PainKiller

I just bought PainKiller for PC. Anybody have any feed back on this game?

Why do you need feedback when you actually have the game already?

Mordeth said:

Why do you need feedback when you actually have the game already?

Because he's curious as to what people think about it?

Very, very fun and nicely simple game. Nice, imaginative weapons that are very satisfying to use - though I think the weapon balance is odd (the shotgun is clearly a superior weapon to the stakegun, especially combined with the freeze ray).
Combining good, powerful weapons with ragdoll physics has proven more fun than I imagined - I haven't grown tired of killing stuff in this game yet and that says alot.

While the maps all have incredibly linear progression, some later maps have areas you can voluntarily explore (like the military base where you don't have to enter the troop accomodations, but you can to fight a few extra battles) - that's at least something.

I would have preferred at least some minor story elements ingame (not just in the cinematic sequences at the end of each chapter), but that's not really important, and I'd also have liked some better transitions. Painkiller has some nice, varied environments but there is zero transition between the levels. One map you might end down in some catacomb area under the surface - the next map you're magically in a swamp!

Beefs:
- While the game has many varied enemies and different versions of most enemy types, I don't think the game really exploits every single type of enemy to its full potential. There are lots of maps where you encounter hordes of the same type of enemies, but once you beat that map, you barely ever get to see this type of enemy again. Simply put, they should have had some more varied hordes instead of hordes of the same type of monsters.

- The enemies lack a proper demonic look. Most of the enemies are funny looking and/or funny sounding, but I wish there were at least a few that were a bit more on the scary side.

- The music goes into "metal mode" way too often. There aren't really any surprise attacks per se, because every time just a single enemy is teleported in the music gets aggressive. I wish it would only go into "aggresive mode" if you face a particularly large group of enemies. An example of where I think the music is broke is in the town map with all the zombies (the map was in the three-level demo, but without the metal music - this map was way better in the demo atmospherewise).

- Monsters always teleport in. There aren't any monsters in the map at the start. I would've preferred that there were at least some places in the map where enemies were simply lurking around, hiding around corners and the like, instead of always teleporting in every time you enter a new area. As much as I love to go on killing the monsters, it is pretty repetitive that there are constantly sequential battles.

- Some minor "clipping"/hit detection problems. These don't bother my until I get to fight Alastor (the boss at the end of chapter four). The bastard can easily fry me right through pillars and my own shots are stopped by thin air whenever the line of fire is too close to those statues; this battle would be cooler if it didn't have those dumb little issues.
Also, my shots tend to go right through a boss' body if I shoot at certain parts of their bodies. It's a shame because hit detection seems to work like a charm against most regular enemies.

These beefs aside, I think the game is too much fun. People can Fly definitely made this game spot on for my tastes.

I think those are deliberate DSM. Homage to old games with boss monsters, that you had to shoot at specific area to weaken it. I noticed that with the demo boss. You have to hit the bastards hammer, and once that's down, you can shoot anywhere.

Haven't got the chance to play the full game yet, it's hasn't been released over here yet. I'm looking forward to it though.

yeah agree with too cartoonish enemies. some are really nice tho, like the necrogiant, it has this unique look. for some reason, painkillers first level (the cemetery) is one the most enjoyable gaming moments to me. the ambient music is pure horror and the map just looks awesome.

the agressive music comes on everytime monsters appear, that pretty shitty imo, some of the tracks are ok, most are too industrial or have this annoying slipknotish dj turntables in them. but the ambient music would be perfect for some levels, like the cemetery, and the town level seen in the demo (as in the demo it has the ambient music going on in the background, despite monsters in the screen).

AND, the game should have focused more and more in the horror themed levels, i miss them :'(
/me goes back playing clive barker's undying

EDIT: im not sure but you can put off the actual battle music from the options, putting it to zero and turning up the ambient volume

OK... Thanks for all of the above. Has anybody tried to play it on line yet? I can't get it to work. I think I have to update it with a patch or something. I have DSL if you need to know.

