Hello again, I have something a little different for today. I was able to get hands on with the playtest for Pain-to-Win, an upcoming ultraviolent 2D top down shooter. Developed and published by the a company using its namesake, take on the horrors of a dystopian prison world, featuring a cast of madmen and psychos. This title is inspired by games from the PSX-era of ultraviolence like LOADED and THRILL KILL, mixed with the gameplay of Hotline Miami.
Disclaimer: before I get into discussing this content, I want to thank Pain-to-Win for providing me with access to the playtest for their game, via the Keymailer service. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this piece, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get started. I will be discussing the general gameplay experience of the playtest, then I will be giving some personal thoughts from my time playing the game. Please note, this game is a work in progress, so the details here may not reflect the final product.
About the game
Pain-to-Win is a top down ultraviolent shooter, taking place in a dystopian prison world, where the psychotic inmates are set loose. The player takes the role of an organ harvesting bounty hunter, who must hunt down the violent degenerates of the Megaprison. There is a varied cast of lunatics, including deranged killer clowns, masked killers and homicidal body-mod fanatics. Each of the characters has their own unique quirks, making them distinct.
This playtest has one character available to use, with a limited set of stages. The objective is to take down a set number of targets, collecting their brains and delivering them to the client. To achieve this the player must work through each level of the Megaprison, which consist of room clusters filled with enemies and loot to collect. The first room that players will experience is the start point, giving players a good chance to prep for the chaos ahead.
Combat is similar to many titles in the twinstick shooter genre, with the player controlling both the player and the weapon individually. When moving through the areas, the player can look around the area and get an idea of what is happening. The player will be able to collect various weapons, including a range of melee and firearms. There are two slots for weapons, with the capability to dual wield some weapons, giving varied loadout options.
While navigating the areas of each level, the player can carry two weapons. All melee weapons can be used endlessly, whereas the firearms have limited ammo capacity. During the course of a run, ammunition will be scattered through the stages, hidden inside boxes that can be destroyed with melee attacks. If the player runs out of bullets and doesn’t have a melee weapon, they can still fight back using the alt attack to bash enemies with a gun.
Players can also find wrapped gift boxes, containing powerful power-ups, with the most important being the revival items. These special items will give the player more attempts to make it through, functioning as lives for the game. The player will get four lives when starting the game, but it will be up to the whims of the Megaprison if players get more. Other power-ups include more ammo capacity, reduced damage and improved healing.
On the subject of health, the player has a limited number of hits they can take before death. This will vary based on the enemy, weapon and the type of damage taken. If the player is unlucky, they can die instantly from powerful weapons and explosions. So some care must be taken when trying to navigate dangerous areas. The explosive boxes will appear around the levels, being set off when attacked so any stray shots may lead to disaster.
Health can be replenished by picking up health boxes, with small and large to find. These are shown as medical test tubes for the small ones, as well as first aid kits for the large recoveries. The frequency of health pick-ups will vary, so it is important to pick them up only when needed. But if health is low, grab whatever health is available in the level. The amount of recovery that items provide can be affected by power-ups.
Inside of a level, the most common objective is to wipe out all of the enemies, with numerous dangers lurking around the corners of each room. The psycho inmates of each room are armed with deadly weapons, including powerful firearms and deadly melee weapons. Out of the common enemies that appear, the most dangerous are those who wield Shotguns and the Disc Cutter, portable buzz saw that will kill you in seconds.
The inhabitants of each level will try to hunt the player if they are alerted, chasing them down unless the player escapes. It is possible to get swarmed by some of the weaker close combat enemies, leading to a messy death. To help the player survive, there is a dodge roll that can be used, but be careful not to spam it as there is a chance the player can get themselves cornered. There will also be explosive objects, which will reduce everything to a bloody smear.
