Funnily enough, I actually owned the original 2004 version of Painkiller on PC, and even though I was too young to play it, I enjoyed the first-person chaos. As you can imagine, I was actually incredibly excited when I found out that this underrated masterpiece was getting a full remake. 2025’s Painkiller is a functional shooter with some fun moments, but ultimately misses the mark.
Sure, it may use a lot of elements from existing “boomer shooters” like Doom, but not all of them really work here. The levels are somewhat unique, filled with repeating missions and enemy types, and a range of weapons and abilities are upgradeable and unlockable, but they wear out their welcome a bit too quickly.
Online co-op play is also possible, but I had a really hard time with matchmaking, either having trouble finding other players or having bad connections and high ping. All of Painkiller’s strengths come directly from its gameplay, which is disappointing given its lack of real variety or longevity.
Please put “kill” in “painkiller”
Players take control of one of four unique characters awakened in Purgatory to stop the demon Azazel from taking over Earth. Guided by the voice of the angel Metatron (surprisingly, Metatron is not a Transformer), they stop the waves of demons and ghouls sent to end the battle.
There really isn’t that much to the story, and while much of the story is revealed and explained through narration and dialogue between characters, there’s little character development or cinematic quality to help players feel immersed. There are some clever lines here and there, but that’s about it.
Painkiller gives players two modes to choose from: Raid and Rogue Angel. Raid mode serves as the main mode of the game and can be played online co-op with three players or solo with AI-controlled bots. This mode takes place over three different acts, and each act is divided into three chapters.
Although I say chapters, each chapter will do the same thing. Although the environments are unique, the raid mode allows players to take on waves of enemies, fill barrels of blood by defeating nearby enemies, and place these barrels in specific areas to progress.
Credit: 3D Realms
The only problem I have with these barrels is that they hide and obscure what is effectively their own purpose. Early on in your first raid, you need to make a bell disappear, but instead of actually finding a way to do it, you just grab a barrel, fill it up, and place it in a nearby socket, and the bell disappears. It feels like a missed opportunity and leaves the raid mode pretty thin early on.
Thankfully, Raid mode has some saving grace, and levels can be fun to navigate thanks to hidden passageways and impressive level verticality. They’re made up of areas like we’ve seen before, but it’s great to be able to use the grappling hook to fly around certain points, or hit certain switches to discover secret rooms for extra coins, health, and ammo. Finally, there are some cool boss battles at the end of each level that are quite a challenge.
Rogue Angel mode feels more fun because it combines roguelike elements with all the existing challenges of raid mode. When you finally finish each level in the aforementioned raid mode, you return to the hub to upgrade your weapons, change your character and abilities, and advance to the next level.
Credit: 3D Realms
In this Rogue Angel mode, you must fight your way through procedurally generated levels and choose to escape when you feel you’ve had enough. There’s a great mix of platforming, boss fights, and plenty of waves of enemies, and the game’s multiple progression systems go a long way toward feeling earned as a result. I had a hard time finding people to play with, but I imagine players will stick with this going forward.
Boom, boom, and more boom
As far as gameplay goes, Painkiller is incredibly solid and overall satisfying. The gunplay is punchy, responsive, and fast-paced, and you don’t have to reload your weapons like you would in Doom. There are six weapons to unlock and choose from throughout the game, including the Electrodriver, which fires small bouncing discs, the Stake Gun, which fires long projectiles that pierce multiple enemies, the SMG for rapid fire, the hand cannon for powerful fire, the shotgun for close-range encounters, and the rocket launcher, which speaks for itself.
However, you will always carry another weapon with you. It’s a painkiller in name only. The Painkiller essentially acts like a large rotating blade that can cut through waves of enemies, dropping ammo for two ranged weapons of your choice onto them. Although it feels quite overwhelming at times, watching enemy limbs fly in all directions is always incredibly satisfying.
Credit: 3D Realms
Players can choose from one of four unique characters: Ink, Void, Roch, and Sol, each with their own perks. That said, players can also purchase and equip Tarot cards before each mission, which gives players access to unique abilities. However, keep in mind that these cards only last for a certain amount of time (usually one mission).
Players can buy them again using coins or ancient souls, but this quickly becomes a balance between buying these tarot cards and upgrading weapons with coins.
Each of the six weapons can be upgraded, with unique skill trees branching in different directions depending on your playstyle. Each weapon comes with its own secondary fire mode, so players can choose to upgrade these weapons using coins, but the game rarely gives you enough to do everything. Shotguns and SMGs turned out to be the perfect combination, but I found that while these weapons are almost completely upgradeable within the game’s main raid mode, you can’t upgrade much else.
Painkiller’s gameplay can feel repetitive, but it’s incredibly competent and overall satisfying, carrying most of the experience.
look at the part
Painkillers seem fine most of the time and work very well. It’s not as detailed as some of the more high-profile new games out there, but you can almost always hit 60 FPS on Xbox Series
I wish the environments felt a little more unique, but hats off to the overall cool weapon designs. There’s not much more to say about Painkiller on this point. It feels like elements of games you’ve played before are sewn together. But at least it works.
final thoughts
Piankiller isn’t really broken or terrible in any meaningful way, it just doesn’t have enough features to justify a complete rebuild like this. The story is virtually non-existent, and the game’s main raid mode is very thin.
But that being said, the gameplay ultimately delivers the experience in a way that makes this game worth checking out for anyone interested in old boomer shooters like, say, Doom. I can’t imagine this having enough longevity to actually keep players in co-op, but at least it’s something to fill one weekend.
3 stars (out of 5 stars)
Highlights: Solid and functional gunplay. Decent performance. Rogue angel mode is fun
Lowlights: lackluster Raid mode. There’s no real storytelling or character development. Repetitive mission structure
Developer: Unshar Studio, Saber Interactive
Publisher: 3D Realms
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Currently
Review was conducted on Xbox Series X using code provided by the publisher.
A featured header image is also provided by the publisher.
