History VideoGame / Painkiller

Not in any way related to [[Series/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.

* AbnormalAmmo - Roughly every single weapon has you firing something that could arch a few eyebrows. Demon fetuses, stakes, the screams of a severed demon head, [[MemeticMutation shuriken and]] [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation lightning]]...
* AirborneAircraftCarrier - The "Air Combat" level from Overdose takes place on one such vessel in what appears to be an alternate version of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* AlienBlood - ''Overdose'' introduced enemies with green and even purple-colored blood.
* AllJustADream - The ending to ''Painkiller: Hell & Damnation'' seems to imply Daniel never died, but was really in a coma the entire series. However, the supernatural events in Purgatory all really happened, it just happens that Daniel was alive all along the whole time.
* ArrowsOnFire - Ammo from the Stakegun will catch fire if it flies far enough. It can also be lit on fire if the stake hits a Stakegun grenade in mid-air, turning it into a rocket.

* AtTheOperaTonight - Mr. Garner's idea of a fine opera performance includes samurai, ninja, and beetle-things lunging off the stage and trying to kill him. To which he replies by promptly blowing their heads off.
* AscendedMeme - All of the weapons in ''Resurrection'' have a slightly grungier redesign to them, but if you were to look closely at the new design on the Electro Driver, you'd be able to notice small graphics of fire and a topless woman. A likely nod [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation to a particular famous quote said by a certain critic]]. The redesigned version is not present in the later ''Redemption'' and ''Recurring Evil'' expansions, however.
* AwesomeButImpractical- Yes, you can shoot a stake through a grenade to make a long-range grenade. Yes, it's awesome when you get it working. No, it doesn't have any real combat application.

* TheBattleDidntCount - [[spoiler: Lucifer's general Alastor appears at the end of the game to mock you after you kill Lucifer himself in the "bad" ending. It seems [[FightingAShadow killing Alastor in Purgatory just sends him back to hell.]] Whoops.]]
* BodyHorror - The flying enemies in the Dead City level of ''Battle out of Hell'' and Dead Marsh level of ''Overdose'' are the up-turned remains of a human corpse's upper-half with dragonfly-like wings sprouting from the rib-cage.
* BolivianArmyEnding - One of the possible endings of the first game. [[spoiler:The canonical one. The opening to the expansion picks up from there and shows Daniel's escape.]]

* BulletTime - The Haste, Double Haste and Triple Haste cards, which can [[GameBreaker make any encounter a breeze]] when combined with certain other cards.
* CameraAbuse - Beginning with ''Overdose'' it was possible to have blood splatter on the screen when dissecting a baddie up close, including enemies that had AlienBlood.
* CircusOfFear - One of the levels in ''Battle Out of Hell''.
* ClownCarGrave - They're portals used by demons.
* CollectionSidequest - To get 100% on all levels (and some of the cards), you need to find well hidden gold and treasures.
* ContinuityReboot - ''Hell & Damnation'' clearly seems to ignore all of the third-party games ([[spoiler:although Belial appears at the end and claims to be the new protagonist]]), but it's ambiguous as to whether it's the same continuity as the original ''Painkiller'' and ''Battle Out of Hell''. Daniel is extremely untrustworthy of Death, initially rebuffing his offer with 'I've heard that before', mentions battling the devil, and being cheated by Heaven out of their side of the bargain. Eve's betrayal is also mentioned, although for some reason she doesn't have any Queen of Hell powers and is sincerely trying to help Daniel. Overall, it seems to take the events of the first 2 games as having happened in BroadStrokes, or at the very least, the remake seems to be HereWeGoAgain.
* CopyAndPasteEnvironments - The aforementioned CircusOfFear in ''Battle Out of Hell'' was pretty much copied shamelessly in ''Overdose'', aside from a few different enemies and a different final section.

