Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell

The Good
I never enjoy expansions that much these days, maybe because most are produced just to rake in more cash of it's parent game cough cough Half life episodes cough. But there certainly are some expansions that still pack some punch if you're still thirsty for more and some that almost reach the excellence of it's original, Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell is surely in the middle of that.

It's simply the fun simple gameplay from the original PK expanded for 10 levels. You got the tarot cards from the original PK and ten more are added to the game. Not to forget 2 new weapons and a whole lot of new bad guys to destroy.

The first thing you will notice is that the cutscenes have improved greatly in terms of visual quality. While the original had pretty good output in the cutscenes for it's time, Battle out of hell's improvement in this department is clearly visible. Graphics and sound are still the same which is a good thing. Performance does take a hit in certain levels like the start of the Orphanage, but trust me it's nothing to worry about.

The monsters are still designed with quality, still do their job well too. This time you've got smaller bosses as compared to the record breaking size the original had. Not to mention demonic children, which I should admit, enjoyed blowing off with my shotgun. There are preachers which are invincible until you fulfill the prerequisites to destroy them. These goals are not specified in the game. Tarot card conditions from the original are still present and I'll get to them later.

The level design is still phenomenal, it's not as good as what was present in the parent game but still quality work. The Orphanage is a great opener, it's dark and pretty scary not to mention the creepy kids and spirits that linger around. The Colosseum surprises us with traps reminding me a bit of Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia, it's one of the levels to look out for. While playing Painkiller I did say to myself, there's a lot of variety and all that's missing is the Carnival/Circus type theme and Bam! We've got Looney Park. The level fits the whole crazy circus theme perfect and tops it off with a little surprise towards the end. Underworld and Stone Pit are similar to each other in theme, underworld has cart rides here and there. The details are just sexy in those levels. Leningrad is a WW2 themed level and is one of the toughest in the game, another one to look out for. The rest are above average to mediocre.

The Bad
One of the gripes I have about this expansion is that the Tarot Card conditions can be a pain in the arse! You'll be pulling your hair out trying to get the one at Underworld, Looney Park or Dead City. And the new tarot cards aren't very interesting either.

Painkiller did have it's small share of above average levels like the “Train Station” and “Cemetery”. BOOH has even worst, “Dead City” is just frustrating and boring. And the worst has to be “Lab”. It's thrown into the box just for the heck of being a filler. Half the level takes place in this room with a portal in the middle. It's not very attractive and the busty nurses don't make up for it either. The boss levels are “Pentagon” which is locked on the regular difficulties and the final takes place in “Shadowland”. The Panzer Spider boss is no where near the Impressiveness of the Necrogiant or Guardian. And the final box Alestor which was a boss in the original is even weaker despite the fact that he is a King or something here. He can be taken down in minutes. I had more fun with the mini bosses, which isn't really a compliment. And how does the final level “Shadowland” look compared to “Hell” from the original? Well it's so bland that it doesn't even deserve to breath the same air as the “Hell” level. Major disappointment in this area.

The new weapons are fair but the Bolt gun despite being fun really eliminates the need of a Stakegun. SMG/Flamethrower is an okay addition but the chaingun and shotgun can do the same thing. On a lighter note the Boltgun's alt fire is decent and sometimes did come in handy.

The Bottom Line
So yes, it's pretty obvious by now that the expansion doesn't take the game ahead and in no way was it supposed to. But the disappointment lies in the fact that the game goes limp in areas where the original was strong. The weaker aspects of the original depreciated even further. That doesn't mean this is an expansion to avoid, it still maintains a lot of the good PK qualities. If you enjoyed the original, just pick this up without any further thought because you'll have a blast in many of the quality levels just as long as you can forget about the tarot card conditions. If you have a thirst for more Painkiller or FPS games in general you'll find some fun even in the more boring levels such as the lab.

The Good
No, I'm not influenced by the way of the Jedi and the sixth movie - the third to have been released - for finding this title. No, it's just that I understood that Painkiller wasn't only the name of the primary weapon but also a nickname for Daniel Garner, our hero. Well, I admit being in Star Wars period but only because of what happened in the Legacy Era and the book Sacrifice.

Anyway, back to BOOH (Battle Out of Hell - I'll be using the acronyms for the rest of the review). It's Painkiller's add-on, released something like six months after the original game. It's adding new maps, new multiplayer features, new Tarot Cards, new enemies and new weapons. But BOOH is at Painkiller what a Half-Life: Opposing Force is at Half-Life: a real great add-on, with refreshing content.

