Painkiller takes the nice, family-friendly concept of a man and his wife being killed in a head-on with a semi and turns it into an NC-17 gore-fest. What could have easily been turned into a Dantean quest of Daniel Garner getting back to his wife in Heaven is now the story of Garner destroying the generals and thousands of demons of hell. If it were a movie, Painkiller would require more corn syrup and red food dye than your local Wal-Mart carries.

Painkiller is a throwback to the original first-person shooters, especially Doom and Quake. It supplies very fast paced, almost constant action with some freaky monsters thrown in. The weapons are few, but varied and powerful; some causing entire rooms to be covered in gore. The full story, what little there is, of Painkiller is told through a handful of cinemas that aren't great, but are only harsh on the eyes if you've been in a dark room a while. The levels themselves, all 25 of them, have no relevance to the story, outside of the beautifully hateful final level.

People Can Fly must have taken one of those nice "research" trips we always hear of, because Painkiller has the greatest interpretation of Hell in history. Imagine every conflict in human history, from early Babylon to Rome, from America's battle for independence to the countless wars with Native Americans, even through modern wars like Vietnam and Desert Storm. Painkiller has all of these in their darkest moments, the worst pieces of human history - frozen in time. Hundreds of arrows, spears, bullets, and missiles are stranded in midair, poised to wreak the havoc we made them for. Then, as you walk up this trail of history, all poised at you, you come to a clearing. Across this clearing is an object that makes the miles of conflict you have crossed seem like nothing. A hundred-foot-tall payload of irradiated death, frozen mid-detonation looms before you. This is the moment the final boss of Painkiller chooses to come for you personally.

Painkiller succeeds in beauty, but this dog also has the bite to back up its bark - an evilly simplistic arsenal that will send any demon burrowing for home. Daniel Garner acquires only five weapons to face Hell's armies. These five weapons each have at least two uses, however, like a common favorite: the combo rocket launcher / chain gun. Four weapons are acquired during the game's progressing levels, becoming more and more useful against the growing numbers and sizes of undead. The first weapon, however, is the Painkiller. That's right: the Painkiller is a weapon, and a scary one at that. Your starting weapon is a twirling group of blades that cause mass disembowelment on sight. The Painkiller also doubles as a grappling hook of death to hit enemies from up to 50 feet away.

Painkiller also provides some of the freakiest and most gruesome enemies ever found in a game. After all, what use is a weapon without something to target? Painkiller has its own artfully mutated versions of the average game's zombie, skeleton, banshee, ghost, vampire, and witch. But more importantly, it has some beasts that are their own kind of scary. Beasts like the Leper Monk, who telekinetically throws corpses of his fallen allies at you; Devil Monks, whose staves can poison or freeze you while beating you; and Executioners, who can drag you about by the end of an axe and whose only weakness is their bare midriff. Also in the fray are freaks, who will detonate their own heads to escape death at your hands; various Ninjas and Monks, who will attack from afar and up close; and of course: the amputee, whom the manual refers to as a "master of surprise". Different enemies, of course have different patterns of attack and some strange weaknesses that add a new flavor to the game.

The multiplayer portion of Painkiller has some very cool modes of play, but when it comes down to it they're all variations on deathmatch. Voosh is an interesting mode: it gives all players the same weapon with unlimited ammo for a short amount of time, then randomly switches weapons mid-firing. Another mode to throw some variety in: People Can Fly mode. All weapons have unlimited ammo, but in order to do damage your target must be airborne. Also playable: The Light Bearer, which includes one Rage power-up - inducing four times damage for an unlimited amount of time. The power-up moves to affect whoever kills its bearer, and whoever holds the "light" at the end of a set time wins. Free For All and Team Free For All are the two 'normal' multiplayer modes, and play just as this type of game should: extremely fast-paced and bloody as hell.

Outside of being a pure run-and-gun action title, Painkiller has very few problems. It had a bad load time problem, as well as some trouble on any graphics cards lower than 128MB, but these have been patched up and are no longer a problem. Painkiller even manages a pretty good replay value through literally hundreds of hidden items and artifacts, plus a hidden difficulty mode and a highly disputed alternate ending. If action is your thing, Painkiller is a game you need on your shelf.