* DarkerAndEdgier - Painkiller could be considered the darker counterpart of ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'', which also imitated the old-skool [[TheWarSequence War Sequence]]-spamming FPS style and came earlier.
* DeadToBeginWith - Well, Dead Because Of Opening Cutscene.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome - The demon morph makes Daniel see in black and white, with enemies tinted black and red.
* DegradedBoss - The miniboss from the first level of ''Painkiller''. See below.

* DoesNotLikeShoes - Eve is always barefoot.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu - The final boss is Lucifer himself.
* EasyModeMockery - The lower your difficulty choice, the fewer levels you can access. Curiously, if you play on the highest difficulty rating then the entire final chapter is locked out.
* EleventhHourSuperpower - In Redemption, on the last level of chapter 1, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysontheTin Entrance]], which is [[spoiler: the entrance to the current BigBad's lair.]] It's loaded with monsters guarding, well, the Entrance, and odds are stacked against Daniel. [[BaitAndSwitch Or they would be,]] if it weren't for the fact that he has [[NumberOftheBeast 666]] [[NighInvulnerable health,]] and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic 666 ammo]] for [[MoreDakka EVERY]] [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter SINGLE]] [[AnIcePerson GODDAMN]] [[LightningGun WEAPON]] [[StockNinjaWeaponry IN]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice HIS]] [[GrenadeLauncher ARSENAL.]] Yes, that includes the [[LudicrousGibs Rocket launcher.]] There's a boss at the end which is a [[EldritchAbomination huge demon.]] [[spoiler: [[CurbStompBattle And he doesn't have a chance in hell]] of beating [[OneManArmy Daniel.]]]]
* EverythingFades - Including dropped souls and gold, if you aren't fast enough.
* ExcusePlot - You're dead, and God has decided to make you His errand boy by holding your wife over your head. Go kill everything.
* FaceHeelTurn - [[spoiler: The end of ''Battle Out of Hell'' reveals Eve's ultimate goal was to steal the power of the Ruler of the Underworld to become Queen of Hell.]]
** FaceHeelRevolvingDoor - In ''Hell & Damnation'' she's repentant for her power-crazed lunatic phase and once again a sincere ally of Daniel's; the reason for this is not explained at all.

* FinalExamFinale - A very clever variation. In the second to last level in ''Overdose'', the Movie Studios, you go through the "stages" and "actors" of each previous level. Along with ''cardboard cut-out monsters''!
* FireAndBrimstoneHell - Visited in one of the ending videos [[spoiler:after you kill Lucifer and Alastor gloats before leaving you to your BolivianArmyEnding]].
* FreezeRay - Secondary fire of the Shotgun (Or "Bonegun", in ''Overdose'').

* GagDub - by [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]], of the game's intro sequence, which can be seen as a post-credits addon in his review of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher''

* GameplayAndStorySegregation - What happens in the intro and in between cutscenes, has little to do in the game. At least in first installment.
* GasMaskMooks - Skeleton soldiers.
* GatlingGood - With an attached rocket launcher nonetheless.

* GenreThrowback - The game is unapologetically hailing to older [=FPSes=], with the only tactical decisions being "unload" and "charge".
* GodivaHair - [[MsFanservice Eve]] wears only this and a cloth wrap around her hips. In some shots her nipples are actually clearly visible underneath. In ''Battle Out of Hell'' she gets a little more cover.

* GrapplingHookPistol - The titular weapon, sort of. Secondary fire latches onto the environment with a hook... but then just projects a laser beam back to the base if you face it, slowly vaporizing anything caught in it. Enemies can find themselves taking first-class flight on a direct hit with the hook.
* GratuitousJapanese - Par for the course with demonic ninjas, but the things they yell out ("''watashi wa karasu!!!''"/"I am a crow!!!") kinda border on nonsense.

* GuideDangIt - How many of those secrets will an "average" gamer find without a walkthrough?

