Painkiller: Black Edition
Painkiller Black Edition includes the expansion pack Battle Out of Hell, featuring 10 additional single-player levels and many new villains.
Painkiller: Black Edition is a gore, action and fps game
developed by People Can Fly
and published by Prime Matter.
Released on January 24th 2007 is available only on Windows
in 4 languages: English, French, German and Spanish - Spain.
It has received 1,969 reviews of which 1,758 were positive and 211 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Painkiller: Black Edition into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Win 98/2000/Me/XP
- Processor: 1GHz
- Memory: 256 MB RAM
- Graphics: DirextX 9.0 64MB Video Card
- Storage: 3.4 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This game is in my opinion a forgotten gem that should be left alone. Though quite old, it still is far better than many modern shooters today. This game takes the style of a doom style shooter in which you are placed into a level, are given a marker of where to go either through the checkpoints that show you where to go next via the arrow at the top or simply being a bit linear. Throughout your journey of a level you are given swarm after swarm of unique enemies, this adds on a factor of bloodshed as you go through levels destroying everything like they're made of paper. There are a total of 35 levels throughout the game including the expansion and secret bonus level if certain requirements are met to access it. There are also 6 boss fights placed in between every couple sets of levels, all being towering beasts that you have to take down through strategy. It may be a great game, I feel if remade would fail to recapture its audience, as it may be too simple for the people it would sell to. What the game does right: +The weapon variety is wonderful with around 8 weapons to collect throughout the game, each feeling greatly unique and pack quite a punch. +The levels are mostly very unique and feel great to play through, some of my favorites being the Asylum, Orphanage and Loony park. +Each level has an add-on extra challenge that you can attempt to do, such as collecting all the ammo or finding every secret, this also awards a power-up known as tarot cards once completed. +The movement feels good, as if you string together a couple jumps, you can go much faster than walking. +The variety of enemies, though many of them act similar is wonderful, it's always fun to see a completely new cast of enemies throughout almost every level to fit the environment. +The sound design is wonderful for the guns and make them feel truly satisfying to wield, I can still hear shotgun noises while writing this. Things it does wrong or just meh: -The characters have not much to talk about, we have the badass who kills everything, the guide for the badass and a villain who has motives that boil down to wanting power. -Certain levels are at some points a pain or a slog to complete, the worst offender in my opinion being in the expansion with a mine themed environment with long minecart sections without saves. -Some game breaking bugs near the start of the game, I only experianced these during the first chapter, the two I encountered were at some point a bridge didn't load in to continue the game and a boss in one of the boss levels didn't spawn. -Difficulty spikes are quite large. The first three chapters are quite easy, but when you get onto chapter 4, the enemies start having more HP and feel less like weak minions, minibosses start being introduced during the swarms and the boss of this chapter is massively painful for multiple reasons. I am not complaining on difficulty, I just feel it could've been more eased into it over time, instead of a massive difficulty spike at one point, this continues in the expansion too, especially in the second half of it. Conclusion: Though this game was greatly enjoyable for me, I am not exactly the target demographic as I am not well versed in shooters, maybe my complaints are entirely due to my lack of prior experiances in this genre, I still thought it was very worth the asking price of 10 euros, I feel any gamers who enjoy shooters or something like doom will find this enjoyable too, as it seems to take many inspirations from its predecessors.
