METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN
METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN
Game
Game2025
Painkiller
Developer Anshar Studios
The classic Painkiller series is back! Battle through Purgatory in fast-paced co-op action, wielding infernal weapons against relentless demonic hordes. Condemned for your sins, the Voice of the Creator offers you a chance at redemption. Will you seize it or be lost to darkness? From the Steam store page
325 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 5, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
50
Mixed
123 positive · 124 negative
95% range 44–56%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 123 | 124 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
78 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
696 of 1,268 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 325 · most liked firstEverything in this game feels so cheap, gameplay doesn't feel fun to play at all. It is said you can play solo but then game forces bots on you which is the worst decision you could make in 2025. And most of all, this is not Painkiller, it is a disgrace to put such a name on this horrible product. Do not buy it, do not play it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you wanted something like the OG Painkiller - stay away. If you want a pretty generic and borderline hectic (forced) coop shooter - try it. For me it was a refund.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The original Painkiller games are some of my favorite shooters of all time. This, unequivocally, is not Painkiller. This feels like they just ripped off Vermintide, slapped a "Painkiller" skin on it and then also made it a worse game. Nothing feels like it has any weight to it, even the iconic stake gun. Everything moves twice as fast as it probably should and there's so many enemies on screen with everything being very similar colors at times, that it very quickly just becomes a chaotic mess.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cautious optimism in the face of always-on co-op (3 players?) with AI companions and 3D Realms publishing. Anshar Studios has contributed to other games and dev’d a couple VR games so hard to say anything about their record. Congrats to Painkiller fans for getting a new game that isn’t shovelware.
unlabelledView post →This game has nothing in common with the original masterpiece.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Shouldn't have even bothered to try this out. Apparently, this type of game is too difficult for a small team to make. This just feels too bland, tasteless and generic in every aspect - the enemies, the movement, the shooting. Your shots don't do any impact, enemies don't really get staggered, they just die after a certain number of damage received. Nothing unique about the characters as well, aside from extraordinary ugliness. The game in general felt like amateurish work and certainly not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Painkiller is a game that clearly doesn’t know what it wants to be, or maybe it does and just isn’t honest about it. Despite the store page claiming there’s a single-player mode, this game has been designed entirely around multiplayer co-op. Calling it single-player is misleading, if not downright false. From the very first mission it’s obvious that the entire structure was built with team play in mind. Every objective, from activating platforms to unlocking events, requires your AI…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Drafted a huge review for the new Painkiller. It contains more words about the new Painkiller than anyone else will ever want to read, but I had a lot to say about it. Review’ll be up later today, but I really must confess that I love the game even if very few others seem to. The guns are SO good.
unlabelledView post →Has anyone who worked on this game actually played Painkiller? There really was no need to use that title on this game! Younger gamers aren't going to care about Painkiller and anyone who actually cares about Painkiller will be disappointed by this. What we have is a Vermintide knock-off that feels like they were shown 5 minutes of a Painkiller lets play in a team meeting, then the artists had a good crack at doing the Painkiller aesthetic from memory, but the devs apparently didn't realise…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It says it has "single player" mode. It doesn't. You are forced to play with bots, and I don't want to do that. I just want to run around and shoot nasty monsters, on my own. I shall say that again; on my own. Not with with other people online, not with bots, not with anyone else. On my own.