For those who considered the Trauma Ending as canon, you'll be deceived. Indeed, the Normal Ending is, with the arrival of BOOH, now the real ending of the original game. Consider Daniel going to Heaven with Catherine, his wife, as a bonus for hardcore gamers.

I need to refresh your memories because the story behind BOOH begins where Painkiller ended: in Hell, with Daniel against demon troops.

Daniel, in the end, chose to hunt Lucifer and rescue Eve, his hostage, from Hell. He killed Lucifer. But he discovered that Alastor didn't die in Purgatory - you're just sent back to Hell... So, Alastor took Lucifer's position. And Daniel, with an unconscious Eve by his side, began fighting demons sent by the new chief of Hell. Daniel (with a new face, a twisted one... - must be the eaten souls) and Eve escaped Hell. How? Eve had a moment of lucidity and pulled a trick of her, a sort of portal (no, it's not with a Portal Gun, you're not in the right universe). Daniel wants to stop Alastor. Letting Eve resting and after her recommendations, he leaves to fight the second attack from Hell. You can guess what will happen but I don't want to tell you the ending, just that it's not tomorrow that Daniel will see his dear wife Catherine again...

What brings BOOH in the universe of Painkiller? Well, even if the game isn't structured in chapters, you have 10 new levels, from an Orphanage (shocking level, so, don't let children play with BOOH, it's a M or a + 16 and I strongly agree with the classification) to Colosseum without forgetting a Dead City or a Loony Park... and who says new levels in PK says never-seen-before enemies. Contrary to Overdose, the new opus in the Painkiller Universe, BOOH didn't import PK enemies. Well, perhaps Pirate Zombies will remind you of Bones but it's not Bones - thank god... Male players will be rewarded by the appearance of blonde bimbos called Nurses - well, it's a cliche, not every blonde in the real world is like that. Being a FPS fangirl, you can understand that I feel sometimes alone in the FPS world, which is mainly a "male" world.

BOOH doesn't change a thing for the difficulty setting, only that there is a level blocked until Nightmare, Pentagon. Well, I understand why. Fighting the Panzer Spider is a real challenge.

And for the weapons? Well, you can find again your dear stakegun, painkiller, electroshuriken, rocket gatling and fusil freezer. But you'll have the happiness to play with a chaingun which is also a flamethrower and a boltgun with a zoom - sniping makes its appearance! Being in love with these kind of weapons, I can only applause the arrival of the boltgun.

For the Black Tarot, you can play with the cards from PK and you guessed it, ten new cards are also available through new challenges (with some nearly impossible, like the Underworld one, consisting in killing all enemies... with a sequence on a sort of little train...). Remember, Black Tarot cards are just useful rewards after completing a challenge.

Graphics didn't really change in six months but they're still beautiful and varied. Loony Park is probably the most stunning level in this add-on, even if Leningrad and Orphanage are also doing good in this domain.

And last but not least, the soundtrack is the same kind as PK, so, hardrock and ambient sounds are still marvelous... Loony Park is really original for example. You don't even have to download it because you can copy them from the game directory to your music one. Isn't it great?

The Bad
What? Negative points? Nothing is perfect, right? So, BOOH has some default.

First one is the graphics... if you're a purist one and if you play the game in 2008. That's normal that graphics from 2004 seemed old ones. But for me, it's not the case, BOOH is still beautiful. Oh, I have a complaint anyway about graphics. I'm not happy with Daniel's new face, he seems a twisted guy now. And Eve is now clothed... well, her long hair is not anymore her breast cover. What? It was too suggestive?

The useless cards are also present. Thank god, it's not like in Overdose! Majority of the cards are really useful.

Difficulty in Nightmare and Trauma are also reserved to hardcore gamers (I'm not at my ease when it comes to high difficulty settings).

And last but not least, despite being happy to have a sniper boltgun, I'm not used to click on my wheel mouse and rolling it... I mean, the wheel mouse is for passing from a weapon to another. So this default setting is more than a problem for, because I can't change it for the right button. It's used for the secondary fire. Aaaargh!

