Reviewed: February 22, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
DreamCatcher Interactive
Developer
People Can Fly
Released: December 1, 2004
Genre: FPS
Players: 16
ESRB: Mature
8
9
9
9
8.8
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell is a true expansion in every sense of the word. Not only does it build upon the core game with new monsters, weapons, and game modes, it also improves upon that engine with subtle new enhancements that polish an already finely tuned engine.
Be warned though, Battle Out of Hell is not for the faint of heart or the easily discourages. This expansion, unlike any other I have played, picks up right where the main game leaves off, at least as far as its assumptions on your playing skills. If you have never played the original, well you’re going to need it to even access this game, but don’t try to jump right into the expansion, and if it’s been a month or two since you last visited hell, then you might want to take a refresher course and replay the main game or you might just get your ass handed to you on bloody platter.
Battle Out of Hell expands on the original game with four new weapons, again, each with a primary and a secondary function like the flamethrower/machine-gun combo. Multiplayer has been expanded with two new modes including a hellish mutation of CTF and a killer Last Man Standing mode.
The “Pain Engine” has also seen some subtle yet impressive modifications including some excellent distortion effects for heat and haze, support for the latest video cards with Pixel Shader 3.0 support, and some wicked-cool per-pixel specular mapping that pops the textures right off your screen.
By the time the expansion pack arrived for review I had already taken two trips through the first game and was about to start my third in my final quest for all the tarot cards and any remaining “perfect” scores I needed. My own ego had me convinced I was an “expert” Painkiller player and then Battle Out of Hell shattered my delusions of grandeur in about 666 seconds.
This expansion is hard; hard in a way that redefines the word hard, hard like bending over your keyboard and take your beating while screaming, “thank you Dreamcatcher…may I please have another?” only there will be no pledge pin awarded after you have taken your licks, only numb and bloody fingers and a trail of broken mice and discarded WADS keys that have popped off your keyboard during this latest trip through hell.
And it’s not so much that the monsters have gotten that much harder, but they have and they now work in organized groups with tactics and you now have monsters that you must deal with that don’t even count toward your Monster Kill score. The levels are much more advanced, both in design and difficulty and the goals required for earning those special tarot cards are insanely difficult.
A good example is the very first level in the expansion, the orphanage, where your ultimate goal is to complete the level without taking ANY damage. If the unlimited monsters that attack you the moment you head up the stairs don’t get in at least one successful lick you are a gaming god, but the designers don’t stop there. They put you out in a swamp on a chain of islands connected with logs and rock bridges that you must jump across, and one misstep into the water and you just got some damage. I can’t even fathom how this quest can possibly be achieved without a cheat code.
The new zones in Battle out of Hell are simply inspired, by what I have no idea, perhaps LSD and a 72hr marathon of Steven King movies – that clown freaks me out man! As I mentioned, the game starts you off at an orphanage because we all know that the forces of hell like to recruit kids in despair. Here we meet an evil little girl who can start fires, a haunting ghost nun who flies around, and Pinokio (don’t think that misspelling will save you from a Disney lawsuit) whose nose grows into a spiky weapon that stabs you from across the room.
The Loonypark is perhaps my favorite level, sort of a Disney World Goes to Hell where we meet the truly scary Clown – I’m sorry but clowns freak me out ever since IT and Killer Clowns from Outer Space and Corn, a guy who’s half-man, half-popcorn (and the only guy who can actually lose weight at the movies). This new monsters will breath some original evil into this demented fun park.
Dead City looks like your typical metropolitan area, a few years after a neutron bomb or a zombie invasion has paid it a visit. Oops, I was right, it was zombies and these guys are insane, ripping off their own body parts and beating you up with them. The axe-wielding preacher wanders town tossing cars and cutting off feet to add to his grotesque necklace. And your trip to the big city wouldn’t be complete without a visit from the Panzer Spider, a giant mech-arachnid that with freezing breath and the ability to cause earthquakes.
Our tour of hell concludes with a visit to Leningrad, or at least hell’s version of the city where the war is still raging on complete with tanks, burning buildings, and both Russian and German soldiers. Of course these are all demonized versions of their mortal counterparts complete with authentic weapons, grenades, and even the ability to call in an air strike. Of course no war would be complete without demolitions, and we have Deto, a big lug with TNT strapped to every part of his body who likes to kamikaze.
The pre-rendered opening movie is a bit grainy in comparison to the sharp gameplay visuals. I was also surprised that Eve, who was naked in the first game, now has a sheet draped about her concealing those parts that her long hair had done in the original. With hundreds of thousands of gallons of blood being spilled is a bare breast (or two) going to devastate humanity?
Level design is spectacular with some massive levels that defy conventional FPS gameplay and actually improve upon those we experience in the first game. There are 10 levels that are meticulously created and once again, there are no shared textures between the stages so you get an original experience with each new level.
Monsters are totally original, entirely evil, and downright scary as hell. I cant think of a single monster that didn’t send a shiver down my spin and I still have nightmares about those freaky clowns. The bosses are once again massive and quite imposing, often taken up much of your screen.
The Miles Sound System is put to excellent use but for those with the sound cards and speakers to back it, you can enjoy rich EAX 3.0 with support for up to 8 speakers in a 7.1 surround configuration. Painkiller and this expansion remain in my top 5 best sounding games of all time with some truly frightening noises and environmental effects.
The weapons are all perfectly enhanced with just the right reload and firing sounds. Explosions are loud and chain reactions are deafening. The whoosh of fire from your flamethrower is powerful and just sounds “hot”.
You can’t have an ass-kicking game without a kick ass soundtrack and Painkiller delivers with a wild mix of high-energy acid rock, heavy metal, and some delightfully demented atmospheric tunes that reminded me of the NIN soundtrack from Quake. The music flares up in volume and intensity during combat then settles down to reveal the subtle environmental effects that bring these levels to unearthly life.
The voice acting is merely average, about the same quality as the first game. The story and script is admittedly filler material for those that require some continuity to their carnage, but overall it’s a solid sound package.
Even though Battle Out of Hell is substantially shorter than the main game it can easily take you just as long or longer to complete it. Sure, you can blast your way through the ten levels in a day or so, but for those who want to get every last card, complete every single goal on the level checklist and truly win the game, prepare to spend the better part of a month on this expansion.
The multiplayer is excellent and the new modes are really fun. There were a lot more people playing online this time around so word is obviously spreading. The new CTF and LMS modes are challenging and totally addicting and for those of you with the creative bug, a map editor SDK is also available for download so you can make your own levels.
Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell is an excellent expansion pack that does exactly what it sets out to do; it delivers more monsters, more weapons, more tarot cards, and exciting new levels to explore and interact with. There were times when I wished the monsters would back off so I could enjoy the sinister atmosphere the designers had so expertly crafted, but just about the time I could appreciate one of those details 20-30 creatures would rush me.
Battle Out of Hell is a pure adrenaline rush targeted toward twitch gamers with killer gaming rigs. With rapid-fire, non-stop action, and all the forces of hell trying to stop you, make sure you are up to the task before signing up to save the world this time.