Painkiller is from the Polish developers People Can Fly and published by DreamCatcher Interactive. It is a First Person Shooter from the old "if it moves, kill it" school of FPS games like Quake and Doom, with a frenetic pace of play that is sure to draw comparisons with the popular Serious Sam games. If you like running and gunning, Painkiller is definitely going to put a smile on your face!
Painkiller comes on three CDs in an actual jewel case, which can't be said of every multi-disc game anymore. It also comes with detailed 48-page manual on glossy paper that does not fit inside the jewel case. This is a very nice bucking of the current minimalist trend in documentation for a game. In the manual you get not only a complete explanation of the HUD, but a thorough description of almost every weapon, enemy, power up, and container that you will see in the game. There are a few things missing, but that is too save some of the mystery, not because they were trying to cut the page count of the manual down.
While it may not matter to the player, there is a story to Painkiller that gives you the reason and motivation for doing what you do. You play Daniel Garner, a man whose life, and that of his wife Catherine, was cut short by a fatal car accident on a stormy night. Catherine was immediately whisked off to Heaven, but Daniel (you) were not so fortunate. You have been sent to Purgatory to survive as best you can.
After an indeterminate amount of time in Purgatory, you are approached by Sammael. He has a proposition for you, one that will allow you to be rejoined with your beloved Catherine in Heaven. All you have to do is kill four of Lucifer's generals and avert an early strike by the forces of Hell upon Heaven. And so the game begins...
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