PainKiller Single Player Demo #2 Tested! Overall: 6.5/10

PainKiller Single Player Demo #2 Tested! Overall: 6.5/10
Posted :: Apr 22, 2004 by Haggs

Produced by DreamCatcher
Full Game Release Date: April 12th, 2004

I've been hearing a lot of rave about the new Painkiller Demos from friends and websites, so I thought I'd check it out and let everyone know what I thought. The game opens with a few screens of credits, one of which is a display of the "Nvidia: The way it's meant to be played" logo with a zombie that gets shot. It is very similar to the one found in the opening credits of Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004. It's entertaining the first time, but after that I found myself mashing escape so I could get into the game faster. I tested the game with a 1024x768 resolution and all of the high details settings turned on. My machine had no problem handling the game and produced steady frame rates above any visibly detectable lag.
The game begins in a European style city crawling with zombies anxiously awaiting your arrival. After passing through the first archway a very upbeat rock instrumental background gets your heart pumping and you're under heavy fire before you know what's happening. The map feels like one big city, but plays like it's broken down into levels. After blasting a few zombies (there is a twisted sense of humor in me that delights in watching bleeding zombie corpses fly sky high into the air when you hit them with the rocket launcher) with your small initial arsenal, you are able to walk over a red glowing checkpoint. When you hit the checkpoint your health is replenished, the game performs an auto-save, and a door opens as others close behind you. The biggest challenge was figuring out that you have to clear an entire area before the doors will open up to the next one. This continues for a while, until you reach the boss of the level. The demo is relatively short, but hey, it's a demo!
Unfortunately, the game errored about 30 to 40 minutes into my first play session and I lost all audio. I restarted my computer and still was unable to get sound to my speakers. After checking the connections, I reinstalled my audio drivers and made sure they were the latest version available. The same thing happened again after reinstallation of my drivers, and again after reinstallation of both the demo and the drivers. I am not completely sure what caused the problem, but if you have an Audigy 2 ZS (and maybe any card in the Audigy 2 series for that matter) this may happen to you. If it does happen, simply reinstall your drivers and your sound will come back.
I did manage to get some screenshots while I tested (they make it convenient for you to take screenshots by pressing F12 during game play). I picked out a few of my favorites and included them in the screenshots section.

Screenshots

The view from the start of the first level.

Through the first archway and under fire. Maybe if I hit that explosive barrel beneath the zombie's feet… hmm…?

This game is rated M for a reason.

Nothing like the classic exploding green barrels.

Those sure are some of the meanest looking cyborg zombies I've ever seen!

Rating on a scale of 1 (absolutely awful) to 10 (jaw-dropping)
Gameplay: 6/10
- Painkiller plays a lot like Quake 3. It is a fast-paced entertaining first person shooter, but does not present anything new or innovative to the genre.
Graphics: 6/10
- Not only does it play a lot like Quake 3, but the graphics engine appears to be remarkably similar. The Quake 3 style graphics are still solid, but once again, nothing ground breaking here. (Despite DreamCatcher's claim that "the proprietary 3D "PAIN Engine" capable of pumping out 100X the polygons of some of the latest shooters, while adding increased texture quality and the latest lighting and shadowing techniques.")
Sound: 8/10
- It supports Dolby Digital as well as Creative's EAX and can be played in full surround sound. Combine this with groaning zombies and adrenaline pumping background music during combat and you have the makings of some truly excellent audio. While there are ambient (environment) noises, they don't noticeably add to the experience.
Replayability: 6/10
- In comparison to other demos, it stacks up about middle of the road. It has your standard Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties, and one Very Hard difficulty that can be unlocked by finding Tarot Cards. Finding the cards to unlock something is a twist that many demos often neglect, but you aren't exactly unlocking anything spectacular.
Overall Rating (Average): 6.5/10

Closing Comments
While the game had some pretty amazing sound capabilities, at this point I wouldn't pay full price for the game when it's released. It doesn't deliver anything you can't already get from Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament 2003/2004. However, multiplayer (probably the most important part of any FPS game) has not yet been released to the public. Maybe DreamCatcher will surprise us with something innovative.