The story, such as it is, is also dull and told through horribly scripted dialogue that wouldn’t even hold up in a Syfy Channel B-Movie. Dated graphics and a number of glitches, such as enemies’ bodies getting stuck in the scenery, only makes things worse.

The enemies have no intelligence whatsoever and will always just run straight at you, meaning that all you need to do is find a corner, stand still and keep firing. Played across 14 levels (so I’m told I’d lost interest way before then) the gameplay involves nothing more than heading into an arena, killing the bad guys, before moving on and doing the same again. Fair enough consoles have been swamped with copy cat cover based shooters all aiming for a share of the Gears of War and Call of Duty crowd but this is not an enjoyable alternative. Right from the horribly scripted opening cut-scene it is clear that Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is aiming to be an old school shooter, Right from the horribly scripted opening cut-scene it is clear that Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is aiming to be an old school shooter, unfortunately the developers don’t seemed to have realised that some things are best left in the past.

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