Take Serious Sam, send him to the afterlife to battle demonic minions, add a
killer metal soundtrack, and what do you get? Painkiller, a first person
shooter being developed by People Can Fly for DreamCatcher Games. We
recently had the opportunity to play an early build of the game and can tell you
that FPS fans would do well to keep an eye out for this one.
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| This huge cathedral creates memories of Moria. |
In Painkiller your character has been killed in a car accident, and being an
average guy have been relegated to spending a little time in purgatory.
Demonstrating your knack for timing, you arrive in purgatory just as the minions
of hell decide to go on the warpath. Heaven calls on you to stop the
invasion before it gets past purgatory, so you pick up some heavy weapons and
get ready to unleash heck on the demons of hell.
The preview build we played came with three different levels. The first
takes place in a sprawling, gothic cathedral. You begin the level in the
chambers beneath the cathedral, and are immediately set upon by hooded monks
bearing battleaxes. Not only are they perfectly happy to hack you to
pieces, they also have a habit of flinging their axes at you from a distance.
You're armed with an automatic rifle that fires short bursts of bullets designed
to stop the forces of evil in their tracks and that also has a great secondary
fire mode that lobs grenades. Using the grenade launcher demonstrates that
Painkiller has a nice physics engine under the hood. Land a grenade in the
middle of a group of enemies and you'll see them thrown, flipped, and tossed in
every direction. For extra fun, you can wait until an enemy gets close to
you, launch a grenade right into his midsection, and then watch him get blown
back down the hall.
Once you get out of the crypts, you emerge in a huge cathedral. Huge
arches spanning spacious halls, light streaming through stained glass windows,
and elevated walkways make the cathedral one large and atmospheric level.
As you make your way through the cathedral, the monks are joined by
scythe-wielding, robed skeletons looking to do a little slicing and dicing.
Survive their relentless attacks and your reward is an encounter with one of the
massive bosses in the game. This giant stands several stories tall
and fills the cathedral's central hall and is in a bad mood. You must take
him out while trying not to be stepped on and avoiding the large chunks of
ceiling he knocks lose when he pounds the supporting columns.
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