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am a massive fan of the original Painkiller games. I played the life out of Battle Out of Hell. When I saw they announced a "NEW" Painkiller game, I almost jumped out of my skin. This series has been quiet for a long, long time. The trailers and gameplay we got shown looked brutal, bloody and chaotic. Was it worth the wait? Personally, not to sure how to answer that at the moment. Below I will explain why. I usually do a pro's and con's list but I haven't played nearly enough to do that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crashes often and so hard the entire computer needs to be hard rebooted. You risk blowing up your OS to play this! Can't Alt + F4 Task Manager can't kill the process Killing Steam won't stop the game Killing explorer.exe wont stop the game Trying to kill the game process freezes the task manager Must do full system reboot because their code is so bad To make it worse, are reboot wont close the process so you have to hard reboot risking blowing up your OS to do it. Same for wife and brother when…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If there was ever a poster child for "don't put too much trust in steam reviews" this game is it. If I had a dime for every game on here that has a 'overwhelmingly positive' rating but doesn't deserve it, I'd have a ♥♥♥♥ load of dimes. People are too easily impressed by janky games and nonsense like Fortnite because most people on here would probably break their back trying to pick up an actual book to read or break their brain trying to understand anything with any sense of real-world logic.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The first thing everyone should immediately know is that this game is not the old Painkiller they played in the past. This game is in a weird place between aco-op horde shooter like WH40k: Darktide and the modern Doom titles having weapon and alt-fire switching with intermittent platforming. But not in a good way. There is no story, it is a multiplayer lobby game, and it only really works if you get 3 human players in your lobby. Each of the 4 characters have a unique buff so only the first…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i wanna preface this review by saying i saw the trailer for this game a month ago and was instantly drawn in by the fact that it was advertised as a "Cooperative DOOM" style game with hints of Vermintide and Left 4 Dead. Off of that alone i was instantly intrigued by that and the gameplay loop. But i saw the comments section and like/dislike ratio and was curious why it wasn't well received. Turns out this game has a very VERY dedicated fanbase and they are very passionate about the IP. I then…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If I wanted to play Warhammer, I’d just run Vermintide. What’s left from Painkiller here is only the name — everything else feels like some cheap knock-off mod made during a caffeine crash. I waited for this game. I loved the series — played it countless times back when Steam didn’t even exist in my country. Later I bought every single Painkiller title again, just to support it. But this… this is a straight-up scam living off the name. There’s no soul, no that “Painkiller” feeling — just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This isn’t a single-player game with a campaign, but more of a roguelike—though it's barely even that. It has forced co-op, and while you can play offline (which is a plus for me), you'll have to play with bots that constantly steal resources. It would be preferable for most people if you could disable the bots, as the game itself isn’t difficult and seems completely doable solo. There are only three maps, each with three sub-areas and a final boss in each. However, I found that all the areas…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Painkiller | Reveal Trailer ▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGkJ... "Saber Interactive and 3D Realms are developing a brand new game based on the legendary 2004 purgatorial shooter. Coming to PC and consoles in Fall 2025" #Painkiller #FutureGamesShow
unlabelledView post →This game sucks. It is a generic FPS with the Painkiller name, that is it. It is nothing like the original games. You cannot morph into a demon, you cannot juggle enemies with the painkiller weapon, and there is nothing here aside from the weapons and the setting that makes this Painkiller. The graphics are great and the combat is fun but it's so repetitive and boring it just sucks. Requested a refund.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I understand people’s frustration with this game. It is very different from its predecessors, a lot of questionable decisions were made, but ultimately I think this game is a solid shooter with a lot of care and effort put into it. Most of the negative feedback seems to be less about the game’s quality and is instead aimed at the difference in genre and aesthetic, which I don’t think is fair as in many ways the game is still pretty faithful to the original, just seen through a new lense. For…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yet another case study for: Make a generic ass FPS similar to Doom Eternal and then call it something fans love...... honestly not a bad game at all, but definitely NOT a painkiller game. they could have called this literally anything else and i think it would have been recieved a bit better, but to call a spade a spade, it is the exact same FPS experience in EVERY game right now. mid game with a fresh coat of paint on it courtesy of UE5. save your money and just get Doom Eternal, or if you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Review Written 2 days after release / playing. Cons: - Main campaign is really short. Only 3 * 3 maps, and that means less than 5 hours of playtime (difficulty 3 out of 4). - Upgrade Trees for weapons are only two-steppers, yet they make some weapons unbalanced (Pistol is too strong) - There are only 6 different ranged weapons and 1 melee - Fastest way to move uphill, or anywhere, is to slide... You basically