The gorgeous, brutal Painkiller is a dull co-op FPS in a boomer shooter's skin

When sliding down the bone-ridged hills of its Unreal Engine 5-powered underworld, Anshar Studios' undeniably gorgeous Painkiller reboot feels like a genuine continuation of the cult-classic boomer shooter series. In these fleeting moments, slick movement and bass-pounding gunplay combine to a fervor of FPS greatness, but it's all ripped away as soon as the core co-op objectives pummel you back down to earth.

Painkiller (2025) isn't a remake of the 21-year-old original, nor is it a natural successor to the rapid-fire single-player shooters that intermittently followed. Instead, it comes across as a co-op FPS game cosplaying as Painkiller. It's a convincing imitation on the surface - it looks the part and certainly sounds it - but its transition to a smooth, checklist-filled objective shooter has eroded the series' strong single-player structure.

As a member of a three-player squad tasked with battling through Hell to stop the fallen angel Azazel from invading Earth, your mission briefing is simple and to the point: pick your death-dealing weapons and their elemental effects, select your character based on whichever minor stat buffs you fancy, consume a few unlockable tarot cards, and jump into a quick match. For a game that draws from the rebellious aesthetic of 80s and 90s metal album covers, the multiplayer setup feels especially safe and expected.

For my preview, Anshar gave me access to two missions: Defiled Quarry and Cathedral Bridge, the latter of which cut off just before its boss fight, meaning I never got to battle any big bads. In both missions, you'll skirt around gorgeous gothic arenas with a combination of slide, jump, and hook-shot mechanics that allow you to maneuver gracefully in moments of pure boomer shooter bliss. These short bursts suggest the team understands the flow of classic Painkiller as you pump countless shotgun shells into demons in a biblical display of blood and viscera without any need to reload.

However, the true highlights of the experience are never found among its main objectives, which trap you in a small arena and task you with killing waves of foes or collecting blood in barrels on repeat. It can all be oddly tedious considering the subject matter, but the hallways between these key moments are far more interesting, boasting novel platforming challenges and hidden secrets. It's here that you can feel the core of the series' identity wrestling to escape.

Anshar tries to inject more excitement via a Devil May Cry-esque style-scoring system. The better your kills and the more varied your executions, the higher your score. But it works against the game's co-op design, especially in blood barrel segments where you inevitably become more focused on fulfilling personal challenges than playing the objective. The system also doesn't seem to reward you with anything or even formalise a sense of competition while racking your combo, as you can't see your team members' style ratings.

The core gunplay is admittedly fantastic throughout, and despite its no doubt humbler budget, Painkiller's brutal, punchy arsenal comes close to rivaling id's own Doom: The Dark Ages, even if you can only take two weapons into each mission. Almost every gun is a returning weapon from Painkiller Black: the stakegun is your bolt-action rifle equivalent, the electrodriver is a high-speed machine gun, the shotgun is a close-range beast, the rocket launcher is exactly what you'd expect, and the SMG is a lightweight machine-pistol that lets you unload mountains of iron into demon scum. The only new addition is the hand cannon, an ironically bottomless six-shooter that hits like a stallion's kick to the chest.

As you play, you'll earn gold and ancient souls to unlock permanent upgrades and additional alt-fire modes. Every alt-fire focuses on one of three elemental types: electric, fire, or ice. For the most part, each weapon rips through enemies at such a pace that they feel indistinguishable from one another. However, whenever a mini-boss arrives accompanied by its own health bar, a combination of elemental attacks can make the difference between a long, drawn-out battle and a quick dash into the next fight.

There is an unforgettable seventh weapon as well, one every character has by default: the Painkiller. The namesake of the series, a spinning tri-blade chainsaw equivalent, is always available and ties into the game's hookshot mechanics. It looks and sounds great, and even does decent damage, but with enemy types largely blending into each other as three players dish out damage in compressed arenas, there's little time or incentive to use it.

As good as the combat can feel, it's a shame that the game seems strangled by its own construction, with its main objectives seldom playing to the strength of its combat, while its underbaked score system actively works against successful co-operation.

As with any preview, it's worth noting that there is a lot more to Anshar's Painkiller reimagining than what I've played, with additional locations, enemy types, weapons, and more to see when it launches on October 9. It boasts some fantastic elements that have been strained through the cheesecloth that is modern co-op design, and the dull main objectives and weapon limit often leave the combat screaming to be fully unleashed. Like a metalhead in Sunday service, Painkiller never quite seems to fit, but its solid bones could still be cracked and healed in the right direction as the campaign progresses, so I'm not ready to give up on it just yet.