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I don’t care what anyone had to say about Painkiller when it came out last April, I liked it. Sure, the gameplay was the most standard twitch-shooter play to be seen in a while, but to me, that was the basis of its appeal. So many games today are trying to prove themselves these deep, interweaving journeys, while Painkiller came onto the scene and said ‘here’s some guns, kill sh**’.

Of course, such an approach was Painkillers biggest draw, and its biggest crutch all in one breathe. Some gamers, myself included, had fun with the brainless run ‘n’ gun mechanics, and enjoyed not having to pick our brain at complicated puzzles or a deep, involving storyline. Other gamers, of course, like that in a game, and in such, Painkiller seemed a step backwards for the genre.

Well, those of us who did enjoy the original have a bit to look forward to in Battle Out of Hell, the titles first expansion pack. The question remains, though: after beating it the first time, does BOOH offer enough variance to warrant another visit to the Painkiller universe of run, gun, repeat?

BOOH starts exactly where the original ends: Alastor has taken Lucifer’s place as ruler of hell, and now, being Heaven’s Hitman, its off to work for you. Just like in the original, the pre-rendered cut scenes are pretty nice looking, but the lip synching is god-awful, and the facial animations are next to non-existent, making for some very cardboard-feeling characters. Oh well, we’re not here for the storyline anyway, right?

Another issue carried on from the original title is the complete randomness of areas in which you will battle Hells minions. There’s an amusement park, a coliseum, caverns, and a World War II era environment. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t we suppose to be going to kill things in Hell? Even still, had the game given you some kind of reasoning behind the rather obscure environmental choices made during the game, it could be forgiven, but just throwing me into an amusement park full of insane-looking clowns and other likewise creatures out for my blood seems lazy.

Boss fights are back, and they’re just as huge and intimidating as they were in the last outing. This time around, though, there are a couple issues. In one of the boss fights, the boss will bleed when you shoot it, even when it’s not taking any damage. This may lead you to unload half your bullets on the boss before finally realizing that you aren’t hurting him. The problem becomes even more prominent when you take into consideration that the other boss monsters don’t bleed unless they’re being hurt. It’s an issue of inconsistency that could have been easily avoided; there’s no excuse.

Just as in the original Painkiller, the environment is key to eliminating a boss enemy. A couple of the solutions are pretty puzzling, and will take you a couple minutes to figure them out, while a few more are a bit more obvious. I won’t spoil it for those of you actually planning on playing through the expansion, so we’ll just move on.

AI is pretty much the same ‘charge you until you die’ that you saw in the original Painkiller, but it’s going to take more firepower to kill them this time around. The expansion offers a small extension of the original arsenal, including an assault rifle/flamethrower, or a crossbow that shoots stakes and flechette ball bearings. Nothing too extremely cool, and the alternative firing modes still seem extremely strange.

The game is generally fairly easy to get through on the default difficulty setting, since the enemy AI is so straightforward. Melee fighters will charge right at you, making them easy targets, and projectile enemies have horrible aim, so really, as long as you’re moving, you should be fine. There are, however a few hard parts that make the game feel uneven. During the amusement park stage, there’s a time where you will have to go on a roller coaster, and projectile enemies will be taking pot shots at you while you’re stuck inside the cart of the ride. The cart itself obscures your vision horribly at times, and the fact that you’re constantly swerving and looping makes it very hard to aim at targets.

Visually, BOOH follows in Painkillers footsteps, meaning it looks great. Sharp textures riddle every nook and cranny of the games levels, and enemies look even better this time around then they did in the original. There are some excellent lighting effects to be seen, and particle effects galore. As I said before, the cut scenes are a bit of a mixed bag, but since they’re far and few between, it’s less of an issue than it could have been.

BOOH is also a lot like Painkiller in that the games voice acting is still shoddy and unbelievable. Sound effects are still generally well done, offering a nice bang for your buck. Enemies will yell out, squeal, scream and growl with numerous different sound effects, helping flesh out the audio to outweigh its weaknesses.

Fans of Painkiller have probably already had their fill of the games repetitive formula, but for those of you that wouldn’t mind a bit more, Battle Out of Hell would make a worthy purchase. If you didn’t like the original Painkiller, BOOH surely won’t change your mind, but likely solidify your opinion towards the game. The game looks awesome, and plays fairly well for the most part, but the areas where it falters are areas that are rather inexcusable (the bleeding boss, as an example). Unfortunately, with so many more quality titles out this holiday season, it’s very hard to recommend this expansion over something along the lines of Halo 2, Half-Life 2, or the like.