History VideoGame / Painkiller

%%* ObviousBeta: ''Resurrection'', through and through.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Eve is always barefoot.

* SurpriseCarCrash: The opening cinematic has protagonist Daniel Garner and his wife Catherine driving out for a birthday date. Daniel takes his eyes off the road for a split-second to hold hands with her and a truck crosses the center line and kills both of them in a head-on collision.

-->-- '''Steerpike''' of ''[[http://tap-repeatedly.com/2003/02/painkiller-review/ Four Fat Chicks]]''.

* 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.]]

* 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 [[NighInvulnerable 666 health,]] and 666 ammo for ''every single weapon'' in his 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.]]]]

** The final boss fight in ''Battle Out of Hell'' is also a doozy, introducing a completely new and counterintuitive mechanic that isn't seen anywhere else in the game. [[spoiler: Daniel has to stand in a glowing circle and willingly get hurt, which summons a golem. While Daniel's weapons are useless against the boss, he has to distract he boss long enough for the golem to hurt the boss]]. This is explained nowhere.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: How Daniel defeats Lucifer.]]

* 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]].

''Painkiller'' is a FPS made by Polish developers People Can Fly. 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.]]

The boss battles are massive, the challenges the game sets are worth it (in the form of powerups you can earn), the enemies are varied and awesome (Nazi zombies whose war cry is "SCHEISSE!"), it's got hours of replay value, and it costs something like $10. In short, it's a fantastic example of old-school FPS game design with new-school sensibilities.

In addition to that, it was notable for being one of the most impressive looking shooters of the time, still holding up graphically even after decade of its initial release. The main reason for this is an amazing level design - aside of RuleOfCool, the game basically ''runs'' on SceneryPorn, consisting almost exclusively of enormous and meticulously detailed levels (in contrast to claustrophobic and linear stages of many first person shooters of the 2000s).

For a while, ''Painkiller'' owned the unique distinction of being '''THE MOST METAL GAME EVER''', finally being overtaken by ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', which was then overtaken by ''VideoGame/Doom2016''.

Apart from the original game, People Can Fly also developed an expansion pack, ''Battle out of Hell'', made up mostly of [[WhatCouldHaveBeen content that was]] cut or otherwise scrapped for the original game. It shows, as most players consider the expansion to be a bit of a mixed bag that doesn't quite reach the level of the original game. Since then, the game's publishers have released other standalone expansions developed by fan modders, starting with ''Painkiller: Overdose'' in 2007 (developed by Mindware Studios from the Czech Republic), and following up with ''Painkiller: Resurrection'' in 2009 (by Homegrown Games) and ''Painkiller: Redemption'' in 2011 (by [=Team EggTooth=]). [[RunningTheAsylum Par for the course, none of them are particularly good.]]

A modern [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the game, titled ''Painkiller: Hell & Damnation'', was released on October 31, 2012 on UsefulNotes/{{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 [[Series/PainkillerJane a series of media featuring virtually immortal, ass-kicking Action Girls.]] Or [[Music/{{Painkiller}} the Judas Priest album]]. Though being related to Music/JudasPriest would be the one and only way to make the game any more metal than it already is.

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler: 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.

* 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.
** For giggles the developers made it possible to do the same thing between the bolts and the scatter bombs of the semi-auto sniper weapon in ''Battle out of Hell'', but due to the high speed of the bombs and the long reload before using the bolts, its incredibly pointless and nearly impossible to use it effectively.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: The basis is that the main character has died, but cannot enter Heaven with his wife until he does some work for the angels and kill the generals of Hell.

* 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.
** Not to mention the guns, four of which are direct copies of weapons from ''Painkiller'' and ''Battle Out Of Hell'' with a reskin and a {{Nerf}} to boot.

* 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.

* DegradedBoss: The miniboss from the first level of ''Painkiller''. See below.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The final boss is Lucifer himself.

* 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.]]]]

* 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''!

* FunWithAcronyms: ''Painkiller: '''H'''ell and '''D'''amnation''
* 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.

* GatlingGood: With an attached rocket launcher nonetheless.

* GottaCatchEmAll - Most, if not all of the card conditions basically boil down to this: Find all the monsters and kill them, find all the secrets, catch a certain number of souls and demon morph a certain number of times, etc. Some of them can be really [[FakeDifficulty dickish]] to get too.

** Unless you happen to know that tengu in Japanese mythology were essentially demonic crow ninjas, then it makes slightly more sense.

