We played new Painkiller. Brutal, dynamic, made for co-op and even in single-player it hits hard

Painkiller was once the answer to hits like Quake, Doom, and Serious Sam. The game of Adrian Chmielarz and People Can Fly studio turned out to be quite a successful brand. One of the American magazines even named it the FPS of the year, beating games like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. Overall, the reviews and player reception were pretty good. But that was in 2004. In the meantime, a few DLCs were released, and in 2012, something like a remake and sequel in one: Hell & Damnation.

Related:Prepare for pain. Painkiller remake gets a Fall 2025 release window

The upcoming Painkiller is therefore a completely new deal - a reboot of the series from Anshar Studios, best known so far for the game Gamedec. It can be most simply described as "Polish Doom" - a mix of Eternal and The Dark Ages. There's just one small catch... because the biggest new feature in the Painkiller reboot is... the co-op mode. Before some of you go away, I want to let you know that playing solo is also a valid option, and you can definitely progress through the stages that way. I had a similar experience - at first I was skeptical, but then I got into it and killing demons became more and more fun with each moment.

Dude, this purgatory is pretty cool

The beginning was tough, though, because I'm not a fan of "homie" vibes, and that's kind of what the game's prologue hits us with. In these types of shooters, the story doesn't really matter, but the tragic tale of Daniel Garner and his wife Catherine in the original added some atmosphere to the whole thing. Reboot once again takes us to purgatory with the mission of stopping the hordes of Azazel, but this time with a rather colorful team of four characters who behave as if they woke up hungover after a party and were then driven to exterminate demons. With background texts like "listen dude" to the narrator-archangel.

Painkiller, 3D Realms, 2025.

My first thought is like if the Doomslayer in hell was replaced by the crew from the last Saints Row hanging out with the survivors from Left 4 Dead. However, over time, I concluded that it's not such a bad decision after all, because it allows to maintain the consistency of the entire game. Considering that the main focus here is on co-op mode, where casual conversations with friends, jokes, and constant comments dominate, it makes sense to maintain a similar style in single-player mode! This way, there's no difference between playing solo and in co-op; the atmosphere in both modes is the same. No one will complain about someone interrupting their immersion in the story. No matter what kind of gameplay we choose, it's always worth listening to the texts of our guide, Archangel Metatron - his voice acting is really awesome! It's a shame that the whole storyline wasn't approached with a bit more humor - it would have made everything fit together even better.

Coop, which works in single-player

We're stuck with our chill crew even in single mode, but that's cool because we just play with bots - and they're really awesome bots! Not only can they shoot decently and mow down demons themselves, but they can also resurrect us in case of death, scatter ammo or health for us to collect, and, with a simple ping system, assist with typical co-op mechanics. For example, they can help when someone needs to stand on a platform to activate a gate in a completely different location. And the best part is their behavior when generally nothing is happening. They don't just stand still like pegs, but can frolic around the location by running or jumping, sometimes shooting at some stray mobs - just like real players in co-op!

Painkiller, 3D Realms, 2025.

The team can have three people, and we have four characters to choose from: the mysterious, hooded Void; the gray-bearded Roch; and two girls, Sol and Ink. Every character has some kind of starting bonus, like more health, ammunition, or deals more damage. Besides, there are no major differences between them, but we can choose weapons and perks. What's interesting, there was no trace of any costume or skin system in the demo.

Telling fortunes

We can make every battle in purgatory a bit easier with Tarot cards, which serve here as perks. There are 44 of them, but after reading about their functions, I got the impression that many are just there to add quantity, not quality, like upgraded items in MMO games. Alongside quite useful cards with simple descriptions, such as the one that restores your health to 100% after resuscitation, there are also many like: "when your health drops below 30%, each bullet deals 5% more damage, but only for 5 seconds." I believe that in such dynamic gameplay, these nuances are almost impossible to notice. I would definitely prefer fewer cards, but more specific ones, whose effects can be easily noticed or felt.

Painkiller, 3D Realms, 2025.

An interesting variation, however, is the one-time effect of these cards. We choose a specific perk only for a specific raid, after which the card is used up. We can replenish their stock by drawing three pieces from the entire deck, which prevents us from repeating the same choices and often forces us to select certain perks or go "bare" without any cards at all. The gold obtained will be useful for unlocking and upgrading weapons.

The must-have equipment is, of course, the titular Painkiller, which is spinning blades that shred through groups of opponents and also generate ammo for other guns. There is also a nail gun with a grenade launcher option, a shotgun, a shuriken thrower, a revolver called a cannon, a rocket launcher, and even a machine gun - a complete novelty for this brand. This is a fairly standard set, but styled as "hellish" weapons; besides, part of the arsenal is new visions of weapons from the original. On top of that, each one of them has a second mode and can strike with one of three elements: fire, electricity, or ice. There's nothing we haven't seen before or played in a thousand ways, but when combined with Tarot cards, weapon upgrades, and the susceptibility of various enemies to specific elements, it creates quite a diverse spectacle and allows you to choose your favorite combinations.

Painkiller, 3D Realms, 2025.

Fast, brutal bloodbath

The gameplay itself is really enjoyable - fast, smooth, brutal, without any fancy stuff like pole parkour or parrying green slimes. At least in this part of the game that I had a chance to check out. In the shared demo, it was possible to finish the prologue and two maps, on which we perform something like a raid, with the second location ending at the most important moment, just before the fight with the boss. The locations are very atmospheric, similar to those from Doom: The Dark Ages, combining Gothic style with hell. Every map has calmer areas where you can gather resources and gold, and then there are the arenas where you have to show your skills.

Painkiller, 3D Realms, 2025.

In the demo version, there were two types of jobs in such locations: either simply repelling successive waves of enemies or a slightly more inventive one, which involved filling a barrel with the blood of enemies by killing them nearby. We had to move the full tank and place it in the designated spot, which was also part of the mini-story in that location. I hope that in the future there will be similar challenges in other locations, also ones that require teamwork. On the maps, you'll also find trampolines that shoot us up and skulls hanging in the air that activate some kind of grappling hook lines. It gives locations a certain verticality, encourages exploration, but does not force constant jumping during combat, as it was in Doom Eternal. Depending on the difficulty level you choose, the missions could be completed in anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour. In terms of length, number of players in a team, mini-storylines, and various shooting mechanics, the missions in the new Painkiller game strongly reminded me of the Strike activity in Destiny. And I gotta say, I'm really curious to see what's coming up next, especially the boss fights.

Return of Painkiller and not only

And of course, we have to keep in mind that this budget isn't the same as the one for id Software games, and you can see that in the gameplay and visuals. The animations of the enemies are somewhat clumsy; their diversity and appearance in these two missions also didn't impress. I don't really remember any specific opponents, I just felt like I was mowing down some shapeless masses of demonic flesh. The same can be said about our companions—the voice acting here is somewhat better than the graphics.

Painkiller, 3D Realms, 2025.

However, the locations aren't that bad, and they strongly make up for it with their design and atmosphere. The lighting also looks very good; it's appropriately dark, gloomy, but you can always see everything. Combined with a heavy metal soundtrack and satisfying shooting, this gives hope for a really solid AA shooter that will attract co-op mode fans and won't scare away those who only care about single-player. Based on what I saw, I don't think we'll get a cheaper version of Doom, but rather one of the more interesting "Doomlikes." In this case and circumstances, restoring this ancient term seems very reasonable!

Painkiller

October 21, 2025

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• Overview
• Review

• co-op
• FPP shooters (FPS)
• Anshar Studios
• Polish games