run faster on your knees. Things that matter or not: ~ You can buy skins, they are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Who was this ♥♥♥♥ made for? Wasn't the OG fans because it's nothing like it. Doom fans hate it because forced co-op. The dialogue is very Reddit/Tumblr. The weapons have almost no punch or impact, the music is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, the weapon limit would be fine if the abilities weren't repetitive and boring. This game DESERVED to fail because this is the case of yet ANOTHER developer team smugly thinking they were "updating" a game that didn't need changes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →EXCITEDDD for new Painkillerrr! But wait, forced coop, bots or players. That one design choice destroyed this game. Very strange and unfortunate Refunded :'(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of negativity around, but most complaints boil down to one thing — this isn’t the old Painkiller. And yeah, I also bought it because I loved the original. Like many others (I assume), I expected to see a remaster with improvements or maybe a new start for the old game. Even if it had co-op, I hoped it would still keep that old-school style, just with modern graphics — something nostalgic yet refreshed. Did the game meet my expectations? Not really. It borrows from the original, but it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My first Painkiller experience. - Incredibly short (9 missions roughly 20 minutes each) - Generic objective based gameplay (Payload, Stand in circles, Collect & Deliver) - No story (There is this dude called Azazel who insists on being called Daddy) - No levelling/prestige system or any kind of endgame or reason to continue - Card system that is single-use, terrible and uses the same points you would invest in skill trees - MAKES SENSE. For this price tag, avoid this game at all costs.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What were the developers thinking not adding a campaign? The game just isn’t fun. It gets boring really fast with nothing to work towards. Feels empty and repetitive, like there’s no real reason to keep playing
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let me start by saying this isn't a bad game and I'm glad I bought it in the sale. If you loved Doom Eternal, you'll probably have a good time with this. If you're a fan of the original games though? This has literally nothing in common with them and you will be sorely disappointed. I kinda feel bad having to give it a "no" instead of a maybe, because I feel like the game is made with some love. There's some cool original ideas, the game is beautiful and it runs amazingly. It is it's own game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i came for a revitelizing of dead game i love a nice single player game but this 3 person coop mandatory. you cant turn them off whats the point to balence to coop play first. this is a single player game franchise what loony make coop the main selling point. dont waste your cash or time like i did.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →would have been way better with a single player campaign..
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Graphics can’t save this identity crisis. If you're looking for a classic Painkiller experience, look elsewhere. This is a generic co-op shooter like so many others. The weapons lack the impact the series is known for, the enemies are bland and the missions repetitive. Being forced into teamplay instead of a linear singleplayer campaign is a huge letdown. It’s a decent looking game, but it’s Painkiller in name only. They should have called this something else.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game itself is quite fun, they just shouldn't have called it Painkiller, maybe "inspired by Painkiller" and there isn't enough content for the price tag, so if you want some repetitive mindless shooting, you can cope with the fact that it says Painkiller but isn't really Painkiller and you can pick this up for a cheap price then I'd say it is worth it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Painkiller is a Painkiller game in name only. This is so generic and paint by numbers. The weapons are boring, the combat is boring, the arenas are boring, the enemies are boring and very easy, the bosses are boring and very easy and the characters are boring. There is nothing good about the game imo. It's just dull, repetitive and full of bugs and also very short 3 world's broken into 3 chapters. Theres nothing interesting about Painkiller. If you must get the game, go for it. But at least…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The shooting is nice, the guns look great, the audio and graphics are there. Tons of gore. But that's where it ends, too few weapons, four pointless characters, forced bots, 9 extremely linear maps that plays out more or less the same with a few minor objective differences. There is nothing to keep you playing the game a part from weapon upgrades for the whopping 6 weapons in the game. The combat loop get's extremely repetitive quick and there just isn't enough content to keep the game going…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You will like my game KOOK if you enjoyed: - Quake - Prey (2006) - Painkiller - Quake2 - HROT - DUSK - LawBreakers - M. C. Escher store.steampowered.com/app/2329690/...
