Shifting Landscapes in Gaming: The Case of Painkiller
This year, the gaming world witnessed a curious phenomenon: the release of a new Painkiller title that seemingly vanished from the spotlight almost as quickly as it arrived. In an industry where the pace is relentless, many games slip through the cracks unnoticed. However, Painkiller was expected to maintain a certain level of cultural relevance, given its legacy.
The reboot, developed by Anshar Studios, introduced significant alterations to the original formula crafted by People Can Fly. The game transitioned from a devoutly single-player horde shooter to a cooperative experience reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, infused with the frenetic movement style of Doom Eternal. This transformation elicited a mixed response from the gaming community, resulting in a Mixed rating from nearly 600 reviews on Steam.
Industry veteran Adrian Chmielarz, who played the beta version of Anshar’s reboot, expressed his dissatisfaction candidly. “To say I wasn’t impressed is putting it mildly,” he remarked, highlighting his fundamental disagreements with the game’s direction. He questioned the rationale behind altering such a well-established intellectual property (IP), stating, “I will never understand why you’re taking the IP and then sort of turning it around. What’s the point here?”
Chmielarz’s concerns extend beyond structural changes; he also critiques the new game’s tone. He noted that a significant aspect of the original Painkiller was its atmosphere and serious treatment of its themes. “Half of Painkiller was about the atmosphere, and it treated itself seriously,” he explained. “It wasn’t the best, but at least it gave you the idea that the people who made it believed in it and wanted you to have more horror experiences than a silly game filled with one-liners and explosions.”
Ultimately, Chmielarz posits that the decision to retain the Painkiller name may have adversely affected the game’s commercial prospects. “If they’d actually called it something else, they would have sold more copies and the reaction would be much more positive,” he suggested, drawing parallels to Arkane’s experience with its System Shock successor, which was similarly constrained by its title.
While Chmielarz has moved on from Painkiller, elements of its design continue to influence his work. His current endeavor, Witchfire, is a long-awaited “RPG shooter” that launched as an Epic exclusive in 2023 and entered Steam early access last year. The latest update, titled The Reckoning, was released recently but required swift adjustments due to a new feature, “World Corruption,” which unbalanced gameplay to the extent that it “made the game switch genres,” according to Chmielarz.
