A new Painkiller was announced back in March, teasing just enough to make me think that after years of bad sequels, well, maybe this time they'd get it right. Today, Anshar Studios and 3D Realms dropped a new trailer revealing the "Rogue Angel" game mode, and it teases just enough to make me think, well, maybe not, too.
Rogue Angel is a co-op roguelike mode that sets teams of players off to battle demons in "a twisted new realm of Purgatory, where procedurally generated arenas, unpredictable drops, and brutal enemies await. Each death offers a lesson. Every run improves your skills. Every step brings you closer to becoming unstoppable."
I felt things start to go sideways almost immediately, when someone in the trailer declared, "Let's go—on me!" as if she was calling the shots in some unnamed modern military shooter and not a descent into the warped bowels of Hell.
Subsequent dialog does not elevate the situation: Barks like "hold your ground," "just warming up," and "that is one ugly creature" are generic and flat in equal measure, but equally awkward—for me, an old-time Painkiller enjoyer, at least—is the sense that they really don't belong here at all.
You can make fun of the original narrative all you like—Heaven knows I have over the years—but the fact is that Painkiller is a game about a brooding wife guy who, instead of going to therapy, single-handedly annihilates Lucifer's legions so he can get back to the missus. It's not exactly Dante Alighieri, no, but it is kind of core to the experience: It's utterly ludicrous, and it's a one-man show.
Lest you think I'm being grumpy because they changed it, now it sucks, let me reassure you I'm not the only one who feels this way. Some samples from the comments on YouTube:
- Better launch with mutable dialogue.
- They Borderlandsed Painkiller For Gen Z
- this isn't killing my pain its increasing it
- Please let us disable the quips.
- Times like this i wish game IPs would stay dead.
- delete from wish list
That last one might be a bit much: Rogue Angel is just one game mode, after all, and if you don't want to play Painkiller in co-op, there's no rule saying you have to. But I think there's a feeling that none of this really "gets" Painkiller: As one person put it, "It looks like it could be good but it doesn't look Painkiller good."
Is any of this going to put me off playing the new Painkiller? Absolutely not. I don't imagine I'll spend any time with this co-op mode, but I absolutely want to see what the campaign has to offer. Hope dies hard, after all, and curiosity is eternal—and it's been long enough since the last time Painkiller disappointed me that I'm ready to try again.
Painkiller is set to launch on October 21, and is up for preorder now on Steam. If you're curious about the original (which really is just that damn good), Painkiller Black is currently on sale for just $2, also on Steam.
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