Customer Reviews

Painkiller Resurrection

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The original title sported some of the most memorable and dazzling moments I've ever seen in FPS Gaming. I'll admit, I was underwhelmed by the previews of red and black screenshots I saw containing what appeared to be exactly the same druid character models from 2004 in a 2009 title. I overlooked it as a wip, figuring that self-described "Enthusiastic Amateurs" Homegrown Games were too small to market like the big boys of gaming. Pre-ordering this bad boy as a package deal through steam, I figured I had the perfect slasher for Halloween. I found out that if you took the coding modifications made to the original game engine for this title and printed them on paper, I wouldn't wipe my tushie with it.

I'm being as straight as I know how to be in a review: This game sucks. The formula that made the older titles successful has been spread dangerously thin with boring, loosey goosey levels that kill the pacing that made the original title famous. These levels were designed with almost complete and utter disregard for the AI capablities of the characters. It's almost as if the level designers, faced with fancy new level building tools, went hog wild creating super detailed, enormous open levels and then threw in a bunch of enemy spawn points without bothering to test if it was fun, they just assumed the characters would know what to do. Nine times out of ten, an entire horde of enemies can be done away with while standing still with the painkiller, provided you merely place a pebble or a bush between you and them. Compare this type of fighting with the infected from Left 4 Dead, who can literally go wherever YOU can, makes it sad a feels like a lazy move. The enemies themselves now make zero contextual or stylistic sense for being there, because they weren't designed to go with the level themes. The battle-pacing is predictable and flat out awful, often relying on walking into the middle of the room or floor to activate. If you're going to 'WOW' us with recycled weapons and characters, at least give them graphical updates. If you're going to shy away from cg animated cutscenes, and instead opt for so-so graphic novel storyboarding and voice acting that sounds like unprocessed recording studio stock and cram it down our throats, fine. At least show us mercy and let us skip past the intro movie where the pudge faced stinky clod that calls himself a 'world class killer' blows himself up because he can't read a bus schedule.

From a graphical standpoint, the new look is actually a lateral move. There are mistakes here that are simply unforgivable, even for self-described amateurs. One example is the brown, fireball launching brutes, who operate on a badly executed skeletal animation rig that looks like an intern from art school recycled it from his first character project. The skin envelopes created for this character causes it to not only deform inappropriately at low stress angles, but completely fall apart on ragdoll. Things like this detract from the play experience, especially when you notice the heads on these characters all seem to literally SPLIT IN TWO during normal movement because some jerk-wad doesn't know how to mirror his envelopes. Glaring lighting artifacts on maps, low res textures on some close range objects, tiling, stretching, direct x graphical/compatibility noise issues on a fully updated machine, severe clipping issues, physics turned wonky from modification (some of the ragdolls literally EXPLODE and bounce around the level), multiple crashes on high end fully updated machines, and the ability to literally walk through props or off the edge of maps and die. The list goes on. This feels like the first attempt at developing Half-Life before they started over, after Valve realized it wasn't fun and scrapped it.

To be clear, I really love this series! I still play Painkiller to this DAY. However, Resurrection is the 'Halloween 3' of this series. Doesn't really belong or live up to the first titles.

I love all the previous Painkiller games (even Overdose) and I had high hopes for this one. I was happy to see that a new one came out. Although not perfect, I like this one too. The levels are long and entertaining and I think they get BETTER as the game progresses. Overall these guys did a very commendable job with lots of good graphic detail. A great value and good game-time for four bucks. Fun should be 4 stars, not two. I don't have any experience w/ the multi-player portion.

I would recommend trying it and giving these guys our support.....

This review is for Painkiller Resurrection. To be blunt, this painkiller is the same as the others: run and gun, blood and bullets, boss battles and bunny hopping. If you liked the other Painkiller games and want some more this is the game for you. Just be aware that even with the games "improved graphics" (improved versus the old painkiller games) it's just not at the level a great title should be. Examples of other great games would be: Bioshock, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, or Resident Evil 5. Graphics aside something new to this Painkiller are more "open" level designs, however the openness feels pointless, you wonder from one area of a level to another for bad guy killing but there is no point to it, going to side areas does not yield more gold or mini-boss battles, or special weapons, or anything at all, just another place to spend ammo. As for weapons, most of the weapons are the same with a couple of new ones thrown in, but I won't spoil the "surprise." Bottom line...if you want more of the same Painkiller action this game is for you! If however you're looking for something new and innovative...sorry to say this isn't your next favorite game.

After playing through the less-than-stellar PK:Redemption, I was surprised that PK:Resurrection picked up the fun from the original two chapters. The HUMONGOUS detailed levels were a joy to explore, and it was as fun as always to make weapon meet soul-monster. New monsters & weapons .... sure, a few, and they're fine. But it was the new locales which really made this game shine.

I have played a lot of fp's since quake 2 was released. I can count almost 30 titles I've played including Call of duty, left for dead, dead island, Rage. Some of them better then others. I love Quake 2 as my first game .Painkiller resurrection is the worst so far. None of the games I know comes even close to this one in the bad sense. If it was possible I would give negative five stars.
I played it for about half an hour before fed up with it. The game feels very very cheap. I got stuck three or four times during that time(not computer just my character couldn't move nether forward nether backwards) . had to restart game from saved point. Enemies very stupid I would say about the same level as Quake 2. The graphics sloppy and unfinished with abundant grey patches of nothing. If not to pay attention at some more recent graphic tricks It looks a lot like Quake 2 just much worse. Shame I spent 6 $ and half an hour of my time.
Don't make the same mistake.

Unless you pay $3-5 bucks for this you are not going to be happy, its just a very poor follow up for painkiller(embarassing to say the least and it is probably one of the shortest games i have ever played)I will say this, i did play the whole game and i have played other games that i shut off because they were just so bad ,for example (alone in the dark). The average game player will be done with this in a couple hours, and will never want to play it again.

Painkiller Resurrection is a big disappointment compared with the first one. There simply too many bugs in the game. I got stuck in many spots and require restarting the game, unable to load saved game, got a blank screen every time it "morph". It errors out every time I try to update the game using its build-in updater. And its nearly impossible to get a update file from any where.. I am half way through the game and about trash it... EEERRRR...

I played Painkiller Black Edition, including the Battle Out Of Hell expansion, and found it amazing, excellent. Can't say enough wonderful things about it. BUT..., as for THIS one..., forget about it. Really. Don't waste your time with this game. From the first scene..., through first hour of playing Painkiller Resurrection, I was so disgusted at the slow pace, the overall klunkiness of the game, that I actually uninstalled it, and threw the disk in the garbage where it belongs. EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING.

- Mike S.

i downloaded the game which took like 1hr and it did not work on my computer it was a waste of my time and it takes up to much space on the computer.

This game is an acceptable sequel to the previous Painkiller: Overdose, but it falls short of many aspects of the original Painkiller and its expansion pack, Battle Out Of Hell.

The game introduced new weaponry, and new enemies, but it also introduced new bugs and quirks (how many times have you ever walked into solid objects in the original game, and had the "solid" objects become transparent?).

It is fun, but not 100% stable.