* GunsAreWorthless - Not for you ([[NoKillLikeOverkill thankfully]]), but for the enemies. If you have armor on, you barely even take ScratchDamage on most difficulties ([[DeathOfAThousandCuts it adds up fast, though]]). Then we have the bikers in the first Painkiller: they wield Tommy Guns in level 5-1 and [[NailEm nail guns]] in 5-2, and [[GoddamnBats the nails do MUCH more damage]].
* HarderThanHard - two hidden difficulty levels (Nightmare and Trauma)
* {{Hell}} - The last level of the original; The earlier ones are actually Purgatory.
* HellIsWar - Literally. The final area of the game takes place in {{Hell}}, which to the hero's human eyes looks like a time-frozen collection of historic war scenarios with the humans cut out, complete with an unmanned battering ram breaking through crumbling castle walls, grenades exploding in trenches, a crashing airplane and, looming in the distance, a giant mushroom cloud forming over an exploding atomic bomb.
* HereWeGoAgain - ''Hell and Damnation'' is a loop of the first two games, due to Death making a deal to go collect souls for him so he can really return him to his wife. [[spoiler:Surprise surprise, in the end, he's been deceived and Eve tells him he has to go fight yet more legions against a deathless enemy (Death himself, in this case, not Alastor)]].
* HighlyVisibleNinja - If they're not using projectile attacks, then they're about four inches from your nose trying to kill you. And they repeatedly yell gibberish in Japanese.
* HitboxDissonance - Using the Painkiller's spinning blade as a projectile ''looks'' like a fairly wide-hitting attack, but only the center of the projectile will actually do damage. Just the blades hitting the enemy will do no damage at all.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard - [[spoiler: How Daniel defeats Lucifer.]]
* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels - Daydream is easy, Insomnia is normal, Nightmare is hard, and Trauma is NintendoHard.
* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon - Just about every single one of them.
* ImprobableWeaponUser - One of the weapons in ''Overdose'' you get to use is a '''severed demon head'''. Another are demon fetuses.

* LeapOfFaith - Frakking secret areas. Especially bad in the Stone Pit, which is a massive level consisting of plenty of secrets hidden above a, well, giant pit.
* LiterallyShatteredLives - You can freeze and shatter enemies. This is the best way of dealing with some GoddamnedBats.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle - [[Music/JudasPriest He is the Painkiller,]] and [[ThisIsMyBoomstick this is the Painkiller]].
* LuckBasedMission - At least one card condition in ''Overdose'' relies on pure, dumb luck: the level ''Animal Farm'' requires the player to collect 160 souls to collect the card. However, there are only 161 enemies (the last one is glitched out) in the entire level, so the player can only miss a single soul at most - which is already incredibly challenging, but becomes luck-based because some souls can spawn out of reach, and the card condition becomes {{Unwinnable}} if this happens even twice.
* LudicrousGibs - The Painkiller shreds enemies into a fine paste, and that's just the beginning.
* {{Malaproper}} - Daniel somehow pronounces Alastor's name as ''Allister''. He and Eve also pronounce Sammael's name as ''Samale'' (''Belial however says him by the right pronunciation'')
* MeaningfulName - Asmodeus is a demon hiding out in Purgatory to avoid having to fight for Hell. In Christian demonology, Asmodeus is a "Great King" of demons who, according to some legends, was the serpent in Eden. His name may have been derived from a dangerous spirit of Zoroastrian myth called Aeshma-deva, or "the Destroyer." Asmodeus was also one of the demons Solomon used in building his temple. Given this pedigree, finding out he's a dumpy little nobody demon hiding from Hell seems about as inappropriate a name choice as possible. [[spoiler:He's Lucifer in disguise, who's also the most commonly-named candidate for the serpent in Eden. And that bit of history as an architect? He's the one building the gates from Hell to Purgatory.]]

