Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell Episode 5, Level 3

Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell’s third level, The Lab, has an interesting mixture of action styles. There’s the usual panic-inducing mob of foes who will cause most players to scream expletives shrilly while frantically clicking the left mouse button.

Then there are the sniping sections which require a steady hand and a careful aim to take out distant foes. I find these parts to be very enjoyable as there’s no greater satisfaction to be had from a game than from a well-executed headshot.

The Boltgun/Heater, which is specifically designed for sniping, can found at the start of the level. It fires five rods with each pull of the trigger and has a scope mode which can be accessed by clicking the middle mouse button. On the downside, it has a long relatively slow reload rate so it’s best to keep your distance or switch to a different weapon when the foes close in. The weapon also has a secondary mode which launches 10 mini-grenades but it’s not quite as fun to use. The grenades’ tendency to bounce off surfaces (often right back at you) makes them a little too unpredictable for my liking.

The Lab also introduces a few new foes. There are well-armed Commandos, impressively bosomed Nurses (with bouncy physics modelling in predictable locations) and some of the most terrifying fishes in gaming history.

These aren’t cute Pixar clown fish; we’re talking evil heavy duty fishes. From Hell. They move way too fast, their teeth are way too sharp and long, and they’re way too tough. I simply couldn’t believe how much punishment they were taking before giving up the ghost.

The worst part of the level, though, was the jumping. I generally hate jumping in shooters. I signed up for shooting, sniping, blasting and bombing, not Super Mario Bros. There was one spot in the level which proved to be especially annoying as I had to spend several minutes working out how I was supposed to get to the next level.

Not fun.