Painkiller: Recurring Evil is the last "stand-alone expansion pack"/"fan sequel" for Painkiller. It feels like it's a sequel to Painkiller Redemption for sure, feeling like it was made by fans. And it was also released in 2012, 8 years after original Painkiller, not being ashamed of milking it today with that old engine. At least this is the last one. There is no multiplayer, just single player horde gameplay of 5 levels.

Technically, it didn't bug or crash on me so much, but there were still some loading times being long and performance issues here and there. Widescreen is still supported, yes.

Story continues Resurrection plotline, wehre Bill killed one angel and got a sword. Which was stolen by Samael angel immeditly and so Bill is going to kill him. And well, there is only text. And after that there is only sucky ending. Well, two of them. You either have done nothing or got killed. It's all decided with your usual "choose your ending" on final levels, just like most games when "multiple ending" was fancy. You just choose two samey "good" or "evil" path. Yes, seriously.

Anyway, at least game itself is better than Redemption. Mostly because instead of reusing DM maps, makes of Redemption actually created five of their own. They are kinda generic, I am sure they reuse same models from previous titles, but they look nice. Like, foggy graveyard. Even if graveyard is generic by now. But hey, at least that Aztec temple is pretty cool.
And fights themselves got better. Because instead of having to kill 1000 monsters, you have to kill 600 on average. Hm, that description on store page about "6000 in total" isn't true, don't worry. It's still on really dragged side.

And yes, it's still horde-based, there is still times when you will just have to bunnyhop around and shoot rocket. But at least it uses better variety of monsters. And levels themselves aren't always open-space, it's more often a hallway. Second level was quite interesting at that, a highway littered with cars. They not only make space more complex, but can be blown up, damaging enemies nearby.
Not to say that it's any less dumb though. It still spawns at you more enemies than usually expected in Painkiller. And it still drags every room on. And bosses have so much HP that you may mistake them for puzzle bosses. And are lame.

At least carot cards are easier to get. Well, easier to get at least some. As much as you want to bother.

And well, the point is, it's not as terrible as previous two offers, but it's still in "it sucks" category. Like, bringing absolutely no weapons or monsters. Actually, seeing how you play Bill, you still only get Painkiller weapons, no new one from Ressurection. The only difference would be messed up weapons slots. Why even. And well, you will be bored while playing this. It's still a cash-in.

At least it's a good thing that it was the last cash-in. After that a remake of original Painkiller came out, with story reboot. Which is still better than the "expansion packs" Painkiller franchise was getting. Maybe we will see some sane sequel soon, who knows.

Anyway. It's not the worst but It's dragged. It brings nothing new in gameplay. It doesn't shine by itself. It still keeps that horde gameplay that has too many enemies to fit into Painkiller mechanics. There is still fun to be found though, by itself, to be honest. Like from simple mod for Painkiller. But it just feels like a waste of time. People who played original don't have to bother, people new to Painkiller should play original game.

It *is* better than Redemption and especially Ressurrection, but considering those are two of the most piss poor attempts at making a videogame I've ever played that's like saying that Desert Gunner is better than Air Control. It's functional, yes, but that doesn't really make it good.

It's got the same "kill a million dudes, another six feet of the level opens, then kill a million more dudes" that the last two had, but the main difference here is that that "zillion" is down from the "trillion" that Redemption had. Redemption was unplayable because you simply did not have the space, health, or ammo to kill all the enemies in each level. This one you actually do, and i was able to play through in insomnia difficulty without ragequitting like in Redemption, where going through without cheating was virtually impossible due to bad game design.

Which is this game's problem, the design. It's not BAD, like in Redemption. It's not completely broken like in Redemption where it's unplayable. But it's not quirky like Overdose and it's not excellent like Black and BooH or H&D, it's just kinda... there.

There isn't much to recommend here. It's functional. It's about six hours of painkilling entertainment. But it's not really any good entertainment. No new weapons, enemies. There are five levels: A church (seriously, enough with the dang churches. Every painkiller's had a church level and it's just never that interesting), a highway (the sole interesting map), a graveyard (again, yes, for the fifth game in a row), a warehouse (yes, again, another damn warehouse), and a mayan temple that's actually kinda cool, and one other level so generic I forgot about it already.

