Painkiller: Resurrection Review

2022-09-25

Painkiller: Resurrection Review

Those of us who sometimes crave for the good old days of mowing down mindless hordes of demonic enemies a la Doom were left highly satisfied with the Painkiller series. It encompassed everything gamers loved about the fast-paced action style of the past, while bringing forward lots of innovation and putting the shooter genre to its limits with some of its enemies and environments.

The latest one, Painkiller: Resurrection, was developed by a separate studio this time, which left many fans full of doubts all the way until the game came out.

Gameplay

Resurrection puts you in control of a new character, Bill Sherman. Like the protagonist from the previous Painkiller titles, Bill reaches the end of his life and finds himself in Purgatory, since God can't decide where his soul belongs – on one hand, he died trying to destroy a group of mobsters, while on the other he took out a bus full of civilians with him. And in accordance with the previous games, Bill is given the chance of becoming “Heaven's hitman”, going deep inside Hell to take care of the demons that infest it.

Resurrection brings forward several additions and improvements to the game. There are a few new weapons to mess around with, as well as several types of new enemies to use them on – you'll also get to meet various enemy characters from the previous games. Resurrection continues Painkiller's style of presenting huge boss battles with enemies the size of entire buildings, and Bill definitely lives up to his predecessor in terms of grim humor.

The game feels slightly shorter than the ones before it though – with only six levels to explore, you'll have to satisfy yourself with the though that they're played in a somewhat different style, where you'll have to explore the more obscure parts of the levels before rushing into battle.

Graphics and System Requirements

The engine used is the same as in the previous games, though slightly upgraded – underneath the higher-resolution textures and more fluid animations lies pretty much the same powerhouse that gave you the hilarious ragdolls flying across the screen as you set off a barrel of explosives, as well as the various spectacular lighting effects associated with the more Hell-ish parts of the game.

And just like its predecessors, Painkiller: Resurrection remains extremely light on the computer – you won't get any slowdowns with this game even on a dinosaur computer (well, “dinosaur” may be a bit of an exaggeration, but if you can run, say, UT2004 fine, then PK:R will be flying across your monitor).

Other

Painkiller's multiplayer never caught on for some reason, but if you've got a few buddies who enjoy Quake-styled deathmatch games, be sure to try this one out with them – you'd be surprised at how much it actually offers in that department.

Conclusion

Stop ducking behind that crate for cover; act like a man and face hundreds of enemies with just a handful of shells left in your shotgun – with the heavy metal soundtrack blaring behind you as you're at it, Painkiller: Resurrection will make you scream with joy.