Painkiller is a reimagining of the original Painkiller game from 2004 but this time around developed by Anshar Studios and published by 3D Realms. The game features some gorgeous visuals and at least on paper, looks great. However, does it actually live up to the Painkiller name, and will fans of the original game from way back then enjoy this one? Time to find out, shall we!
Introduction to Painkiller
It’s been more than 20 years since the original Painkiller game released and shockingly, we haven’t seen any more titles in the franchise since Painkiller: Hell & Damnation’s release in 2012. The 2025 Painkiller is a series reboot by Anshar Studios so newcomers can dive right in and enjoy blasting away at demon hordes without having to play the previous titles.
Story and Setting
With that said, Painkiller (2025) is quite different to Painkiller (2004). First and foremost, in Painkiller (2025), you will take on the role of a nameless character that finds themselves awake in Purgatory. An entity known as Metatron quickly gets you up to speed with the task at hand which is slaying demons. You’ll very quickly be given a demonic weapon and off you go. No wasted time here. It’s straight to demon slaying within the first 5 minutes of launching the game. No muss, no fuss. Just pure action straight away.
Gameplay Overview
Once you get through the tutorial area, you’ll arrive at a large cathedral looking location which once cleansed becomes your base of operations. From here you will be able to change your main two weapons, gamble in a tarot card lottery for cards that you can equip that enhance your abilities and select arenas in three specific biomes that you will fight demons in. It’s very straightforward and simple and is the perfect kind of gameplay formula to quickly drop in and out of with two friends.
Core Gameplay Mechanics
Gameplay in Painkiller involves players moving their playable character around in a large biome area and completing objectives. An example of this is standing in ritual circles and cleansing the toxic poison in the Flesh and Water biome’s rivers and pools. Of course this isn’t as simple as it seems and there’ll be hordes and hordes of demons throwing themselves at you to kill you. No pressure huh?
Combat and Co-op
The core combat gameplay involves using your demonic weapons to kill as many demons as possible while completing objectives and exploring the biome you’ve entered. The game is played entirely in a co-op mode, and if you aren’t playing with two other human players, you’ll be paired up with Bot companions.
This isn’t a massive problem, but the bots do tend to do their own thing and can sometimes stall or delay you if they aren’t entering ritual circles with you. Players can also change their playable character and select one of 4 available characters, each with their own specific perk, such as increased weapon damage or energy regeneration.
Weapons and Upgrades
The weapons in Painkiller are quite varied and there’s even more spice added thanks to the ability to upgrade them with resources earned through playing the game. You’ll also be tasked with specific objectives which will unlock further upgrades and once you’ve invested in these upgrades, you can mix and match to a certain extent. Being limited to just two weapons and the titular Painkiller blade weapon itself means that you’ll want to choose the right weapon for the biome that you’re entering.
Some enemies might have shields for example, so the stake launcher with the upgrade that allows it to penetrate shields is quite useful for dealing with these foes, Other upgrades such as a secondary firing mode which fires off gravity wells or multi-explosive grenades is also useful for taking out waves of enemies at once. The customization is where the real fun factor comes in especially when playing with friends.
Tarot Card System
Apart from changing up your weapons, you’ll also have access to the tarot cards. These cards can impart some really useful perks to your playable character, but unfortunately, the cards do get burned after use. They can be restored by drawing them again in the card lottery or by using some of your hard earned resource rewards.
Biomes and Missions
Painkiller has 3 biomes with 3 missions in them each for a total of 9 “raids” as the game calls them. This means that you can effectively breeze through the whole game in one sitting if you beeline the missions in roughly 5 hours. Thankfully, the game does feature a Roguelike mode called “Rogue Angel” where you’ll begin with basic weapons and temporary upgrades. This is separate to the main story mode and is a lot more difficult because of the sheer number of enemies you’ll be fighting against.
Story Writing and Dialogue
I do have a gripe with the game’s story in that the writing is filled with a hefty dose of equal parts sarcasm and cringe. The story is about as basic as it gets to just get you killing demons. Don’t expect a work of art here in that regard. It’s quite literally you versus demons and the demon lord Azazel, while the Metatron guides you with snarky comments.
Graphics and Audio
Graphically, Painkiller is a beautiful game. It also runs without any hiccups or glitches on a mid-range PC so I have no doubts that it will be fine on most people’s setups though of course, this situation may differ based on your actual hardware. Some more enemy designs would have been appreciated since they do tend to start feeling very similar after a while. Especially if you’ve been playing the Roguelike mode after finishing the campaign raids.
The soundtrack of Painkiller has some adrenaline pumping music but unfortunately nothing really stood out unlike with the original Painkiller from 2004. The voice acting also felt a bit out of place, with the playable character’s accents feeling a bit too out of place, considering that you’re fighting demons in Purgatory, and everybody seems way too happy despite technically being in the underworld.
Conclusion
Overall, Painkiller isn’t a bad game. It’s just a game that’s severely lacking content and can be finished in one sitting. Enemies start to feel very samey way too quickly, and even with co-op as its core focus, the fun factor will very quickly disappear once you and your friends finish the game. The game desperately needs more content and I do hope that the developers are looking into adding more biomes and levels and maybe expanding the Rogue Angel mode further.
Painkiller is a fun game but there needs to be a lot more here to justify its price. The season pass only listing outfits doesn’t help matters much either since more levels would be appreciated way more over cosmetic DLC. Only grab Painkiller if you’re desperate for a co-op FPS to play with friends in one weekend and then move on.
Painkiller 2025 Launch Trailer
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Game code was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.