Painkiller: Overdose Review

Game:  Painkiller: Overdose
Year (s):  2007
Company:  dev.  Mindware
            pub.  DreamCatcher
Engine:  PainEngine using Havok pysics
Type:  First-Person Shooter, old-school gameplay

Price (as of February 19 , 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $5
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $10

Game Time: 12 hours, first time, on default difficulty

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko4Lv1T3Oqs


See Also

Painkiller Review:    http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2011/09/painkiller-review.html


Plot

You are a half-angel, half-demon creature, feared and hated by both Heaven and Hell.  Lucifer's death at the end of the first Painkiller releases you from your prison.  Then you battle through Purgatory (or maybe Hell, the franchise treats them as the same place) to seek vengeance against Cerberus and Sammael, the ones that imprisoned you in the first place.  "Plot" progression is told by voiceovers after each chapter.


Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?

Fans of the first game, apparently: Overdose begain as a fan-made mod before DreamCatcher jumped in to fully support it.  The multicore issue has been fixed, and the save file corruption bug may have been addressed (or I got lucky and just didn't run in to it).  Overdose features new levels, weapons, and enemies with the same old-style gameplay of the original.  No weapon reloading required.

The engine is unchanged., and as a result, Overdose looks like crap for a 2007 release. 

The protagonist frequently repeats a half-dozen phrases, which become annoying pretty fast.  Levels are unbalanced, with some being a breeze and others being a pain in the ass.  Opting for voiceovers instead of cinematic cutscenes between chapters was a poor decision.  Lastly, the absurdly large bosses that made the first game unique have been replaced with more realistic-sized monsters.


Final Thoughts

Though it's a separate title, Overdose is essentially an expansion to Painkiller.  Fans of the first will like this one, as it's pretty much more of the same with a few bugs fixed.  After playing both of these games, I find the franchise to be a nearly plotless, graphically-challenged chore that, unlike rival throwback franchise Serious Sam, takes itself way too seriously.  I don't recommend this one.