The Bottom Line
BOOH concluded Daniel's story. For now. Because I'm waiting for PK 2. And Overdose, released in 2007 and 2008 for some European countries, has its own hero, Belial. PK universe is now richer. Not like a Half-Life or a Doom. But it's still coherent. And you don't need to elaborate theories about a fact or a character. BOOH is just an old-school FPS game, logic for an add-on of an old-school FPS. Lock, load and shoot. That's the way of playing in Painkiller.

You need to add BOOH in your collection if you have Painkiller. It's a pleasant add-on, with a good gameplay, with new levels and with new weapons. So, I recommend it.

The Good
Polish developer People Can Fly really hit the mark with their 2004 surprise smash-hit Painkiller, and quickly followed it up with this expansion. While not as extensively catered for level-wise as the standard base game, which offers nineteen orthodox levels, and five guardian battles, the quality of content here is of a very high standard, and obviously much work went into the new environment and character designs to give players something extra tasty to chew on. The revamped Pain engine, included in the package here as part of the 1.5 upgrade, spruces up the visual splendour further, with even higher poly counts for the various models, and more special lighting and effects to further entice.

Battle out of hell essentially serves up the same kind of breakneck speed run and gun action fans were all craving, and throws in a couple of new weapons, and a whole bunch of new tarot tricks into the bargain. When you begin, you’ll find all the tarot cards from the standard game are instantly accessible, and there is a series of empty slots littered throughout to accommodate for the new cards. I always thought to have goals to earn the special powers was a great idea, and there are some truly devious asks to accomplish in order to earn the spoils here, e.g. in the first level here you can’t take any damage whatsoever to get the card.

Your first port of call is at an orphanage in purgatory that is surrounded by a dank swamp, which is layered with a thick fog, and murky surroundings abound, consumed by a dark cloudy sky which is suitably foreboding. The astonishing level of atmospheric detail immediately seizes your attention and draws you into the surreal disposition of the games’ protagonist. The enemies you first encounter here carry themselves like levitating puppets, gliding in a disturbingly whimsical fashion, though dangerous in their malice pursuit. Later within the confines of the structure in question, you will face off against deranged heinously evil children, yes, you read right, that are poor souls (literally) that have been converted to serve as part of King Alistair’s ( a big demon gargoyle like guy) army of unholy legions. The demonic orphans include boys in short pants and overalls, sporting pointed ears, and pure white eyes, whom speak with an eery hissing overtone, and command each other to attack you, without moving their lips in true demon fashion, and also included are little twisted girls wearing white veils from head to toe, who make for unassuming aggressors. The imagery here in is admittedly done in a pure fantasy manner, and is effectively unsettling.

The circus carnival level, for me, was one of the real stand outs. Here we have an onslaught of bright coloured lights, neon decorations, and ghoulish themes. I was honestly flabbergasted by how lavishly colourful this scene was, and I must say it was a welcome change from all the dull poorly lit scenes you are so often treated to in other horror games. Just on a quick side note, the ambient music here is very well realised and suitably fitting, and was sort of reminiscent of the music compositions from Amiga Pinball Fantasies on the Partyland and Stones 'n' Bones tables, except with somewhat gaseous overtones. The enemies in this instance are an interesting bunch, with evil clowns that are animated by electricity, some tall imposing lumpy figures made out of putty like substance of which they can attack you with, and also life-size supernatural marionettes whose strings are held aloft without supports, and characteristically drag themselves through the air. The real icing on the cake of this level is a part on rails (literally) where you travel on a wild roller coaster, complete with the loop the loops, and you have to contend with many enemies on the long ride. This level is just superbly crafted, and is a real hoot in action.

Dead City, which was used as the video demo for the expansion, is quite amazing to marvel. As the name suggests, you are in a huge burnt out city scape, where you encounter droves of zombies, and notably gigantic arachnid creatures, which articulate in a truly dominating fashion, that incidentally also take a heck of a pounding to take down. There are many more deadly creatures here, including swarming winged beasts, and humungous demonic creatures with telekinetic abilities, that can violently hurl cars and other vehicles at you, masterfully exploiting the brilliant havok 2 physics engine. I really want to stress this. The amount of all new fresh content is staggering. People can fly haven’t rested on their laurels, NO monsters used in the original package is recycled here, everything has been designed from scratch. If you think about games like half-life 2, where about 90% of the enemies all look identical, and this really made that game quite stale in that regard, with Painkiller variety is the spice that is the order of the day, and make no mistake, it is used liberally. Dead City also has some cool nods to zombie flicks, most notably the classic Dawn of the Dead. There is truck loads of great fodder here to grab your attention.

