September 28th, 2007

Painkiller Battle out of Hell Video Game Review

I was recently watching one episode of the “Painkiller: Jane” TV Show when I realized I should have another look at a game with a similar name, “Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell”. This game is the continuation (like an add-on) of the first game, namely “Painkiller”, where the long story made short goes something like this: Daniel Garner goes out with his wife, Catherine, on a rainy evening and a car-crash happens: they both die and he wakes up in the Purgatory, a realm where there’s no Hell but no Heaven either and he is given a choice to see his lady again if he fights against the forces of hell who are planning to attack heaven. He manages to get into the depths of Hell and to destroy the evil forces. The Gaming requirements are 2.4GHz CPU, 512MB RAM (or more), DVD-ROM and 1.2GB HDD space.

The Game Story:
The second story, (that comes after the ending of the big battle from the first game) is structured on 10 long levels, with a much improved game-engine (extraordinary use of physics – it was among the first games that used such technology). Battle out of Hell is meant to give an end to the story and to bring our hero back to his lady. Each of the 10 levels brings you closer to the end and gives you a clue on what awaits you at the finish line. The male characters are typical, the “minions” that need to be executed throughout the entire game are more or less easy to dispose of, and just as in the first game, and they leave their souls behind them when they perish. As a bonus trick, you can capture the souls and turn yourself into a demon for a very short period of time and shred the enemies into pieces. There are not many weapons, but you just have to make sure you have enough ammo to blast the uglies onto walls. Just like you would expect from a good FPS (first person shooter), the action is fast-paced and messy (a lot of blood is splattered on walls or any other surrounding elements).

The Levels:
The Battle Out Of Hell starts in the “Orphanage”, where you will have to smash every enemy you encounter, without getting hurt in order to unlock a Weapon Modifier Card. Along the various methods to kill the enemies, you will have to use magical cards that give you unique abilities, which range from enabling you to run faster or inflicting more damage to the demons to temporary invincibility. Right from the start of this level, you must try to avoid touching the water as it will bring damage on you. But this level is quickly going from nauseating to genuinely disturbing when you will have to “hurt” some demon children – yes that’s right – the devil can take any shape or appearance and you will have to kill and destroy anything that moves and looks evil. At the end of the level, there a “big” bad guy, but you don’t have to waste your ammo on him as soon as you see him – just look around for an armor, kill all the little pestering brats, and then attack the big one, by shooting at his back.

Next, you’ll literally take a long ride in the “Loony Park”, you will meet some clowns (both in outfit and as brains) and some other variations of circus characters, and the basic idea remains the same – sweep the floor, look around for some goodies (gold coins or ammo) and move on to the next level. This is where you will get to have your first rollercoaster long ride during which you will have to kill as many enemies as you can. It’s a bit of an aberration how hanging clown are spawned in the middle of the air and the threads are “tied” on just thin air, but hey, it’s a shoot-n-run video game, not a very realistic one.

Here comes one of my favorite levels, the “Lab”, where you will meet some red nutheads eager to blow you to pieces and some sexy nurses who definitely wish to force you into getting some poisonous injections. Say “hello” to them and move forward. I like the fact that in each level there are some new types of foes, but it’s just the bosses who have various weaknesses that must be destroyed in a different way every time. In order to get the bonus points for this level, you have to finish it just by using the Bolt Gun – not an easy thing, but you can try.

I’m gonna “do” you both, …with blood on the wall

The “Pentagon” level can be played only in nightmare mode – so you will have to finish the game 2 times in a row to get to that (or you can search the Internet, if you don’t have the time to play the game too much, for some level unlockers and get the “free-ride” from the start – but that is spoiling the fun). What’s this level all about – well, it’s mostly an ugly and big metal spider, recharging its life from lightning. I would suggest shooting the beast in the face (when all the feet are down) after you collect all the goodies in the room. When the health bar of the spider reaches half of its level, go to one of the cannons and press against them to shoot the beast in its mouth when he opens it and is ready to shoot a fireball at you. It’ll die soon.

In the “Dead City” you will be challenged to finish the level in 20 minutes – it’s pretty fair – it’s not like you’ve moved slow so far. The flying monsters are to be noticed as something to be aware of on this level. When you get out, you will arrive on the streets of “Leningrad” (wow, this game actually takes you to various places in both time and history!). Some Russian soldiers jump on you with their silly semi-automatic machine guns, and also some “generals” (or at least that’s how they look like). The surroundings are quite well built – but the music is horrible here, just as in the “Loony Park” – typically annoying and it might affect your game play. Yeah I understand that those are communist soldier, but do I really need to listen to a communist song?

Dead City Video

The “Colloseum” (it's Colliseum, correctly spelled - but the developers who wrote the name have skipped the History class!) level begins in some castle catacombs, and you will meet some crazy knights (of course, what else, this game is totally "wysiwyg " - what you see is what you get, that is). If you wish to get the bonus for this level, you will have to morph into demon exactly 5 times . What I hated the most about this level is the hoops you need to jump over – the first one has spikes and the second a burning fire – the main problem is that the character does NOT jump high and long enough – and you will start hating the game because of that. Jumping exactly from and to the closes edge is a solution.

The “Underworld” looks like a “mineshaft” in this game and the more you go deep through it, the more enemies swarm towards you – but don’t worry, you can still use the Painkiller weapon - it’s still very effective. And you do have to rip all the enemies in the area to pieces in order to get through to “The Stone Pit”, which is quite similar, with some more “free-shoot-rides” which get you ready for the final battle from the “Shadowland”, where you will meet your final and biggest opponent, Alastor, king of demons, huge and ugly too.

Up to this you must have noticed throughout the game that you can use some cards to boost your qualities – choose the Mercy, Double Time and the Rage cards to finish Alastor in less than 4 minutes and gain access to the nightmare/trauma types of games. If you finish the game in trauma mode you will unlock a bonus level where you will see the faces of the developers. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, throughout the whole game, there is the character Eve, oh yes, the "mother of all" and she looks genuinely hot, until she turns to the dark side.

The sound in game:
I enjoyed the music very much, except the ones from the “Loony Park”, and the “Leningrad” levels – those are really annoying, but all the rest are very nice and stimulating. The sound of the shotgun is very realistic, as well all the sounds of all the other weapons.