Painkiller Hell & Damnation (2012)
A remake of the first Painkiller and its expansion, Battle out of Hell, using Unreal Engine 3.
First released
Oct 31, 2012
Franchises
PainKiller
Developed by
The Farm 51
Published by
THQ Nordic, The Farm 51, EuroVideo Medien GmbH
Platforms
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network (PS3), PC, Linux
Genres
First-Person Shooter
Themes
Horror, Fantasy
Rating
ESRB: M
Releases
- PC - Painkiller Hell & Damnation United States
- PS3 - Painkiller Hell & Damnation United Kingdom
- PS3N - Painkiller Hell & Damnation United States
- XBGS - Painkiller Hell & Damnation United States
Community reviews
*Warning: spoilers* Amazing remake of the original game and its expansion, but with some flaws
Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is a remaster of the first Painkiller game and its expansion: Battle Out of Hell.
The game follows the same story line and mechanics, but offers a lot more content like challenge maps, a unique Halloween map and the introduction of co-op. It now runs on the Unreal Engine and looks fantastic.
You play, once again, as Daniel Garner, a happily married dude who dies, along with his wife Catherine, in a car crash. Catherine goes to heaven and lives happily ever after, but not you. You are sent to Purgatory and are trapped there. Then, an Angel called Samuel makes a deal with you. If you can wipe out the four generals of Lucifers army, to prevent a battle between Heaven and Hell, you will be purified and can join your wife in Heaven. You accept and go off to war. On your journey, you meet a chick named Eve, who is also trapped in Purgatory. She aids you with information on the whereabouts of the next generals and other useful tips.
All the weapons are there, like the stake gun, the shotgun and the rocket launcher. However, the game also introduces a new weapon called the Soul Catcher. You can charge this weapon with the souls of your enemies and when the meter is full, you unleash a blast of energy. Besides this, it shoots saw blades. It is a nice addition to your arsenal.
The graphics have, obviously, greatly improved from the first games. Everything looks nice and polished; rag-doll animations are much better, and you can now dismember and gib enemies in a more brutal way. It feels great to blast an enemy into tiny pieces. The environments also received a nice graphical upgrade.
The sound is just as fine as the first game, but for some reason, they changed some of the music tracks. I do not know how they did it, but the two absolute master tracks that I liked the most, the tracks from the Lab level and Looney Park, have been changed to something generic, such a shame and it almost felt like they did it on purpose.
On the note of change, they also excluded a lot of enemy types from the original game. The ninjas in the Opera House stage for example, one of the most iconic and fun enemies, have been replaced. Also, many great stages from the first game, like the Orphanage, are not present in Painkiller: Hell and Damnation. Why?
You can clearly see that this is a game of the new millennium. Some stages are not available until you buy them as DLC, the same goes for the Tarot cards and skins. And speaking of DLC, this game has a ton of it. You never have the feeling that you have a complete game because you miss some random DLC. The only game that I know of that is worse than this, is Borderlands 2 with its million pieces of DLC.
At least this game now got achievements to unlock, something that makes me explore every inch and possibility of a game to get the most out of it, it kept me playing the game for many hours.
I have to say that I really liked the few new approaches like the top-down third person view stages, it added something fresh to the game and came as a total surprise to me when I first experienced it.
In the end, I still think Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is a good game, just not as epic as the original game and its expansion.This is mainly because of the commercial vibe that this game has and the missing levels and enemies, but when playing, it still feels like Painkiller.
Still recommend it.
The game follows the same story line and mechanics, but offers a lot more content like challenge maps, a unique Halloween map and the introduction of co-op. It now runs on the Unreal Engine and looks fantastic.
You play, once again, as Daniel Garner, a happily married dude who dies, along with his wife Catherine, in a car crash. Catherine goes to heaven and lives happily ever after, but not you. You are sent to Purgatory and are trapped there. Then, an Angel called Samuel makes a deal with you. If you can wipe out the four generals of Lucifers army, to prevent a battle between Heaven and Hell, you will be purified and can join your wife in Heaven. You accept and go off to war. On your journey, you meet a chick named Eve, who is also trapped in Purgatory. She aids you with information on the whereabouts of the next generals and other useful tips.
All the weapons are there, like the stake gun, the shotgun and the rocket launcher. However, the game also introduces a new weapon called the Soul Catcher. You can charge this weapon with the souls of your enemies and when the meter is full, you unleash a blast of energy. Besides this, it shoots saw blades. It is a nice addition to your arsenal.
The graphics have, obviously, greatly improved from the first games. Everything looks nice and polished; rag-doll animations are much better, and you can now dismember and gib enemies in a more brutal way. It feels great to blast an enemy into tiny pieces. The environments also received a nice graphical upgrade.
The sound is just as fine as the first game, but for some reason, they changed some of the music tracks. I do not know how they did it, but the two absolute master tracks that I liked the most, the tracks from the Lab level and Looney Park, have been changed to something generic, such a shame and it almost felt like they did it on purpose.
On the note of change, they also excluded a lot of enemy types from the original game. The ninjas in the Opera House stage for example, one of the most iconic and fun enemies, have been replaced. Also, many great stages from the first game, like the Orphanage, are not present in Painkiller: Hell and Damnation. Why?
You can clearly see that this is a game of the new millennium. Some stages are not available until you buy them as DLC, the same goes for the Tarot cards and skins. And speaking of DLC, this game has a ton of it. You never have the feeling that you have a complete game because you miss some random DLC. The only game that I know of that is worse than this, is Borderlands 2 with its million pieces of DLC.
At least this game now got achievements to unlock, something that makes me explore every inch and possibility of a game to get the most out of it, it kept me playing the game for many hours.
I have to say that I really liked the few new approaches like the top-down third person view stages, it added something fresh to the game and came as a total surprise to me when I first experienced it.
In the end, I still think Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is a good game, just not as epic as the original game and its expansion.This is mainly because of the commercial vibe that this game has and the missing levels and enemies, but when playing, it still feels like Painkiller.
Still recommend it.