Painkiller is a pure unadulterated first-person shooter, unspoiled by a storyline you'll be forced to follow. Shooter junkies aren't that enamored with intricate plot lines anyways, despite a slight love affair with Half-Life and Deus Ex (which wasn't really a shooter in the traditional sense anyway) and a number of other titles that have succeeded in telling us a story that is even mildly interesting. No, shooter fans are all about the blood, and the guns; we enjoy telling our own stories through a narrative of violent expressionism; a ridiculous cache of fantastic weapons, piles of gibs, buckets of blood, and tons of debris. In short, we don't need a storyline any longer than the length and width of an index card. What we do want and need are settings that lend themselves to violence and destruction, and other characters or players to blow up, maim and destroy. In that sense Painkiller tells one hell (no pun intended) of a tall tale where a seemingly ordinary citizen from the world of men has the power to take on and take down the armies of the fallen angel Lucifer.

Sure, there's an index card sized story that you can comfort yourself with if you really need it (but you won't): You're Daniel Garner, a man who went out on a late night drive with his beautiful wife and never made it home. After a deadly car crash on that fateful rainy night, Daniel is sent to purgatory, while his wife heads to Heaven to receive her reward. But all is not lost for Daniel - an agent of Heaven offers him a promise: destroy the generals of Lucifer's army and earn his way into Heaven (the forces of Hell are preparing for a major assault on the Heavens it seems). Daniel reluctantly takes on the seemingly impossible task, but a number of surprising events await him along the way.. And that's the gist of the story. Hit rewind and erase it, because the story ultimately won't matter. Painkiller is all about action. If you want even a slightly epic story, go read a book.

Painkiller offers the standard shooter trappings; hoards of monsters, armor, health, a handful of weapons with primary and secondary firing modes, etc. The game also offers the usual shooter movement and action functions (W,A,S,D keys setup, mouse and keyboard, whatever you fancy) as well as strafing, jumping and some other minor features that you'd expect to find in an FPS game. Basically the game follows the tried and true formula of Quake and Doom pretty closely. The game is heavily inspired by id Software's games - whether unintentionally or on purpose it's hard to say, but the influence is obviously there. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The game offers five weapons, each offering a primary and secondary attack mode. The Painkiller, the default weapon in the game, is sort of like a propeller in primary mode that spins around violently like a blender - great for running directly into demon folk and cutting them into a gory puree. In secondary mode the weapon launches its tip into the distance hitting anything in its path until it hits something solid - once it is lodged it emits a light beam that functions as a trip wire; Next up is the shotgun (a staple of the FPS genre for sure), which functions as intended in primary mode. In secondary mode the shotgun serves as a freeze gun; Next up is the handy dandy Stake gun, which quite obviously shoots stakes of wood - great for pinning an enemy to a wall. In secondary mode the Stake gun serves as a grenade launcher; No FPS game would be complete without the chain gun/rocket launcher combo and Painkiller is no exception offering both in one convenient firearm; finally there's the Electro Driver which serves as a sort of nail gun lightning gun combination. Obviously People Can Fly managed to get just about every weapon that you'd find in a Quake game into the mix, but the game could have used about ten more choices. Given the weapons that are in the game are all Quake throwbacks save the Painkiller and the freeze gun, maybe they thought they had covered all the bases - in some sense they have, but in another sense the game needed a few more guns or useable secondary items to make things interesting. What's there is adequate but not quite as satisfying as it could have been.

The game also serves up a special mode where Daniel changes into a demon and everything turns black and white. In this mode Daniel becomes invincible and can simply manipulate the folds of reality to blow monsters apart. This special attack is activated by collecting souls dropped by the enemies you defeat, and though it doesn't last very long it's a pretty cool power to have at your disposal.

Although the comparison to classic FGPS games is probably wearing thin on you already, there's no denying the similarities between this game and a number of id classics. The game also shares the same kinds of level design and texture types; the world of Painkiller is filled with brown and gray textures, demonic symbols, hellish architecture and deep and expansive underground locations. The world is filled with waste, debris, dilapidated structures and broken down objects at every turn. Old school Quake players will get a strange sense of familiarity with the setting, and will more than likely be pleased with the results of People Can Fly's efforts.

While there are a lot of familiar things about this game, Painkiller does offer some gameplay elements that are unique compared to most shooters on the market today - People Can Fly's baby uses the Havok 2.0 physics engine to make the world, the objects and its inhabitants more reactive to the violent tendencies of the player. Shoot a monster and it files backwards and upwards, fire at debris and it scatters, squeeze off a shot or two at a hanging corpse and it swings wildly. Painkiller is probably the first game to truly use physics in a way that players will appreciate. The game world is more alive, and is affected violently by the players passing, guns blazing.

Painkiller's weakest point is its multiplayer. The game just doesn't offer anything exciting, and if the number of games being played online is any indication, players just aren't excited about it what People Can Fly has put together. The game offers standard DM, Team DM, People Can Fly (a special mode where you only get the Rocket Launcher / Chain gun combo and can only shoot your opponent when he or she is airborne), Voosh (a mode where everyone starts out with the same weapon and unlimited ammo and occasionally changes to other weapons at random) and the Light Bearer (a DM match-up where the map features on Rage power-up - the bearer holds onto until he or she dies - when death comes the player that got the frag gets it and becomes the ultimate target). The few multiplayer games I did play online weren't exciting to me, and even the special DM variations offered in the game didn't excite me. Don't get me wrong, multiplayer is a complete wash; the problems with it stem from a combination of a lack of innovation, weapons variety and the difficulty in finding people to play the game against.

Luckily, the one good thing about the multiplayer mode is that it will drive players back to the single player mode, where there's plenty of extra challenges that players can take on to gather special power-ups or just get a perfect score. Each level has a specific challenge that rewards players with a powerful Taro card. Most of these cards must be unlocked by meeting a certain challenge. For example, players might be charged with destroying every destructible object on the level or collecting a certain number of kills or items while maintaining an exact amount of health. Whatever the challenge, players gain special cards that they can purchase using gold coins in between levels to give certain powerful boosts. Some cards (gold) only provide a temporary boost, while other cards (silver) last throughout an entire level. But beyond the card collecting, players can hit the TAB key and see the challenges that await them, trying to nail a perfect score in a variety of areas. Additionally players can turn up the difficulty level and be rewarded with alternate endings and a more robust challenge. So while multiplayer isn't great, Painkiller's single-player does a great job of serving up some serious replay value.

Painkiller's overall presentation is polished and cohesive; every aspect of the game comes together and accomplishes what it was meant to do: deliver a fast-paced first-person action game experience. The multiplayer is adequate but uninspiring and the cutscenes are best skipped, but the single-player game brings home the bacon. Painkiller's cast of evil doers is varied enough so you won't get bored and with all the extra challenges players can take on , the potential for an enjoyable replay experience is there for the taking. If you are one of the thousands of players who still play Quake and Doom and thought Serious Sam was the greatest modern-day shooter of our time, then Painkiller should be added to your must-buy list. If you are looking for an epic story or the next big multiplayer action game, than Painkiller may not be for you. Being a fan of frenetic breakneck speed action I like what People Can Fly has put together and hope that the follow-up title will offer a beefier multiplayer experience.