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This game is very awesome and might be one of the best shooter games I ever played. I played and finished it on both PC and original xbox and had a lot of fun playing it on both systems. The game has a large variety of enemies, including Monks, Amputees, Freaks, Zombie Warriors, Ninjas, Witches and more. The enemies range from ones using only melee attacks to ones using projectile attacks or special types of attacks. Each chapter in the game has different enemy types which makes them feel fresh, and while many of them are samey it's very satisfying to kill them. The weapon variety is also very good. There's things like a shotgun that is not only very powerful, but also can fire an ice projectile that causes most of the enemies it hits to freeze and instantly get killed with the next shot, making it powerful against tougher enemies. There's a gun that serves as both a rocket launcher and a minigun and both firing modes are very useful against hordes of enemies. The stake gun/grenade launcher is useful against lower tier enemies as well. The electrodriver fires a beam that can kill weaker enemies relatively quickly but also depletes ammo fast, so I don't use it often. The environments also are diverse. There's things like a a graveyard, an asylum, a theater, a ghost town, a snowy wasteland and many more. The game is similar to Serious Sam and Doom 2016 and Eternal in that it frequently locks the player into arenas that spawn in waves of enemies and said arenas open after all enemies die, and I really enjoy that style of gameplay. The combat is just really good. Weapons sound powerful, have satisfying hit feedback, enemies are sent flying with powerful blasts and the ragdolls are good. The gore effects are also some of the best I've seen in a shooter. The game also includes the Battle Out Of Hell expansion. It's even crazier than the base game. It adds new enemies like Clowns, Doctors that inhale gas and fart out said gas (yeah, that type of enemy really exists), Panzer Spiders, Lab Commandos armed with pistols, Butchers and more. There's two new weapons, a submachine gun/flamethrower combo and a powerful Boltgun with a sniper scope that fires many stakes at once and and some grenades. The areas are once again diverse, with things like a lab, an apocalyptic city, the loony park and a Colosseum. Despite all these additions the gameplay is mostly unchanged, and is still as fun as ever. There's also the Tarot Card system, but I never used it. Yo get the cards for completing specific objectives in each level like killing all enemies or finding all secrets. There's different types of cards, one that is active for the entire level and one that can only be activated for a limited time. The game isn't that hard without using the cards, which is why I didn't use them. The boss fights, unlike the rest of the game, are just bad. Aside from the Necrogiant all of the bosses can only be killed in specific ways that you can't easily figure out. For example you need to shoot bubbles to damage the Swamp Thing or shoot and destroy the Guardian's hammer first before you can damage him. The bosses also have attacks that are often difficult to dodge, and that combined with the tedious ways to damage them make them boring and frustrating. I highly recommend this game to shooter fans. It's very fast-paced, action-packed and filled with a lot of content. If you like Serious Sam or Doom 2016 and Eternal, I think you would like this game too as it's similar to them.
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This classic FPS combines fast-paced action with gothic horror aesthetics, immersing you in dark, adrenaline-pumping journey through hauntingly atmospheric purgatory, armed with an array of devastating weapons. Yes, I especially liked the diverse arsenal (from the iconic stake gun to explosive weaponry, each satisfying to wield against hordes of enemies) and the funny ragdoll physics that makes the gameplay feel dynamic and satisfying. "Painkiller" excels in delivering pure and unapologetic fun without relying too much on nostalgia. It's a must-play for fans of demon-slaying action-packed FPS games. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271256839 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266656853
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Pretty good. This is a FPS. The graphics are old but still decent. The music is awesome. The story is Okeish, just a few cutscenes to tell a little tale about death, vengeance, and some hell. No bugs but it crashed a couple of times. Overall, very entertained. There are plenty of weapons to try and use. There are cards that provide different effects and abilities. Many levels and various difficulty settings, so it's long enough. The story is kinda full of cliches but it's not intrusive and it's just a gory tale to keep you going. There are some platformer parts that are unexpected and unwelcome. The music is heavy metal goodness, very adequate. I think this qualifies as a retro-gem, so kill some stress and some pixel demons, why won't ya?
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My first person shooter Every gamer, contemporary or hardcore has their “first game”. Depending on how many years ago you’ve gotten into the hobby, it may not even be the actual first game but a cherished, nostalgic memory instead. One way or another, something did get you started – a turning point, if you will. For me that game is 2004’s Painkiller, first completed during a streak of afterschool sessions at a friend’s house before I even had a computer of my own. What a blast that was – endless hordes of enemies, unique guns with seemingly infinite ammo and one of my first ventures into heavy music – all in a single package. While a lot of people prefer to leave their childhood favourites untouched in a bid to keep the memory pristine, I opted to revisit Painkiller as a veteran gamer. To be entirely fair – passage of 20 years wasn’t particularly kind to this title, especially if we were to take its accursed track record as a franchise into account. On the other hand, if one is willing to turn a blind eye to the janky parts, Painkiller is a plain, yet extremely fun action piece holding up strong as ever. It has also made me realise that my gaming preferences have, in a sense, gone full circle over the years. