Painkiller is a first-person shooter PC game released on April 12, 2004. It was published by DreamCatcher Interactive and developed by a Polish game studio People Can Fly. It attempts to replicate the 'old-school FPS' gameplay of Doom and Serious Sam. Also, many consider it to be a spiritual sequel to the original Quake. It has 24 levels of seemingly unconnected designs that include medieval castles, factories and lunatic asylums. Five of the levels are 'boss levels' with some of the largest FPS bosses to date. The game takes place in Purgatory and Hell. It is notable for using the Havok 2.0 physics engine extensively. The main character, Daniel Garner, is voiced by Cam Clarke.
| Painkiller | |
|---|---|
| File:Pkbox.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | People Can Fly |
| Publisher(s) | DreamCatcher Interactive |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| Release | April 12, 2004 (NA) |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
On the 28th of February 2006 (US, Europe March 10th), the game was released on the Xbox as Painkiller: Hell Wars. While not a straight port, it is actually a mix of the game and its expansion, Battle out of Hell.
Weapons
Painkiller has 5 guns, each with two normal modes of fire and often a third combination fire.
- Painkiller — The painkiller is a mechanized close combat weapon. The primary fire causes the end of the weapon to open up into a rapidly-rotating fan of blades. The secondary fire ejects the blades from the weapon and can damage enemies and also attach to inanimate objects. A damaging beam of energy then projects from the player to the point of impact, provided the player aims the weapon towards the disengaged blades. Pressing the secondary fire button again will return the blades to the weapon. The combination fire is performed by holding down the primary fire, then hitting the secondary fire, causing the rotating blades to be fired from the weapon. It is also used to 'painkiller jump', which involves standing on a piece of debris and using secondary fire on it in order to launch yourself into the air. Also, hitting a defeated enemy multiple times with the Painkiller's secondary fire will cause them to drop trinkets, which can be picked up to add to your total gold score for that level. "Gibbing" the enemy while they are suspended in mid-air, either by utilizing the Painkiller weapon's primary mode or one of the other weapons, will drop a valuable gold ring, also adding to the player's gold score. This has given rise to the practice known as "Monster Juggling:" using the Painkiller secondary mode repeatedly to keep the corpse suspended in mid air and drop gold trinkets, then finishing it off with a short burst in the primary mode to reduce it to gibs and drop a golden ring, all of which must be accomplished before the corpse dissolves into nothingness a few seconds after its death. This is also a potent weapon in deathmatch and other multiplayer games, as it allows you to sweep in for the quick kill and confuse opponents.
- Shotgun — The primary fire of this gun is a double barrel shot that the closer you are the more damage it does. The shotgun's secondary fire freezes opponents solid for a short time. After they're frozen, damage from any source will destroy the enemy.
- Stakegun — The stakegun is a pneumatic sling that shoots stakes at the enemy that can pin their dead bodies to the wall or rarely to other enemies. Its secondary fire is a grenade launcher and if the bouncing grenade is hit by a stake, it becomes a fast-moving explosive missile. The stakes and grenades launched fly in an arch, and the stakes erupt in fire if in the air long enough. In deathmatch games, impaling an opponent with a stake can be instant death.
- Chaingun — The chaingun's primary fire is a rocket launcher and the secondary fire is a rapid-firing chaingun. This combo is used extensively in deathmatch games, for it's ability to send players flying. The chaingun does extra damage to opponents and monsters when they are in the air.
- Electrodriver — The electrodriver's primary fire launches shuriken at enemies. The secondary fire shoots a stream of electricity at close range. The combination fire is performed by holding down the secondary fire, then hitting the primary fire, which launches the electro driver disk which damages any enemies in close proximity to it with electricity.
Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell is an expansion pack for Painkiller, released on November 22, 2004. It was developed and published by the same companies as Painkiller. Battle Out of Hell features an all-new 10-level single player campaign, two new weapons (each taking a page out of the original game's book with two fire modes each), new multiplayer modes, and improved visual effects.
New weapons
- Flamethrower — The secondary fire is as one would expect from a typical flamethrower, and the primary fire is a submachine gun with armour-piercing rounds, which is similar to the chaingun. Although its rate of fire is much lower, the individual shots are more damaging. The combination fire is performed by holding down the secondary fire, then hitting the primary fire, which launches a flaming canister of fuel, which can be shot to detonate it or will eventually explode on its own. The combination fire can be dangerous as one fuel canister can easilly kill the player himself.
- Bolt Driver — The Bolt Driver is Painkiller's take on a sniper rifle, which is capable of zooming in the player's view. It fires five short pieces of rebar in quick succession. The secondary fire launches a fusillade of unpredictably bouncing explosives. If the secondary fire is used correctly, it is the most destructive weapon in the game, expecially in tight quarters. The combination fire is triggered by successfully hitting the bouncing explosives with the primary fire.
Professional Gaming
At the end of 2004 Painkiller was chosen by the Cyberathlete Professional League to be their official 2005 World Tour game. This was slightly controversial with many e-sports followers and competitors due to the fact other games had proven themselves just as, or more popular online multiplayer games. As the tour had already been announced as a one-on-one deathmatch format competition, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Doom 3 were also fan favourites for this tour. However, since Unreal Tournament 2004 developer Epic Games were in the process of changing publisher from Atari to Midway Games and could not guarantee their full support throughout the year-long tour, it was not chosen. Doom 3 was not designed to be a multiplayer game and thus was unsuited for the 2005 World Tour.
This agreement between the CPL and Dreamcatcher also meant that no other organization was allowed to use Painkiller in a gaming competition with prizes above USD 2000.- without obtaining a license from the CPL. It also had effects on Painkiller beyond professional competition; a patch was released to add new features to the game and bring its quality up to competition standard. This updated version of the game also resulted in a special edition re-release of the game bearing the CPL World Tour logo, entitled Painkiller: Gold Edition in North America and Painkiller: Black Edition elsewhere. This new version contained both Painkiller and its expansion pack Painkiller: Battle out of Hell unpatched, among other additions including a video about the making of the game.
However, Quake 4 has been selected as the 1 vs 1 deathmatch game of the CPL for 2006, replacing Painkiller. Given Painkiller's almost exclusive competitive play, this change is likely to have a significant effect on the game, potentially bringing an end to its multiplayer community.