History VideoGame / Painkiller

* JumpPhysics: Daniel can move a lot quicker by bunny-hopping everywhere and seeing how the gameplay is "kill everyone and not die" you are goign to need to do this. ''Painkiller: Hell and Damnation'' has this info a loading screen tip.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle - [[Music/JudasPriest He is the painkiller,]] and [[ThisIsMyBoomstick this is the painkiller]].

For a while, ''Painkiller'' owned the unique distinction of being '''THE MOST METAL GAME EVER''', finally being overtaken by ''[[BrutalLegend Brütal Legend]]'', which was then overtaken by ''[[{{VideoGame/DOOM2016}} DOOM]]''.

->''Painkiller is [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike in the same bucket]] as ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' and the original ''VideoGame/{{DOOM}}s'' in that it serves as an antidote to fancy-pants complex modern [=FPSes=]. There are no [[StealthBasedGame stealth elements]], no [[FetchQuest key hunting]], no [[EscortMission escort quests]], no [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection dorky support characters dribbling in your ear]], no [[VideogameObjectives mission objectives]] besides '''kill everyone'''--it's just you, some guns, and the entire population of Murdertown between you and where you need to be. It's pure genocidal fun.''

For a while, ''Painkiller'' owned the unique distinction of being '''THE MOST METAL GAME EVER''', finally being overtaken by ''[[BrutalLegend Brütal Legend]]'', which was then overtaken by ''[[{{DOOM2016}} DOOM]]''.

For a while, ''Painkiller'' owned the unique distinction of being '''THE MOST METAL GAME EVER''', finally being overtaken by ''[[BrutalLegend Brütal Legend]]''.

* DieChairDie

* AirborneAircraftCarrier - The "Air Combat" level from Overdose takes place on one such vessel in what appears to be an alternate version of WorldWarOne.

''Painkiller'' is a FPS made by Polish developers People Can Fly (now absorbed by EpicGames). The game concerns Daniel Garner, a man with an idyllic life, a beautiful spouse, and whose life is tragically snipped short when a truck plows straight into his car. Daniel gets to watch as his wife goes to Heaven, but he has to stay in Purgatory where he is commissioned by God to stop Lucifer's invasion. If Lucifer takes Purgatory, he can take Earth and Heaven as well. Oh, and Eve is your companion through the game. Yeah, [[AdamAndEvePlot that Eve.]]

* HeyItsThatVoice - Most games with this game's development budget just have a couple of guys who sound like they were grabbed from the office across the hall do all the voice work. ''Painkiller'' actually goes the extra mile and has several recognizable voice actors, including Cam "Liquid Snake" Clarke as the main character, and the incredibly hammy Jim Cummings as Alastor.

A modern [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the game, titled ''Painkiller: Hell & Damnation'', was released on October 31, 2012 on {{Steam}}. It was developed by The Farm 51, the makers of ''VideoGame/NecroVisioN'' and ''VideoGame/{{Dreamkiller}}'', who were themselves heavily inspired by the original ''Painkiller''. The game is basically a "greatest hits" of the best levels from ''Painkiller'' and ''Battle Out of Hell'', with a new engine and modern graphics, new weapons, and a new original story attached (Daniel is fighting to collect an army of 7,000 souls for Death, in exchange for being reunited with his wife Catherine). Noteably, Daniel is now voiced by Jon St. John, the voice of VideoGame/DukeNukem.

->''If video games got drunk and had one-night stands that resulted in pregnancy, Painkiller would be the product of the frenzied, S&M-laden coupling of {{VideoGame/Doom}} and SeriousSam.''

->''Painkiller is [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike in the same bucket]] as ''SeriousSam'' and the original ''VideoGame/{{DOOM}}s'' in that it serves as an antidote to fancy-pants complex modern [=FPSes=]. There are no [[StealthBasedGame stealth elements]], no [[FetchQuest key hunting]], no [[EscortMission escort quests]], no [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection dorky support characters dribbling in your ear]], no [[VideogameObjectives mission objectives]] besides '''kill everyone'''--it's just you, some guns, and the entire population of Murdertown between you and where you need to be. It's pure genocidal fun.''

* DarkerAndEdgier - Painkiller could be considered the darker counterpart of ''SeriousSam'', which also imitated the old-skool [[TheWarSequence War Sequence]]-spamming FPS style and came earlier.

** Not to mention the guns, most of which were copied directly from ''Painkiller'' and ''Battle Out Of Hell'', usually with a reskin and a {{Nerf}} to boot.

* {{Malaproper}} - Daniel somehow pronounces Alastor's name as ''Allister''.

For a while, ''Painkiller'' owned the unique distinction of being '''THE MOST METAL GAME EVER''', finally being overtaken by ''[[BrutalLegend Brütal Legend]]''.

* TakeThat: A print ad for ''Hell Wars'' read "Hang up your {{Halo}}. Get ready for Hell."

* WreakingHavok - ''Painkiller'' was one of the first high-profile games to use Havok physics, but unlike some of its more [[VideoGame/HalfLife popular]] [[{{Halo}} contemporaries]], ''Painkiller'' focused more on [[RagdollPhysics enemy corpses flying through the air propelled by shotgun blasts]] and giant bosses whose footsteps make arcways collapse brick-by-brick.

A modern [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the game, titled ''Painkiller: Hell & Damnation'', has was released on October 31, 2012 on {{Steam}}. It was developed by The Farm 51, the makers of ''VideoGame/NecroVisioN'' and ''VideoGame/{{Dreamkiller}}'', who were themselves heavily inspired by the original ''Painkiller''. The game is basically a "greatest hits" of the best levels from ''Painkiller'' and ''Battle Out of Hell'', with a new engine and modern graphics, new weapons, and a new original story attached (Daniel is fighting to collect an army of 7,000 souls for Death, in exchange for being reunited with his wife Catherine). Noteably, Daniel is now voiced by Jon St. John, the voice of VideoGame/DukeNukem.

Not in any way related to [[PainkillerJane a series of media featuring virtually immortal, ass-kicking Action Girls.]] Or Music/JudasPriest. Though being related to Music/JudasPriest would be the one and only way to make the game any more metal than it already is.

* SpiritualSuccessor - To old arcade shoot 'em ups, and VideoGame/QuakeI, in terms of random locations being mashed together to form a bare-bones FPS. The game has also spawned its own set of spiritual successors: ''NecroVision'', developed by The Farm 51 whose team includes former People Can Fly designers, and ''VideoGame/{{Dreamkiller}}'', an original shooter from the developers of ''Overdose''. Most eployees of People Can Fly are currently in the employ of EpicGames, who ended up working on ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}''. The rest of them founded Flying Wild Hog, who made ''VideoGame/HardReset''

* PowerupLetdown - Many tarot cards.

* SceneryPorn - Seriously, just play through it and you'll know what I mean. Some of the jaw-dropping settings include a cathedral, a fancy opera house, a castle, a Turkish-style palace, a Venice-like city on the water, a modern dockyard with towering cranes, a hilltop monastery, and an absolutely vertigo-inducing snowy bridge level. Also, some locations doesn't have any mooks or useful objects in it - they were just made for scenery porn.

* GatlingGood - With an attached rocket launcher.