Painkiller: Hills

[Artas1984]

No i am not going to talk about another piece of shit Painkiller expansion or addon. Everything after Painkiller Battle out of Hell was worse --> to --> garbage.

However, the original Painkiller is the best pure "fast paced shooter" that i ever played.

Painkiller Hills is a custom single player map, created by the legendary Varus back in 2005. Varus was one of the most important members in the history of Painkiller community, as his daily helping and advice "duties" to newcomers , his in-depth knowledge of the game, combined with his great graphic design and map editing skills provided an unparalleled value to the then quite huge community.

This map was created for real enthusiasts of the game, who relish going all out in HUGE Serious Sam type maps, looking for ridiculously hard secret places and fighting in very challenging situations, way more than in original Painkiller games.

This is also the biggest map ever created for Painkiller. All you need to have is Painkiller Black Edition.

http://pkzone.org/hills-by-varus-singleplayer-mod/

Back in the day this map consumed an enormous amount of resources. If you did not have a 7200 rpm HDD and some 768 MB of RAM, you were fu^ked with long loading times!

@rtwjunkie, you mentioned you replay Painkiller Black every year. I did not know you were such a fan. Did you try a Painkiller "5 star challenge"? If you are a true fan, you must check this map out!!!

 

[Drone]

Back in the day I played vanilla Painkiller a lot. Their own engine was pretty cool (not that unreal remake crap). It had Doom/Quake/Blood atmosphere and cool music. Level design was cool, and there wasn't a single level that I didn't like. The only thing I dislike about PK is enemy AI which made game very easy even on trauma.

Giant bosses and strong weapons make this game unique. Seriously, what can be better than a shotgun + LN2 freezer.

 

[Artas1984]

Seriously, what can be better than a shotgun + LN2 freezer.

A gun that shoots shuriken and lightning?

Ye, i knew you liked Painkiller. The fact that Painkiller seemed easy on trauma was the reason maps like Hills were created. And that brings the question to you too: did you try the 5 star challenge?

 

[Drone]

A gun that shoots shuriken and lightning?

Ye, i knew you liked Painkiller. The fact that Painkiller seemed easy on trauma was the reason maps like Hills were created. And that brings the question to you too: did you try the 5 star challenge?

Shurikens/shocker is awesome but I'm always outta shurikens and shuriken ammo is always scarce while shotgun shells are extremely abundant. I just realized it now when you mentioned it. They should've put more shuriken and less shotgun shells on the map!

Yeah, I tried 5 star challenge. It's pretty cool and tough at the same time. In some levels you can't go back so if you miss a monster/ammo/secret or destroyable object then you automatically ruin your 5 star challenge. In BooH some holy items are really hard to get, especially in those mines levels in the end.

Did you try no damage challenge?

 

[Artas1984]

In some levels you can't go back so if you miss a monster/ammo/secret or destroyable object then you automatically ruin your 5 star challenge.

While in a few maps you can't go back to collect all the stuff and secrets, in the majority of the maps you can! Compare this to the Painkiller HD Remake, in which no doors open in the end, and you can't get back in any map! That alone was the biggest flaw for me in the new game!

Did you try no damage challenge?

I am a loyal PK fan. I did the 5 star challenge several times on trauma and nightmare, but i never thought about no damage! Nice one! I can not remember anyone thinking about that sort of challenge in our community, although there have been other challenges - collect all souls, time attack boss levels, grab all gold... I did, however finish the game on trauma with just the Painkiller weapon once, even had all that recorded as a demo, but it got lost a long time ago. I was a moderator in 2 Painkiller forums (gameamp and dreamcatcher), made tons of Painkiller videos, which you can find in my Youtube Channel and together with my old partner RJ19 did a world record SDA Painkiller speedrun. The last time i played the game was 2013, when i was still trying to find new tricks and movement methods even after 9 years of release. Here is my last tribute to Painkiller: Painkiller Trickjumps HD. Our TP forum member @Frag Maniac was one of the old timers in Painkiller Dreamcatcher forums, he used to record videos for the game too, as well as speedrun some levels, but lost interest in the game after some time.

 

[Drone]

I am a loyal PK fan. I did the 5 star challenge several times on trauma and nightmare, but i never thought about no damage! Nice one! I can not remember anyone thinking about that sort of challenge in our community, although there have been other challenges - collect all sous, time attack boss levels, grab all gold... I did, however finish the game on trauma with just the Painkiller weapon once, even had all that recorded as a demo, but it got lost a long time ago. I was a moderator in 2 Painkiller forums (gameamp and dreamcatcher), made tons of Painkiller videos, which you can find in my Youtube Channel and together with my old partner RJ19 did a world record SDA Painkiller speedrun.

IIRC only Alastor boss battles in PK and BooH are impossible with no damage challenge because in PK floor breaks and you receive falling damage and in BooH you have to hurt yourself to kill Alastor. Other than that I think it's possible to complete all other levels with no damage.

I didn't know that. I will check out your videos

I haven't played PK for a while. It's retail 4 CD version + 2CD Booh. I remember it runs too fast on "modern" cpus (you need to set affinity in task manager). Unfortunately there was never official patch for that.

 

[Artas1984]

Doing a no damage run would be a pain in the ass and not particularity interesting. You would have to play cautiously, which is the opposite of what Painkiller is - run wide open guns blazing!

Painkiller used to run best o single high frequency core. Nowdays it is optimised to run with any CPU. 1,5 GB RAM is enough even for the biggest levels to load. GF 7600GT 256 MB pulls stable 120 FPS ant max settings with no AA and no bloom at 1600X1200, but the game was known to run on a crap like GF MX440 at lowest settigns.

I've got my Painkiller Black, which also includes Battle out of Hell, from GOG - single install package, no CD needed, no DRM.