Reviewed: December 26, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer
Idol Minds
Released: November 29, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1-4
8
8
8
9
8.8
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
I remember the first time I saw the trailer for PAIN. It looked amusing, but I didn’t see how the concept of launching some screaming loser into a city trying to inflict as much property damage and bodily injury as possible could ever carry an entire game. But that was before I learned the game was coming to the PlayStation Store as a downloadable title, much like an Xbox Live Arcade game.
So, while PAIN would never fly as a $50-60 game, for less than $10 this is probably some of the most wicked fun you will be having with your PS3 as we head into the new year. I’m as surprised to be saying that as you will be once you start playing PAIN, and only after 3-4 hours have snuck past your awareness will you realize the simple and addictive magical pleasure that is PAIN.
What appears to be a tech demo for the power of the Havok physics engine will have everyone in the room laughing hysterically as you launch your unsuspecting human ammo into complex and fully destructible cityscapes. I can’t recall too many games that prompted the comments, “I’m taking out the old lady with the walker on my next shot”, or “can we Spank the Monkey after we finish tossing the mimes?”
PAIN, at its core is a puzzle game masking as a violent action title, even if all the violence is self-inflicted. The premise is simple. You are presented with a section of city, about 2-3 blocks deep and one (very wide) block wide. Your character is placed in a human slingshot and you are allowed to pivot about 160 degrees wide and 0-70 degrees high. You can also move forward and back in the harness to adjust the force of the launch. Aim and shoot and let the mayhem ensue.
Oh, only if it were that simple. After all, this is about physics and how bodies in motion act and react. Isaac Newton would be proud…and probably a bit disturbed if he saw this game. Once your human projectile is airborne you can perform all sorts of poses as you arc into the city. You can also, to a small degree, steer your person toward a specific target.
Once you collide with something Havok takes over and you will start to bounce around, ricocheting off one object and into another. The goal is to keep going and destroying as much property as possible while inflicting as much bodily harm on yourself (and others) as you can. As long as your body is in motion you will slowly fill up the OUCH meter. You can also shake the SIXAXIS controller to ignite the OUCH meter for even more power. You can then use this OUCH power to nudge your flailing body around the level and into more objects. It’s actually a bit disturbing to see a broken body twitching around the street, trying to nudge their way to an exploding crate or trying to knock over a mailbox.
But it gets better. Upon impact with most objects you can grab on using the D-pad. In the case of exploding crates (or mimes) you can then carry these objects in mid-flight and release them toward other targets. In the case of large scenery objects (like a bowling ball or giant manhole cover) you can grab on and have them carry you using their momentum to launch you in an entirely new direction.
The city is surprisingly complex and even after weeks of playing I am still finding hidden areas. If you can manage to get into the subway a powerful air vent will launch you back into the city. The same thing happens if you can drop yourself into a certain smokestack. And if you can grab onto a giant crane cable holding a steel beam, the sky is the limit on where you can go.
So, launching and doing damage is only so much fun for so long. Well, actually, I’m not sure I would ever get tired of playing the default game mode (Pandemonium) where you simply launch and re-launch yourself trying to get the highest damage combo and score. You can always reset the environment to start with a fresh city.
But other gamers might not be as easily amused for long periods as I am, so thankfully, Idol Minds has included numerous, and incredibly fun alternative game modes for single and multiple players as well as a variety of challenges that are scored and ranked with bronze, silver, gold, and platinum medals. Scores are also tracked on the PS Network leaderboards.
Spank the Monkey is great fun (and no, you won’t go blind). In this mode an army of monkeys has invaded the city and you must take them out in the shortest time possible. The monkeys will appear in the same locations in the same order each time you play, so learning the aiming pattern is top priority. Monkeys will also appear two at a time, giving you a chance to perfect your OUCH skills so you can spank two monkeys with a single launch.
Mime Toss is a great way to exact your revenge on those annoying street performers. Simply launch toward a mime, grab him, carry him a short distance, then toss him into an arrangement of glass panes setup in the street. The goal is to shatter all the glass as quickly as possible using only the mimes. This gets quite challenging since you have to launch the mimes and then steer yourself clear of the glass in order to avoid any penalties.
