Painkiller: Hell & Damnation (PS3) - "A To Hell With It Review"

Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, for those of you who don't know it was previously a PC exclusive that had amassed a cult following from the PC gaming community. It included several different DLC oriented spin-offs that each added to the mythology of Daniel Garner, and his unfortunate time in Limbo. In the console version of "Painkiller: Hell & Damnation" we the gamers are blessed with a very nicely rendered series of opening CG cutscenes explaining exactly how it is that Daniel ultimately ended up as one of Lucifer's pawns. It seems that during one fateful night while driving the roads with his new found love Catherine, Daniel's world is literally turned upside down as Death appears suddenly in front of his vehicle. Flipping his car several times over Daniel, and the love of his life end up dying, and parting separate ways on their journey to the hereafter.

While Daniel knows exactly where he is at in the grand scheme of things his beloved Catherine is nowhere to be found. Hoping for the best Daniel sojourns on killing the denizens of the damned letting the hope that Catherine has gone on to a better place fill his hollowed heart. After having enough of Daniel's relentless demon blasting, and luck driven survival though Death himself intervenes, and uses Catherine's whereabouts as a bargaining tool to get Daniel to harvest 7,000 souls for him. In return Death promises him that he will reunite him with his beloved Catherine. This is of course where the flashbacks end, and the gameplay begins.

Immediately when you start up this 'DOOM', 'Unreal Tournament', and 'Wolfenstein' inspired FPS (First-Person Shooter) you'll be taken to an ominous living menu screen that holds all of the game's options, and modes of play. If you let the screen sit there long enough you'll even see a creepy giant walking in the distant background lumbering about in the ominously silent wasteland. When it comes to offered content the guys, and gals at Farm 51 do not hold back in this detailed menu system of sorts. You'll find the standard campaign mode that is organized by chapters, and separated by areas/stages. You'll also find an interesting selection of difficulty settings (Insomnia, Nightmare ...) that all coincide with the hellish theme that the game takes on. Whatever difficulty you choose to go with you do not have to go at it alone, but can instead join in a co-op session with online randoms, or friends if you so desire. Other customization features include an interesting selection of aiming reticules. In fact I'd say there are more aiming reticule types in this game than in any other FPS I've played before. Being the hardcore gamer I am I decided to go with the inverted cross though.

While the multiplayer modes will likely be the fans' favorite you'll find that the "Campaign" is where Daniel, and Catherine's story is really fleshed out. The main objective of the campaign mode, as simple as it may sound is to simply survive wave after wave of attacking demons, and devilish bosses while blasting the bejeezus out of them, and collecting the souls from their spontaneously combusting bodies. By clearing the various locales of threats, and gathering the souls left behind Daniel's story will advance giving meaning to his miserable afterlife. As Daniel Garner you have at your disposal a plethora of weaponry built to kill the deadliest of the dead. There's an augmented double-barrel shotgun, a blade shooting saw gun, a stake gun, a multifunction grappling type gun known as the "Painkiller", and several other ass kicking weapons which you can punish with.

Each weapon obtained through campaign progression acts in a different manner, and dishes out punishment in a variety of different ways. Often times you'll find that certain guns come with two types of shots, and that sometimes by combining the two shots you will get an even more powerful effect. One thing you have to keep in mind though is that like "Unreal Tournament" your ammo supply is limited, and the only way to replenish it is to gather ammo power-ups that are sparsely scattered throughout the stages. It is best that you keep a check on your ammo supply at all times as it wouldn't do you any good to be cornered without a proper supply. Armor, and health items can also be obtained in a similar manner.

Aside from the wave blasting shump inspired core gameplay you'll find that the soul gathering portion of the game is also a highly important one. It not only acts as one of the means to progress the cinematic storyline, but also doubles as one of the means of finishing a stage to full completion status. Other things such as gold collection, and secrets found also play a role in the overall completion status of any given stage/chapter. Collecting gold coins from chests, barrels, and fallen enemies in particular serves as a way to unlock one of the game's most useful, and often times non-lethal features.

