Painkiller: Overdose may be labeled as a standalone expansion pack for Painkiller, but I’m treating it as a different game.
New story, new character, new dev team – heck, it even came in its own retail box. This time, you’re not Daniel Garner. Instead, you’re Belial, a half-demon, half-angel whose biggest achievement is pissing off both heaven and hell. He’s here for revenge, and serious about it – maybe too serious, actually.
Think Serious Sam, but set in hell. This game borrows Serious Sam’s chaotic enemy spawns, oversized guns, and sprawling level design – only Painkiller: Overdose slaps a grimdark sticker on it.
Instead of Sam’s sense of humour, we get br
... toon meerPainkiller: Overdose may be labeled as a standalone expansion pack for Painkiller, but I’m treating it as a different game.
New story, new character, new dev team – heck, it even came in its own retail box. This time, you’re not Daniel Garner. Instead, you’re Belial, a half-demon, half-angel whose biggest achievement is pissing off both heaven and hell. He’s here for revenge, and serious about it – maybe too serious, actually.
Think Serious Sam, but set in hell. This game borrows Serious Sam’s chaotic enemy spawns, oversized guns, and sprawling level design – only Painkiller: Overdose slaps a grimdark sticker on it.
Instead of Sam’s sense of humour, we get brooding edginess. Belial is like that goth kid in high school who’s always quoting Nietzsche and bragging about his “inner darkness”. Now picture that kid armed to the teeth and spouting the same canned one-liners every five minutes. Yeah, it’s like that. By the fifth time he goes on about eating demon souls, you’ll wish he’d make an outhouse visit so you’d get a break from the endless talking.
But to be frank, even if this is a second rate Serious Sam, I enjoyed this outing. I will never say “No” to a boomer shooter with ludicrous guns. Give me evil hellspawn to slay, it’s a happy Saturday.
The graphics? They’ve surprisingly held up. With my 1920x1200 resolution everything was rendered well with decent detail, and some nice environmental effects and lighting. I was actually so shocked that this was running on an engine made in 2004 that I had to try this on minimum settings just to get the Windows 98 experience. This game is surprisingly flexible!
The one giveaway about its age is the camera shake. My god, I hate it. When this happens, everything gets janky and all the polygons scuttle about like they’re drunk and partying a little too hard.
In terms of sound, they’re nowhere near as good as the graphics. The music is all right in that occultic manner, though you barely notice it. But the sound effects, they’re more abrasive than Belial’s personality. Get ready for ear-piercing shotgun sounds that are loud enough to annoy everyone in a three room radius.
Controls are mostly solid. We got all the standards that work will: WASD for movement, left mouse button for shooting the primary weapon, right mouse button for shooting the secondary weapon, mouse wheel for switching weapons, and <Space> for jumping. Weapons switching could be snappier, though – especially when there’s a swarm of demon spawn coming right at you.
Mindware Studios developed Painkiller: Overdose. They made a spiritual successor with Dreamkiller. But afterwards, they closed up shop.
While Painkiller: Overdose was never praised by critics, it’s not a bad ride. If you’re okay with a melodramatic anti-hero and a few design quirks, you’re in a for a good demon-slaying weekend.
