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Painkiller Preview January 12, 2004 |
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Summary: Jakub finally got his hands on the Painkiller alpha, spent an evening beating Marcus into a pulp in its multiplayer (what's Marcus' excuse? "lag". Sure buddy, we believe you. -ed.) and now he's got the preview all ready for us, with a huge 54-screenshot gallery. Many, many gruesome scenes in there folks, with Marcus getting impaled by Jakub's stake... er... by stakes.
 Overview | Page:: ( 1 / 4 ) |
Imagination
A quick jump to the publisher’s Painkiller page isn’t all that exciting. The game seems to be touting features that were revolutionary back when Quake was just a twinkle in John Carmack’s eye. When you read a feature like “Intense gameplay: The player will be constantly outnumbered, fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds”, you think to yourself, hey, didn’t Serious Sam update Doom already?
It’s true, Painkiller’s concepts aren’t exactly new. In fact, Serious Sam seems to do the “1000 harpies spawn – defend yourself” aspect much better – though to be fair the version of Painkiller we’re playing is a pre-alpha that’s not even close to release.
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Actually, it’s unfair to accuse Painkiller of spawning enemies in out of the blue. They’re always there, but like Serious Sam, you don’t encounter all of them at once. Rather, you go through sections of a level and proceed to the next part when you’ve cleared out the current one or finished your objective.
I could elaborate on the singleplayer levels, describe the cemetery and village in detail, but, really, after playing multiplayer I just can’t bring myself to talk about it. I will say, however, that the physics are put to wonderfully entertaining use – body parts fly around most realistically, and there is a certain charm in firing the giant stake gun at a ghoul and impaling him against a wall.
True, I could also mention the almost Contra-like multi-stage boss levels, with a new challenge at every step. Take the one in the alpha – you’re on top of some sort of tower and this gargantuan demon is flying back and forth across it, taking swipes at you. Easy enough. Then he lands and the top level of the tower collapses, forcing both of you inside to fight it out in close combat.
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Bring him down to 0 health and he’s dead, right? No, he just punches through to the next level of the tower. Oh, so that’s the gimmick right? You beat him 5 or 6 times like this and he’s done? Not quite. You get to the lowest level, kill him, and these damnable statues recharge him. Again. And again. Obviously, there’s something wrong – but they won’t go down when you shoot them. Oh – you have to shoot the statues while they’re recharging him. Hoo boy… given that you can take out two, maybe three at a time if you’re lucky, that means killing that demon a lot of times. Yeah, suddenly, this became very interesting.
SIDEBAR: I wonder when we’ll get an update from Croteam on Serious Sam 2.
| Multiplayer | Page:: ( 2 / 4 ) |
Shake and Quake
Now many of you who read my Counter-Strike Goodbye article accused me of comparing CS to Quake, which is silly. I only mentioned Quake as the most extreme contrast of just how easy it is to discern skill levels in a properly designed game. For those of you who guessed that I simply missed the good old days of multiplayer Quake - well, you were right.
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I’d unofficially seen Painkiller before the press alpha was ever sent out and talked with Dreamcatcher marketing guru Brian Gladman about how People Can Fly, the developers of Painkiller, had a certain appreciation for Quake multiplayer. Now imagine my horror when I heard footsteps in the singleplayer game. Footsteps! In a game that pays homage to Quake? Some homage – I immediately set about writing a rant to Dreamcatcher when I realized Marcus also had the alpha and I might as well hurt him a bit to relieve the stress before firing off an ill-conceived email.
Ill-conceived the email was, when I stepped into the multiplayer arena and basked in the glory of silent motion and immediate weapon-switching. Now, the only way to find your victim (and even such a term is generous when describing Marcus’ skills -ed.), is to listen for item pickups, jumping grunts, teleports and through prediction. Now you might wonder what the point of such “primitive” gameplay is.
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Isn’t it better to know the location of your opponent? Isn’t it more realistic? The answer to the latter is yes, footsteps are more realistic. And yet as anyone who has played both Quake and Quake II knows, footsteps slow the game down. Since both of you make sound, the one running away can keep running away – but is always denied access to the prime locations because his location is always known. So no, footsteps don’t make the game better. They may make realistic games like Call of Duty better, but when you want the ultimate in fast-paced action, footsteps, railguns, sniper rifles and all other such additions take away from the relentless speed.
SIDEBAR: I tried to like the double shotgun in Quake but couldn’t get into it.
| More multiplayer | Page:: ( 3 / 4 ) |
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With all these comparisons to Quake, you may wonder – why not just re-make the game? Well, copyright issues aside, nobody really wants just Quake again; it’d be interesting to see someone’s take on it, the variations that may improve the game or make it more interesting.
Aside from the weapons and levels, there are some other minor changes to the Quake formula. For instance, there’s no air control – if you jump in a direction, you’ll continue jumping there – no moving side-to-side or stopping. The ‘cue’ sounds are also quieter; you won’t hear the armor being grabbed, or someone jumping, from across the map.
There will be five weapons in the final game, each with two shot modes. The namesake weapon, the Painkiller, is the tool of choice for melee and its secondary mode launches a thingamabob that will stick to most surfaces. When the painkiller is aimed at that part, a laser beam forms between the two, damaging anyone caught in it. The shotgun’s alternate mode isn’t available in the game, the stake gun launches a huge wooden stake or grenades, and the rocket launcher’s alternate fire is that of a minigun.
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We’re a little concerned as to the effectiveness of the stake gun; the bolt flies fast enough for singleplayer but it’s really difficult to hit someone in multi. Of course, it’s so powerful that we’d rather it be slow-moving than hitscan and slow the pace down like the railgun slowed Quake II.
Overall, it’d be an understatement to say we’re excited about Painkiller’s prospects. Any Quake fan will be able to appreciate what People Can Fly are attempting and will doubtless enjoy it – and for those who missed the Quake craze, you can soon learn just how ruthlessly a game can determine the skill levels between two competitors.
So what do you think of Painkiller? Do you think we need more Quake-like games, is the current realism fad getting to be too much? Come discuss this and more on the FiringSquad forums. Ask about hardware, gadgets, PC games, consoles and more! Your current FS login will work just fine, and if you don’t have one, signing up is as easy as 1-2-3.
SIDEBAR: 54 screenshots, baby.
| Gallery | Page:: ( 4 / 4 ) |