Some or many of you will remember our past article on Painkiller, at the time the game was in a firstlook form that was pre-gamma/alpha/beta in that I introduced flying corpses, a giant hammer wielding demon guard and a land of spectors seeking souls. Well actually there were more than that, there were also the freaky biker guys with tommy guns and even the knight looking guys with super ragdoll motion as they got blown away. Anyway the initial punch showed gamers one thing. Painkiller is a serious title with the desire to put out massive levels with detailed textures and tons of enemies in a FPS form. Now though we see the advancements since that period in the pre-alpha stage. Keep in mind that the tone of the game is dark and as such there aren't always going to be well lit open areas. With that said lets jump in and see what People Can Fly and Dreamcatcher present at this point.

Enter the new interface, Painkiller features all the basic requirements of a modern game these days, optional surround settings for the speakers with full audio control and a pretty fair video setup with basic and advanced commands to fine tune things to the best performance or to the best quality. Seeing as the firstlook had no real interface I have to say this is a huge step up. Also we're presented with the card system for the first time, Dreamcatcher notes that it is titled the Black Tarot, players will be able to find or purchase cards and then select them to use in a chapter/mission. After a certain amount of gold is collected the card will then be enabled and allow for powers such as haste, armor, radar and etc. Sadly this isn't functional at this point but the general impression can be taken from what we see below.

New to the game are the additional weapons of the spear gun and slicer. Yes I mean spear gun. Take a look at the pictures below to find giant spears through the enemies sending them flying into walls or just randomly in the air. The weapon itself acts like a primitive sniper rifle and takes some adjustments for longer range firing so that the shot doesn't hit the ground before arriving at the enemy. Still if that fails or if the reload time is too much the secondary fire should clear crowds as it is a grenade launcher that detonates on enemy impact or explodes with a 5 second delay on it. The weapon alone makes me repeat the level over and over again since the spear can collide with the environment leaving bodies to hang on walls if aimed right. It's supposed to be judgement day so it's only fitting to pin up a body here or there.

The slicer is a simple weapon, multiple blades spin at high speed to dice up enemies, sadly this weapon is terrible when enemies start to crowd around. High speed blades are good with up to 4 but when 8 or 9 enemies group around it's time to consider the shotgun or the secondary fire which happens to detonate most enemies on impact. For me the secondary laser item is probably the best part. With a clear path to fire behind the enemies the two parts can serve to mow down groups all in one shot by a constant beam. Otherwise the secondary part can be shot off and retracted repeatedly blowing up just about anything that it touches or in some cases dragging it towards the player. The weapon will most likely serve as an initial item to get by with until items like the shotgun are uncovered. Still while not the best weapon to use it still is entertaining.