Painkiller: Overdose - Afterlife For An Aberration

Beginning as a fan-created mod, Painkiller: Overdose was recognized and supported by Dreamcatcher to become a full-fledged product in October 2007. The story consists of a main character Belial - the spawn of an illicit renedevous between an angel and a demon - who is imprisoned within the environs of Hell for being an aberration. Hate begins to build within him, and he vows to take revenge on all who were a part of his imprisonment. Much like the rest of the Painkiller series of games, that is about the extent of the storyline. Painkiller (the original game) was about killing things. Period. Okay, it had more of a storyline than that, but it was about having fun in an FPS shooting things. Overdose continues that tradition in the same style as its predecessors. Its not a fully developed plot-twisting storyline, but fans of the series aren't expecting that anyway. Storyline isn't where this game shines, but its unique quality is enough to make it definitive in the ocean of FPS games out today.

One thing to note is that while there isn't really a deep storyline to the game, the setting, the music, the weapons, and the enemies are all part of a grand theme - that of being a half-angel, half-demon walking his way through Hell. In that respect, the game is highly immersive and entertaining, easily achieving the goal of placing the player in that environment believably.

The weaponry introduced in Overdose is truly revolutionary - not in what they do, but just in what they are. The initial weapon is the Razor Cube, which is a cube made of metal blades that can be flung out at enemies. It then quickly returns back to you, which is nice in the event you find yourself out of ammo for the rest of the arsenal. Another gruesome addition to the weaponry is the Demon Head. This item is actually the head of the demon who was guarding the dungeon Belial is imprisoned in at the start of the game. How often do you get to walk around carrying a demon head with its tongue lolling out, let alone use it as a weapon? The BoneGun is equivalent to a shotgun, something no FPS would be complete without. What makes it unique however, is the fact that it shoots out high speed bone fragments as its primary fire and causes petrification of enemies as its secondary fire.

There is a crossbow, a rocket launcher, and a flintlock rifle - strangely out of place here - as well. Belial also gets to use a dagger filled with demonic power, known as a Shadow Blade. You don't stab with this weapon however, rather throwing it spinning into your enemies as the secondary fire. The primary fire of this weapon is fun though, as you send three spinning skulls out into the hordes to end their existence. Finally, you get to toss Demon Eggs at enemies or walls, where they stick until you detonate them using a left mouse click. The interesting part of this weapon however is that you can send out multiple eggs using the right mouse button, stacking them on a big boss-type so that you can take him out in one huge blow or clear the masses surrounding him.

Visually, Overdose is dark and definitely in tune with the Painkiller theme. There are a lot of flames everywhere - hey its Hell, after all - and you can imagine just how uncomfortable afterlife existence in this realm would be. In some respects, it can be said that the visuals are basic and not really breathtaking. But they get the job done, and on a decent gaming rig you shouldn't see too much latency. If you're not sporting a decent graphics card however, you may have to tone down some of the visuals for performance reasons.