Gaming Today Reviews Painkiller: Overdose

Wow, where do I begin? I played the original Painkiller as far back as when it was still in alpha, seeing the potential that was there, and now I sit here dreading to so much as think about playing Overdose. I tried giving it a chance, playing through a chunk of the single-player and a few multiplayer matches, but I always ended up with the same taste in my mouth – this simply isn’t a fun game.

Oftentimes when writing a review and making a blanket statement like that, you can offset it by recommending it to a certain demographic, such as diehard fans of the series or someone just looking for some straightforward fun. And while I could say that diehard Painkiller fans might find more to appreciate here than a typical FPS fan, I’m not going to – because even if you’re so vested in getting every detail about the story that you’d willingly play the game, you’ll still find that there’s no fun to be had.

What Overdose breaks down to – and you’ll realize this after playing for 5-10 minutes – is room after room of bad guys whom you need to kill so you can get to the next room. While many of these rooms aren’t technically “rooms,” they’re simply a small section of the level that cuts you off from advancing and locks you out from going backwards until you kill every enemy, most of which will simply spawn once you’ve killed off one wave. It’s so formulaic that it’s tremendously difficult to not get bored; it’s simply a yawn-fest.

So to recap, the entire game is composed of this: Enter room. Room locks down. Enemies appear. You kill enemies. More enemies appear. Repeat several times. Room unlocks. Enter new room. Repeat ad nauseum.

Exciting, no?

While that sets the game up for failure, it could be rectified if the enemies were interesting and diverse, the weapons fun and rewarding to use, and the environments interesting to explore (not that there’s really any purpose or ability to explore, so let’s just say “to look at.”).

But not even a single one of those things is prevalent. The enemies are all dull and void of even the slightest morsel of intelligence other than “advance towards player and attack.” They range from huge goliaths carrying hammers to a pile of fire to, well, you get the idea. Basically rejects from the original Doom. I never found myself needing to employ different strategies against different enemies, either, which could have potentially made them a bit more worthwhile.

Weapons are a different case; but not in a good way. There are some standard weapons in there like a crossbow, shotgun and rocket launcher (all sporting two fire modes), and then downright stupid and/or bizarre ones such as a box(?) which can either turn into a shredder of some sort or can be thrown out and brought back, damaging enemies it hits. I think; I wasn’t exactly sure and the game provides no sort of in-game tutorial for any aspect of the game. Another of the stupid/bizarre weapons is a skull that can shoot a laser with seemingly unlimited range whose secondary fire is to shoot out an invisible force that damages any enemy you’re aiming at. In an FPS, it’s inexcusable for the weapons to not be fun to use. The fact that there’s absolutely no sense that you’re actually hitting enemies with your shot (you might as well be throwing crumpled up pieces of paper at them) outside of the final kill shot (where the enemy’s body is violently tossed backwards) makes it even worse.

And then to complete the trifecta, we have the boring and clichéd “oh no I’m in Hell” levels. Since you’re constrained to a single room at a time, there’s little room to explore. The entire game feels like you’re being forced down a tunnel. Again, while that’s typically not a good thing, it could have been helped out if there were some interesting things to look at. But the whole Hell atmosphere simply didn’t do anything new, and was very boring to venture through.

There are simply no redeeming qualities to the game. With the countless quality FPSs that have been released recently, I can’t recommend Overdose over any of them. After torturing myself by playing it for several hours, though, I still have one lingering question: Why does this hell-demon-angel, just released from prison, have a flashlight?

Presentation: 3
Sure, I know I’m in Hell or some equivalent, but why is it so boring? And why are the menus so difficult to navigate?

Graphics: 4.5
They might have impressed in 2003.

Sound: 3
Between the incredibly annoying enemy noises and the main character’s Duke Nukem-wannabe voiceovers, I’d rather play without sound…

Overall: 2.5
…although I’d rather not play at all. There are so many good FPSs out there right now; this game is just outclassed in every possible way. This game seems like it should have come out years ago, and even then, I don’t know that it would have been much fun.