Can you feel it yet?
Pain has an awesome formula: A character + A giant slingshot + A stage filled with hazards. And what do you get at the receiving end of this formula? Pain. Yes, it’s a very simplistic concept. I will be the first to admit this. But the developers at Idol Minds have done something truly amazing with Pain by taking such a simple concept and turning it into a downloadable game that is worth putting some time into. The game looks great, controls ridiculously great, and, surprisingly, has enough modes to keep you interested.
One thing it is important to note right off the bat is that the PlayStation Store download of Pain is incomplete. There is only one stage with six basic modes and a very small amount of unlockable content. However, Pain is going to be one of those titles that continually builds on itself and offers new content every once in awhile to keep itself fresh. So if you’re expecting a huge game with many hours of gameplay, this initial version of Pain may not be for you. You may want to wait for the catalogue of downloadable content to beef up. But if you are a fan of simplistic-yet-fun gameplay, and don’t necessarily require a huge amount of gameplay hours for each title you pick up, then Pain will suit your needs just fine.
Although at this point in time there’s only one stage, there are several ways to play through it, both in a multiplayer setting and a single player setting. But before you get to any of these free-play modes, you are put through a rigorous training mode. This mode essentially introduces you to the controls and how to put your character through the most pain. The controls for this game are surprisingly complex, and feature several ways you can fine-tune your character’s descent into sheer pain. The basics are mainly centered on your slingshot and have you using the left thumbstick to aim, the right thumbstick to pull back, and the X button to fire. But to be truly successful in Pain, you’ll have to master grabbing, throwing, drifting, posing, and the Ooch move. Each of these different facets of control help you to guide your character towards his doom all the more effectively, and get him in just the right position to inflict the most amount of pain. It really is almost a little disturbing how much control you have over your character’s painful fate, but then again, to relish in the pain of others is why this title is worth downloading, isn’t it?
After you hone your pain-inducing skills, you can start really playing. There are three main modes to play solo: paindemonium, mime toss, and spank the monkey. Paindemonium is your typical arcade mode and has you hurtling yourself at different things in the environment and seeing how many points you can get. This mode is where you can unlock most of the bonus content, which is tied in most cases to the point system. Of course you may be wondering how this point-system works. It’s very simple: cause the most pain. Bonus points for things like destroying of certain body parts, decapitation, and getting run over by vehicles. The game is really about planning and executing the most cruel and painful route for your character imaginable, plain and simple.
The remaining two single-player modes, spank the monkey and mime toss, are less about your physical pain (although it is a big part) and more about your ability to aim your hapless hero into certain situations with both accuracy and efficiency. In mime toss you’ll have to slingshot yourself into a mime, grab it, and then throw it into several panes of glass. In this game, there are no points; it’s all about speed. The strategy here is to build up enough momentum when catching the mine so you can toss it at full force towards the glass panes. Do it fast enough, and you’ll unlock some bonus content! Spank the monkey also uses the speed principle and challenges the player to (very quickly) search and destroy various monkeys around the stage. You have to hit them accurately and quickly enough to unlock content, and of the three single-player modes, spank the monkey is probably the most challenging.
Even though the single player modes are pretty fun, I have to say that my favorite part of Pain had to be the multiplayer modes. These modes are quite different from the single-player games, and make surprisingly interesting party games. I mean, nothing says “It’s a party” like giant slingshots with hapless characters falling into increasingly painful situations, right? The first mode is Horse, and like you might expect, this mode entails some bitter one-on-one competition. Essentially Horse lets you pick a target and hit it with all your best moves. Then, once it is your opponent’s turn, they will have to hit that same target, but try and pull off even sweeter moves to get a better score than you did. If you win, nothing happens. If you lose, you get a single letter from the word “Horse” added to your name. The first person to get enough letters to spell the whole word loses.
The next multiplayer mode is fun with explosives, which challenges you to hit as many explosive crates during a turn as possible. This mode is probably the best for social or familial get-togethers because turns are rather short, and watching your Pain character bounce from explosive to explosive is just hilarious. Bowling has you using your pain character as a human bowling ball. You can bowl over either mimes or bowling pins, and you can use all your fancy moves to try and get the much-coveted strike. However, this is multiplayer, and while you may be catapulting your way to a sure-strike, your opponent can do something dastardly like drop an explosive or a granny on you, hence derailing your perfect launch completely and making you very sad.
As for the look of this game, it’s not the best looking PS3 game we’ve ever seen, but the graphics do it justice. The whole idea is to see your character interact with his environment in painful yet hilarious ways, and the graphics really achieve this. Although none of the falls are graphic in any way (the whole game is bloodless), you can still feel the pain every time your character takes a dive.
Another way where you can feel the pain in Pain is through the sound. Although the music is largely forgettable, the voice acting is not. Your character seems so excited to get hurt, and then when he does, he sounds like he is in total agony, but he also loves it. Honestly, pain in real life doesn’t sound this good, but I must reiterate, no one is playing Pain for the realism. Pain is all about escapism and chucking people through slingshots. And the fact that your character sounds hilarious doing it is just that much better.
Honestly, Pain has been one of my most anticipated titles this year. Of course it can’t compare to some of this year’s bigger releases, but I am a girl of simple tastes. I thoroughly enjoyed Pain, chiefly because even though it has a simple premise, it creates memorable gameplay through very tight and precise controls, and some extremely interesting modes of play. So while you may be trying to get rid of some of the pain this holiday season, I invite you to let Pain in! You just may find that it earns a special place in your warm, evil, pain-inflicting heart!
Features:
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.0 Graphics
Not the best you’ve ever seen, but these graphics are a great fit for the gameplay. Impacts look especially sweet. 4.8 Control
Excellent. You have a disturbingly great amount of control over the fate of your poor character’s pain. 3.6 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Music is pretty forgettable, but your character’s sounds of pain more than make up for it. Never before has wiping out sounded so great. 3.8 Play Value
The premise is admittedly simple, but there’s so many ways to play that it doesn’t really get stale. Pain also makes a surprisingly fun party game. 4.0 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.