Painkiller: Overdose
February 27,2008 - Editor's Note: This review was written by Noman Ansari.

2004’s cult hit, Painkiller, followed the wave started by Serious Sam in a revival of the old school ultra-simplistic twitch shooter that paid homage to id Software classics like Wolfenstein 3D, and Doom.

Painkiller consisted of a series of linear chapters, with levels that were set in purgatory as well as hell. Each level was divided into a series of locked interconnected areas, with progress solely dependent upon the clearing of all the monsters. Despite following this linear system of progression, Painkiller was cleverly designed to offer plenty of variation in its levels.

Painkiller used a proprietary engine, which was impressive in the number of monsters it allowed per screen at playable frame rates. While the other technical aspects of Painkiller’s engine weren’t as admirable, artistically the game was a visual feast. The environments, weapons, and hellish creatures, were all part of a beautiful design, which seemingly took inspiration from the cheesy horror flicks of the mid 1900s, as well as the gory fiction of Clive Barker.

Despite releasing nearly four years after Painkiller, Overdose follows a near identical design, at times to a painful degree. It is also quite obvious in its final product, that Overdose actually began development as a free to download mod.

Similarly to Painkiller, the load times in Overdose can be excruciatingly long, to the point where the protagonist’s death can feel like actual punishment. Even the menus look the exact same, and appear ugly on today’s high resolution widescreens. The game’s graphics engine doesn’t hold up very well either, with the environments and character models falling short by today’s standards.

Fortunately, like its predecessor, Overdose does feature some solid art direction. Overdose’s purgatory setting was used by the designers to create a somewhat random yet opulent horror design. The settings range from the Far East to the Middle East, and feature a level of creativity that is good, if a little short of the mad genius displayed in Painkiller.

There are six new weapons in Overdose that seem to offer some new variety at first glance. However their beauty is literally skin deep, as they actually feel like reskinned versions of their Painkiller counterparts. Some of them tend to suffer from weird balancing issues that can make for some frustration, especially when battling dozens of fast paced monsters. In terms of level design, there seems to be a lack of creativity, especially when compared to Painkiller. While Painkiller worked with its restrictive sub genre, most of the 16 levels in Overdose feel merely average in terms of gameplay and variety.

The actual story in Overdose is some laughable rubbish surrounding a creature named Belial, who is the offspring of some demon that got shagged by an angel. Yes, the narrative sounds like it was written by an emo MySpace kid. And no, the game doesn’t showcase the x-rated supernatural inter-species affair, and instead focuses on the chirpy Belial, who serves as the protagonist.

Belial dishes out more one-liners than Duke Nukem, shouting pop culture references as he vanquishes the hellish creatures, -- making one wonder if they got cable TV in hell. The degree to which gamers will find these funny, unfortunately depends heavily on their level of marijuana intake. And yes, the one-liners do keep coming long after they’ve outstayed their welcome, -- which may at least partially justify this standalone expansion’s name.

In the end, while the packaging blurb does boast six new weapons, forty new monsters, and sixteen new levels, Overdose doesn’t quite sustain the level of excellence that made Painkiller so popular.

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