Well I finally beat this game! It took me a while. I was playing on the (second to) hardest difficulty, and it does get difficult. And I quit about three times before going back in to finish the fight.

Lot of hype around this one, especially in the classic-era FPS world. True sequel to Doom, Unreal, Quake--all those run 'n gun games. I suppose it is..it does the run n' gun pretty well I suppose. But I must admit, this game drove me absolutely nuts with frustration! Something I think I'm pretty alone on.

First off, for a simple FPS, this game, before you even start, is hella convoluted. There's like seven versions of the damn game, (Special Edition, Gold/Black, Universe, Lite, etc etc). I know when looked into, it makes sense. But god damn that's confusing for someone who, "wants to play that game Painkiller that looked cool".

With the Black edition (got it from here obviously) I was in. Like *every* other FPS out there, I went in on the hardest difficulty, because I like the challenge. Woops! Turns out this is a special mode not really supposed to be even available to a noob. Uh...thanks for letting me know. I played through a good three hours without even realizing there were souls to collect. What the hell kind of run 'n gun FPS requires research to play?! I just wanted to SHOOT shit!

Had to start over. Then read about these levels that you can't get to on certain difficulties, some that you can, and all this nonsense. My god almighty this game is like a freaking RIDDLE! Doom wasn't like this, I remember. I went in. I clicked Start. And I shot everything.

Speaking of shooting everything, when I FINALLY got to that, it was fun, I suppose. Simple but that's ok. But with the difficulty I was on, my weapon selection was all sorts of messed up. Sometimes I had lots of weapons, sometimes I had only two--but would still be picking up tons of ammo for guns I didn't have. Just madly confusing. And hard. Then I ran into that bug in the castle where I couldn't progress.

And progressing?! SO hard sometimes! The checkpoint system just doesn't work sometimes. I thought it was me, I thought I was missing something. But after finally taking note, I would run into a red checkpoint area, it'd tell me it saved or whatever, then I would go die, and it would start me off in some area way back. And the saved games make no sense. Timestamps should be the end all--Load. Most. Recent. That should work, every time. Nope! And that arrow indicator does nothing to help you. Sometimes it points in a sort-of-kind-of right way, then mid walking, just spins around on you. *sigh* Again, Painkiller, only interested in SHOOTING stuff. I swear, I had to go to Youtube to figure out where the damned blue portal was after beating Lucifer because it kept sending me in circles. How am I supposed to know to backtrack.

That last level looked phenomenal. Worth the price of admission. And shooting things was fun. But holy hell does it put you through hell (no pun intended) to get there. I can see sort of why everyone loves it so much, but I just kept running into stupid issues left and right. Fun game, but hardly a sequel to the classics. Those still hold up, and are better.

TL;DR--Frustrating as all hell for obscure reasons. Occasionally fun.

To me it sounds like your game was corrupt. Whether it was the install or download, I'm not sure, but I'm quite sure that's the case.

I didn't experience those last issues - agree it sounds like a broken install.

I did know about the other stuff, but largely because I read the manual!

strange, i never read the manual or anything but i never found it difficult to understand
maybe this has something to do with the fact i played insomnia difficulty (i heard souls don't appear on hardest)

also the name of the higher difficulties kinda show that it should not be underestimated (nightmare, trauma, ...)

SInce when is Trauma available from the beginning? Is the GoG version bugged? My BE, bought back in the day, has Trauma locked until you get 23 cards and/or finish the game on Nightmare.

Sorry this is so late....but I suppose people who are still looking into playing the game might find the thread relevant?

I don't think my game was corrupted, honestly. It didn't play like it was corrupted, just....not very good. I mean maybe the gun issue but that is such a specific issue to carry through the ENTIRE game. That's an odd bug. Are you supposed to only have on--what, the second to last difficulty--two guns available? And are those weapons selected at random in each level? Why was I always picking up ammo for guns that I didn't have?

I ultimately didn't play on the very hardest difficulty--that fact that it was even available to me is what bothered me. It shouldn't be. I played on the second-to-hardest. And while difficult, it was very playable. Just frustration because of other things.

The bug in the castle I read about a lot. Apparently that is common.

And lastly, about reading the manual. Lol! I made it through Witcher without reading a manual, and tons of other needlessly convoluted games. Bloody *Painkiller* should not be one that needs to be read, haha.