Painkiller: Redemption

And the Lord said: “Let there be Rock!” And with those words, tasty riffs were heard from across the valley and the halls filled with the clamoring of Metal! Oh yeah, it’s time to rock out! Though the first person splatterfest Painkiller: Redemption (PKR) has a story, there isn’t a soul alive that would cling to this plot device in order to decapitate fools. Switching between two heroes, Daniel and Belial, this stand-alone add-on pits the battle of good versus evil in 6 impressive new locations.

Welcome to hell. Welcome to Painkiller: Redemption.

Going through elaborate cathedral structures or decrepit refineries; every detailed level offers a wide variety of macabre architecture and claustrophobia. While rough around some edges, the dark and peculiar level designs offer a decent amount of eye candy and depth; be it in scope or structure. The setting in its entirety benefits the sense of demonic apocalypse well and gets accompanied by depraved monster designs. From hordes of undead Nazi’s, axe -wielding monks to the strange asylum weirdo’s, each foe is a perversion of the mind from Satan himself.

But the real selling point is the hard rocking music that forebodes each wave of enemies. When entering a room, the ripping guitar noises will suddenly emerge and literally all hell will break loose. Together with the voicing of monsters and explosion effects, this heart-pumping sound will become one of the main drives in Painkiller Redemption. If blasting legions of demons wasn’t enough, players get to do it while enjoying some face melting metal music! What could be better than that?

All this big boy needs is a Duke Nukem one-liner. Damn you, silent "protagonists"!

Well, the gameplay of this shooter extravaganza matches the excitement level to a point. Each level hurls an inhuman amount of demons at the screen, each more devious than the next. Throughout all settings, players will need to defeat these waves in constricting spaces, with some rooms the size of a modest bathroom. Yet, some larger rooms will offer a larger killing floor and more visual wonder, but even then vigilance is always required as there are always demons inches away; always!

Given the unrelenting assault and only limited ammo available, every shell will have to count and there will be no room to camp or snipe things out. Mobility and a good aim will be required, as the hectic pace of PKR will become quite punishing rather fast. Players thinking this is a mere splash fest of blood and gore will only be half right, as this game keeps the difficulty curve high up. Additionally, there will be no time to rest, as hordes follow each other in a split second and each new room entered will immediately hurl a new threat into the fray. There is no rest for the wicked and no sleep in hell. Together with the driving music, this constant excitement keeps the adrenaline high at all times, just like in a real apocalypse. But it doesn’t stop there.

Doesn't get more intense than a scythe an inch from your face!

To aid the fight against the evil uprising, PKR offers a rather original set of weaponry, such as laser-shooting heads, acid-guns or shuriken launchers doubling up as Tesla coils. Some secondary weapons also offer a way to weaken opponents by freezing them or covering them in grease, after which a simple shot will blow them to bits. But as ammo is limited, players will be required to switch up tactics often and use only the weapon that is most convenient at the time; usually the lowest possible tier. And as if the challenge wasn’t steep enough, there is only a very limited amount of health and healing will mostly be done by collecting souls of slain foes. As an added bonus, once enough souls are collected, a strange and eerie bullet time will unlock, where players will become invulnerable for a time and can decimate anything in sight instantly. As souls are always dropped near other foes, this once again forces players to stay in the fray at all times and that sets the challenge even higher.

Unleash the max pain! Bullet time means time to die!

There is a very fine line between a frustratingly difficult game and a game that forces people to excel. While the premise of PKR is simple and the drive is therefore rather straight forward, all gameplay elements coexist in such a way that the challenge rating is stimulating, rather than aggravating. All extra options are all tuned into keeping players moving and shooting and the game urges to stay in the direct zone of death. Each completed level tallies the progress made and how much gold, secrets, armor and extras were discovered, which will be necessary as time progresses. As PKR introduces powerful tarot cards that can be used to severely benefit players with damage or health upgrades, finding as much loot as possible and unlocking these cards will become a winning trait in the fight for supremacy. Unfortunately, the goals set to unlock these cards can be quite high and some trial and error will be necessary to obtain the fullest potential of the game.

Raising the roof; you're doing it wrong.

With only 6 levels, Painkiller: Redemption may seem like a short trip, but the reality of it is that a powerful challenge is an unexpected layer of gameplay that will force players to fight for their victory. Approximately 6 hours of gameplay will therefore be stretched into a much longer playthrough as falling and getting back up will become routine for some. And while this surprise challenge might not be to every player’s taste, what is undeniable is that Painkiller: Redemption is bad-ass! Even after one playthrough, it will still be possible to heighten the challenge even more or build custom levels and create an entirely new experience!

With the game being sold at an incredible budget price, there is no reason for any shooter fan to not enjoy some mindless slaying with an added twist. Bulletstorm who? This franchise has been doing this gorefest for years, minus the swearing. No; this bad-ass game will make you want to swear, but in a relatively good way. So crank up the volume! Annoy your parents! Annoy your neighbours! Play some goddamn Painkiller!

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Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed.