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For fans of the first game, I have only this to say: semi-automatic sniper-rifle stake gun. With more of everything, this is a must own!

Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell isn’t so much an expansion pack as it is a mini-sequel. Complete with new weapons, enemies, levels, and offering a continuation of the story from the original game, really, the only thing missing from Battle Out of Hell is stand-alone capability. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Picking up right where the first game ended, we find Daniel, our hero, facing down the combined forces of the armies of hell. Unfortunately, rather than let the player jump in right here, you’re forced to watch Daniel get rescued by Eve, who creates a portal back into purgatory, allowing them both to escape certain destruction. It’s not as if we’re actually supposed to care about the story, but the game is called Battle Out of Hell so, in a way, the intro is actually highly anticlimactic.

What Battle Out of Hell lacks in narrative, dialogue, and all the other sundry elements that make for great CG cinema, it more than makes up for in sheer slaughter. For fans of the first game, I have only this to say: semi-automatic sniper-rifle stake gun. For the uninitiated, well, read on.

Painkiller impressed many gamers for 4 key reasons: it had an awesome physics engine with one of the coolest rag-doll corpse systems ever, crazy enemies (including dark monks, bizarre demons, and other fun friends) attacking in legion, a combat philosophy that allowed the player to use a shotgun that never had to be reloaded, and the largest bosses ever seen in a first-person shooter.

While all of that is nice, the original game also included one of the coolest weapons of all-time, the stake gun. Aptly named, the stake gun fired a single large stake which would skewer your enemies, pinning them to walls, ceilings, and floors – or simply causing them to explode into hunks of bloody gibbage.

The manifest genius of this single weapon was glorious to behold; there was simply nothing like watching hordes of your enemies pursue you as you backbeddled, firing one stake every three seconds into the crowd. Even better, you could use it to hit enemies far away with pinpoint accuracy – providing that you estimated the arc correctly.

Simply put, nothing could possibly be cooler than the stake gun.

Except, of course, the boltgun (a new weapon included in Battle Out of Hell). Oh, my brothers and only friends, the boltgun is essence of win. Imagine: a five-barreled stake gun that launches all five stakes with a single trigger pull and then reloads all five barrels within 2 seconds. Now give this death machine a scope, making it into an effective weapon for sniping. Finally, endow it with the ability to throw fifteen or so explosive bolts, each with about half the power of a pipe bomb. Can you imagine the carnage? Can you comprehend the sheer coolness?

The boltgun is joined by another new weapon: a submachine gun/flamethrower capable of firing armor-piercing rounds Rambo-style. The flamethrower, however, is also quite impressive, spewing gigantic clouds of flame capable of roasting any but the most hardcore of your opposition.

And speaking of opposition, Battle Out of Hell comes complete with a whole new cast of enemies, most of which are just as impressively rendered as their counterparts from the first game. Psychotic clowns, puppet people, spider tanks, and (my personal favorite) Corn (a “bizarre combination of man and popcorn”) will provide ample cannon fodder for your expanded arsenal.

Indeed, the new enemies contribute greatly to the game’s generally more difficult gameplay. This is due to their more complicated attacks; clowns, for example, come at you with ranged energy projectiles, melee attacks (if you get too close), and explode into time-delayed mini-grenades after death. They’re also fast, making them much harder to fight than the enemies from the original Painkiller. All of this helps to introduce an added layer of strategy between the strafing and dodging.

The design concept behind the layout of the levels has also changed somewhat. While the game still relies on the old formula of “kill everything, get to checkpoint, repeat”, the levels themselves are much more impressive and feel less linear than they are.

I don’t want to ruin any of the surprises that await you later in the game, but the second carnival-themed level contains a rail-shooter sequence unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a first-person shooter. In fact, the carnival area (in its entirety) is one of the best uses of the theme outside of Max Payne 2. The expanded use of lighting effects really shines on the funhouses’ marquis; I found myself just looking at it in awe.

Still, one of the most visually exciting elements in Painkiller comes not from the game’s architecture or level design. The coolest (and most complex) effects come during combat; when you take damage your view becomes obscured by a blurry, impressionistic smear representing pain. Watching enemies explode under such circumstances is quite enjoyable as you hack your way through them.

Battle Out of Hell manages to remain compelling, serving as a testament to the great design that went into the original game (which still looks pretty damn good). With Painkiller retailing for $29.99 on gamestop.com, it might be worth it to pick both up (Battle Out of Hell carries an asking price of just $19.99). Check it out; you can stake me later.

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Review by Seth “Fingers” Flynn Barkan. (www.bluewizardbook.com)