Saber has finally dropped the release date for their reimagining of People Can Fly’s arena shooter classic Painkiller.
As reported by Gematsu, the co-op shooter arrives on October 9, giving gamers ample time to spook themselves silly come Halloween. Saber alongside co-publisher 3DRealms has also opened up pre-orders, which also means we now know the different special editions and bonuses that will be available.
The Standard Edition retails for $ 39.99, while the Deluxe Edition comes at $ 49.99. The Deluxe Edition comes with three DLC packages post launch, including six weapon skins and four character skins.
The big pre-order bonus will be the “Iron Crusade” skin pack, which features skins for all four playable characters, as well as skins for these six weapons:
- Electrodriver
- Stakegun
- Shotgun
- SMG
- Hand Cannon
- Rocket Launcher
There will also be a special retail physical standard edition, available only for consoles that will include the “Burnished Pride” weapons pack. This will have gold skins for the abovementioned weapons.
For those who may not have remembered, Saber Interactive already revealed a few months earlier that this Painkiller, like their upcoming Turok game, will be a different game even as it takes elements from the original series.
This new Painkiller is a co-op affair, with a cast of four new characters – Ink, Void, Sol, and Roch – working together to face down Azazel and his minion offspring, the Nephilim. Throughout promotion of this game, Saber, 3DRealms, and developer Anshar Studios have hesitated to refer to this Painkiller as a reboot, and we think they may have let out their big secret out of the bag by doing so.
Our theory is this title has a completely different story because it occurs in the same world where Daniel Garner entered the gates of hell and back to rescue his wife. It may happen a long time before or after Daniel Garner’s story, expanding the world to be much bigger than what it originally was.
But then, one can also say story may have taken a backseat to Saber’s desire to bring the co-op gameplay they demonstrated in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, to other franchises, with new variations and ideas. That explains both this and their Turok reimagining as well, and it may be their gameplan for future games and ‘reimaginings’.
In any case, early buzz on this game is positive, and we’re looking forward to seeing if it does justice to the idea of a co-op arena shooter. In the meantime, you can watch the announcement trailer here.