* MonsterClown - In the CircusOfFear, natch.
* MoodWhiplash - The Asylum and Orphanage levels are genuinely horrifying. Especially the Asylum pre-patch, when there is no battle music at all to pump you up. Both of them come RIGHT at the time you're considering yourself utterly badass.
* MsFanservice - The game's portrayal of Eve makes one contemplate all manner of original sin.
* MultipleEndings - There's three in the original game.

* MysteriousPast - Played with. In the first game is frequently mentioned that something presumably evil in the past of Daniel prevents him from enter Heaven, even tho Daniel swears there's no such thing as he was a completely upright man. [[spoiler: In Hell & Damnation, however, while remembering his mortal life in the intro, Daniel is presented with some glimpses that hints at a violent past in the military...but in the ending we learn that Daniel could not enter Heaven because he was infact not really dead, just in a coma, and so he was never actually judged for his life to begin with. So, whatever there is really something bad or not in Daniel's past, is ultimately still to be clarified]].
* NighInvulnerability - Part of the Demon Morph powers.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot - Numerous nouns become descriptive adjectives transfixed before "demon", such as "pirate demon", "prisoner demon", or "biker demon". The amount of variety in Hell is absolutely staggering.

* NunsAreSpooky - Demon zombie nuns show up in the Orphanage level.
* ObfuscatingStupidity - Daniel's easy-going Imp friend that follows him around for most of the game turns out to be [[spoiler: Lucifer himself in disguise, busy digging holes to open portals between Purgatory and Hell]].
* ObviousBeta - ''Resurrection'', through and through.
* OneHitKill - Part of the demon morph's powers, except against bosses.

* PacifistRun - By ''Painkiller'' standards; the Tarot Card challenge of ''Battle Out Of Hell'''s second level, Looney Park, is "Kill no more than 88 enemies". The first 67 kills are mandatory, so the Pacifism part only comes into play during the rail shooter section in the second half.

* PowerupLetdown - Many tarot cards. While most cards are not entirely useless and even fun to use, the letdown comes from the difficult process of obtaining them. The new cards from ''Battle Out of Hell'' take it a step farther with how expensive it is to purchase them.

* PuzzleBoss - It's easier to name those who are NOT: Necrogiant, Alastor, and Cerberus.
* QuadDamage - Via the Black Tarot. There's also a skull item which alters weapons so that some of their weaknesses are removed.

* RewardingVandalism - Most of the objects, when destroyed, release coins for some strange reason.
* RuleOfCool - The game's reason for existing.
* SceneryPorn - Seriously, just play through it and you'll understand. 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.

* 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: ''VideoGame/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 Creator/EpicGames, who ended up working on ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}''. The rest of them founded Flying Wild Hog, who made ''VideoGame/HardReset'' and [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 the recent Shadow Warrior]].

* StandardFPSGuns - Averted. There are five guns, each with an alternate fire. The Painkiller, a weedwhacker/grappler/beamgun. The shotgun that also shoots freezing ice bolts. The Stakegun, that fires yard-long bolts of wood and grenades. And the Electrodriver, which shoots shurikens and lightning. The only gun that can be considered "standard" is the rocket launcher/minigun. The expansion adds a machine gun/flamethrower and a sniper rifle/flechette mini-bomb launcher.

* StandardSciFiSetting - In ''Overdose'', the Asteroids level pretty much happily channels typical sci-fi.
* StandardStatusEffects - Some enemies can make the character slower, poison him or make unable to fire weapons.
* TheStarscream - [[spoiler: Turns out Alastor's not really that upset you killed Lucifer. In fact, he was on his way to kill the old man himself for being such a boneheaded leader. Also Eve, who only wanted you to kill Alastor to take his powers and become the Ruler of Hell.]]
* StockScream - In Asylum and Hell stages, many of them can be heard in the background. Wilhelm and Howie screams are not included.

* SuperMode - If you collect enough enemy souls, you'll become a demon until you run out. A very, very powerful demon, at that. A demon who kills enemies just by looking at them, lighting them on fire and [[MindRape Mind Crushing]] them. The golden Black Tarot Cards also allow the player to create their own once (or twice, or three times with the right cards)-per-level super mode.