While guns obviously play a huge role in 'Painkiller: Hell & Damnation tarot cards can be your best ally at the hardest of times. These "Black Tarot Cards" basically act as perks would in a "Call of Duty" style of game. By collecting enough gold throughout the stages/chapters of the game you will be able to unlock, and equip up to five tarot cards (Gold = limited, Silver = on all the time) which in turn will give Daniel additional benefits during a campaign playthrough. The tarot cards include such affects as adding "Haste" to Daniel's movements, or even extending the amount of health that can be obtained. There are a lot more tarot cards than that though, so perfecting a stage playthrough should definitely be your main goal. You also need to keep in mind that equipping tarot cards requires a certain amount of collected gold as well, so choosing the best ones for the current stage, chapter, or situation is an important decision.

I know that multiplayer in an FPS game is very important to a lot of you. As such you'll be glad to know that "Painkiller: Hell & Damnation" comes complete with it's own "Unreal Tournament" brand of multiplayer modes as well as it's own online servers. Among the modes included are "Deathmatch", "Team Deathmatch", "Capture the Flag", and "Survival". Most of these modes will be familiar to any FPS fan out there, so I'm going to skip the mode explanations entirely. I will say however that there are an interesting cast of playable characters to choose from. The character roster includes a half dressed female character named Eve (Looks like the biblical character of the same name) as well as some other creatures who look as if they were inspired by other creature designs from the core campaign mode. I think I even saw a Cthulhu priest in one of the multiplayer video trailers earlier on. As far as the arenas go they are small in size, but resemble the more complex stages of the campaign (Gothic Cathedrals, Castle Structures, Train station ...). You'll find that these multi-level arenas each come complete with plenty of obtainable weapons, power-ups, and ammo boxes. As it currently stands I am unable to find any live servers, or even anyone playing the game though, so my opinions of these online features cannot, and will not be stated.

Graphically "Painkiller: Hell & Damnation" is a damn good looking game for the lowball asking price it is going for. While the creatures, and character designs are lacking in a small, insignificant way the CG cutscenes, and boss battles found within more than make up for the lack of visual perfection. I found that I really loved the lighting, and shadow effects in this game. The main menu for example looked absolutely gorgeous with it's realistically rendered fantasy dusk scene. You'll find that the in-game quality is equally impressive as well even though it my be slightly more simplistic in scale. Being able to blast your way through the cathedral stage while the light shines through the stained glass windows in a realistic manner is truly a sight to behold. The first giant boss you encounter also looks amazing. As the gargantuan beast stomps its way across the cemetery in the distance ahead of you you'll only see some of the demon's monstrous body in the ethereal haze surrounding it. As it stomps ever closer it will come into a more clearer view shedding light on it's demonic grin, and larger than life grotesque body.

Now on to the verdict ...

While I love this game, and think it has great potential I cannot give you a proper verdict about it. The copy  that I received was incomplete in too many ways. Not only was the gameplay flawed to the point that I couldn't complete the campaign past the end of the first chapter, but sampling the online modes was not even an option for me. If the actual game is going to be this flawed then I'm going to have to say skip it. Sure it's fun, and it's visually Awesome, but not knowing how the actual release version of the game is going to play keeps me from recommending this game. As a journalist it frustrates me to no end not being able to review the actual game that my readers would get if they chose to pre-order, or buy it outright from their local electronics store. Not only is it a disservice to me, and my goals of giving my readers tried & true knowledge of a game, but it is also a disservice to my readers who are looking for honest opinions, and facts. Having a promo copy to review just does not cut it Nordic Games.

As of today (Oct. 4, 2013) the PS3 "Painkiller: Hell & Damnation" is no longer listed for sale on the official Gamestop website. This tells me that Nordic games did not meet their pre-order sales requirements, and that they ultimately pulled this version from the marketplace altogether. I did however notice that it popped up for sale on Xbox 360's Games-on-Demand section. If you are still looking for an opportunity to play this game on a console it looks like the Xbox 360 version is going to be the only way to do so. I still wish I could have experienced the entire game from start to finish, so I could tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt whether the game was truly worth it, or not. As it stands though your guess is as good as mine.