Painkiller (PC)

I enjoy Painkiller and I advise anyone who hears of it to have a go.

Forget in-depth storylines and over complicated mission objectives, Painkiller is an old school blaster through and through. Playing more like a true sequel to the original Doom than Doom 3, in Painkiller you basically storm around the levels blasting anything that moves with an arsenal of exceptionally inventive weapons.

There is a rather un-intrusive background story (you were killed in a car crash but have been promised a second chance at life - on the condition you carry out an Angel's plans to destroy Lucifer's most powerful armies and generals), but it doesn't really have any bearing on the game other than to explain away the locations and enemies you'll face. Because of the slightly surreal setting, the baddies are all pretty freaky affairs - skeletons, witches, ghosts and the like. Some of them are pretty creepy looking and there can be hundreds of enemies all coming at you at once thanks to the impressive game engine.

The game starts with you in a deserted cemetery but after about 2 minutes of exploring the first section and marvelling at the pretty textures and sky, you'll be mobbed by about 30 zombies. From here on in it's pretty much the same thing constantly. The levels are broken up with checkpoints and all enemies must be destroyed in each section before the next area opens up. The levels themselves range from the obligatory cemetery and asylum, to deserted theatres and catacombs. The range of weapons is pretty limited, but also quite inventive - and all have secondary fire modes that help the primary fire (for example the shotgun's secondary mode is a freeze gun, so you can freeze bigger enemies and then blow them to pieces with buckshot after they've frozen solid). The titular Painkiller is your default weapon and consists of a set of whirling blades that slices and dices enemies at close range, but also acts as a kind of grappling hook/laser beam set up. Sounds pretty weird, but is well implemented in practice. Other weapons include a rocket launcher and a brilliant stake gun (that can pin enemies to walls!).

Also of note is the power up system, where gold is collected from barrels/boxes etc and is then spent on tarot cards in between levels. These tarot cards represent different abilities that can then be activated during play for invincibility, greater ammo capacity and the like. Presentation wise, Painkiller is stunning providing your machine is good enough (I'm running it on a P4 2ghz with 768mb of RAM and a 128mb Radeon 9600 and it runs like a dream), but due to the amount of customizable options, you could probably get decent performance out of a system running at 1Ghz. The textures are awesome and the enemies ooze imagination. Even the weapons have been lovingly doted over to make them look amazing. Oh, and here's a tip - on the outside levels, have a look up at the moonlit sky; it's truly breathtaking and the stars even twinkle!

As far as first person shooters go, this is pretty impressive stuff and I haven't even mentioned the end of level bosses (go and look for the word 'Gargantuan' in the dictionary). It may not have the deep plot of Half Life 2 or be as graphically stunning as Doom 3, but Painkiller is definitely one of the most imaginative and downright fun PC shooters of all time. Move over Serious Sam, your time is up.