Poll: Heretic is 24 years old

[BFG10K]

So I just finished replaying Hexen 2 and enjoyed it a lot:

Spoiler

The first entry in the series (Heretic) is 24 years old. These games have a wonderful atmosphere not found in other FPSes. I didn’t really play them back in the day and only properly tried them a few years ago, so it’s a testament to how good they are given they don’t need rosy nostalgia.

Heretic is my favorite with superb level flow and construction. It’s amazing how well they pulled off medieval architecture with that very limited Doom engine.

Hexen & Death Kings were good too, though it was far too easy to get hopelessly lost just by missing a switch or a crucial item in a dark corner.

Hexen 2 was good as well, though you could still get stumped without a walkthrough. I liked how they mixed in other cultures (e.g. Egypt) into the medieval RPG theme. Reminds me of the second Quake expansion pack.

Portal of Praevus started out good but dragged with some of those uninteresting temple levels toward the end.

Never tried Heretic 2 with that whole third person thing.

Ziggurat gets an honorable mention because it’s a modern roguelite version of these games. Definite direct nods with the likes of the Serpent Staff and spell book weapons. The graphics, art style and level architecture are really nice to look at.

Spoiler

 

[BSim500]

The first entry in the series (Heretic) is 24 years old. These games have a wonderful atmosphere not found in other FPSes. I didn’t really play them back in the day and only properly tried them a few years ago, so it’s a testament to how good they are given they don’t need rosy nostalgia.

What I loved about Heretic is it's a Doom Engine game (as is Hexen 1) and there are some great WAD's around (eg, Ichor) that are definitely more difficult than the base game. For the unfamiliar, ignore the original DOS .EXE and download the GZDoom source-port. Loved the overall feel of it, it really is a "medieval Doom" in literally every mechanic and "that feel" of creative level design.

Hexen 1 is 'OK' but honestly I felt it lost a lost of the simple fun vs Doom / Heretic. Splitting the game between 3x classes left each with only 4x weapons vs 7-8 of single-class. I think that took more away than it added. The puzzles & hubs "worked" but I felt they lacked the fluid level progression that Doom / Heretic had. I never could get into Heretic 2 / Hexen 2. They changed the engine and lost a lot of feel to me (as you said "3rd person Doom" = just, no...) I tried Ziggurat and it "half gets" what old school games were like but still misses 'that feel' and epic modding community behind the grand-daddy Doom Engine though.

 

[DigDog]

Did not like hexen or heretic... and i pretty much lived for doom, those days. Mostly the art that didnt do it for me - too hard to see what was happening due to too much color and excessively fancy model design. Crap textures too.

 

[Worthington]

There was another game out around the same time that for the life of me I can't remember the name. Witch Slayer, BattleWitch... idk something like that. It was a Hexen clone that was a blast to play as well.

 

[BFG10K]

There was another game out around the same time that for the life of me I can't remember the name. Witch Slayer, BattleWitch... idk something like that. I was a Hexen clone that was a blast to play as well.

 

[HeXen]

C'mon guys, the correct answer is Hexen.

 

[Worthington]

Boom, that was it. Thank you!

 

[Zenoth]

Out of those I only played the first Heretic (never finished it), and the first Hexen. My favorite is Hexen, I still play it every now and then.

 

[nakedfrog]

I remember waiting 6+ hours for the demo for of this to download, I think it was ~14MB.

 

[bigi]

The sound/music from Heretic is something else even now. Try playing the WAD in good rendering platform and it is still great.

 

[BFG10K]

I remember waiting 6+ hours for the demo for of this to download, I think it was ~14MB.

With game sizes as they are now, it can still take 6+ hours to download them. Some things never change.

 

[dasherHampton]

I liked Heretic 2. One of the first games I ever bought; picked it up out of a bargain bin.

I thought it was fun. It might have been the first PC game I ever finished.

 

[UberNeuman]

To my great shame, I've never finished Heretic, Hexen or the add-on. I did finish many times Heretic 2.

 

[bigi]

To my great shame, I've never finished Heretic, Hexen or the add-on. I did finish many times Heretic 2.

I've done the opposite. Never finished Heretic 2, but like it a lot too.