* SwissArmyWeapon - See above. The expansion ''Overdose'' also adds some newer, even stranger weapons.

* UndergroundMonkey - Surprisingly averted. For the first 2/3rds of the game, each new level features a new set of enemy types, with their own unique models and behavior. The last several levels do tend to use repeating enemy types, but even then there's some degree of variety.
* UrbanFantasy - There's just as many modern-day levels as there are ancient levels.
* TheWarSequence - The original ''Painkiller'' might already have counted, but nearly every single encounter in ''Redemption'' plays out like this: Every single level has close to a ''thousand'' monsters, with as many as ''a hundred'' for individual encounters.
* WhamLine - "I dig graves." [[spoiler:The completely unnecessary graveyards in Purgatory are used to hide gates from Hell. Asmodeus has just revealed himself as Lucifer, preparing the way for Hell's armies all this time]].
* WithThisHerring - Lampshaded and averted; the angel who gives Daniel the quest offers to give him weapons, but he declines. The starting weapon, the titular Painkiller, is strong enough that you can win the game using nothing else fairly easily.
* WreakingHavok - ''Painkiller'' was one of the first high-profile games to use Havok physics, but unlike some of its more [[VideoGame/HalfLife popular]] [[Franchise/{{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.
* {{Wutai}} - ''Japanese Massacre'', The second level of ''Overdose''. To a lesser extent, demon samurai and ninja are prominent in Episode 2 of the original game, trying to kill you in a European Opera house and a Russian army bridge.
* ZombieApocalypse - The Village level is a medieval one.

* ContinuityReboot - ''Hell & Damnation'' clearly seems to ignore all of the third-party games ([[spoiler: although Belial appears at the end and claims to be the new protagonist]]), but it's ambiguous as to whether it's the same continuity as the original ''Painkiller'' and ''Battle Out of Hell''. Daniel is extremely untrustworthy of Death, initially rebuffing his offer with 'I've heard that before', mentions battling the devil, and being cheated by Heaven out of their side of the bargain. Eve's betrayal is also mentioned, although for some reason she doesn't have any Queen of Hell powers and is sincerely trying to help Daniel. Overall, it seems to take the events of the first 2 games as having happened in BroadStrokes, or at the very least, the remake seems to be HereWeGoAgain.

* MixAndMatchWeapons: A lot off the weapons in the series are this. ''Painkiller'' has a chaingun that's also a rocket launcher, the electro-driver shoots ninja stars and a lighting bolt and can combine both into a chain lightning attack. The titular weapon has ''four different attacks'': it spins, launches the head, creates a laser, and slowly luanches the spinning blades.

* OneManArmy: Daniel practically ''lives and breaths'' this trope. His kill count, by the end of the first game alone, easily goes into the quadruple digits.

* EleventhHourSuperpower - In Redemption, on the last level of chapter 1, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysontheTin Entrance]], which is [[spoiler: the entrance to the current BigBad's lair.]] It's loaded with monsters guarding, well, the [[CaptainObvious Entrance,]] and odds are stacked against Daniel. [[BaitAndSwitch Or they would be,]] if it weren't for the fact that he has [[NumberOftheBeast 666]] [[NighInvulnerable health,]] and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic 666 ammo]] for [[MoreDakka EVERY]] [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter SINGLE]] [[AnIcePerson GODDAMN]] [[LightningGun WEAPON]] [[StockNinjaWeaponry IN]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice HIS]] [[GrenadeLauncher ARSENAL.]] Yes, that includes the [[LudicrousGibs Rocket launcher.]] There's a boss at the end which is a [[EldritchAbomination huge demon.]] [[spoiler: [[CurbStompBattle And he doesn't have a chance in hell]] of beating [[OneManArmy Daniel.]]]]

