Responsive controls also add to the punchiness of gameplay. Charging through beastie-filled levels grinding up skeletal warriors, spectral abominations, and crazier creatures is far from groundbreaking, but the brisk pace is satisfying in short bursts. Your mission is the same as it has always been: blast and eviscerate your way through a freaky batch of fantasy environments annihilating everything that moves while scarfing down souls like they're Halloween candy.Ĭompared to its modern-day brethren, Hell & Damnation is a dramatically streamlined run-and-gun affair that nods heavily toward early FPS classics like Doom, Blood, and Duke Nukem 3D. Of course, he must collect 7,000 souls first. This time around, Death himself recruits the troubled protagonist with promises of reuniting him with his wife, Catherine.

Trapped in a hellish purgatory after dying in a car accident, Garner is desperate to escape his nightmarish prison. Though Hell & Damnation tells a tweaked story that's only loosely based on both the original game and the Battle Out of Hell expansion, it's a familiar theme to anyone who has delved into the Painkiller series. The absurd bloodbath of flying appendages that ensues jams a ton of craziness into a short-lived but pleasantly gruesome romp.ĭaniel Garner is once again back to his demon-slaying shenanigans. It gives you a toolbox of twisted weapons and throws massive swarms of unholy minions at you at every turn. Unflinchingly old-school, this remake of the gory original is fast-paced, campy as hell, and full of action. The return to the genre's primal roots is a welcome one, even if it feels like indulging in the gaming equivalent of a junk food binge.

Harking back to a simpler era of first-person shooters, Painkiller: Hell & Damnation is far more concerned with body counts and blood spray than depth in the gameplay department.

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