Full story.

[1244325]

Hi. Can anybody describe to me in what order i need to play in Painkiller games to know the full story of this game?
Sorry for my bad english.

[blessthefall]

This is the remake of the first game. So you can start with this(but they deleted some levels from it selling them as dlcs) or you can start with Black Edition.

[offlinenolife]

This is actually a very good question.
As far as the story is concerned, PKHD is not a remake at all but a sequel. The long, bstrdized PK series has had no "reboot" yet - so every game adds something to the overarching story... for better or worse (mostly worse).

Painkiller (2004)
Story of Daniel.
Finish the game once to see the "sad" ending. Then finish the game in Trauma difficulty for the "happy" ending.

Battle Out Of Hell (2004)
More or less a direct sequel to the original story.
PK and BooH form the Black Edition and are often considered the only Painkiller games worthy of the name.

Then follows a string of low-budget spin-offs...

Overdose (2007)
New hero: Belial.
His story takes place right after Daniel's at the end of the original Painkiller.

Resurrection (2009)
New hero: Bill.

Redemption (2011)
Daniel and Belial meet (playable characters) and are helped by Bill.

Recurring Evil (2012)
Bill's story during Redemption.

And finally (?)...

Painkiller Hell & Damnation (2013)
Remake of some maps from the original game, arranged in a different order. The story is not the original one, and is supposed to follow the other game s in the "series". Contains references to Redemption.

TL;DR If you're only interested in the story, play the original Painkiller... And forget all the rest.

[1244325]

Big thanx for a more detailed description.

[Terepin]

Originally posted by offlinenolife:

Battle Out Of Hell (2004)
More or less a direct sequel to the original story.

More or less? Dafuq. BooH starts EXACTLY where PK ends and you write "more or less"?! Put your ♥♥♥♥ together dude, before you start giving advises to others.

Besides, Overdose is as good as PK+BooH, despite popular hating.

[offlinenolife]

Well the original Painkiller has two endings, right ? So storywise anything coming after that can only be "more or less" a sequel in my view. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings.

[Terepin]

Trauma ending is just a bonus, not canon.

[Beba Fott]

If you want to play the games following the story and also care about gameplay, i suggest buying Painkiller Black Edition and Painkiller Hell & Damnation. Black Edition includes BOOH (Battle Out Of Hell) which is a direct sequel to the original Painkiller. Next comes Hell & Damnation which, from what i can tell, is a sequel to BOOH.

In my opinion the expansions never happened, although Overdose could also be included in the lore if you want (as it is the best of the expansions but nowhere near as good as black edition) as the end of the original Painkiller feeds into the start of overdose, so it takes place during BOOH and ends at the sime time as Hell & Damnation.

I know this is very late and most probably useless, but i just wanted to give you the best way to experience Painkiller and helping u avoid the bad additions to the series. This is not official lore, this is just how i like to think of it, so please bare that in mine.

[Terepin]

I find PKOD as good as PKBE. I never understood the hate towards it.

[Harven]

play the original black edition. dont bother with the others because they are super bad low budget pieces of crap. after u complete black edition play HD, because its really good.

[Terepin]

Overdose is good as well. Stop bashing it. Unless you have concrete reservations, shut the ♥♥♥♥ up.

[virtual balboa]

So it starts with this dude named Daniel, and you're going to have to buy DLC to find out the rest.

[Terepin]

DLCs are not part of the story.

[Patrol1985]

Originally posted by Terepin:

Overdose is good as well. Stop bashing it. Unless you have concrete reservations, shut the ♥♥♥♥ up.

The very first PK and its expansion (Battle Out of Hell) have VERY memorable levels. Maps which genuinely made you surprised or put you in awe.

Overdose wasn't necessarily bad, but it was just "more of the same", which ultimately meant "boring". I can't remember a single level from "Overdose", but I still have fond memories of Cemetery, the final Hell level or Loony Park and Leningrad from BooH. Also, the weapons of Overdose are mostly just pallette swaps - essentially the same weapons in different "costumes".

It's cool that the developers still support "Painkiller Hell & Damnation", but I will be yet another person to recommend new users to simply buy "Painkiller: Black Edition" and forget about the rest of the series.

TL;DR:

If you're new to the series buy "Painkiller: Black Edition" and forget about the rest.

[Terepin]

Of course, it was the same. It's an EXPANSION PACK. You don't complain about it with BooH, do you?
PKOD also has memorable levels, for me Animal Farm is one of the best PK levels to date. The bad thing is JoWood didn't let them to finish all of them, so for example Nuclear plant is just flat out boring like hell.

[Patrol1985]

Of course I don't complain about BooH, mainly because it was so much better ;) Each of us is entitled to their own opinion. I'm absolutely in love with id Software's RAGE, which was universally heralded as a disaster.

No doubt "Overdose" can be enjoyed by some people, but I'm with the majority here - it's boring for me (unlike the first PK or BooH).