Pain

Pain was first shown off to the press at Sony Gamers’ Day 2007. The concept of the game came from one of the marketing teams at Sony. But with a limited amount of content for the price tag and already additional content the player much purchase, is Pain worth a purchase?

At its core, Pain takes the Havok physics engine and asks that the player be launched into a busy city to cause as much pain and bodily harm to their character as possible. Despite needing a good insurance policy, the player amasses points depending on what objects they hit in the world and how much damage they cause. The player will earn an “ooch” ability soon after playing and this will allow you to make your launch last longer by shaking the Sixaxis.

Players have several multiplayer modes to try out in Pain. The first one is Bowling and allows two players to launch their avatar into ten pins in the attempt of knocking them all down. Of course, that would be all too easy unless the other play can try to set off explosives and turn your shot into a gutter ball with little warning. Fortunately payback is just around the corner for the other player… The other multiplayer mode I want to focus on is horse. Played just like the famous basketball game we all played as kids on the playground–Pain’s horse mode alters the formula slightly by forcing the player to make contact with each and every item that the other player hits. Sadly, these modes are all local play only. With the lack of online modes, this saps Pain of some serious fun that could have been enjoyed over the PSN.

With a price of $9.99, relatively little content included in the package, and already premium content for sale, Pain feels like it was developed just to see how little effort could be put into a game to maximize profits through additional premium DLC. While Pain does offer some limited fun, the fun quickly ends after a short time and makes you realize that you are playing nothing more than a ten dollar demo.

Because of this, I recommend that you steer clear of Pain and its high price tag. If the price comes down to at least five dollars, I would probably recommend the game for a few hours of fun. However, as it stands, you are better off spending your money elsewhere.