At the end of a level, the player will be able to exit through the door to get to the next stage. As the player gets deeper into the twisted labyrinth, they will encounter less hostile NPC characters. This is where coins come in, which are collected by destroying boxes and killing enemies. The coin tokens that are collected can be used to make purchases, as there will be NPC merchants wandering the prison. But not all of them will be in a hospitable mood.
The items offered by NPC merchants can aid the player, with power bonuses, upgrades and even extra revives that can be bought. The player can also reject an offered item, but this may enrage the merchant, causing them to attack the player. There are two ways to get out of the encounter, either by running away or killing them. It is also possible to encounter NPC characters that will give the player special items for free, side missions and more.
At points throughout a run, there will be gates that require key cards to be used. These will send the player to special alternate routes that are shown on the map as their color. The branch paths will also occur at crossroad points, with different NPC interactions that can occur, as well as a unique bounty target. Not all paths require keys, but those that do, may just have some grotesque secrets that are hidden within them, just waiting to be discovered.
The last thing to discuss is the boss fights, where the target is located, the player will be locked in an arena with them. There is only one rule that applies to these showdowns, kill or be killed. These psycho killers are powerful, armed with weapons that will completely devastate the player. Combat here is tense, with ammo that can be collected on the floors. Defeat them for great rewards, or be turned into nothing but a stain on the walls of the prison.
Personal Thoughts
The playtest provided a significant amount of content, with several path branches, character interactions and buckets of gore. I spent a couple of hours playing this, but I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of what there is to offer. The gunplay, action and general experience is a lot of fun, with smooth movements and reactive inputs. Unlike other games that use roguelite elements, it is possible to memorise aspects of the game, which I like.
One of the biggest issues with games that use roguelite elements is the difficulty, where it feels like the game is actively working against the player. Due to this, it can be off-putting to new players, as deaths and failures will feel unfair. But this game doesn’t suffer from that issue, as it is hard as hell, yet feels balanced. It also feels that every failed run can be a learning experience, where new info can be attained after each brutal dismemberment.
I will admit, I did not get to the end of the demo, getting completely destroyed numerous times. I only beat the one boss fight too, which felt like a fluke and sadly got annihilated soon after ending the run. However, even though I am not good at this game, it is something I will happily return to. I really enjoy this throwback to the era of 90s ultraviolence, where companies pushed the envelope to create a bloody and shocking spectacle.
This was a wild time where developers made the most of the limited hardware, employing as many tricks as they could to shock audiences. Sadly this style fell out of favour for a while, until games like Hotline Miami revived the interest in brutal violent top down action. I am grateful that this revival occurred, as I have fond memories of the inspirations that this game is built on. This makes me excited to see what is around the corner for this release.
The art style for the game has that gritty and dark feel to it, present in many of the mature graphic novels that gained notoriety for their brutality. This serves the game well as it emphasises the dark tone that the game wants to present, with the mechanical horror elements. There are cosmic horror influences here too, with details that invoke the feelings of insanity, decay and mental degeneration, further building the apocalyptic atmosphere.
Unfortunately however, there are some minor hiccups that this game suffers from. The controls for movement and aiming are a little awkward, especially at the start when using both controller and mouse/keyboard. It took some getting used to, especially when trying to escape the psycho killers hunting me down. More often than not shots were missed, or I would get stuck on walls, but this may just be user error and take some time to adapt to.
My experience overall was a positive one, there were frustrations when I got bad loot from the secret areas, or got killed by an enemy by getting trapped. Yet every single failure made me want to try again, pushing me to say “I can do this, just one more try” and diving back in. At the end of my time playing, I did not have one successful run, so there may be some things I have missed in this preview, but I can fully endorse this as one to watch.
Pain-to-Win can be wishlisted on steam (HERE), you can also find them on Twitter/X through the link (HERE). This game is currently in active development, so please be aware that images, video and even the content of this preview may not match the final product. Thank you for taking the time to check this out and see what else grabs your fancy.
W.Kohaku Media 