The Down and Dirty

Heaven's hitman makes the jump from PC to Xbox and brings along one or two new surprises.

The Goods

If 100 different gaming experts were asked to make a list of their favorite action title publishers, it's a safe bet that DreamCatcher would not be one of the more frequently appearing names, if it even made the list at all. Known primarily as one of the few sources of high-quality classic adventure gaming left in existence (they're the folks who brought us the Syberia games, so be sure to say "thank you"), they've recently begun branching out into action titles such as the recent survival horror title Obscure and soon-to-be-released Cold War. Obscure flew under most radars, and Cold War's fate is yet to be known, so a high-profile release like Painkiller just may be what DreamCatcher needs to finally get some street cred with the gaming public.

When Painkiller came out for the PC, it was no big shock that it was a hit. Beautiful graphics? Check. Nifty weapons? Check. Delicious physics? Oh, yeah. Sure, there was a story, too, involving Heaven, Hell, and the various denizens therein, but who cared? There were lots of cool things to kill and lots of cool things to kill them with, and they blew into cool bits when they were shot. Woo hoo! The environments were huge, gothic, and well-detailed, giving gamers a welcome respite from the futuristic or industrial landscapes in which most first person shooters seem to find themselves set. Painkiller struck a nice balance between storytelling and mindless violence, and put on a pretty face while doing it.

Painkiller for the Xbox is not going to be a straight port, but rather a "best of," combining the best levels from the original game, its expansion, Battle Out of Hell, and two or three new single player levels that will be exclusive to the Xbox. It will, naturally, be Xbox Live enabled with up to 16-player multiplayer capability and downloadable content. There will also be a new, exclusive to Xbox weapon, but it's still a secret at the moment. Damn!

The Verdict

The graphics are silky smooth, the controls, unlike many PC to console ports, work perfectly, and the physics are just as tasty as ever. Anyone who missed out on the fraggity goodness the first time around owes it to themselves to pick this up when it comes out later this year. Oh, and did I mention it's going to be a budget title?