Painkiller + Battle out of Hell

I know there are some other Painkiller posts but I just wanted to highlight Battle out of Hell, the first Painkiller expansion.

Steam sells the "Collectors Pack" which includes all Painkiller Black Edition (Painkiller+Battle out of Hell), 2007's Painkiller Overdose and 2009's Painkiller Resurrection for $29.99. Not particularly cheap, but Resurrection does include significant updates to the core engine and the package includes tons of content here. Its everything you ever wanted as a PK fan. Personally, I can't wait to see Resurrection, but I've got a bit of journey to get there.

Battle out of Hell takes off hot off the heals of the PK original plot. No snickering now, there is a plot. The original has a good 15 minutes of cut scenes in total and it is interesting enough to pay attention to. Now sadly BooH makes no sense plot wise, since you are not in Hell, but once again looking for the entry to hell. No sense in dwelling on it, its PK and in the end you are going to carve, explode, inflame, gib and otherwise creatively eviscerate litterally 1,000's of hosts from hell. The levels are creapy as... well... Hell so it make little difference what side of it you are on. You are still on the "other" side and dead right? The cut scenes have taken a significant nose dive quality wise with this release, but... am I still talking about this?

Level design is inspired on this one. I was shocked by the quality. Leningrad alone is worth purchase BooH for. BooH continues the theme of a perpetual battleground for Hell. Anyone who played through the first PK and saw Hell rendered by People can Fly would not fail to take notice. It was stunning in my opinion. Leningrad is just as stunning in BooH. Its just creepy, especially the ambient sounds which PK always excels at. It feels like Hell should, pure and simple. Amazingly done. The continue to follow the theme of mass death venues with Coluseum, where you get to do battle in a very well modeled version of the arena. Worthy stuff. PK has atmosphere that is for sure.

Combat is pure PK. Not too much to say here, other than there are more combat puzzles than the original and... a flame thrower. More of the same but the added focus on puzzles keeps it pretty interesting. Who ever thought bunny hopping could be the basis of a puzzle? That's PK for ya.

So its great, that's my long winded message. Thanks to Thrasher for convincing me to pick it up.

I posted my opinions on Painkiller on gamefaqs forum and got a warning for "trolling".

I love Painkiller and Battle Out of hell.
Sadly the other two expansions never reached the quality made by People Can Fly.
Right now I'm very curious about Bulletstorm, the second game by the same studio.

A game with name like "painkiller" cant be good. I got the game free once and it was proven right.

Honestly, I never understood the sense of the term "painkiller".

You kill pain by killing beings ?

Wouldn't do a pill do the trick, too ?

I have a similar problem with a gun called Peacemaker

And violence and religion ? Not good, imo.

I'm pretty sure it is a homage to the awesome classic Heavy Metal song by Judas Priest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM__lPTWThU

Todd, although Overdose and Resurrection were panned by most reviewers, you got me thinking maybe I should pick them up anyway, at least Overdose…

What did you think of the final Hell level design on the original? I though it was pretty amazing having all the most evil moments in history portrayed visually…

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Honestly, I never understood the sense of the term "painkiller".

You kill pain by killing beings ?

Wouldn't do a pill do the trick, too ?

I have a similar problem with a gun called Peacemaker

And violence and religion ? Not good, imo.

Click to expand...

Painkiller refers to these:

They kill the pain.
And yeah, I'm pretty sure that the title in this case pays homage to the song by Judas Priest.

Thrasher said:

Todd, although Overdose and Resurrection were panned by most reviewers, you got me thinking maybe I should pick them up anyway, at least Overdose…

What did you think of the final Hell level design on the original? I though it was pretty amazing having all the most evil moments in history portrayed visually…

Click to expand...

I thought the original snapshot of evil moments was stunning. I rambled about it above:
BooH continues the theme of a perpetual battleground for Hell. Anyone who played through the first PK and saw Hell rendered by People can Fly would not fail to take notice. It was stunning in my opinion.

