This is a bit of a ranty review. First, the base game:
One of the biggest strengths of the original game was the variety of both maps and enemies. Enemies rarely appeared in more than 2-3 levels. Some types only appeared in single maps. In H&D? F*ck that! Let's have the clowns (from the psychedelic Loony Park) and creepy life-like dolls (from the excellent atmospheric and horror-like Orphanage) in the Opera level of all places. How about the crusader (from the arabic levels, you know, because the crusades?) in the Cathedral, because f*ck you, that's why. Maybe because crusader = christian = cathedral? I have no idea.
Not only that, this screws with the balance. The Cathedral is the second level in H&D while the crusader is originally from levels 17-18. He hits hard and, with his shield, is a bit tricky to kill. He makes the second level harder than most of the rest of the campaign. Similarly, the gladiator (a variation of the basic swordsman) appears in the first level, a high damage and high speed monster, who was originally a late game enemy. Here he makes the very first level needlessly difficult.
Balance in general is weird. Most of the campaign is easy as piss even on Nightmare (easier than original), but sometimes the game suddenly spawns very hard waves of enemies among very easy ones, as if forcing your hand on gold cards.

They ruined the atmosphere of the mentioned Orphanage level. In the original most of the map was pitch black with only a candle (not even a flashlight) to light your way. You could only see a few feet in front of your face. The enemies were all melee, and the level layout was simple, so you literally could not become lost. In H&D? You see everything. You do not even need a flashlight or candle. The atmosphere is all gone and the simplicity of the layout is laid out to bare, making it look simplistic. What were they thinking?

There are some QoL improvements like debris from destructible objects not having collision and disappearing faster allowing more comfortable gold gathering. But they nerfed the Soul Catcher card, which was also purely QoL. The souls instantly and quickly travelled to you when you were in range. Now, they need around half a second to start slowly moving towards you. So you need to stand still. In a game where standing still on higher difficulties equals death. Oh, and from time to time souls bug out and cannot be picked up because of this card.

Secondly, the DLCs:
The game was carved up for DLCs. Supposedly the developer/publisher had not enough funds to remake the entire game, so they did less than half (the original+expansion had 24+10=34 levels, H&D has 14 without DLCs) to check whether there is an interest in the franchise. This explanation is so incredibly dumb, I really hope nobody was naïve enough to believe it. If this is true, why not Early Access, or make the DLCs not be ridiculously overpriced?
This genuinely makes me angry. This is so predatory, so textbook greedy, I’m surprised no major YouTuber picked up on it and made an hour long documentary detailing this sh*t. Probably because it’s not a major franchise…

There’s only truly one new map, Bunker. A few others are re-touched maps for Halloween, Christmas, or other game modes. A few levels: Catacombs, Forest, Underworld, Stone Pit, Castle, and Babel, have never been remade. Mind you, four out of those (Catacombs, Forest, Underworld, Stone Pit) I’ve always been lukewarm about, but still. There are some good changes in a few of the levels e.g. City On Water had three of the secret areas changed to more reasonable ones. In case you didn't know, City On Water is notorious for the most obscure secret areas ever. Two of them are literally impossible to discover without a proper guide. In general, many secrets have been changed and for the better.

DLC maps have balance issues just like the campaign. For example Asylum, which was the other slow, atmospheric, horror-like map, became a slaughter-fest with 3 times as many enemies, all in tight corridors and small rooms that barely fit them. This reminds me of the unmentionable Painkiller """sequels""". On the other hand, Leningrad (now called Stalingrad), which used to be the hardest level in the original due to hitscanners, now is much easier, since the hitscanners try to melee you instead of shooting you.
Survival mode has no souls, no cards, not even a flashlight, and barrels that explode only after severe punishment. You only get increased movement speed and reload times.
The top-down DLC (Heaven's Above) is the only really interesting DLC with a cool spin on the game.

Thirdly, other issues I have:
- Performance is all over the place. It can stutter a lot when gibbing enemies or unlocking a checkpoint.
- Surround sound does not work for me correctly. Had to switch to frigging stereo. The original had no sound issues.
- The flamethrower enemy, who was dangerous before, now became ludicrous. He will be the primary source of your deaths in survival mode. Either his nuke grenade, which is barely perceptible and audible, or his supernova range explosion death, will get you.
- They removed the sexy nurses from the Lab level, because of course they did.
- You can't destroy ATMs, fire extinguishers and vending machines anymore.
- The atmosphere in general is more juvenile. The original wasn't too serious, but here sometimes it's just dumb.
- Story wise: theoretically it's a remake, but events from the original game are referenced. Grim Reaper talks about a bet with Lucifer, even though you killed him in the original game, but then Daniel and Eve reference the ending of BooH, long after Lucifer’s death. Also, Alastor is alive, but has absolutely no bearing on the story whatsoever, he’s just a boss fight. No idea what they were going for.

Gameplay is the only thing they have not screwed up. The movement, weapons, and enemies behave like in the original. The new weapons are ok, the Soul Catcher is fun and looks metal AF. In the end it’s still fun, but why not have a superior experience and buy Painkiller: Black Edition instead? All 34 maps, no DLCs, low price. Just use the patch here: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1789104850 and you’re set.

Me, maybe I will return to H&D to finish up some non-multiplayer achievements, since I am a bit of an achievement wh*re. Otherwise, if I ever have the craving for more Painkiller, I'll just launch Black Edition instead.