I've glanced at quite a bit of reviews for the game (just about all of them either glowing or good opinions of the game) and the battle music seems to be a "love it or hate it" affair. One reviewer even said he got headaches because of the loud metal, but that could have been an exaggeration.

Anyway, I had no problems with the sometimes cartoony environment, perhaps because the physics sometimes generate amusing results. The game does what it set out to do very well: pure action, and lots of it. And, personally, I love the battle music, since it felt like something painfully absent in the first demo.

After finishing the game in Trauma mode and getting all the cards, I still feel like loading up some of the levels once in a while and shooting around for kicks, but I'm more occupied with Deus Ex atm. I'm playing through on Realistic skill and stumbled upon the exploit that lets you create infinite aug upgrades. :o

Damn, I thought this was going to be about what painkillers to recommend to you.

Fuck it I'll tell you anyway - neurofen

Hydrocontin.

JimN said:

I just bought PainKiller for PC. Anybody have any feed back on this game?

Excellent game, as I'm almost done with it. I hope you have a dx8.1 or 9 card for the most visual prettiness.

If you don't want the metal music, turn the action music volume all the way off.

I played the demo. It's okay, good to know the level design improves later, the ones in the demo are kinda boring.

dsm said:

- Some minor "clipping"/hit detection problems. These don't bother my until I get to fight Alastor (the boss at the end of chapter four). The bastard can easily fry me right through pillars and my own shots are stopped by thin air whenever the line of fire is too close to those statues; this battle would be cooler if it didn't have those dumb little issues.

I've had some funny and not so funny situations occur because of those little oddities in the physics. I can think of one from each side that's worth sharing:

1. Funny - I was exploring some of the stairway areas past the halfway point of the opera house level and decided to explore a bit... I tried jumping over the railing to reach a lower level quicker, only to be killed instantly in an explosion on the way down. Turns out I had landed on one of the fire extinguishers attached to the nearby wall. As annoying as it was, I couldn't help but laugh at my misfortune. :)

2. Not Funny - Another reference to the fight with Alastor -SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD- .... anyway, when he first gets damaged and the first floor crumbles apart to open up the next level of the fight, I somehow got crushed in midair because of the crumbling sections of the tower. This was nonsense, and having to sit through another loading screen sucked. From then on, I just jumped before the ground opened up (or used the Iron Will card... it protects against Alastor and the damage from the long fall).

LorD BaZTArD said:

I think those are deliberate DSM. Homage to old games with boss monsters, that you had to shoot at specific area to weaken it. I noticed that with the demo boss. You have to hit the bastards hammer, and once that's down, you can shoot anywhere.

No, no, no, you got it all wrong - I wasn't referring to the bosses "weak spots". I'll give you an example:

The boss advances on me and I fire a rocket at it, timing it to hit it smack-dap in the middle of its chest. The rocket doesn't blow up on the boss' chest, instead it soars right through the boss' torso as if the boss was a goddamn ghost.

Alastor, the fourth big boss, requires no special "tricks" to harm him - the straightforward deal with him is to simply shoot him enough times (though there IS a puzzle you need to solve to prevent him from regaining health) and here, rockets sometimes fail to make contact with the boss' flesh, even though I hit him right in the middle - this pisses me off.

Okay, FINALLY went through the hour of download time to try the Painkiller demo - only to find that it refuses to install, and that I need 384 MB of RAM. I only have 256. I chalk this up to another reason why I should buy a new computer.

wildweasel-r3000 said:

Okay, FINALLY went through the hour of download time to try the Painkiller demo - only to find that it refuses to install, and that I need 384 MB of RAM. I only have 256. I chalk this up to another reason why I should buy a new computer.

Both the demo and the full version worked on my computer while I only had 256 Mb ram (I recently got a nice new ram module).

It must be something else that's wrong on your system.

This game rules. I love the soundtrack and I replay my favorite levels every day. :D

dsm said:

Both the demo and the full version worked on my computer while I only had 256 Mb ram (I recently got a nice new ram module).

It must be something else that's wrong on your system.

Maybe it's because I installed Demo 2, not Demo 1. But either way, I'm waiting before I try this again.