unlabelledView post →Unfortunately, I can’t say anything good about the successor to one of my all-time favorite games. The weapon customization system, in my opinion, basically ends up with just one or two meta builds. The amount of content is so tiny and it gives almost no reason to replay it (except for some achievements that make you repeat the same raid over and over again). And the saddest part is that there’s no hope of fixing it or doing anything interesting with it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thought it had a single player campaign but really just an online co-op / multiplayer. Not worth the $20. Refunded.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It doesn't look like Painkiller, it's doesn't plays like Painkiller. If you want new Painkiller - try Witchfire. This - doesn't even close. The main character of the series is Daniel Garner. He was a legend. How could you present the game through a new generic female character? Whose was that idea?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok, when on a big discount. If they hadn't named this game Painkiller they could have avoided a lot of criticism. This is the most uninspired generic shooter I have ever played. And this is crazy because all the ingredients for a good game are there. Graphics, effects, guns, sound, music, movement—everything is rock solid, even great. But it's the way everything is put together that makes the game bad. The maps in the original Painkiller were pure art, while in this game they are just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Painkiller is a perfect example of what happens when you give a studio a set of instructions to follow, an IP name and aesthetic to work with, but zero creative control. Development on this game clearly started post Doom Eternal and around the time that three to four player squad games were in their prime. Unfortunately that means it's about three years behind any kind of curve in this respect and feels very barren by comparison to its competitors. There's simply no incentive to play past the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is only Piankiller in name. Don't expect it to play like the original form 2004. The gameplay is a mix a Vermintide, Doom Eternal and a bit of Bulletstorm with a dash of OG Painkiller for reminiscence. That being said, this game is just so damn fun to play. If you can get over the name and treat it like a spin-off of the series, it's actually a very good game to play. PROS; -full offline support for progression and solo play that is separate form the online component; -the AI bots are…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stop “reimagining” things ffs, just make a remaster of the original. Got this game on discount for $7 which I know I shouldn’t ask much for that price but still, having played the original as a kid, I simply cannot recommend this game for the following reasons: Pros: I like the fact that this game is simple, it does not have 1 trillion microtransactions/cosmetics, stupid game currency system or overcomplicated game mechanics. The graphics is okay and the game is well optimized. Cons:…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm not going to get sentimental over if this game is a betrayal to the OG Painkiller or not. I loved the 2000s' version and I liked this one too. BUT Dude, I have played this just for 6 hours and in the 7 or 8 hour I will probably have everything about it done&done? This is a 5$ journey, not the price it's asking now.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mediocre for a cooperative game, terrible for Painkiller.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So i have beat the game in 5 hours ... that was all ?? Sure the gunplay is nice, the music is decent and the writing made me wanna turn off the voices and the subtitles. But the core game loop man, it's so generic and bad. There only 9 stages, 3 for each chapter and they go like this: Fill the blood barrel, Toss the soul barrel and Hold 3 "ritual" points with your squad for 30 sec. If you find any of these fun the go for it, personally when i tried to que for a quick match and remember what…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Making review is generally not my thing, but once you get use to the game and accept it at want it is - It's very fun. It has some of the essence of previous Painkiller games with some of the same weapons, but the game plays like Warhammer Vermintide 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. Waves and waves of enemies attack you all the while you are trying to complete objectives with your co-op friends , or bots if your friends refuse to play. :-) Graphics and sound - I think they are pretty awesome. Now…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Technically, visually this is good and it runs well (performance-wise). Shooting in it is competent, music good, character designs questionable but they are detailed - clearly people who worked on visuals and programmed gameplay are talented... no, this is a failure of design. It was already clear in 2021 that the times of just running and gunning with a team of 3-4 are behind us and you need something more to