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When it comes to the Painkiller experience, we have quite a few options. Although, I would say only some of them are worthwhile. The original game and Battle Out of Hell expansion are excellent. After that comes the standalone expansions and that’s where things get a bit messy and from what I understand, most, if not all of them are essentially fan-made games. That’s what the internet tells me, anyway. Painkiller: Overdose is pretty good, Resurrection is broken, and Redemption is lazy. Playing through these expansions has been an interesting ride and it’s almost over. Redemption was followed up by another expansion and, honestly, I didn’t go into it expecting much.
Developed by Med-Art and published by THQ Nordic, Painkiller: Recurring Evil was released for PC in 2012. Much like the previous installments, when playing this in a widescreen resolution, the HUD will appear stretched and, unfortunately, I was unable to find a fix for it this time around. In fact, the person who made all the fixes decided to skip Recurring Evil due to being tapped out and disappointed with the previous installments.
The story here follows Bill Sherman, the protagonist from Resurrection. He possesses the Sword of Seraphim which makes him the ruler of purgatory but his reign is cut short after the sword is taken by the angel Sammael. So now he battles his way through the hordes of evil again to stop the angel from taking Hell’s throne. It’s another typical Painkiller tale which means the plot takes a backseat to the gameplay.
Honestly, I think Recurring Evil is the best expansion since Overdose. It’s not broken, I didn’t encounter many issues, and despite the gameplay feeling like a continuation of Redemption, it doesn’t feel as lazy. The levels are more interesting. However, Recurring Evil is an extremely short experience. With only five levels, you can get through it pretty quickly. The core gameplay elements return and that includes morphing into a demon and the Black Tarot Cards.
Recurring Evil is kind of hard to analyze because it’s very average. Other than the new levels, there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before. You’ll get to blast away familiar hordes of foes with classic Painkiller weapons and it’s a rather unremarkable experience. It’s not terrible and it’s not amazing. It doesn’t reach the highs or lows of anything that came before it. It actually does feel like a fan-made game or level pack.
One positive thing I will say is that it appears the developers learned from the mistakes of Redemption because despite feeling like a continuation of that installment, it is more enjoyable. In typical Painkiller fashion, each level has you moving from area to area wiping out hordes of foes. But unlike Redemption, not every area is small and keeps you locked in for an excessive amount of time. Plus, I always had plenty of ammo. As a result, I think Recurring Evil is paced better and is slightly more in line with the original game and Battle Out of Hell.
Recurring Evil does introduce what could have been more interesting ideas if they were actually expanded upon. Certain levels feature what I’ll call events or scenarios that deviate from the typical action. One level includes a section where you’ll engage soulless enemies which means enemies don’t release souls so no health or progressing towards the demon morph. You simply have to survive. Another level lets you choose a path at one point. When I really thought about it, the developers should have done more of this. Adding gameplay modifiers and letting the player choose different routes could have made this a much more interesting experience. At the very least, it would have felt different.
Unfortunately, that’s really all there is to Recurring Evil. It’s a very by-the-numbers Painkiller experience. Each level will throw waves of enemies at you and the level design does lean towards the simple side but at least each one feels distinct. There’s a good mix of open and tight spaces, secret areas to find, and objects to destroy. You’ll run, jump, and shoot your away through an abbey, highway, warehouse, graveyard, and temple complex. Each level has a Tarot Card to unlock and I do think the cards here are the easiest to unlock when compared to those in the previous entries. The requirements to unlock them are nothing new but I unlocked most of them on my first run.
When it comes to the audiovisual presentation, Recurring Evil is on par with almost every installment that came before it. It’s another expansion that looks and sounds like Painkiller, complete with kick-ass metal tunes. Some parts of certain environments do kind of look and feel familiar but, overall, I am happy with the visual presentation of each level, especially since I played this directly after Redemption. The temple complex level is easily my favorite just because it feels different than most of the levels that came before it, including those in the previous installments. On the technical side, I encountered some frame rate dips here and there but nothing major.
This is the part of the review where I talk about how I personally feel about the experience and to be honest, I’m struggling with this one because I don’t have much to say about it. It’s okay. I don’t dislike it but I do think it’s average and lacking. It’s way too short and I feel like it could have been a free level pack. As average as it is, it could have been worse. It could have been as broken as Resurrection and/or as lazy as Redemption. But it’s not. So I guess that’s something.
Now that I’ve beaten all the expansions that have released up to this point, I think it’s a good time to reflect. If I had to rank each installment from best to worst, it would go Painkiller, Battle Out of Hell, Overdose, Recurring Evil, Redemption, and, finally, Resurrection. Battle Out of Hell introduces cool new weapons and features some excellent new levels. Overdose is also pretty great. With a new protagonist, new arsenal, new enemies, and new levels, it’s easily the best standalone expansion in the bunch. In our review of Overdose, I predicted that any expansions that didn’t review well would be because either people got tired of the same old shit or something goes terribly wrong. And it seems like the latter was correct.
Somehow, developers found a way to fuck up the basic Painkiller formula. Resurrection is a buggy mess and the open-ended environments don’t mesh well with the Painkiller gameplay. Redemption is lazy with boring levels and is easily the most repetitive experience in the whole Painkiller package. Then there’s Recurring Evil. Considering the two installments that came before it, I’m reluctant to say it’s one of the better expansions but it’s so average and short that it’s mostly forgettable.
I would only recommend Painkiller: Recurring Evil to die-hard fans of the Painkiller experience. It feels like a fan-made level pack or set of bonus levels. It’s more stable than Resurrection, shows more effort than Redemption, and plays like typical Painkiller.