So all in all, if you're like me and on a holy quest to play every painkiller game ever made, get it because it is in fact a painkiller game.

If you just want to spend ten bucks on a good game, well... it isn't. It's not bad, but it sure isn't good.

Well the series had a couple of awesome games and then as you can see went completely off the rails. I guess after the first two different developers tried to take over this series and fell flat on their faces. It's rough and uninspired much like Redemption and honestly just stay away from the arse end of this series, it's just not worth it!

I recommend you to buy something else. This game is total crap. Boring as ♥♥♥♥, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ level design I've seen in years.

If you want a Painkiller game, pick Painkiller: Black Edition.

Despite countless negative reviews, well I liked it. Of course it should be taken for what it is. That is a game with the aim of killing 4000 enemies. stop. There are bugs between uploads and they are quite annoying. 10 euros is not worth it, but if you find it for less than 2 euros, in my opinion it's ok. overall grade 6/10 (full price too high)

Concise reviews for the Painkiller series in order of what you should play


Painkiller Black Edition: Great oldschool no messing around shoot things from point A to B using a variety of weapons, for such and old game the gunplay (especially the shotgun) is strangely satisfying.


Painkiller Hell & Damnation: A remake of the OG and as a result, it is a solid entry worth playing, albeit similar. A lot of changes were made some for the best some watering down the experience, but ultimately if you like the the first game this is worth a play.


Painkiller Overdose: Most significant entry after the original+remake, not as streamlined but does improve in some areas, mainly level/area design is quite varied and interesting. Decent-ish gunplay and still worth a play if you're somewhat invested into the series at this point, enjoy it cause it's a very fast downhill from here.

Painkiller: Recurring Evil: Like drinking a lukewarm coke it's not like the actual technical gameplay is "bad" but it doesn't have the right conditions to thrive into anything enjoyable, just getting locked into a room and killing everything until you move to the next room. Rinse/repeat until credits roll. Environments are at least passable, and at least some green is present.


Painkiller Redemption: just endless endless endless beige walls locking you into some sort of psyhoclogical torture method having to kill 1000 enemies until you are allowed to see your new mental confinment in the next beige wall with slightly darker textures. It's like recurring evil but i actually fell asleep playing this at one point.

Painkiller: Resurrection: You'll need Painkillers after consuming this absolute pisswater, it's like everything wrong with modern AAA games with massive open worlds/maps with nothing interesting to do expect wander to the next objective apart from this game doesn't have any of the triple AAA budget to draw you in with fancy graphics and animations so you end up with what feels like a really bad fever dream with game ruining bugs every so often.

Okay, i just played all the Painkiller games.
just going to give a list of my favorite games in here because why not, in case some new people
that wants to jump the Painkiller funny wacky train.

Best games:
1- Painkiller: Black Edition (the original)
2- Painkiller: Hell & Damnation (Remake of the first game with LESS levels for some reason but the game is awesome)
3- Painkiller: Black Edition DLC "battle out of hell"
4- Painkiller: Overdose (the new weapons, levels and enemies are fantastic)

Worst Games:
1- Painkiller: Resurrection (Boring as hell)
2- Painkiller: Recurring Evil (Glitchy, Bad Level Design and not fun)
3- Painkiller: Redemption (Complete Trash, don't even bother)

So this is it, pretty much every single game is made by someone else, pick your poison.

Such a shame because Painkiller is a great Quake + Serious Sam game, it deserves better that those fan made garbage...

After playing the first Painkiller i'm not gonna bother with this awful series even tho i bought all the games years ago. My time is better spent on other games.

I've always been a fan of painkiller, they were great games. This time it's even better, all games were amazing of course, but because of their age, the graphics weren't what they used to be, this game brings back the oldschool painkiller with improved graphics! The AI also is smarter, and they have more detail. The campaign is done well, it's 6 hours long. The campaign doesn't really got the best story in the world but it's alrigh

This plays like a lazy, fan-made Painkiller mod. Just infinitely re-spawning enemies with no story and rarely even a scenery change. I'm a big Painkiller fan, but it wasn't long before this felt more like a thankless chore than playing a game. Pulling weeds is just as fun and actually useful. The graphics are inferior to the very first Painkiller game--huge bland polygons I haven't seen since the Mid '90s. It's a shame because I think a next gen Painkiller game with a new graphics engine and story would be a big hit.