Just one more set-piece that caught me by surprise, but definitely a worthy addition, was a level that takes place in an ancient Greece type setting, complete with Colosseum. The environment design here immediately evoked Will Rock and Serious Sam, and I thought the theme, and level element’s like being rife with deadly traps, and a lot of lever activating worked handsomely in the Painkiller universe, and just simply clicked. In this instance you get a chance to deal with many ghostly knights in shining armour, Minotaur beasts, and other similar nasties you can probably imagine.

As a whole, the level designs are far less linear than the original levels, making for some great grey matter flexing to make progression. In some instances, just getting to the next area almost feels like finding a secret place, and this side of things nicely breaks the heavy action which is around every corner. The difficulty in these instances (puzzles) is well balanced, and don’t provide too much trouble. Since I mentioned secret places, anyone who has played Painkiller knows it has some of the most truly tricky and incomprehensibly tough, and often logic defying secret places. Well guess what? This offers up more of the same, and there is tons of it to boot for those inclined. Jumping, ahoy!

In terms of the new combo weapons introduced, the first acts as a semiautomatic machine gun and flamethrower, where the former shoots out short bursts of explosive tipped bullets which do heavy damage, and the latter, well, is self-explanatory, but needless to say, the thing on the receiving end get extra crispy, and remember kiddies, watch out for that back draft. The second is the bolt gun, now this one is cool, and effectively has three firing modes! The first simply shoot out a couple of bolts in a straight trajectory, and the second relinquishes a spread of explosive bolt bombs for thinning the proverbial heard. Last, but certainly not least, is an alt sniper mode, so you can snuff them out from a distance. These new additions do add some extra dimension to the combat.

Concerning tarot cards, there are some real corkers here that are well worth the effort to earn, and as per usual, certain cards will greatly assist you in gaining more cards later. Some of the new cards presented here are, Magic Bullet, which effectively makes it so none of your ammo is wasted, and it all finds its targets for a limited time, which is rather handy. One silver card, which is utilised indefinitely when placed, steadily replenishes your armour, whenever units are lost. The monster transformation has always been a favourite, and here there is card to change into the beast at will, and incidentally, this is a tough one to get, you have to complete Dead City in twenty minutes, and I’m telling you now, it is tough, and I remember playing it into the early hours one evening, and nailed it with like two seconds to spare in the end. Frustrating yes, but great fun all the same.


The Bad
I’m not sure if the cut-scenes were animated by the same team here, but I didn’t think they looked as professionally polished this time around. The game’s protagonist, Daniel, appearance has changed dramatically, and has been made to look more hunched over and wimpy for some reason, and doesn’t bear any resemblance to his former guise. While this is only a minor niggle, it seems quite needless.

All the guardians in this expansion require some sort of special tactics to defeat, and while some of the puzzles here are fair, I think others are overly complicated and impede the flow of the game. In some instances, the scenario seems so illogical, what the game designers expected from the player was a sort of accidental accomplishment from truly exhaustive experimentation in frustration. This isn’t hugely common, but I feel it is worth mentioning.

System requirements. While the game can be scaled to suit most common configurations, I personally found myself constantly fiddling with the graphics settings, trying to strike a compromise between stunning visuals and speed. Because the game has a focus of hugely busy moments, it puts some heavy demands on your system, and if like me, you have an aging computer, you might have to choose between beautiful but a bit slow, or a bit rough and fast. Of course, this is purely technical, and may not even be an issue for you. Oh, and just one more thing, make sure you get all available patches, because there are some detrimental bugs that can spoil your enjoyment otherwise.

Loading is quite slow. This is just a bit annoying.

The Bottom Line
People can fly have really outdone themselves with this outing, and have crammed so much great new content in, and have cleverly crafted some truly amazing, and greatly varied levels that play like a dream, and make for an utterly absorbing experience that doesn’t stray from the classic established formula, but have also gone another step further, with some genuinely interesting game play facets that are exceptionally well executed, and draw you deeper into the virtual mayhem as never before. With all the new tarot cards to try out, and masses of secrets to discover will keep you coming back for a decent time to come. There is so much good stuff on offer here, and very few quibbles, this is a highly entertaining expansion that is well worth checking out, and for those new to Painkiller, there is a Gold edition where you get both original and expansion in one package. Get it.