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3197105997 Heaven’s got a hitman In terms of plot, Painkiller is as simple as they come. The player embodies a black leather jacket of one Daniel Gardner, a victim of a car accident sent to purgatory. Indeterminate amount of time later, the protagonist turns out to be remarkably resourceful lad – to the point an angel descends from the heavens with a job offering. Hell is gathering forces for an attack and Daniel is uniquely deniable option for heavens to respond in kind. Kill 4 generals of hell and the gates of paradise will open, or so they said. In short, the story is there primarily to tell the player which way the gun is pointing and it doesn’t need to be anything more. Having no frame of reference, little did I realise that despite its stellar (for the time) graphics, Painkiller already back in 2004 was following dated design principles, which were about to give way to a wave of more realistic, narrative driven shooters. Throwing both realism and storytelling to the wind, this title drops you off to a cemetery to fight hordes of skeleton knights as a warm-up activity instead. Painkiller has all the makings of Doom’s descendant – health and armour counter, ammo packs, distinct arsenal and level-based structure, allowing for all the environmental variety in the world. Tour de Purgatory Level design of this title is a beast of its own. While some chapters of the game follow a visual theme (e.g. first one has a distinctly gothic aesthetic), others are completely disjointed, opting to provide a distinct scenery for the mayhem instead of... well, coherence. Taking into account this game’s selling point is delivering a crazy ride with guns blazing, I appreciate the design choice of prioritizing stylish looks over a more restrained approach. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3197295034 Therefore, a crooks-filled Prison makes way to an Opera House, only to be followed up by insane Asylum. Does it make any sense? No. Is it fun to have a major fight in the middle of a grand stage as enemies leap into action from audience lodges while distorted aria wails in the background? Absolutely. In turn, the following Asylum introduces a complete tonal shift. All the firepower in the world won’t protect you from the uniquely oppressive atmosphere, proving against all odds, that Painkiller’s premise has the room for a sprinkle of horror. Lots of angry dudes No matter whether it is a military base, a twisted amusement park or the tower of Babel itself. They all would mean very little without an equally vivid enemy cast to fill the room with bodies. Granted an average enemy count per level goes easily into hundreds, available space can become uncomfortably crowded awfully quick. Especially taking into account that Painkiller is an arena shooter, with walls frequently springing from the ground behind the player in order to keep the combat up-close and personal. Luckily, most of the enemy numbers consist of cannon fodder, with only occasional heavy hitters looming in the background. Usually indicated by a greater stature, they are the ones to watch out for, while the chaff makes its best suicide charge impression, wearing down the ammo reserves in the process. To be frank, enemy pool of Painkiller is far too numerous to be covered in anything else than the broadest of terms. Instead, I would like to turn the spotlight to a number of unique enemy interactions, which introduce a surprising level of finesse to the killing field. Say, in the very first level, undead knights can behead a skeleton, triggering an animation where headless corpse starts spinning the blade around wildly, hurting both friend and foe. A variant of this interaction occurs in Catacombs, where knights can straight-up revive their lesser allies. Such details can be easily missed during regular course of play, however they spell surprising level of forethought put into what ultimately is the meat for the grinder. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3197295031 Double-barrelled doom More than deserving a separate mention is the said grinder itself. Painkiller boasts a uniquely distinct arsenal, with each weapon having at least two fire modes. Nothing could quite highlight the absolute confidence this game has in its guns as the fact, it is named after the default weapon in the player’s arsenal. This title has a dedicated hotkey for painkiller’s ranged attack, leaving the player with backup option regardless of currently held weapon. It is also extremely useful for breaking open the multiple loot containers found throughout the purgatory. However, the primary plowhorse of the game is an old-fashioned shotgun – not only it has ridiculous fire rate, its freeze beam secondary mode puts a stop to all but the mightiest of foes. There is only more to come – stake gun, delivering a meter-long piece of sharpened wood directly to your foes’ abdomen. Rocket launcher? Coming right up, with a minigun as a secondary. Or electrodriver – a shuriken gun, doubling up with coiling lighting because awesome. Certain guns even combine the two, to form ammo-hungry tertiary shot, supplying the player with quite a few tactical options. The other side of the coin For all my fondness for Painkiller, I need to acknowledge that as a franchise it has aged like milk, left in the blistering sun. For a premiere oldschool experience, go no further than Black Edition, which includes both the base game and Battle out of Hell expansion pack – the only entries by original developer, People Can Fly. Every instalment afterwards was a mod pack which eventually received official endorsement of the publisher, DreamCatcher, with only Painkiller: Overdose being any decent. Furthermore, even at its strongest, Painkiller hits a 20-years anniversary at April 12th, making this venerable title at best a loveable piece of jank for modern audiences. Should you have any love for “boomer shooter” I cannot recommend it enough. As for my personal take – only several years into gaming did I realise that my first love was developed in my own country of origin, Poland, a place where precious few games were made back in the day. Nowadays, hundreds of games later, I find myself continuously enjoying the high tide of retro-shooters which persist as one of the most enduring trends among the indie developers. Looking back, let’s just say I couldn’t have placed my initial bet any better.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 19 November 2024 06:21 |
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| SteamSpy data | 21 January 2025 05:42 |
| Steam price | 24 January 2025 20:45 |
| Steam reviews | 23 January 2025 05:47 |
Online players
21
Developer
People Can Fly
Publisher
Prime Matter
Release
24 Jan 2007
Platforms