** A couple of gamers were this stumped on the Vampire miniboss in the catacombs level. [[spoiler: Shoot the ceiling and shine light on him.]]
** Even worse is the Ghost Nun miniboss of the Orphanage in 'Battle Out Of Hell'. Completely immune to the fire of all your weapons, including the new submachine gun/flamethrower combi-weapon you picked up in her room, there's only one way of damaging her. [[spoiler:Use the flamethrower to set alight a patch of floor near the door that looks exactly like the rest of the room except for a tree root growing on it just as she crosses it. The flames will set her alight and kill her, [[ViolationOfCommonSense despite the flamethrower itself having absolutely NO effect on her]].]]
** The final boss fight in 'Battle Out of Hell' is also a doozy, introducing a completely new and counterintuitive mechanic that isn't seen anywhere else in the game. [[spoiler: Daniel has to stand in a glowing circle and willingly get hurt, which summons a golem. While Daniel's weapons are useless against the boss, he has to distract he boss long enough for the golem to hurt the boss]]. This is explained nowhere.
* 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)

* ImprobableWeaponUser: One of the weapons in ''Overdose'' you get to use is a '''severed demon head'''. Another are demon fetuses.
* InexplicableTreasureChests
* JumpPhysics: Daniel can move a lot quicker by bunny-hopping everywhere and seeing how the gameplay is "kill everyone and not die" you are going to need to do this. ''Painkiller: Hell & Damnation'' has this info a loading screen tip.

* {{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'')

* MoneyMultiplier: The Greed Black Tarot, which which doubles the amount of gold found in breakable items.

* MultipleEndings: There's three in the original game.
** A bad ending: [[spoiler: You are trapped in Hell, fighting off an infinite wave of enemies with just your Manly Boots and shotgun.]]
** The second bad ending: [[spoiler: You've completed the game at 100%. The ending is the bosses running towards the camera in washed-out, bright white light. That's it.]]

* 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]].

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed

* NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom: It actually worked in the first game's favor as Yahtzee points out. The only "objectives" are optional chances to get power-ups to use later. Painkiller: Resurrection tried to get away from this. ''Tried.''

* 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.
** Doubles as a LuckBasedMission: the roller-coaster automatically running over 18 enemies and the other enemies accidentally killing each other can ''very'' easily push your kill count over 88.
* 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.
** The few new cards introduced in ''Overdose'' on the other hand are completely useless and not worth looking at. ''Resurrection'' takes it the furthest in that there are only six cards to obtain in the entire game and only one gold and one silver card can be used at a time as opposed to the two silver and three card holding of previous games. Add this to the fact that Resurrection's levels are far longer and long and easy to fail, its best to just completely ignore the tarot cards in that game outright.

* QuadDamage: Via the Black Tarot. There's also a skull item which alters weapons so that some of their weaknesses are removed.
** In Painkiller's multiplier there's an actual Quad Damage item to be found. It can also be found on the first level of ''Redemption''.

* RuleOfCool: The game's reason for existing.

* SecondaryFire, of course! Some even have Tertiary Fire.
* [[SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset Skeletons In The Gun Closet]]: The Bonegun and the Spinegun from ''Overdose'' are made entirely out of bones.
* 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]].
** And of course the game is ultimately named for the song used as the basis of [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom’s]] first level [=E1M1=]’s song, easily the most famous song in the entire Doom series, [[Music/JudasPriest Painkiller]].
* 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.

** Also The Painkiller can shoot its blade out at an enemy, go through multiple enemies, and return to the user. It does a decent amount of damage if you are willing to wait for it to return to you.

* 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.]]

* TakeThat: A print ad for ''Hell Wars'' read "Hang up your Franchise/{{Halo}}. Get ready for Hell."
** There's also a subtle jab at ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 3'' in the opening cinematic of Battle Out of Hell. Eve tells Daniel that "nobody wants to teleport into Hell."
* 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.

* 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.
** The original game had a lot of more subtle interactions mostly noticed by players focusing on trying to climb, ride fireworks, or make stake or corpse stairs. The extensive use of "solid" objects appears to have been a major factor in the unusually long level loading times reviewers considered a negative factor; while ''Painkiller: Hell & Damnation'' eliminates most of the delay, its engine also greatly reduces the scope of the physics, preserving only those interactions best remembered from the original.
* {{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.

* StandardStatusEffects: Some enemies can make the character slower, poison him or make unable to fire weapons.

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler 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.]]

* 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.

Apart from the original game, People Can Fly also developed an expansion pack, ''Battle out of Hell'', made up mostly of [[WhatCouldHaveBeen content that was]] DummiedOut or otherwise scrapped for the original game. It shows, as most players consider the expansion to be a bit of a mixed bag that doesn't quite reach the level of the original game. Since then, the game's publishers have released other standalone expansions developed by fan modders, starting with ''Painkiller: Overdose'' in 2007 (developed by Mindware Studios from the Czech Republic), and following up with ''Painkiller: Resurrection'' in 2009 (by Homegrown Games) and ''Painkiller: Redemption'' in 2011 (by [=Team EggTooth=]). [[RunningTheAsylum Par for the course, none of them are particularly good.]]

* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Painkiller: Hell & Damnation'' is noticeably harder than the original game, especially the earlier levels. There are even more enemies, and the earlier levels now contain EliteMooks instead of simply waves of cannon fodder.