Painkiller

[Crowbar]

Read the full preview here. I'll give you an overview of this promising (and very disturbing) game, here.

 

Painkiller due out March 26th

 

...the character you play died and has been hired by the top dog up in heaven to combat the forces of hell who are trying to wage war in purgatory. A fairly original premise for sure, though understanding it is optional if you are just looking to blow apart a few hundred enemies...enemies are the likes of flying ghouls with scythes, hooded figures with hand axes, and strangely enough big biker guys wielding tommy guns, undead skeletons, gruesome people who have had their hands and feet cut off, witches (some on foot, and some complete with cackling laughter and flying brooms), zombies who use their own internal organs as a weapon by throwing them at you, and another gigantic boss character. Granted the forces of the undead are probably the most unoriginal and overused video game foe, but when one rips its own liver out and chucks it at the player you realize this isn't your standard fps fare...

Some of the environment: The first level throws the player in a graveyard filled with skeletal warriors and witches. A neat effect in this level is the player's flashlight, which is constantly on with the exceptional flicker and lights up enemies and objects beautifully. One wouldn't be out of line saying that this is probably one of the first games to really get a flashlight effect done right, but that's neither here nor there. In the second level the player is challenged with the task of making his way through a Victorian era town filled with zombies, ghouls, and the odd witch or two. As you work your way along the streets, flanked by olden style shops and homes, fires inside the buildings cause them to fall apart and give the physics engine free reign over the pieces. Finally, in the third level its only you and a gigantic gargoyle atop a crumbling cathedral, locked in conflict with you pumping out lead and dodging its attacks while it's breathing fire, toppling stone walls and pillars, and occasionally hitting the ground so hard it collapses and sends you both plummeting down to the level below amidst many pieces of stone and rubble.

Weapons: the miniguns / rocket launcher makes its return, backed up by a double-barreled shotgun, a speargun, and a strange flail...The spearguns primary fire sends a large wooden spike whistling through the air before it embeds itself in demon flesh, which can also carry the demon for a while and staple them to any solid object behind them. If you get beneath an enemy and shoot them in the bottom of the chin, not only will you impale their head with a wooden spike about two inches in diameter but you'll also stick them to the ceiling with it. The speargun's secondary fire shoots a grenade capable of sending nearby enemies flying. In both cases the physics engine shines, stick and enemy and their limbs dangle, blow them up with a grenade and they fly through the air and slump over whatever object they land on. Finally, the flail is probably the weirdest of the three. Its primary fire turns the head of the flail into three spinning blades for close quarters combat. The secondary fire ejects the head and shoots it wherever you aim. If it hits an enemy it rips them apart and the head comes back and reattaches, but if the head hits a wall or similar solid object it emanates a beam back to the handle that can cut right through a group of enemies.

The newest build also contains a new gameplay mechanic. After the player kills a certain amount of enemies or collects a certain amount of souls from dead foes, the screen goes almost all white with black accents, enemies glow red and dark red, the game goes into a faint slow-mo mode, and for a brief, fleeting moment you have total dominion over the enemy forces. In this mode, you are temporarily invincible and you only have one short-to-medium range attack. However, this attack instantly kills nearly any enemy with one hit, causing them to simply rip apart amidst a shower of blood and limbs.

The graphics engine doesn't look very much different or better from the previous build capability wise, but going above near-perfection is a difficult task to complete. Lighting effects, whether immediately obvious like the flashlight or subtle like on the player's weapons, are beautiful. The enemies once again look very crisp and detailed, with not only top-notch textures but quality animations as well. Painkiller's smoke effects are some of the best around, coming from the barrels of your weapons or from the limbs of a recently blown-apart enemy. Explosions send bits of coffins, vases, statues, and the handfuls of other breakable objects flying apart, cast enemies limb from limb, and give off a soft glow to the surroundings in stark contrast to the bloody arm flying through the air.

Sound is also done with a level of quality that is simply overlooked in many other games. Footsteps don't sound canned at all, and sound quite a bit like someone who is wearing hard-soled boots and is carrying enough ammo to kill everyone on the planet twice. Gunfire and explosion sound effects also sound rather fresh, though the only complaint is that the sound of the grenade launching out of the barrel sounds a bit tinny. Music scores fit the mood, accented by subtle and unintelligible chants and whispers. Amidst it all, every once in a blue mood for a brief moment there will be no gunfire, the music will be at a low point, and you will see and hear a single sever limb hit the floor and give off a nice little squish sound....

 

Thanks to the guys at Worthplaying for doing the preview. I'm definatly going to check this game out when it's released! There are some quality screenshots on the link at the beginning of this post, and I'll post a few from the Painkiller official website below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.........who needs Doom 3?

[White Knight]

I need Doom 3, but this still looks cool.

[Crowbar]

I downloaded the pre-alpha copy that has been leaked. I can browse the menus, but the game won't launch.

I think it might be because my vid card doesn't support DX9. This game uses stuff that needs DX9. SO, when I finally get my Radeon 9600XT, I'll try it out.

Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in the pre-alpha copy, it's up on supernova. a little over 500 mb download. It's 3 levels of single player, and 2 multiplayer maps, though the multiplayer in that build only supports 1v1 LAN.

[TheBugs]

yummy