Painkiller (video game)

Painkiller is a first-person shooter from Polish developer People Can Fly, released by DreamCatcher Interactive in April 2004 for Windows and later ported to Xbox in 2006. Its single-player campaign centers on a dead man stuck in Purgatory who strikes a bargain: defeat the forces of Lucifer's army to earn a spot in Heaven. The game earned strong praise for its multiplayer modes, which were part of the Cyberathlete Professional League's World Tour for two seasons. A reboot with the same name came out in October 2025.

The gameplay takes cues from shooters like Quake, Doom, and Serious Sam, focusing on mowing down huge hordes of monsters. The campaign splits into five chapters, each roughly five levels long. Players must fight through each level from start to finish, often facing mass battles where exits lock and heavy metal music blares until the player clears the room, hits a checkpoint, and the exits reopen with softer music. Levels vary widely in theme and style, including castles, monasteries, an opera house, and graveyards, and new monster types appear almost every level. Five boss levels cap off each chapter. Each level also offers a special task that rewards a tarot card—a rare bonus that, when equipped, grants a 30-second boost like powered-up weapons or slow motion. Multiplayer supports LAN and online play with classic modes like Deathmatch and Capture-the-Flag. The Xbox version's online support ended in April 2010, though it's now playable on the replacement Insignia servers.

The plot follows Daniel Garner, a young man voiced by Cam Clarke, who is happily married to Catherine (Vanessa Marshall). On the way to her birthday dinner, he takes his eyes off the road in the rain, crashes into a truck, and both die instantly. Catherine reaches Heaven, but Daniel is trapped in Purgatory. An angel named Samael (John Cygan) tells him he must kill four of Lucifer's generals to prevent a war between Heaven and Hell, as Lucifer is secretly building an army that threatens to overwhelm Heaven and take over Purgatory. Daniel accepts. He travels through various historical slices of Purgatory—Medieval Europe, Babylon, the Crusades, the 1800s, and modern industry—fighting Hell's forces.