Painkiller Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: Online Co-op (2-3), Add-On Content

Painkiller (2025) is a reimagining of the original Painkiller games released back in the early 2000s. The original games were single player Doom-like first person shooters with some very unique weapons. The new Painkiller is a three player co-op online shooter. While the new game is an overall good co-op shooter, it still doesn’t have the same feel as the older Painkiller games.

In the new Painkiller, you can suit up with three other online players to play through the game’s Raid or survival mode. You can play the game single player but the game forces you to play with two other bots for a group of three. Even though the game has a single player mode, you still have to have AI partners to accompany you. The AI is aggressive enough to take care of itself, but still lacks when it comes to help (reviving and overall support).

The game has a main hub (basically a lobby) where players group up and purchase/select/adjust weapons, choose their character among other options. The lobby has a nice practice area where you can test out your guns on respawning enemies to see how effective each weapon’s firepower can be. You get to pick from a total of four characters. Each character has their own unique skill, such as a higher ammo capacity, more health, etc. The game brings over weapons from the original Painkiller games. I’m sure everyone remember the stake launcher! Each weapon is upgradeable with extra firepower and elemental damage. Each weapon also has a secondary attack that pushes out a bigger attack more useful for crowds and delivering heavy damage all at once. Its worth mentioning that you can only equip two weapons at a time per run.

Tarot cards can be purchased and equipped to each character as well. Tarot cards provide extra skills and bonuses when out in the field. For instance, you might get more gold drops from enemies among other bonuses. Only two tarot cards may be equipped per run and each tarot card is destroyed once used.

From the hub, you get to choose from two main options to play the game. There are Raids (basically a type of campaign) and a type of survival mode. The Raids are split into three main areas called “Biomes”. Each Biome has three levels. The levels can be played with multiple difficulties. The third level of each Biome has a big boss enemy waiting for players at the end of the stage area.

Each area has multiple waves of enemies that randomly respawn. Progressing through the levels require all three players to meet up at certain points in order to unlock doors to progress. Eventually, you’ll enter an area where you’ll have to fight off all enemies to progress. There are some areas where you must pick up an object and bring it to a certain area in order to progress. The description above is nearly every level in a nutshell. Each stage has a good amount of hidden gold pickups and secret chests to find. The game has some good enemy variety, including bigger mid-boss enemies, but it all starts to get repetitive rather quickly, especially when playing offline.

While out in the field, you can pick up an item to carry along with you. Items can help to provide health, ammo or other forms of support for the entire team. The game has very few ammo pickups in the environment, so you’ll sometimes find yourself running low in ammo at times. Every character has their own painkiller weapon (spinning blade weapon). The painkiller can be used to cut through enemies and make them drop ammo.

One of the strongest points of this Painkiller is the overall gunplay. The game is so easy to pick up and play at any time because of how simple it is. The overall game moves buttery smooth without any traces of slowdown. It’s very well optimized. The platforming is good for the most part. There are times where the characters don’t want to grab onto ledges when moving toward them.

Offline is one of the worst parts about this game. The offline is not a true single player since you must always play with two other bots. The offline is literally an online prerequisite – it’s literally the online mode but with AI partners. The overall single player feels very lazy and it gets boring very quickly.

The game also doesn’t seem to have enough content. It only has three main areas with three levels each and a survival mode. The survival mode challenges all players to make it through a platforming area quickly (while losing health) and reach a safe zone where you’ll have to fight enemies and regain some health in the process. The survival mode isn’t really all that fun. It feels more frustrating than fun with how you lose health in the platforming areas.

Overall, Painkiller (2025) is a decent online shooter, but it really lacks content. You can rush through all the levels very quickly and complete the full campaign in a few hours (like maybe 4 hours). It is nice that it has multiple difficulties, but that just doesn’t hold up when you have so few of levels. The single player is basically an afterthought – it’s like a mode that punishes you for not playing online. If you plan to play Painkiller online with friends or randoms then you might find something to like here, but those that want a single player experience, look elsewhere or just go back to the older Painkiller games.

The Good:
+ Gameplay is buttery smooth and the overall game is well optimized
+ Really good look and a bunch of blood splatting
+ Overall fun “pick-up and play” game – not very complicated

The Bad:
- The single player gets so very repetitive
- Lacks in overall content – could easily have more Raids and weapons