After I killed Lucifer I wandered around checking out the missles and trenches. Leningrad was just like it. After you kill everything the screams and sounds of war and crying children continue with the backdrop of the Russian Anthem. Creepy stuff. Like I said lots of atmosphere. As an aside Dead City was a total riot of fun!

Folks can dismiss this game if you like, it only serves a singular purpose as did Doom, Quake 1 and Quake 2, etc. Killing with adrenaline. It just does it with great style and atmosphere that, in my opinion, eclipses Serious Sam. Its just a game folks, don't take it (or yourselves) so seriously

Many shooters today are weighted down with plot and polish and at times forget to be fun. PK rarely does that. It is NOT for everyone. If you enjoy pure run and gun, PK delivers!

BulletStorm eh? I'm going to have to check into that!

Oh, I almost forgot about Dead City! Yeah, that was one of my favorites. I think I replayed it 3 times!

Oh man BulletStorm! Totally PK! Spiritual successor no doubt. Thanks for the heads up.

Back to Overdose and Resurrection though, sure they were criticized for offering nothing new, but is that a problem? Just give me open space to do the dance and I'm happy.

I'll have to re-read the old reviews to be sure, but I remember reading the quality was less than PK and BooH.

Well I'll have to let you know. Just finished BooH so its time for Overdose.
That was awesome, great final battle combat puzzle. Took me a bit to realize you had to distract Alistar too.

Yep. It was a great finale! I seem to remember MANY rockets were required.

ToddMcF2002 said:

Folks can dismiss this game if you like, it only serves a singular purpose as did Doom, Quake 1 and Quake 2, etc. Killing with adrenaline. It just does it with great style and atmosphere that, in my opinion, eclipses Serious Sam. Its just a game folks, don't take it (or yourselves) so seriously

Click to expand...

I have to say Serious Sam wasn't just about killing though, at least for me. It was about the secrets. It had some of the best, and hardest to find, secrets I've ever seen in a first-person shooter. To me, that's what sets it apart from other run&gun shooters. Yes, I know the other aforementioned games have secrets, but they didn't seem nearly as plentiful, or as well thought out, as the ones in SS.

Of course I understand not everyone cares about that sort of thing, but I've always had a thing for secrets and easter eggs in games. SS was the best FPS since Duke Nukem 3D in that regard.

I still plan on giving PK another try though. If only there were more hours in a day.

Loved the first one. The cards were a nice addition as well. I would sometimes redo the levels just to get the card. The variety of ways that you had to get those cards was a nice touch.

Played a bit of Overdose and it rocks. So far its about big arenas and tons of mobs. How can that be a bad thing? The first level is HARD. I think that turned off the reviewers. Now I recall the comments on GameTrailers about dying alot and the screens showed this particular area where I died a few times as well. Guess what? It was a combat puzzle! The reviewer didn't get it:
- You have no armor at this point (unless you are VERY good)
- you have limited weapons but lots of secondary ammo that stops enemies hearts (and lots of ammo for that in the arena)
- there are SEVERAL mini bosses.

So, if you know anything about PainKiller the mini bosses yield significant soul health when they go down (20HP). You can continue to take reasonable mob damage and farm the mini bosses if you balance staying on the run with concentrated fire on the mini bosses, farming the health. Then mop up.

Another point - Its not Daniel but the main character with his stupid repetitive one liners are sometimes its funny because you anticipate the line when it gets delivered. The weapons are pretty similar as reviewers noted but I've always loved the weapon set. The demon head is a nice add.

Go get it Thrasher!

Tastes like Chicken.

I liked the secrets in PK better than Serious Sam. I found them harder to find and harder to get. They required in some cases EXTREME jumping skills. The SS secrets in some cases had more elaborate and clever setups, without a doubt. But they just weren't as fun and rewarding to me... Of course, I like a good frustration more than most.

@Todd - You're testing me aren't you.

I wonder if there is a cheap DL of Overdose and Resurrection somewhere? I've run out of shelf space...

Interesting... I didn't find the secrets in Painkiller all that challenging. At least not in the 2 or 3 chapters that I played. Different play styles I guess.