“Painkiller” to 2025 Reimagining on Modern Platforms
Guess who’s back from the underworld? Nope, not your Monday blues—“Painkiller” is back. The cult-classic first-person shooter from 2004 is putting the devil back in 2025 with a full-blown reimagining for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and cloud gaming platforms. This is not a remaster with fancy new shadows; this is a ground-up reboot that will “retain the soul, but rip and reload the flesh.”
Announced at this year’s Summer Game Fest, new “Painkiller” is being developed by Saber Interactive and Plaion (formerly Koch Media) and making a splash already -in part because original iteration of “Painkiller” was well-known for two things: speed and demon slaying.
The new “Painkiller” is being described as gritty, metal-infused, arena shooting, and pulls no punches. But you won’t just get glory days of yesteryear with this one — the 2025 version will also bring co-op gameplay, roguelike features, and even a light narrative structure (which the original one decidedly lacked; full admit, we were too busy shotgunning skeletons to care about).
We wanted to take the core DNA of “Painkiller – movement, madness, and metal – and inject it
For relatively older gamers, Painkiller was released in 2004 as the spiritual successor of the seminal FPS titles DOOM and Serious Sam. Game players are Daniel Garner, a man in purgatory fighting hellish foes and the array of weapons he would eventually have at his disposal, not least of which would be a stake gun, a spinning blade launcher, and an array of obviously leather-jacket inspired weapon variants.
While the reboot retains some of that indulgent flair (yes, the Painkiller weapon returns, in a drill-meets-blender mash-up), there is also some context, with a campaign-style story written by Sci-Fi author Laura Miśkiewicz that we can expect to bring in existentialism, angels with issues of trust, and a heavy dose of politicking — even more than the Vatican might prefer.
The 2025 Painkiller is being made using Unreal Engine 5, which implies:
Dynamic lighting and gore physics so realistic you’ll want paper towels and cleaning supplies close at hand.
Ray-traced blood splatter (because why not)
Seamlessly integrated arena transitions, so we won’t have to load into and out of ‘hell zones’ anymore.
But, perhaps most importantly, Painkiller will support modding, at launch, a fact that more old-school fans are already salivating over.
“Painkiller was built by a community of fans who cherished changing, breaking, and rebuilding the game. We want that to continue,” states game producer Ethan Solberg.
Although there’s no official release date yet, insiders indicate a potential Q4 2025 release, right around Halloween — because you know there’s nothing spookier than shooting unbaptized demons with a rocket-fueled crucifix.
Preorders are set to open in the Fall of this year, along with a closed beta in September – signups for which are now live on its official site.
In an age where remakes are safe and uncontroversial, Painkiller 2025 is anything but. It’s loud, it’s unabashed, and it’s bringing back good old-fashioned FPS insanity — with some flare, some steel, and of course, strobe lights.
If Painkiller 2025 delivers on its promise, it won’t just be a revival. It will serve as an exorcism of modern-day gaming tedium.
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