** Not so much in multiplayer in the case of the stake gun, where a staked grenade's faster projectile speed makes it an extremely useful spawnkilling weapon in the hands of a skilled player. Still useless in direct combat, though, due to the stake gun's low rate of fire.

* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame - See A Taste of Power

* CableCarActionSequence: Subverted in the "Snowy Bridge" level of ''Painkiller''. Daniel takes a wobbly gondola from one part of the level to another in peace, a nice change from the long level full of tough samurai and slippery ninjas.

* CityOfCanals - City on the Water.
* ClownCarGrave - Explicitly stated to be portals used by demons, so {{justified|Trope}}.

* ContinuityReboot - ''Hell & Damnation'' clearly seems to ignore all of the third-party games ([[spoiler: although Belial appears at the end and claims to be the new protagonist]]), but it's ambiguous as to whether it's the same continuity as the original ''Painkiller'' and ''Battle Out of Hell''. Daniel is extremely untrustworthy of Death, initially rebuffing his offer with 'I've heard that before', mentions battling the devil, and being cheated by Heaven out of their side of the bargain. Eve's betrayal is also mentioned, although for some reason she doesn't have any Queen of Hell powers and is sincerely trying to help Daniel. Overall, it seems to take the events of the first 2 games as having happened in BroadStrokes, or at the very least, the remake seems to be a HereWeGoAgain.

* CrateExpectations - There are crates found here-there. Might be justified in a factory level of the first game which has pallets.

* CreepyCathedral - Several levels.

* DieChairDie: It's even the objective in one of the levels of the first game.

* EmergencyWeapon - The titular Painkiller actually remains a useful weapon for the rest of the game.

* FireAndBrimstoneHell - Averted. Instead Hell consists of [[spoiler: a collection of man-made disasters and wars frozen in motion.]]
** But then played straight again in one of the ending videos [[spoiler:after you kill Lucifer and Alastor gloats before leaving you to your BolivianArmyEnding]].

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition - Both subverted and played straight.

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed - [[InvertedTrope "Several demons were actually harmed during the production of Painkiller."]]

* PacifistRun - Sort of; the Tarot Card challenge of ''Battle Out Of Hell'''s second level, Looney Park, is "Kill no more than 88 enemies". The first 67 kills are mandatory, so the Pacifism part only comes into play during the rail shooter section in the second half.

* ShockAndAwe - Hi, Electrodriver.
* SimulatedUrbanCombatArea - The architecture is amazingly realistic in more than several of the urban levels.

* WhamLine - [[spoiler:"I dig graves."]] As an explanation, [[spoiler:the completely unnecessary graveyards in Purgatory are used to hide gates from Hell. Asmodeus has just revealed himself as Lucifer, preparing the way for Hell's armies all this time]].

* OneManArmy

* [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels Crowning Level of Awesome]] - The game has tons of great levels, ranging from the atmospheric ''Asylum'' level to the gorgeous ''City on Water'', but the stage for the final BossBattle is generally agreed upon to be one of the greatest levels in the game, if not one of the greatest levels ever made for any FPS. See HellIsWar below. [[spoiler:Too bad the fight itself is [[AnticlimaxBoss stupidly easy and short]])]].
** The Leningrad level in ''Battle Out of Hell'' deserves a special mention, taking place in the titular city in the World War II-era, complete with you being stuck in the middle of a war between Nazi Zombies and a demonic Russian military. The music that plays during every fight sequence? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlGx3ms3a-k&feature=related The Soviet national anthem, complete with wails of the damned in the background.]]

