Painkiller also adds a few new weapons and a few multiplayer enhancements to the mix as well as an overhaul to the game technology that makes it look and run a bit more smoothly. Enemies and animations just look better and extras like affects, physics, etc look and work flawlessly. The new weapons are minimal at best, but what's there are welcomed additions to the arsenal. The game adds a flamethrower, a crossbow that allows players to zoom in for sniping, a machine gun and some secondary modes that are quite effective in battle.

The new multiplayer modes include a variation on capture the flag which uses a skull instead of the traditional flag and a Last Man Standing mode. The game supports all the modes from the original game and adds some new multiplayer maps into the fold. Painkiller never really took off as a multiplayer game and perhaps these new modes will encourage players to get online more often but it's highly doubtful that they give that motivation to players.

While I really enjoyed BooH I do have on or two caveats that I just couldn't overlook. One of the most irritating is the ridiculous amount of time it takes to load a quick save or a checkpoint autosave. These load times can last anywhere from one to two minutes, and in an area where you find yourself dying a lot, it's a real wet blanket on gameplay. People Can Fly really need to address this problem immediately because it's just a kill joy to the fast paced action of the game.

The other complaint I have is with the jumping puzzles in the game. I have never approved of jumping puzzles in first-person shooters and Painkiller BooH has too many for my tastes (even one is enough to drive an FPS fanatic away). If action nuts wanted to solve jumping puzzles they'd play a platformer. We're in it for the blood and gore not the jump and snore. Add the fatalities caused by the jumping puzzles with one to two minute game loads and you have a recipe for disaster.

Ultimately BooH is a solid expansion pack to one of the best action games of this year. It's not powerful enough to convince Painkiller detractors to join the fold, but it's certainly everything a fan the original game will love. If you loved Painkiller and are looking for a good excuse to dust off your copy then Battle Out of Hell is your answer. Get it while it's red hot (no pun intended). For a closer look at BooH, check out these Battle Out of Hell Screens .