Painkiller

Painkiller is an enjoyable experience, though one that varies greatly from what many fans were expecting it to be. The gunplay is fun, and in co-op the game can be a good time. However, it suffers from a lack of content and endgame, which may be made worse by the game’s dwindling player count.

It's not the return fans of the series were hoping for, but that doesn't stop it from being a decent cooperative shooter. It does, however, need more content.

I’ll give Painkiller props for its imaginative weapons, sharp visuals, and visceral combat. It’s a hollow and transitory experience for solo players offline, and you can see what Painkiller has to offer in very short order. As a co-op game, it fares better. Still, I can’t imagine Painkiller becoming any shooter fan’s obsession. The nuts and bolts of what could be an impressive game are there, but in its present form, there’s simply too much repetition and too few surprises.

Painkiller is an honest production about its intentions: it wants you to shoot, explode, and customize your arsenal until you find the perfect combination for destruction. In this goal, it succeeds. The combat is satisfying, the weapon customization is robust, and the cooperative sessions deliver the expected chaos. The problem is that, surrounding this solid core, there is little content to sustain the structure. Nine stages across three biomes, repetitive enemies, and predictable level design cause the experience to quickly exhaust its freshness. For those looking for a few hours of unpretentious fun with friends, Painkiller delivers. However, for those expecting a shooter with the legs to last, the game remains trapped in its own purgatory of repetition.

The new Painkiller is here, and while you'll enjoy shooting alongside other players, it's not the game that players wanted — it's too far from the original concept.

Your feelings on the latest iteration of Painkiller will depend on several different factors. If you're looking for a title with a good story and characters or crave a true single-player experience, you'll hate it. If you're looking for something that doesn't require grinding to get the most out of the title, you'll also dislike the game. If you're looking for boomer shooter sensibilities in a co-op setting and really dig the different hellish vibes, you'll like Painkiller. Even then, unless you're a completionist, it'll take one run through all of the levels and perhaps a few attempts at the roguelike mode before you move on, making this a fleeting experience rather than something with staying power.

Its fast-paced action, smooth performance, and powerful soundtrack deliver satisfying arcade-style shooting, but the lack of depth, limited variety, and misuse of the Painkiller name make it feel solid yet unremarkable.

Painkiller could be considered the median of all co-op shooters. It offers mindless running and gunning but doesn't go any farther than that. With equal good points and bad points, it's simply a game that doesn't offer anything new to the table.

I guess the question is, does Painkiller have any merits? It kind of does: again, if you don’t mind repetition and just want to shoot demons, it gives you every opportunity to do that, and you’ll get some big honking guns in the process. But if you want anything deeper or more substantial, you’re not going to find it here.

An uninspired return, frantic and fun, but lacking the soul and depth that made the original Painkiller a cult game.

Painkiller reimagines the cult classic as a three-player co-op raid shooter, blending its breakneck gunplay with modern progression and a fresh take on heaven and hell’s eternal war. It doesn’t quite reach its full potential due to a short length, awkward mechanics, and limited content, but when the action hits, the promise of a great game is here.

Painkiller (2025) is a game that hits hard in the moment, but fades away as soon as the screen goes dark. It’s a well-crafted exercise in style, where rhythm, co-op action and technical solidity take center stage, yet they’re not enough to summon the fury and identity that once made the original a legend. Behind the metallic blaze and the storm of bullets, something essential is missing: a beating heart, a vision, a damned soul capable of leaving a mark. Because metal in your ears isn’t enough to bring a demon back to life, you need a heart too. And sadly, this one doesn’t have it.

Ironically, it pains me to say that Anshar Studios Painkiller has turned out to be one of those co-op shooters that just doesn't hit the mark the way you hoped it would. Devoid of a decent Painkiller-worthy backstory, 2025's Painkiller primary focus seems to be to just be punishing in hyperchaotic ways that drain the fun out of the combat loop. Adding the fact that most guns don't really feel punchy and the disappointing prospect of a meager nine repetitive levels at launch, Painkiller could be compared to over-the-counter Paracetamol: works for some, but not too long.

A solid, unremarkable co-op shooter that lacks ideas, identity, and variety. Painkiller fans will be disappointed.

Painkiller is the namesake song by Judas Priest — but sung by Blanco with autotune. It pretends to have the same toughness, but it’s really just the voice of an off-key kid propped up by an algorithm. What it truly is, is a generic co-op FPS with little content, not even saved by a few decent shootouts. In short, it’s better left in Purgatory — along with its cast of characters constantly cracking embarrassing jokes. Skip it and move on to something else; you won’t miss a thing, because there’s very little “Painkiller” here at all.

While Painkiller’s attempt to reboot is a worthy goal, but the reality is that it just doesn’t get the franchise where it needs to go, as it’s not something easily recommended to a friend thanks to its mediocre nature, nor is it a a true single-player experience for those old-school Painkiller fans out there. Just like its protagonists, the game is caught in a purgatory between the modern online gaming landscape and its classic arena shooter legacy, fighting for a redemption that isn’t looking likely to come.

Despite its dynamic gameplay, Painkiller stumbles in every other aspect. The game will certainly disappoint series veterans and solo players, and even co‑op enthusiasts would find it hard to recommend at such a high price point.

Painkiller is a frustrating game. The designs for the Raid levels and enemies are largely disappointing, the story is nearly nonexistent and ends on a low note, and the Great Value Wheedonisms the characters deploy in combat often had my eyes nearly rolling out of their sockets. But I can’t dismiss it outright, either. The movement and weapons are a lot of fun, the bosses are memorable, I grew to like the characters, and the roguelike mode feels like what Painkiller wants to be. Like its characters, this is a game stuck in-between. Unworthy of heaven, but not bad enough for hell. I can’t imagine who this is for, because it’s not Painkiller fans, and even as a co-op game, it’s held back by obvious limitations. It’s a game about nothing for no one, a mediocre resurrection of a classic trying to put a new cover on an old book and hoping it still has some relevance 21 years later. Yeah. Purgatory sounds about right.

It's Painkiller in name only, with only a few weapon models and enemies in common with the original. It's playable and doesn't make your eyes bleed, but it's definitely not the reboot I was dreaming of.