* EleventhHourSuperpower - In Redemption, on the last level of chapter 1, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysontheTin Entrance]], which is [[spoiler: the entrance to the current BigBad's lair.]] It's loaded with monsters guarding, well, the [[CaptainObvious Entrance,]] and odds are stacked against Daniel. [[BaitAndSwitch Or they would be,]] if it weren't for the fact that he has [[NumberOftheBeast 666]] [[NighInvulnerable health,]] and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic 666 ammo]] for [[MoreDakka EVERY]] [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter SINGLE]] [[AnIcePerson GODDAMN]] [[LightningGun WEAPON]] [[StockNinjaWeaponry IN]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice HIS]] [[GrenadeLauncher ARSENAL.]] Yes, that includes the [[LudicrousGibs Rocket launcher.]] There's a boss at the end which is a [[EldritchAbomination huge demon.]] [[spoiler: [[CurbStompBattle And he doesn't have a chance in hell]] of [[CrowningMomentofAwesome beating]] [[OneManArmy Daniel.]]]]

* GagDub - by [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]], of the game's intro sequence, which can be seen as a post-credits addon in his review of ''TheWitcher''

* SuperMode - If you collect enough enemy souls, you'll become a demon until you run out. A very, very powerful demon, at that. A demon who kills enemies just by looking at them, lighting them on fire and [[MindRape Mind Crushing]] them.

* 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: ''VideoGame/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'' and [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 the recent Shadow Warrior]].

* 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'' and [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 the recent Shadow Warrior]].

->''Painkiller is 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 stealth elements, no key hunting, no escort quests, no dorky support characters dribbling in your ear, no 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.''
-->-- '''Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw''', ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation''

* MysteriousPast - Played with. In the first game is frequently mentioned that something presumably evil in the past of Daniel prevents him from enter Heaven, even tho Daniel swears there's no such thing and he was a completely upright man. [[spoiler: In Hell & Damnation, however, while remembering his mortal life in the intro, Daniel is presented with some glimpses that hints at a violent past in the military...but in the ending we learn that Daniel could not enter Heaven because he was infact not really dead, but just in a coma, and so he was never actually judged for his life to begin with. So, whatever there is really something bad or not in Daniel's past, is ultimately still to be clarified]].

* MysteriousPast - Played with. In the first game is frequently mentioned that something presumably evil in the past of Daniel prevents him from enter Heaven, even tho Daniel swears there's no such thing and he was a completely upright man. [[spoiler: In Hell & Damnation, however, while remembering his mortal life in the intro, Daniel is presented with some glimpses that hints at a violent past in the military...but in the ending we learn that Daniel could not enter Heaven because he was infact not really dead, but just in a coma, and so he was never actually judged for his life to begin with. So, whatever there is really something bad or not in Daniel's past, is ultimately still to be clarified.]].

* MysteriousPast - Played with. In the first game is frequently mentioned that something in the past of Daniel prevents him to enter Heaven, even tho Daniel swears there's no such thing and he was a completely upright man. [[spoiler: In Hell & Damnation, however, while remembering his mortal life in the intro, Daniel is presented with some glimpses that hints at a violent past in the military...but in the ending we learn that Daniel could not enter Heaven because he was infact not really dead, but just in a coma, and so he was never actually judged for his life to begin with. So, whatever there is really something bad or not in Daniel's past, is ultimately still to be clarified.]].

* Mysterious Past - Played with. In the first game is frequently mentioned that something in the past of Daniel prevents him to enter Heaven, even tho Daniel swears there's no such thing and he was a completely upright man. [[spoiler: In Hell & Damnation, however, while remembering his mortal life in the intro, Daniel is presented with some glimpses that hints at a violent past in the military...but in the ending we learn that Daniel could not enter Heaven because he was infact not really dead, but just in a coma, and so he was never actually judged for his life to begin with. So, whatever there is really something bad or not in Daniel's past, is ultimately still to be clarified.]].

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''.

* MoodWhiplash - The Asylum and Orphanage levels are genuinely horrifying. Especially the Asylum pre-patch, when there is no battle music at all to pump you up. Both of them come RIGHT at the time you're considering yourself utterly BadAss.

* DoesNotLieShoes - Eve is always barefoot.