Painkiller: Lies about God turned into Bloody Entertainment
On the surface, Painkiller
The story of the game opens with a traffic accident, as you, the per-regulation grim-faced trenchcoat-clad not-recently-shaven Daniel Garner have driven yourself and your wife Catherine headfirst into an oncoming Truck. Death is instantaneous for you both; Catherine is taken into the loving embrace of God, as she has liven a true, Christian life. Daniel, on the other hand, has presumably not surrendered his life to the Risen Lord, and so should by rights be condemned to an eternity of torment for such transgression. Here, we come upon the heinous blasphemy the game indulges in, insidiously disguised as wholesome demon-shooting fun.
Daniel is sent to Purgatory instead of his rightly deserved Hell, and once there, he is tasked with murdering four of Lucifer’s generals to prevent a war between Heaven and Hell, and once completing this task, he is promised entrance into heaven. Where, oh where to begin with such a wicked premise . . .
- First, Purgatory does not exist! It’s an invention of the heretical Catholic Church, never once referenced in the Holy Bible.
- Second, the idea of spiritual redemption through actions, or “works-based” salvation, has no basis in the Bible either. Jesus clearly says the only path into Heaven is to place faith in Christ Jesus as your Savior. We are saved through Grace, not Works! (Matthew 16:26-27, et al)
- Third, and perhaps most damning of all, is the very idea that God would want to prevent the ultimare conflict between Himself and the armies of Hell, as lead by Lucifer and the Antichrist. The very idea that God would oppose the Rapture and subsequent Armaggedon is utterly at odds with what the Bible teaches, and yet this video game teaches it as though it were holy writ!
Now, while this blasphemy is easy enough to spot for any true Christian and would otherwise be a simple matter to innoculate young minds against, the difficulty in doing so for any honest, professing Christian is the lengths the game goes to in order to entice players by being simply too entertaining! While it has long been known that eviscerating the demons of hell has a powerfully cathartic quality (indeed, it will be most pleasant to do battle against when the Tribulation comes), the temptation of that otherwise righteous joy is compounded with the novel weaponry the game provides. The chief weapon is the eponymous Painkiller, a sort of knife-gun hybrid that spins, shoots and retrieves its own blades. The physics engine in the game combined with this sadistic skew on a Slap-Chop has given birth to a practice known as “corpse-juggling” wherein a defeated enemy is kept in midair by repeatedly firing the weapon at them. Such a practice is amusing on its own, if only for the spectacle of a bouncing, tortured enemy of God, and yet the enticement is amplified further as the juggled-enemies drop golden trinkets, rewarding the behavior further. The enticement potential grows even more with other weapons in the game, such as the Electrodriver, which fires shurikens and lightning bolts, and the Stakegun, which can pin enemies to walls with sharpened wooden posts before firing grenades at them.
How then is the right-thinking Christian to protect his family from the temptation to play such a game, available for only $9.99 over Steampowered.com, or worse, in a three-game package (Painkiller Triple Dose (Painkiller, Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, Painkiller: Overdose)
There is no simple answer, but the fight starts by spreading awareness of the game. If you suspect someone you care about is considering playing this game or giving it to their children under the impression that it carries a good, decent Christian message about demon-killing, do everything you can to let them be made aware of the facts! Entertaining though this game may be, exposure to the perversions of Christianity which it contains may ultimately lead them along the road to ruin, depriving them of the unconditional Love of Jesus Christ in the hereafter.
And really, what game could possibly be worth that?
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By way of my introduction. I was pointed to this site by a friend at Rapture Ready, saw above you take submissions like this, figured I’d toss the hat in. Pleasure to make acquaintences.
GME, this is a very well-done review, and helps put this game into a Christian perspective. We discussed it, and were happy to put it up on the front page for you.
Thanks, and welcome aboard!