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Painkiller demo

SquidgySquidgy Earthforce Officer
So, how many of you guys have tried out the new Painkiller demo? It's pretty good, reminding me of Serious Sam, with more of a gothic style, and a little more manageable hordes (still pretty insane numbers, though).

It has a lot of good things in the demo, namely the physics system, style and atmosphere, and some nice innovative ideas with the tarot card system. I.e: you pick up gold coins that you can spend on cards that you choose prior to each level, and then those cards will alter the play experience, allowing you to deal more damage, start with more health, etc. There are some good ideas here, and the level design, while simplistic and very linear, is pretty solid.

But all is not well in the state of heaven: the designers have committed the unforgiveable sin: [i]you cannot save[/i].

Levels are extremely long, difficult and crammed with enemies who can capitalize on a single mistake and kill you in moments, and then you have to repeat the entire damn thing even if you're a heartbeat away from the end.
I really enjoyed playing it, but damn it all, I refuse to replay the same half-hour level three times over. There's no excuse for not including a save system - even a limited checkpoint system would be a start, and the levels are designed so that I expected them to have checkpoints.

The only reason I can see why you wouldn't include a save function is either deliberate malice on the part of the designers or sheer incompetence.

Great graphics, good gameplay, a [I]stupid[/I] design decision. The full game will includes saves of some kind, but it definitely didn't help my enjoyment of the demo, and has negatively influenced the odds of me buying the game. Still, as a whole it's worth giving a try, if your machine is up to it.

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So, what are you guys impressions?

Comments

  • MartianDustMartianDust Elite Ranger
    Am guessing no-one has from the lack of replies lol.

    Is that a self portrait Squidgy?

    :)
  • SquidgySquidgy Earthforce Officer
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by MartianDust [/i]
    Am guessing no-one has from the lack of replies lol.
    [/QUOTE]
    Hah! Yeah, it seems so. :) I actually replayed the demo, and I did manage to finish it without dying this time - turns out I'd just chosen the wrong ground to try and defend. Gotta control the bottlenecks and lay down supression fire!

    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by MartianDust [/i]
    Is that a self portrait Squidgy?
    [/QUOTE]
    Yeah, done a few months back. I used to have a different avatar here, an older self-portrait from high school. Yeah, I still look pretty much like that.
    [IMG]http://www.squidgystudios.com/temp/avatar70x70.gif[/IMG]
    Why? You looking for a portrait? :)
  • shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
    sometimes with demos creators get lazy... they just pull the savepoints/wp whathaveyou to make a short length of gameplay last longer. You may find those places where you expected saves and waypoints will be exactly that in the actual game.

    Ask some questions of the developers mate.
  • MartianDustMartianDust Elite Ranger
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Squidgy [/i]
    [B]
    Why? You looking for a portrait? :) [/B][/QUOTE]

    Well no....as I'm not too bad at doing portraits myself. :)
    Plus I've been going to an eve Art class to try and learn more. This term its painting which I'm not so good at, at all yet!! Bloody expensive too! ;)

    Have you ever tried negative portraits? This is where you cover your paper first completely with charcoal, then with a rubber (think its called a kneading rubber)?! And you draw with this instead. Its best if you're working with a B/W picture or subject thats partly in shadow to get the effect. But it really works. Learnt this in class. Will have to take pic of one I done, so you know what I mean if you don't know already.

    Btw welcome aboard! :)
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