Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/206760/
Source: Youtube Channel painkillerzone
The original Painkiller was released back in 2004 and was developed by People Can Fly (who most will know for developing Bulletstorm now). Since then, seven Painkiller games (not including the iOS ones) have been released with #7 released just two days ago on Steam. Painkiller follows the more retro style of First-Person Shooters where everything is fast-paced, violent, and just plain crazy. Hordes of enemies will come after the player while they were shot-up, blown to pieces, or mutilated by the spinning blade (which is called the painkiller). Sometime last year, I picked up the complete pack as I saw it go on sale several times on Steam. $5 for 4 games wasn't a bad deal; however, I saw that a lot of the later ones were rated poorly. I bought it anyways and tried it out. The game was challenging (at the harder difficulty levels) and the action was crazy fast. It reminds me of Quake, Unreal Tournament, or Serious Sam with a dark atmosphere and a fascination with gore. For a while, it was fun and entertaining, but I saw how it could get boring after a while as the mechanics don't vary itself too much. The challenge is always to stay alive and eliminate all enemies, no matter where they're stuck or glitched to. What was really amazing about the first game was how amazing and atmospheric the environment was. One of my favorite places from the first game was possibly the Opera House. It was huge with the details of all the colors, props, and large area of combat to maneuver around. Well it seems that each iteration that came out after the original have been done by a different developer every time, and each of them got a lower score than the last. Rather than a real update or sequel, they are all expansions of the original and have few differences in levels and enemies. Painkiller: Recurring Evil seems to be just that.
As I watched the trailer, I couldn't believe after 7 installments that the game still uses the same exact guns. The levels look amazing as usual, but the enemies act about the same way as every Painkiller game: running towards you. They say that the graphics have improved, and I can see a bit of "effects" addition but it's not something to be glorified about. I didn't think there would still be developers trying to make new Painkiller games as it seems to go on a downward spiral of lower scores each time one comes out. If they were to create new Painkiller games, you would think they would change some mechanics around and offer some variety. I know a lot of people complain about Call of Duty rehashing their games, but you can feel the difference in gameplay and design with each one in changes to weapons, items, scenarios, customization systems, and level design (though I do admit that the Modern Warfare series copies off itself in the campaign mode quite a bit). Seeing how Painkiller is a instantly gratifying game that doesn't sustain long term entertainment, I'm going to pass on Recurring Evil until it's hit $1-$2 before I grab it. It also depends on how I feel after playing some of the other ones. Painkiller: Recurring Evil is 20% off for $7.99 until March 7th, 2012 for those who are curious about the game or absolutely love the series. I would recommend getting the first game out of all of them as it seems that the one "People Can Fly" developed seems to be the most well designed.
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