Painkiller: Battle out of Hell gives Painkiller players new weapons, an entire new chapter, and new multiplayer goodies. For those unfamiliar with the title, Painkiller honored the roots of the first-person shooter genre by providing straightforward levels, hordes of enemies, and many intense situations. The beauty of Painkiller is that while retaining what made those older FPS games special, it creates an amazing atmosphere using an incredibly detailed physics engine and excellent graphics.

Battle out of Hell not only adds new content to Painkiller, but it also steps up the visuals. There are new visual distortions and lighting capabilities, which really make the game look great. They are all very noticeable differences.

Battle out of Hell starts right where Painkiller left off: Daniel has just defeated Lucifer, but now Alastor has taken his place as head of the underworld. After holding off the demon horde, Eve opens a portal so that they both may escape Hell. Daniel decides he must go back to stop Alastor and the game begins.

The story is obviously not the strong point of Painkiller. In fact, the cutscenes almost look worse than the actual game during play. It’s also very hard to ignore the terrible lip-syncing, which would likely make a fan of Godzilla laugh. Luckily there is only an intro and ending, so it is strictly for those gamers that need some storyline with their demon slaying.

An entire chapter is added to Painkiller, consisting of 10 diverse levels. Everything you would expect is there: the card system (with all of the original cards unlocked, as well as 10 new cards for your unlocking pleasure), secret areas, goals for each level, gold, and everything else you loved or hated from the first.

The new levels are extremely impressive. Each of the 10 levels is very different from the next and displays a ton of creativity. The atmosphere is spot-on for every theme they convey. For example, the first level takes place in an orphanage. You start outside, surrounded by a foggy swampland, and your destination lies at the top of an old, crooked rock. Upon entering you are rushed by a group of young girls that scream as they light themselves on fire and chase you around. The rest of the level only gets creepier.

My only complaint is the inclusion of platforming sections, where you have to jump from one place to the next and a missed jump often leads to instant death. Fortunately you only encounter it a few times throughout the course of the chapter, but it really broke up the action and called for a lot of quick-saving and -loading.

Fans of the stake launcher will love one of the new weapons included in Battle out of Hell. The old stake launcher is there, but now there is also a redesign of this beloved weapon. Firing five stakes at a time, the Boltgun/Heater is the ultimate death-dealer. The secondary fire sends 10 bounce-charges that deal some serious damage to groups. The other new weapon is an extremely useful SMG/Flamethrower combo. The SMG seemed to deal a good amount of damage and was a little easier to wield than the machine gun. The flamethrower was even more useful, clearing out small areas in a matter of seconds. These new additions to your arsenal are extremely useful and very fun to use.

This expansion also brings new multiplayer modes and maps to the table. There is now a Capture the Flag mode where players attempt to steal and return the opposing team’s skull. There is also Last Man Standing in which players have a limited number of lives, and the last one surviving wins.

There weren’t a whole lot of a levels added to multiplayer, but they still are well-built and nice looking. One of my personal favorites is a CTF map made from the giant chapel area in stand-alone Painkiller. One team’s side has all light windows and the torches burn with blue flames while the opposite side’s windows are all dark red and the torches burn with normal flames. The ground on the dark side is cracked open in places, revealing glowing lava. The light side has beams of light and fluttering light particles. This level does an excellent job of giving each side a totally different feel while keeping the architecture perfectly symmetrical. This level also shows some amazing heat wave and bloom effects.

Gameplay: 9.5
Waves of enemies all around, creative and diverse weaponry and a killer physics engine complete this excellent FPS package. Even though each level is very different from the next, and the enemies change with every level, some player may still find this one repetitive.

Graphics: 9.2 
Even though it doesn’t quite compete with the top titles of the season, Painkiller: Battle out of Hell sports graphics that blow a lot of other titles away. The great visual effects, detailed textures, and creative architecture will often make you stop to admire the environments.

Sound: 8.9
Everything from faint, spooky voices to the loud “thunk” of an enemy impaled by the boltgun work together to make this game an experience. If you have a surround sound system, you can expect some intense gameplay.

Difficulty: Medium
Just playing through the chapter isn’t too tough, but bumping up the difficulty or going for all the cards will prove a formidable task.

Concept: 8.5 
There needed to be more Painkiller. It was so fun there needed to either be a sequel or an expansion. Luckily we got the expansion with more gameplay and new weapons – now hopefully we get a sequel soon.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Painkiller’s multiplayer is a lot like Unreal Tournament or Quake; the games are pretty much fast-paced fragfests. The inclusion of CTF and Last Man Standing as well as new maps added even more life this one’s online career.  

Overall: 9.0
Battle out of Hell added even more content to a very fun game. Unfortunately a lot of gamers need story or structure to enjoy games. They will be missing an excellent title. Just like our Painkiller review said, if you enjoy first-person shooters then tack on some more points to the total and don’t let this one slip by.