Painkiller Hell and Damnation Xbox 360 Review: First-person demon hunting

Console First-Person Shooter fans could exist forgiven for having missed out on the Painkiller serial thus far. The series' last console advent was Painkiller: Hell Wars for the original Xbox back in 2006. Otherwise the series primarily appears on PC.

Though the delivery method is somewhat unconventional, Xbox fans tin can finally play the latest Painkiller game. Nordic Games published the Xbox 360 version of Painkiller: Hell and Damnation at retail in Europe earlier this summer. In North America, the game recently popped up every bit a downloadable Games on Demand title for Xbox 360. The digital release does allow for a relatively low cost of $29.99, and a downloadable version is certainly ameliorate than none at all.

We've played through Painkiller: Hell and Damnation and its downloadable expansions in order to bring you this detailed review.

Painkiller reloaded

Hell and Damnation is a pretty good identify to spring in to the serial. All of the levels are high-definition remakes of levels from past games. Maybe they're old news to series veterans, merely I bet many of united states of america don't fall into that category. The story itself is new and takes places after past games, making Hell and Damnation both a remake and sequel. You don't run across that every twenty-four hours.

Said story unfolds between the game's 4 chapters - and I hateful simply betwixt the chapters, not individual levels. It'due south sparse and confusing, and the cinematic character models bear witness a terrible grasp of man anatomy. Simply you play this game for its old school sensibilities, not a gripping narrative.

Killing the hurting

Painkiller's closest gameplay equivalent would exist the Serious Sam games. Like Serious Sam, the focus hither is on killing hordes of encephalon-dead monsters rather than tactical gameplay. These beasties teleport into an area out of the bluish, and the player must kill them all before moving on.

The fashion Hell and Damnation handles checkpoints and level progression is different from other titles I've played. Once monsters beginning appearing in an area, the paths into and out of the area more often than not gets walled off so that you lot're confined to a small portion of the level.

Defeat the bad guys to make a red pentagram announced on the floor. Touching it counts as a checkpoint and opens a new path. I'm non crazy about the artificial nature of the paths opening and closing, merely it does requite things a very old-schoolhouse feel.

The wellness and ammo mechanics as well resemble the FPS games of yore. The protagonist's health doesn't regenerate by default, so yous'll often need to scour the surround for wellness packs in club to stay alive.

Enemies don't drop weapons or armament; you'll have to search those out as well. I often ran out of ammo and had to switch to different weapons in order to keep fighting (fifty-fifty on the easiest difficulty). That was probably the developer'due south intention, simply it still feels stingy.

Guns, guns, and more guns

Painkiller's selection of guns is far less bloodless. You won't detect FPS mainstays like a sniper rifle and scoped aiming – deplorable, sniper fans. Instead, the game offers a selection of unique and fairly creative guns. The stake gun nails enemies to walls. Another fires saw blades that take off opponents' limbs.

As if that wasn't plenty, each weapon has a secondary firing function that works much differently than the primary fire. The shotgun'southward secondary burn freezes enemies cold, enabling you to shatter them with a follow-up shot. 1 gun'southward secondary shot sucks the life out of enemies, giving it to the player. Another can force enemies to fight on the histrion's side – subsequently sucking up plenty souls first.

Y'all can fifty-fifty hotkey any gun'due south primary or secondary fire to the Y and B buttons to make mixing and matching shots easier. The just thing I don't like is each gun's secondary burn down requires its ain separate ammo. It would be far more intuitive if either shot used the same type of ammunition.

Soul stealer

Each enemy that dies leaves a glowing dark-green soul behind. Option upward plenty of them and your character Daniel goes into demon form for a short time. During this time, the globe turns greyness and enemies glow bright red. Every shot you lot fire will kill non-boss enemies instantly.

Demon mode makes the environment harder to navigate and you can't really piece of work on the weapon-specific Achievements while it'southward agile. For me, information technology became more of a nuisance than a blessing. Increased damage without the visual effects and different style of shots would've been more welcome.

Y'all practice need the souls for a few Achievements and secondary level goals, even if you don't intendance about demon mode. But it takes several seconds for an enemy's soul to show up afterward killing it. Waiting around for souls to announced slows the pace of the game for no good reason; they really should appear instantly.

Menu collecting

Each campaign level has one or ii optional objectives that players tin view past pressing the Dorsum button during gameplay. Completing these objectives sometimes gets you an Achievement, only information technology always unlocks a new tarot menu.

Tarots cards act as gameplay modifiers. They enable affects similar temporary unlimited health, increased damage, or slowing down time. Daniel can equip two active and three passive cards at a time. The active cards cost varying amounts of gold with each use.

Players earn gold primarily by destroying breakable objects, but also from enemies. Defeated monsters sometimes drop a few private pieces of gold for you to swoop in and collect. Zig-zagging around for little scraps of gold feels inefficient, sort of like waiting for souls to appear. Couldn't each enemy or object just driblet a unmarried stack of gold?

Multiplayer

Hell and Damnation offers both cooperative and competitive multiplayer. The unabridged entrada tin can be played in co-op either via split-screen or online. The second thespian controls a female character. While the game lacks whatever co-op specific mechanics, powering through a level with a friend is certainly more fun than going it alone. Unfortunately, most campaign Achievements tin can't be earned in co-op, reducing the incentive to team upward.

Online, players can team upward for Survival mode (basically Horde manner that lasts for a set amount of time instead of waves) or competitive multiplayer. Either way, online is completely dead and then these are practically non-features. You tin encounter upwards with a friend or two to play online, but don't await to find random opponents via matchmaking.

DLCs

Whereas the PC version of Hell and Damnation offers a whopping seven paid DLC expansions, the Xbox 360 version stops at three. The simply essential one "The Clock Strikes Meat Night" includes three entrada stages (playable alone or co-op) and two Achievements worth a total of 100 GamerScore. It sells for $6.99, which is a good value for the gameplay on-hand.

The other two expansions only contain online multiplayer stages and an Achievement or ii. They cost $iii.99 each. Unless you lot have a friend to play them with or are an Achievement completionist, I wouldn't bother with them.

Achievements

Every campaign level has ane or ii Achievements for completing a side goal, providing a overnice incentive to complete them. Several weapons have their ain Achievements too, the nigh time consuming of which will be killing 6667 enemies with the stake gun. There are also Achievements for beating the campaign on the 2 highest difficulties worth 100 and 200 GamerScore, respectively. Oh, and five online Achievements.

Hell and Damnation'due south Achievements generally exercise a great job at adding replay value to the game. I just hate that most of them require solo play instead of cooperative. Way to keep people from playing together, developer.

Overall Impression

Painkiller: Hell and Damnation provides a moody culling to the lighter, more frantic Serious Sam games. The aesthetics hither are strongly inspired past heavy metal album covers, and the music actually consists of some great heavy metal tunes.

Despite its obvious rough edges, Painkiller stands out by virtue of being and then different from mainstream First-Person Shooters. I'm looking forward to going back for the side objectives and Achievements I missed my start time through. If you bask old-school FPS games, kill some time with Painkiller.

• Painkiller: Hell and Damnation – Xbox 360 (Games on Demand) – 2 GB – $29.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
• Painkiller: Hell and Damnation – UK retail version – Amazon.co.uk Product Folio

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Posted by: fraziertherrudy.blogspot.com

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