Painkiller Preview
The last time I sat down to review a Painkiller game was 2007. The title in question was Painkiller: Overdose, one of many DLCs for 2004’s first person shooter, Painkiller. I can’t say I remember anything about it, aside from it being more Painkiller, which was a good thing. For anyone too young to remember, People Can Fly’s Painkiller was a game very much in the tradition of Doom, Quake, Serious Sam and Unreal Tournament. In other words, fast and brutal combat, lots of mobility and a dark Gothic vibe. All those adjectives apply to Anshar Studios’ upcoming remake, simply titled Painkiller.
What’s Old is New, and Different
The original Painkiller was a single player game with a substantial, convoluted narrative that took the player through a variety of historical and fictional locations. It was about the battle between Heaven and Hell and the lead character being re-united with his dead wife. There was a well-received competitive multiplayer component too, with a number of standard modes like deathmatch and capture the flag.
While the remake features the same dark fantasy setting and a few story elements from the original, the structure is much different. For starters, while 2025’s Painkiller is technically playable in solo mode, it is designed as a four player co-op shooter. In solo mode, the team is filled out by bots and they’re not incredibly smart or resilient, leaving you to fend for yourself pretty quickly.
The new Painkiller is not narrative and campaign driven. This time around, the levels are all about surviving waves of increasingly powerful enemies. Of course, you and your squad have a very deep toolkit. There are a ton of different weapons, each with several modes of fire, plus an imaginative array of throwables.
Card Reading
Matches start back at your home base, which looks like it sprang snarling off of a goth metal album cover. Back at base you select and modify your weapons and armor, organize matches and pick two tarot cards that you apply to your character. These are essentially buffs like increased damage or a bigger health bar. You can spend coin to roll the dice for new cards, adding a bit of risk and reward. There are four archetype characters — Ink, Void, Sol and Roch — but they’re not customizable beyond weapons and armor. As you might expect, they fill specific roles in team play.
The stages/levels themselves are fairly large and while not quite as imaginative or thematically varied as in the original game, they look great. Of course, I only had the chance to play the tutorial prologue and two levels, Defiled Quarry and Cathedral Bridge. I’m looking forward to seeing the range of what Painkiller’s levels have to offer.
Break Your Neck
Combat in Painkiller is not slow and methodical. It’s fast, furious and kinetic. With a good team, facing down the waves of monsters is a ballet of guns, acrobatic moves, air dashes and explosive rounds. Even at the lower end of the difficulty scale, matches in Painkiller can be a challenge to teamwork and resource management. It’s also why the single player mode isn’t very effective. The bots aren’t great at healing or sharing ammo.
Although it definitely looks like a 2025 game, Painkiller harkens back to those days when shooters were loud, fast, over-the-top and just great ways to have fun and let off some steam with friends. As titles like Helldivers demonstrate, games like that are still in demand. From the little bit I played, I’d say that Painkiller does its namesake proud. It’s a different beast but the original’s metal attitude and visceral combat remain intact.
***Preview code provided by the publisher***
