More Dude Murdering Awaits in Painkiller: Redemption - UPDATED

[Andy Chalk]

More Dude Murdering Awaits in Painkiller: Redemption - UPDATED

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Purgatory, JoWooD announces Painkiller: Redemption, the latest addition to the increasingly-large Painkiller [http://www.amazon.com/Painkiller-Triple-Dose-Battle-Overdose-Pc/dp/B001AZTU28/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1296682166&sr=8-6] family that finally sees the return of Heaven's original hitman.

Here's a bit of brutal honesty: every new addition to the Resurrection [http://www.amazon.com/Painkiller-Pc/dp/B00008QOL6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1296682833&sr=8-10], the better.

But that's not going to keep beleaguered publisher JoWooD [http://www.jowood.com/] from trying to rediscover the magic yet again with Painkiller: Redemption, which will see Daniel Garner, the original Painkiller, team up with the half-angel, half-demon Belial from Overdose to bring an end to the wars between Heaven and Hell once and for all.

"The newest add-on brings the Painkiller franchise back to its roots. Breathtaking action, thousands of monsters and exotic weapons are a solid foundation for a Painkiller game!" said JoWooD's Reinhard Pollice. "With Painkiller: Redemption we deliver six new, thrilling levels for an unbeatable price!"

Sadly, he neglected to mention what that price will be, but did reveal that Redemption will offer seven to ten hours of gameplay with improved graphics, better AI, "detailed ambiance" and more than 6000 dudes to murder. Unlockable tarot cards will make a return, as will the ability to collect souls, turn into an invulnerable super-demon and kill everything you see simply by giving it the stink-eye.

It sounds like all the necessary Painkiller elements are in place but as history has shown, coming up with a really good, balls-out FPS is a lot harder than it looks. Will JoWooD finally be able to pull it off? Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Thanks for staying tuned, because we just got the lowdown straight from JoWooD. Painkiller: Redemption is the debut project from a Polish team calling itself Eggtooth and does in fact use an improved version of the original Painkiller engine, with the same enemies and weapon models as the first game.

"Because it is an add-on, Painkiller: Redemption is not to be mistaken as a huge new game," said JoWooD's Clemens Schneidhofer. Nonetheless, he added, "It will be a solid game for Painkiller fans!"

As befits an expansion to a six-year-old game, it will also be fairly cheap, with a suggested price tag of $4.99. That's not bad for another ten hours of painkillin'. Painkiller: Redemption comes out on February 14th on all the digital distribution big boys, including Steam, GamersGate, Direct2Drive and Impulse.


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[Assassin Xaero]

Six levels? So is that six new ones and the rest rehashes or just six? And I liked Overdose, actually more that BooH.

 

[HellspawnCandy]

I played this game for like 5 minutes. It was definitely the worst game I ever played. It really had no point and it seemed to take forever to kill things and I watched myself just kite people for about 5minutes around some Roman structure. Is this seriously a game? Or is it a chore?

 

[felixader]

Hi, i am a German Gamer. JoWood is a German Company short before beeing bankrupt.

One reason of this is that JoWood throws up awfull game that only few buy after awfull game that only few buy.

Even worse is when i hear people talking about the once great franchaises that JoWood drove into the ground, franchaise by franchaise.

All in all i can say JooWood is like Germans Activision, just far FAR FAR less successfull.
But then you have to consider that they don't have a german Version of Blizzard.

 

[Dirkie]

I'm going to murder tons of dudes in the original game. Still have that, but didn't play it for a while, and six new levels sounds cheap.
Who cares about the detailed ambiance if you want to have some bloody fun and flying limbs in all directions?

 

[josemlopes]

If they are still using the same engine they really need to do epic figths with loads of enemies and gibs at the same time because you can enjoy the exact same experience in the first Painkiller.

Computers now are way more powerfull, instead of wasting power in shaders, reflections and bloom I would prefer to waste it in enemy count. We all know that we wont buy this for the graphics.

 

[archvile93]

I might get this if it's cheap and good. I already have the original but it's on vista 64 bit, so it's prone to very frequent crashes and freezes.

 

[Andy Chalk]

It might work out alright. 1000 enemies per map is pretty groovy and hey, Painkiller was pretty sweet eye candy back in the day and not horrifically ugly even now; dated, sure, but still very playable. I'm actually pretty sure that a new engine will power the thing, though. Didn't they use a new one (and as I recall shittier one) for Resurrection?

I've got feelers out to JoWood so I'll update if they come across with anything worthwhile. It's mostly of interest to PK fans but you never know, it might turn out to be decent, especially if the price is right.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Wait, this is a different developer? This has my attention, but it has potential to either suck or be awesome.

 

[Lord_Kristof]

I wouldn't say that Overdose was 'plain bad', but it certainly wasn't very good. It was what the original game was accused of by some critics, a bland shooter with not much to go for itself. The original ambience was gone to make room for 'Serious Sam'-esque humor which got tiresome very quickly, and they changed Cathedrals and abandoned railstations for space stations and the Animal Farm. So yeah, not bad, but certainly not very good.

The original game stays one of my favourite titles and makes me proud that I'm Polish, and I hope the studio's Bulletstorm will make me as proud!

Resurrection would do well not to suck, but I'm not getting my hopes up at the least.

EDIT: and the graphics are still good in my book, I don't mind. Sure it's not eye candy, but who gives a crap about top-notch graphics if the gameplay is stellar?

 

[Rad Party God]

I loved the first Painkiller, BOoH was pretty decent and Overdose was alright (I'm glad I got it for $5). I still play from time to time the first game, but really?, teaming up the first game protagonist with the second game crappiest protagonist?. It's not like a dream team, but it could work gameplay wise, like teaming them up in coop or perhaps each has a different storyline?.

Either way, seeing as how unoriginal the franchise has gone, I won't be buying it. I'm glad I skipped Resurrection.
Also, I'm pretty fine playing Serious Sam right now.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I paid about three bucks for Overdose and even at that price it was a turd. Obviously this is entirely a matter of opinion, but it is the correct opinion. Just sayin'.

 

[KrazyKain]

after the absolute disaster that was resurrection... I don't think so. still remains to be the only game I ever regret preordering

 

[Assassin Xaero]

As befits an expansion to a six-year-old game

So it's an expansion to the original Painkiller instead of one of the two newer ones (Overdose/Resurrection)? Have to say that is the first time I've ever seen that happen in the gaming world, but awesome...

Spoiler: Story line?

So then it would take place after BooH, and then the main boss at the end would be Eve? Even more awesome.

I paid about three bucks for Overdose and even at that price it was a turd. Obviously this is entirely a matter of opinion, but it is the correct opinion. Just sayin'.

I still liked it. >_>
I mean, it wasn't the best of the series by far, but it wasn't nearly as bad as MW2 was. Plus the forest level was pretty cool.

 

[sunburst]

So they want people to buy an expansion pack for a seven year old game made by a different group of people after a bunch of terrible sequels? Good luck with that.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Wait, just noticed the release date: Feb 14th? After 20 years I'm finally excited for valentines day.

 

[Littaly]

I wonder how big of a push the original Painkiller got from being praised in that one Zero Punctuation episode. Surely it must have seen at least a small revival.