Anshar Studios and 3D Realms have offered up a team-based bit of shooting action here. Painkiller looks the part. Fast, frantic, lots of bullets and guns, blood and gore. Check out the trailer below. yep, looks great. But, it’s not how good a game looks, it is how well it plays that is key.

“The classic Painkiller series is back! Battle through Purgatory in fast-paced co-op action, wielding infernal weapons against relentless demonic hordes. Condemned for your sins, the Voice of the Creator offers you a chance at redemption. Will you seize it or be lost to darkness?”

I think I’m going to have to show a little gaming ignorance here. I’ve never heard of Painkiller before. Apparently, it was a pretty popular shooter in 2006. This original was quite well-received and told the story of a dead man trapped in Purgatory, who has to defeat hordes of hell spawn to earn his place in Heaven. Very much a story-driven, single-player experience (though it did have a multiplayer element) and yeah, it was pretty good, according to reviews at the time. This new version is a reboot and well… it’s not very good.

Doing away with the single-player story thing of the original, Painkiller is now a team-based arena shooter. There is still the idea of being trapped in Purgatory and having to shoot the crap out of tons of hell spawn, but the game is just dull. Even if you play single-player, you are forced to put up with AI controlled bots that are not very smart. Why couldn’t this be a single-player experience like the original? Plus, the AI bots do that thing that really annoys me, constantly talking and saying the same few lines of dialogue over and over and over. Even though there are four different characters to play, they are all basically the same, just with a different skin. There are no unique skills or gameplay mechanics. Aside from some very slight stat differences, they are the same character.

The levels are all the same too. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery changes, but the structure of the levels is the same. Enter and open arena, shoot loads of enemies, progress along a linear passageway, enter another arena, shoot loads of enemies, progress along a linear passageway, enter another arena. It’s just bland and split over three different biomes that you’ll finish in around four hours. The shooting itself is pretty solid with a decent weapon selection (once you unlock them via in-game currency) and while the weapons do have upgrades, there’s nothing for the characters themselves. The progression system here is shallow. Wait, there are tarot cards that give very slight and weak buffs. However, they are single use only and you have to keep paying to use them again. The money you have to spend to use them just isn’t worth it and it is a pointless mechanic.

Overall, Painkiller is not a bad game, it’s not a good game either. It’s one of those “It’s mildly okay” games. I really don’t like reviewing “okay” games, because there’s very little to get into. With a bad game, I can, and will, detail why it is bad. Same with a good game. With an “okay” game, that’s all I have, it’s okay. I can’t tell you how this measures up against the 2006 original, because I’ve never played it. But I did glance at a handful of reviews and from then, I can safely says that this new Painkiller is nothing like the original. Available now on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox… but I just wouldn’t bother if I were you. It’s a distinctly average title with nothing to pull you in, shallow gameplay, uninteresting levels, and a forced multiplayer element with bots that is annoying. Boss fights were good.