Painkiller PC Demo Debuts

Thanks to Blue's News for their story noting a single-player PC demo of DreamCatcher's FPS Painkiller is now available, with the 228MB trial version BitTorrent-able via GameTab and at AixGaming. According to the publisher: "The demo contains 3 Single Player levels including the never-before-seen Oriental Castle, the medieval town level and the Thor level where players will get 'hammered' with one of the biggest, meanest and downright scariest bosses of all time, Saphathoraél." There's a recent hands-on look at the title at C+VG which explains its style, suggesting: "Painkiller is usually likened to Doom or Serious Sam, and that's more or less spot-on, although this is Doom and Serious Sam utilising next-generation technology."

Comments

What in the world is WRONG with you people?

[ReyTFox]

Painkiller moves as slow as molasses and has, well, "painfully" repetitive play. The physics additions are little different from any other special effects gimmick - knocking down the balconies was sort of interesting, but the level provided little opportunity to really make use of it other than to take down the odd barrel or zombie. Indeed, the level was garbage. Now, I'll admit that I didn't go the whole way through it before I felt that I'd had enough, but it seemed pretty clear to me that the whole thing wasn't going to be much more than variations on "corridor, corridor, open area. Corridor, corridor, open area. Badger, badger, badger." There was some modest challenge in defeating the zombies and cloaked guys, but that could not possibly sustain the length of an entire game. The zombies in Quake 1 were truthfully much more interesting than these, seeing as they were a real hassle unless you had gibbing power handy.

Apparently Slashdotters will have to get the full version and play through a dozen levels of this tripe to figure that out.

Re:What in the world is WRONG with you people?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hear hear!

This is rubbish, once again everyone goes gaga over some nice graphics and a physics gimmick.

Did Havok pay to get the game made, it feels like an OTT physics demo

1. The game runs incredibly slowly at times (if there are more than 5 monsters or you trigger any large scale physics shananigans).
2. Nothing moves much, all they do is lunge if you get close and throw things. Doom1 was more challenging and dynamic.
3. Levels are identical repetitive mazes.
4. Whole thing is totally linear i.e. boring endless maze.
5. The big cloaked guy got stuck on a corner and just let me waste him at my leisure.
6. The weapons are not satisfying, grenades don't go far enough, stake launcher takes an age to reload and the magic winch thing obscures the scene when fired so you can't dodge incoming fire.
7. The world is not even self-consistent, coffins can usually be smashed, but at one point there are some "special" coffins with monsters in so they are invulnerable until the monsters want to get out. Rubbish.
8. The load time - O.M.G what the hell are they doing? Get killed and you will be sat for literally minutes while it reloads.

Some of this might be fixed for launch, but we all know how often that happens (i.e. hardly ever). Lets hope they at least do something about the load time.

Re:What in the world is WRONG with you people?

[robson]

Painkiller moves as slow as molasses and has, well, "painfully" repetitive play. The physics additions are little different from any other special effects gimmick - knocking down the balconies was sort of interesting, but the level provided little opportunity to really make use of it other than to take down the odd barrel or zombie. Indeed, the level was garbage. Now, I'll admit that I didn't go the whole way through it before I felt that I'd had enough, but it seemed pretty clear to me that the whole thing wasn't going to be much more than variations on "corridor, corridor, open area. Corridor, corridor, open area. Badger, badger, badger." There was some modest challenge in defeating the zombies and cloaked guys, but that could not possibly sustain the length of an entire game. The zombies in Quake 1 were truthfully much more interesting than these, seeing as they were a real hassle unless you had gibbing power handy.

Okay, so... I see what you're saying. And I agree with much of your assessment. Yet, get this:

I had an awful lot of fun playing it. As someone who designs games professionally, I always have to remember that in reflex-based games, game-play has to be engaging at a visceral level first, and then at an intellectual level.

There are lots of tiny decisions in there that made the game work viscerally:

*The slow speed of enemy projectiles, enabling you to dodge a single one easily. However, you get 4 enemies throwing stuff at the same time, *and* you're trying to aim while dodging, it becomes a significant skill-based challenge.

*The "crippled" zombies later on move slowly most of the time, but have a "hop attack" in which they move short distances very quickly.

*The stake gun was just a joy to use, and finally makes rag-doll physics satisfying.

So... I guess what I'm saying is that yes, the game is lacking a high-quality high-level design (like, say, Half-Life); however, they're doing an awful lot of things right on a low-level that help make the experience fun nevertheless. That's often harder to do right than the high level, and I think the Painkiller team deserves credit for it.