Painkiller revolves around Daniel Garner, a man killed in a tragic car accident who finds himself not in heaven, but in purgatory. There he learns that Heaven needs a favor, which requires that Daniel has to go and kill a select amount of Hell’s generals before he can finally be admitted to the pearly gates and welcomed into the arms of his dead wife. As you can see, the story is pretty basic FPS fluff, but its there for those who care, and it helps to break up the levels here and there with a little bit of motivation and story.

The levels are split into 5 chapters, with about 20 levels in all. Each chapter is headlined by a boss battle, and it’s these battles where Painkiller really shines. In between, you’ll find yourself in a variety of strange and non-connected areas, from a haunted orphanage, to Leningrad circa 1942, and you’ll encounter a large variety of undead locals all vying for a shot at your warm, hot insides.

The framerate in Painkiller: Hell Wars holds up fairly well for the most part, with lag kicking in pretty much when you’d expect it too (as in, when the screen is swarming with enemies and gunfire). Graphically everything compares well to its PC counterpart, but for some reason the color scheme seems a bit more washed out here, and makes some of the textures and areas pretty dull to look at. There’s a great variety when it comes to enemies (but not so much their AI) and there’s plenty of things to look at in each level that make you appreciate the amount of detail put into the layout.

Sound isn’t anything exceptional, you won’t be paying much attention to the score. The FX is pretty decent, with explosions and gunfire sounding just like, well, explosions and gunfire. Voice work is actually pretty decent as well, what little there is to be found.

Hell Wars isn’t exceptionally challenging, the average player will probably log in somewhere at the 10 hour mark. You can adjust the difficulty of course, so the more hardcore can get a slightly better experience for the buck if they want. However, the enemy AI is pretty basic, its either run and gun, or duck and cover, and it doesn’t vary much from there. You can tell the game is designed to be more of a fast paced shooter and it doesn’t really reward you for taking your time or avoiding enemies. Everything is pretty much on rails; you’re only going from point A to point B.

The boss fights are a lot of fun, and really make playing Hell Wars enjoyable. The AI is definitely amped up for these fights, and there’s always a different method for taking down each boss. The last one is a bit maddening, but I still had a lot of fun with it.

While there is an online multiplayer element, good luck getting into a match. I could never find anyone online to play with, and I imagine that’s pretty much how it will always be.

All in all, Hell Wars is a pretty decent experience if you can pick it up in the $29.99 range. With most of the attention being heaped onto Microsoft’s 360, its nice to know that there’s still a few decent games to be found on old Xbox that you might not have played yet.