Singleplayer

I like to think of Painkiller’s singleplayer as a rubix cube – a simple design that combines just a few parts to make an incredible combination. On the surface, it’s a simple shooter which forces you through a collection of zones in a level. Beneath that, there’s of course the basic weapon selection and map management – if you’ve got a horde of 100 monsters after you, grouping them together in a tight area and deploying several grenades is a lot more efficient than firing off 100 stakes. Much deeper are the optional objectives with which you win tarot cards, and the cards themselves, which can extend the lifespan of souls or increase your speed. Finally, there are all the nuances of collecting the souls, the gold, and the tricks like juggling corpses.

Monsters tend to be simple, rushing towards you or firing their weapons, but they do interact with each other. The flame thrower enemies can set zombie soldiers on fire, who will do more damage in melee. Some skeleton enemies from the first act will lop off the heads of their allies, and spin them like tops, sword out, cutting a swathe towards you. Other enemies will use their allies as meat shields.

Many of the creatures also have a trick to them. To kill a flame thrower wielding foe, you need to hit the flame gun itself. Freaks leave behind souls that take one health from you, rather than give it. Small Vamps have to be gibbed or else they’ll mutate into Big Vamps. There’s more, but it’d be a pity to spoil it.

Each Act consists of five or six levels, one of which has the final boss encounter and the rest are regular levels. On one of the other levels, you have to deal with a mini-boss near the end. Usually the encounter is rather simple, but sometimes – as with the first one – it’s a puzzle and you don’t even know it. The first miniboss is a real pain – because, despite all appearances otherwise, he’s a vampire. He happens to be immune to all your weapons and you need to figure out how to shed some sunlight on him.


Most of the real bosses are puzzles as well. It’s not just a matter of shooting them, you need to weaken them somehow. The second boss is a perfect example of this, being a watery swamp monster (and a wonderful example of pixel shader technology – remember the Half-Life 2 E3 demo water man? Think that, but f’in huge. -ed.)