun level full of towers and warehouses that contain a lot of fighting opportunities), where you will meet more commandos and skeleton soldiers; and at the Military Base (one of the better levels of the game with a very large area and a lot of demons to destroy and has a cool, military radio chatter for the background music), also full of commandos and skeleton soldiers as well as tanks and mortars; and then to the ruins to kill the Guardian (the 3rd demon general that resembles a giant-like Thor that charges you with a hammer for a weapon) - the theme depicting War.
On to the Castle (another medieval-type level where you will have to do a lot of jumping from towers onto rooftops to get to all of the Holy items), facing beasts (devil-dogs in armor that tumble towards you in a ball of flame), bones (dog skeletons), executioners (very large demons with axes) and zombies; and then to the Palace (a great level design depicting huge buildings with a Byzantine architecture and plays a Middle-Eastern score), having to fight Arabian warriors, bones, executioners, and Templar knights (difficult to hit as they fire crossbows from behind monstrous shields); then to Babel (one of the best levels of the game depicting the infamous Tower from the Bible), facing more Arabian warriors, beasts, executioners and Templar knights; the Forest (a small level that is only available in Trauma mode, tends to be very difficult in that there are many demons to fight on a small-scale map), facing bones, vamps and witches; and finally to the Tower where you face Alastor (the 4th demon general that resembles a dragon) who flies, breathes fire and smashes levels of the Tower - the theme being that of Conquest/Empires.
On Trauma mode the game will end with a special cut-scene, which I thought was okay except that it will deprive you of further levels and facing Lucifer. When playing the other modes, you will continue to the City on Water (a very interesting level of an isolated city in the middle of a lake, full of multi-level buildings and a lot of sniper opportunities), coming across hell angels, bikers and skulls (even bigger bikers that wield shotguns and will nab bodies to use as a shield); the Docks (a very fun level of a huge dock-yard where you will climb several hoist cranes to get to a titanic-type ship), also fighting more hell angels, bikers and skulls; and to the Old Monastery (has a Celtic look to it with old chapels along a coast), killing banshees and monks; and to Hell, which is a great level, depicting various soldiers and technology throughout our history (you'll see armies of knights in mid-charge, catapults that have launched stones simply suspended in the sky, trench warfare, jet fighters, a missile launch and a nuclear explosion, all frozen in time as you run on by), killing various spirits of soldiers that will attack you, and when killing enough of them will summon Lucifer, giving you the chance to destroy the king of Hell forever.
The expansion Battle Out Of Hell continues where you had just defeated Lucifer from the previous game. The controls, gameplay, weaponry and tarot cards act as the same as before but you will gain two additional weapons, the Flamethrower (can fire bullets as an SMG as well as set demons on fire) and the Bolt gun (similar to the Stake version but fires steel bolts at a faster rate and has the option of firing steel balls that will bounce and explode) as well as extra tarot card types (one of the best Silver Cards is called Health Stealer that regenerates your health every time you damage an opponent). You will also play ten additional levels that mix depictions of Death, War, Famine and Conquest from the original game.
The first level is the Orphanage (similar to the Asylum, takes place in a mansion that was obviously used to torture little kids), where you fight evil orphans, nun ghosts and pinokios (walking toys that explode on contact); then to Loony Park (a nice touch of Hell at a carnival where near the end of the level you will ride a roller coaster), taking on demons in the form of clowns (that attack with explosives), corns (demons with a poisonous touch) and crusties (clowns with flamethrowers); then to the Lab (an interesting level of building corridors, underground tunnels and a research facility), where you will be attacked by commandos, doctors and nurses (that charge you with syringes in hand); then to the Pentagon (more of an arena level with a boss) and a pretty difficult fight with the Panzer Spider (a machine that can stomp on you and casts fireballs); then to Dead City (a long and fun level where you traverse streets and car-parks among the wreckage of a post-apocalyptic city), killing zombies, preachers (huge brutes that are invulnerable until you kill their minions) and dragonflies (that drop incendiaries from above); then Leningrad (a WWII depiction of the war-torn city where you will hear the original Russian anthem as background music, and the combat tends be very difficult and brutal), facing soldiers, officers and tanks of the German and Russian variety, all armed to the teeth; then to the Coliseum level (one of my favorite levels where you will traverse an arena of ancient Rome, some rooms filled with deadly obstacles as you work your way to the grandstand that will lead you to the pit to face the champion), fighting many varieties of gladiator; and onto the Underworld (a very large map of mining shafts where near the end you will ride a cart as you fight through multiple caverns), demons will be in the form of pirates, slaves and voodoo priests; and the Stone Pit (a great level where you start at the bottom of a huge cavern where you can see the sky hundreds of feet above and must fight your way up platforms that branch into other rooms to eventually work your way to the top), also fighting more pirates, slaves and voodoo priests; and finally to Shadowland (looks more like a depiction of Hell of fire and brimstone compared to any other level in the game) where you will face King Alastor, a much tougher version of Alastor from the first game.
I highly recommend the original Painkiller and expansion Battle Out Of Hell. I don't have much of an opinion for the other Painkiller games Overdose and Resurrection other than that they were fan-made games, and they received such poor reviews that I avoided them altogether. Painkiller surprised me that I hadn't heard of it before until reading Gamespot reviews, and after playing through the Insomnia difficulty, I had to play more. The weapons are fun to use, the demons have a large variety of ways to attack and AI is challenging, the combat physics of demons being thrown or exploding is very satisfying, each level has great ambiance with an equally great music score, the background and building detail are amazing for many levels and most of the maps to each level will keep you playing for a good amount of time. One bad point to the game is that Trauma mode doesn't really outdo the great ending already seen in previous modes, and you skip several great levels along the way, simply to add the Forest level which is too small. Another bad point is that the expansion levels do not follow a coherent path like the previous game (where you play a chapters comprising of levels that lead to the showdown with each of Lucifer's generals). Nevertheless, Painkiller is almost a perfect game. It is original, and one that I would revisit over and over again in years to come.