PAIN Bowling is fantastic and player two can even get in on the action. The player who is up to bowl aims and launches toward a standard 10-pin configuration down the street. Of course these pins are about 20-feet high and require serious force to knock over. You can use OUCH to nudge yourself back to pick-up any remaining pins if you are lucky, otherwise standard bowling rules and scoring applies.
Meanwhile, player two has several environmental objects they can trigger to block or redirect your flight. Using the face buttons, the second player can drop steel beams, create explosions, or launch cleverly selected pieces of the city (like a giant donut) at the bowler’s character as they fly down the street. It’s fun…it works…and I’m pretty darn good at it.
HORSE is another favorite and can be quite challenging. One player launches and strikes any object of their choosing then continues to rack up a high score. Everyone else must then hit that same object and get a higher score or they get a letter. If you don’t hit the same initial object none of the points that follow matter.
Fun with Explosives is the final game mode and basically has you launching into the city that is now populated with dozens (perhaps hundreds) of explosive crates. The goal is to pinball from one box to the next and try to get the highest chain of explosions. This can get tricky, and often the harder you try the worse you do. It was quite by accident that I set my high record of 47.
The best thing about PAIN is that, thanks to Havok, no two launches are, or ever will be, the same. This keeps the game fresh and entertaining for countless hours, and those hours will tick by totally unnoticed by all who are captivated by the engaging and wickedly fun gameplay.
The visuals in PAIN are excruciatingly gorgeous, not in a complex or technical way, but in a fun and exaggerated way. The entire cityscape has a colorful theme about it that makes it look more like a living comic book than any attempt at realism. There are real world locations, a nightclub, an outdoor café, a construction site, a factory, and numerous storefronts. The city is populated with traffic, including cars and trucks and an elevated train, and there are several pedestrians strolling around the streets ripe for the attack.
The characters are all modeled with long limbs that flail around wildly unless you are invoking one of the many in-flight poses. Their crash and injury animations are brutally painful but thankfully blood free. I certainly wouldn’t want to see a red bloody trail getting painted down the street as that cop car drags me for a city block…or would I...
There is also plenty of humor injected into the game, from funky mime and monkey animations to gratuitous Sony ad placements on billboards. And for fans of “Revenge of the Nerds 2: Nerds in Paradise”, they even have the HOTEL CORAL ESSEX, although there is no secret bonus for re-lighting the sign…if you know what I mean.
A great replay camera allows you to view the chaos from any vantage point, zoom in, and pan around, and study the carnage. I only wish there was a system in place to save those replays and share them online, or as part of the leaderboard so you could see how some of these people are getting these high scores.
Most of the game is played with the cries and screams of your human ammo as they flail through the sky, followed by oomph’s and grunts and groans when they hit and nudge around. It’s great fun if you are in the room but apparently very annoying for anyone listening to it from elsewhere. Each character has their own signature lines and screams.
Sound effects include squealing and farting monkeys, traffic noises, shouts from angry pedestrians, shattering glass, exploding crates, and specific noises for interacting with large environmental objects like the manhole sign or giant bowling ball. Every object makes a specific and very appropriate noise. Everything is very 3D thanks to a THX Dolby surround mix.
The music is limited but fantastic. The menu has an energetic theme with cheerleaders singing and spelling out PAIN. Once in the game things are more specific. If you crash into the hotel lobby you hear piano music. If you crash into the Manhole you’ll hear thumping disco beats.
After my initial download I played PAIN for about two hours…downloaded Mrs. Claus and played another two hours. Since that day I’ve logged far too many hours alone and with friends playing this game. It’s one of the first games people ask to play when they visit. For less than $10, you won’t find a more engaging game or better value, even if the entire concept is a bit shallow.
As with many other PlayStation Store games, Sony is offering plenty of aftermarket material including themes and characters. Some items are free but the characters will cost you…a whopping $.99 cents…and worth every penny if for no other reason than to break up the repetitive post-launch cries and screams.
I had low expectations going into this review so imagine my surprise to find that PAIN is not only a great and totally addictive game, it is probably going to be one of the biggest guilty pleasures in everybody’s PS3 library. For less than $10 and 200 MB of your hard drive you can be enjoying PAIN and pleasure, and sharing it with all your friends.
There is nothing more rewarding than having a room full of gamers all cheering and groaning like they were at some twisted sporting event. PAIN is great fun and I highly recommend it.