Heaven’s hitman is coming back for more.
Released all the way back in 2004, Painkiller was a fantastically over-the-top FPS, a balls-to-the-wall old-school shooter about a dead man forced to murder his way out of Purgatory. In subsequent years, it became noteworthy for another, less flattering reason: spawning terrible sequels. Perhaps recognizing that it had captured lightning in a bottle, People Can Fly, the studio behind the original game, moved on to other things, leaving the creation of follow-up games to other, lesser studios. And boy, did it show.
But that’s not stopping Nordic Games and The Farm 51 from trying yet again with Painkiller: Hell and Damnation, a new shooter that will mark the return of Daniel Garner, the original Heavenly hitman. What’s it all about? Fast-paced gameplay, murdering dudes and “stunning enormo-boss fights.” As far as the plot goes, nobody knows and nobody cares.
“We’re proud of the shiny new splendor of the game’s graphics, but we’re doubly proud we’ve made player skill the most important part of the game,” said Reinhard Pollice of Nordic Games. “In addition to the single player campaign, we’re putting a tremendous emphasis on the game’s multiplayer component.”
Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is being developed by The Farm 51, best known (relatively speaking) for Necrovision, a 2009 shooter straight out of the Painkiller mold which in gameplay terms unfortunately had more in common with Painkiller sequels. Here’s hoping that this go-around with the real thing works out better. Details about platforms, release date and other such things will be released “in due time.”
