The Xbox is the console home for first-person shooters. Halo 2 is one of the best-selling games of all time, and there are plenty of other FPS titles that Xbox owners have to choose from. But Halo 2 is a year old now, and fans of the Chief may be looking for another shooter to put that fresh taste back in their mouths. Dreamcatcher may have just the title for you as they prepare Painkiller: Hell Wars for release on the Xbox early next year.

If you've played Painkillers on the PC, the first thing you should know is that this is not the same Painkillers you're used to. Hell Wars takes the best of the original and the various expansions that have released for it and combines them all into an Xbox Live fragfest. Since the Xbox doesn't quite boast the specs required for the PC version, the developers had to tweek the levels and the general gameplay for the Xbox version. The result is quite impressive.

Hell Wars will include 50-70 different enemies with top notch AI and a plethora of repulsive attacks. One enemy throws his own guts at you, while another attacks with vomit. Ninjas will commit suicide if you get them low on life, witches will fly around and attack you from above, and enemies will team up to take you on. One larger enemy will grab his weaker allies and throw them at you.

If you can't already tell, Hell Wars is all about fast-paced shooting action. The game uses a modified version of the Havoc 2.0 engine that's been custom made for the Xbox. When you blast enemies they'll go flying in all different directions. In addition, the environments are destruction and will react when shot at, or even when you run through some hanging bodies (which seem to be a trend in Hell Wars).

As you frag your enemies, you'll charge up and eventually morph into a demon. Once in demon mode you'll be able to take down enemies with ease as they'll all show up as flaming lights with most being one-hit kills. You'll need to carefully time your demon morph though. As you take down foes, you'll pick up their souls. Once you hit 66 souls, you'll turn into a demon. It's not something you can trigger whenever you want, so keep a watchful eye on the meter and make sure you use it when it counts.

The weapons that we played around with in the preview build were quite impressive. One of the most heavily used weapons in the PC version is the Painkiller. It has several spinning blades that can be used for a melee attack, or you can fire a beam that will blast through rows of enemies. A stake gun can pin enemies to walls and in combination with the rag doll physics, you can pin one arm of an enemy, then the other, and really have some fun with it. At long range, the stakes will catch fire and do more damage. Players will quickly learn that the weapons in Hell Wars are very skill-based. Once you have them mastered, you'll be quite deadly.

All of the standard FPS weapons have been included as well, such as a grenade launch, or a shotgun that doubles as a freezing weapon. You can even use multiple weapons for combo attacks on you enemies. You can freeze an enemy, then use the Painkiller to finish them off, or stake them to a wall, then use a grenade to end their undead lives. One of the key factors in Painkiller is the fun factor you'll get from playing around with all the different weapon combinations, and blasting your way through the action-packed levels.

The final product will feature 20 levels, providing about 10-15 hours of play in the single player mode. As you progress through the levels you'll find Black Tarot cards. These cards can be used enhance weapons and give you unique powers. You'll need them toward the end of the game if you want to take down the biggest baddy of them all, so make sure you collect as many as you can. The bosses in this game are huge, and won't use pre-scripted movements. They'll react to your actions as they battle against you, so be on your toes and use the Tarot cards wisely.

On Xbox Live, Dreamcatcher is looking to offer at least 16-player multi, with 10-15 maps to choose from. The standard modes will be supported, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag. There won't be any offline multiplayer, but with the exception of Halo, how often do you really LAN with Xbox consoles? If you don't have Xbox Live you'll be missing out, so make sure you set when Painkiller: Hell Wars hits early next year. We'll bring you more Hell Wars fragging as the game gets closer to completion.