the gameplay than this to make a COOP game succeed. Not to mention, Painkiller -…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let's just get the elephant in the room out the way: This Painkiller game is different to the 1st Painkiller game that a lot of people like and for many they will find that very disappointing and as such the initial pushback this game is getting is completely understandable. I'm not going to insult those who feel that way because I think we've all been there at some point; where another game wears the name of another game we like and that's going to just colour everything we feel about that new…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played a lot of original in my days. Maybe late game in this one gets better. But so far feels just too chaotic. Just an on-screen mess, and none of that Doom gracefulness they were probably aiming for. I did like the slide and dash mechanics - those add potential for strategic movement. But overall everything is just too reactive.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Happy 20th anniversary to the debut game from People Can Fly, the diabolically fast-paced first-person shooter Painkiller
unlabelledView post →refund - biggest scam
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What have you done to my boy? This is clearly some AA trash tier co-op 10-year-too-late Doom clone they slapped the good name of Painkiller over. It would arguably be better if they didnt try and pass it off as a Painkiller game. Some braindead CEO AI slop decisions going on here. There is exactly 2 guns that you could pass off as a tie into the old games...so disappointing. Do not spend your hard earned money on this.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR at the bottom. This game is pretty mid. Three "raids" at launch with three levels each and the final level of each raid features a boss fight, a rogue-like mode that doesn't feel very good, and gameplay that feels very stiff at times despite all the tech. It's a game that wanted to incorporate modern aspects of the co-op genre like meta-progression, builds, teamplay, etc but fails to understand why those aspects are great in other games. It's fun but 40 dollars is steep when it feels like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoy the game but my biggest issue is if you crash late in a run you're unable to rejoin because your squad has progressed to far to rejoin. I don't understand why this is even a thing but it's basically killed the game for me. Please change this so I don't keep losing my progress for my weapons and have to keep restarting the same levels.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am old. The OG Painkiller titles will always be a fond memory so there is some nostalgia bias I suppose. The reviews on this are *only* justified at a AAA price tag. Snag this on sale and its great for what it is. Gunplay and customizing the mods are insanely fun. Combat is fluid and feels great. Movement and gameplay loop are on par with what I hoped for; like Doom on steroids. Difficulty scaling based on what you choose for each raid feels spot on and bosses are epic. New to the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Why do the characters have to talk? I see what they are going for I just don't understand why this needed to be co op apart from turning it into a platform for live service. The game needs to be faster and the monster density needs to be at least on par with the original game. I can't recommend this game at this time. Maybe with a few more updates and if there was an actual campaign, this format works well with world war z and left 4 dead but not so much for a former arena shooter. I'm not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved it. Sadly the reason the game is not doing well is because it's named Painkiller. It does not play like Painkiller old school game at all. It uses different approach and different formula that does not make this game what it's suppose to be. It's more like Left 4 Dead and DOOM mixture. I personally loved getting through Raid Campaign and doing little Challenges. That is all. If this game was titled as something else, then maybe it could've had better ratings.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Painkiller is such a ridiculous game. Bunnyhopping around army dudes wearing ball gags shooting them with a shuriken launcher and then suddenly you're in a cutscene that seems to think it's telling a serious story about heaven, hell and redemption. It's adorable
unlabelledView post →Just some video game weapons I remember The stake launcher from Painkiller The blue beam gun from UT Kate Archer Thief's blackjack Those gloves from Heretic Something about frozen mercury in Oni two shots then cooldown? Gloo Gun from Prey My beak in Goose Game Gep Gun Bloodborne fucking Chain Cane
unlabelledView post →I seriously, truly wanted to love this game- I just cannot. It was built around multiplayer which the original game wasn't. Additionally, the tone is way off; its just cringe. Just no. This isn't painkiller, its some other game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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