There's a lot to be said for games that draw you into a richly imagined alternate world, present you with a compelling storyline and well-rounded characters and leave you with a sense of satisfaction when all is said and done. But there's also a lot to be said for games that are simply about GETTIN' YO' KILL ON, SUCKA! GRAHHHHHH! SHOOT THE MONSTERS! SHOOT THEM ALL! And when you're done, SHOOT 'EM AGAIN! (And who says video games breed violent behaviour?)
The first-person shooter genre was basically born this way, since defining titles like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom didn't have access to the kind of technology needed to mate fast-paced action with slick stories, believable characters and realistic words. It was all about blowing stuff up. Blowing it up REAL good.
But that doesn't mean there isn't a place for mindless action in the era of multimillion-dollar cinematic video game experiences. Like 2001's awesomely fun Serious Sam, there's something to be said for old-school gameplay combined with new-school technology.
Which brings us to Painkiller, created by rookie development house People Can Fly and published by Canuck-based Dreamcatcher Games. What the game lacks in depth, subtlety and an engrossing storyline, it more than makes up for in sheer visceral thrills and frenetic kills, topped with jaw-dropping graphics (if you have a beefy enough PC to run the game well) and a nifty physics engine.
There is a back story, of course. You play as the purgatory-dwelling Daniel Garner, a good-hearted recently deceased fella who gets drafted into heaven's army (sort of like the Kiss army, only less scary) and is given the responsibility of single-handedly crushing the nearly endless minions of Lucifer, who is mounting an assault on the pearly gates.
But everything comes secondary to the action. And it's not mindless in the sense of being dull or uninspiring - the game's weapons alone deserve kudos, with each of the five guns having a distinctly different alternate fire mode that will have you mixing up bursts of hot lead from a chain gun with firing rockets, or freezing a mad monk with an ice ray and then blowing him into slivers with a shotgun blast, or nailing gurgling zombies with a wooden stake and actually impaling them to a nearby wall.
Painkiller makes use of the Havok 2.0 physics engine, and while so-called "rag doll" physics are becoming pretty commonplace in games, rarely is it used to as spectacular (and occasionally hilarious) effect as in Painkiller.
Blasting an exploding barrel just as a group of foes are shambling past it and watching their aerial acrobatics just never gets old. And the environments aren't all bleak medieval castles or underground caverns ... you'll find yourself battling the spawn of Satan (and four boss monsters so huge they'd make Godzilla pee his pants) everywhere from an opera house to a military base.
One warning, though: Painkiller has an absurdly aggressive copy-protection scheme which actually makes it incompatible with some older CD-ROM drive firmware. If you believe that it shouldn't be your responsibility to tinker with your freakin' CD-ROM and motherboard drivers just to play a game, then vote with your wallet and send a message to developers that their quest to thwart pirates shouldn't make victims of honest, everyday consumers as well. End of rant.
That aside, Painkiller provides hours upon hours of joyous demon-slaying goodness across huge, spectacular-looking environments, and it even has a decent little online multiplayer component backing up the single-player fun. Very pretty and not too smart - it's kind of like a cheerleader. A cheerleader from HELL.
Painkiller is the most fun you'll have pumping hot death into endless hordes of creepy demonic minions since old-school classics like Doom and Quake. Just try not to whimper too loud when you face off against the skyscraper-sized boss beasts. It's unbecoming, see.
