You play as Daniel Garner, a seemingly regular guy who has just been killed in a horrific car accident. Trapped in a dark and unwelcoming world between heaven and hell, you struggle to uncover the reasons why you've been denied entry into heaven. Awaiting your purification, you must fight through an endless number of demon soldiers as you attempt to stop an imminent unholy war.

Demo Features: The demo features three levels (medieval town with witches and faceless demons; Thor level in an ancient ruin), including a new level set at dusk in a large, oriental castle and temple-style arena.

DEMO REVIEW

Let me preface this review with a quick summary of the situation for FPS fans: The Painkiller demo is awesome, and you need to download it. Now that I've exiled half our readers, who are navigating their browsers straight to the download link, those who are curious as to why I launched into the immediate thumbs up can read on.

Painkiller is a gorgeous thrill ride of FPS madness, hearkening back to earlier Quake and Doom games with unbridled, purely reflexive, weapon blasting bliss across Gothic environments. As the recently deceased Daniel Garner, you find yourself trapped in a vile afterlife between heaven and hell. You have no idea why you've been sentenced to this purgatory and denied heavenly access, but there's no time to consider your fate as hordes of incredibly animated demonic creatures engage you in frenetic combat.

You have four weapons to ward away the tide of evil: The Stake Gun with alternate grenade launcher, Lightning Rod, Rocket Launcher with secondary chain gun, and the Painkiller – basically a handheld offensive blender with huge blades. Each weapon has perks that FPS players will be familiar with, and will exploit versus the armies of tainted purgatory.

You've seen shambling zombies in other first person shooters, but nothing as hideous or bizarre as these limping, twitching, half headed abominations. You'll be bombarded by fireballs in a mock-napalm run, as screaming banshee-witches fly overhead dragging plumes of noxious smoke. A necromancer will call the dead in a spectacular display of unholy enchantment, a lattice of dancing electricity surrounding the risen soul who then bellows and darts your way. Skeletal soldiers in gleaming armor will raise their weapons and slash wildly, while muttering unnaturally deep, guttural threats that fill the EAX-enhanced spectrum of ambient sounds and merge into the brooding, choral-symphonic score.

Every projectile and explosion yields a truly impressive and satisfying showcase of dramatic Havok 2.0 physics: Zombies bounce off walls and rag doll down a balcony, crumpling and flailing over each surface, or an approaching undead knight, just a few feet away, shot point blank with the stake gun to be propelled backwards into a wall. Then there's the fight with a truly massive Thor – deformable environment crashing and trembling all around him as he pummels his enormous hammer into the ground and takes gargantuan steps through the rubble. The sheer scale of this boss fight is thrilling.

Encompassing all of this visceral and visually striking action, you'll find each of the demo's three levels to be amazingly detailed, well plotted environmental designs. The Arabian-style palace courtyard, medieval town, and Thor's arena are lavishly drawn and lit, with superb textures and complex design. Artistically, this is one of the strongest FPS games ever, and the effort applied to shading, real time lighting effects, and strong level design righteously compliments these beautifully accomplished visuals.

So there you have it: This three level Painkiller single player demo has great graphics and fun action, and a decidedly old school shooter feel bolstered by cutting-edge physics and effects. I imagine the full version of the game will be judged based-on its length and depth. The aesthetics seem to be well in hand.

Demo review by Mike Griffin.

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