Hexen: Beyond Heretic

Hexen är en höjdare och ett absolut måste för alla Heretic-fans.

Il sera difficile de passer à côté de ce soft, tellement il semble indispensable à la ludothèque du fan. Un must !!

Il sera difficile de passer à côté de ce soft, tellement il semble indispensable à la ludothèque du fan. Un must !!

Hexen. Take DOOM. Now, add in medievil stuff, like Axes and Staffs and stuff. Now make an ability to be one of three classes: Fighter, Mage or Cleric. Once you select that, you're stuck in these huge woods with your buddies, if you have any, in front of this huge altar. If you walk up the stairs, out pops an Effin(Two-headed humanoid brown lizard...thing) and starts hitting you. Kill it, and walk into the building. From here on, you'll have to face evil stuff. This ain't no RPG or fantasy thing, this is real-time battling. This is real hard.

Hexen 2 ist kein fauler Zauber, sondern erfüllt die hoch gesteckten Erwartungen locker. Die gelungene Mischung aus Action, Adventure und Rollenspiel trifft zielgenau ins Schwarze. Intelligente Rätselkost und eine spannende Story ziehen den Spieler gekonnt in ihren Bann, ohne von der Hauptsache – nämlich fröhlichem Monstermetzeln – abzulenken. Zwar ist die künstliche Intelligenz der Computergegner nicht nobelpreisverdächtig, aber dafür haben alle individuelle Angriffsmuster, gegen die es die günstigste Taktik auszuknobeln gilt. Einziger kleiner Wermutstropfen: Raven nutzt die Möglichkeiten der 3D-Engine in architektonischer Hinsicht nicht voll aus. Größere Bauten mit mehrere Stockwerken finden sich nur sporadisch. Dafür sind die Wandtexturen mit das schönste und detaillierteste, was bislang in 3D über meinen Monitor flutschte: Haben Sie auch nur ein wenig Interesse an harter Action in schön designten Umgebungen, können Sie bei Hexen 2 zugreifen.

Beautifully executed, with a wide variety of weapons and non-stop action, many novel twists. Gameplay is limited to the same mindless slaughter found in previous shooters. Not many secrets or puzzles. A solid action game with terrific fantasy trappings, but ultimately familiar gameplay.

Hexen er egentlig udmærket, og for et par år siden havde det været genialt. Alt i alt kan jeg dog godt anbefale Hexen til de, der virkelig er glade for Heretic, men er man ikke det, er Hexen spild af tid og penge.

Still, HEXEN is very possibly the most frightening game I've ever played. The suspense and crafty level design really keep the player on the edge of his seat. This is a fitting and powerful last chapter in the story of the most popular computer game ever.

Long since released by Ravensoft and since abandoned by PC players, its recent re-emergence into the world of Mac gaming poses some interesting possibilities. On the one hand Heretic II has the potential to fade as fast as it appeared, relegated to the tall pile of games which were just plain too late to come to the Mac. On the other hand, it could become our new Quakeworld... a strong community, a thriving multiplayer world and a whole lot of people doing all they can to keep it vibrant and alive (Scott Kevill, maker of GameRanger even hinted to me a while ago that he might revive his Quiver project for Heretic II, but I think he was just kidding to get my goat). The point is: The Mac community sometimes comes across found objects which the PC community didn't appreciate, and we get some damn good gaming out of it. On the other hand, a lot of older games come and go with no reverberation whatsoever. Where will Heretic II fall between those two poles?

I enjoyed Hexen for what it was. I can't really call it anything new, even though in many respects it is. I could not really call it revolutionary, but that does not mean it is not fun. I could not call it eye candy but that does not mean that the graphics were poor. I could not really call it a bad game because it isn't.

Auf Dauer metzelt man sich ansatzweise unmotiviert durch die großen Levels und wartet auf das tolle Ereignis, das die durch Sound und Optik tapfer aufgebaute Atmospähre verspricht. Doch was kommt, ist halt die nächste Stufe - von der Größe her genauso ausladend, aber rätseltechnisch ebensowenig innovativ wie die vorige. Schade, daß die Verbesserungen sich nicht auch auf die spielerische Substanz beziehen, sondern auf grafische Details und schwere Kämpfe mit neuen Waffen.

Slicker, smarter and more stylish than Doom---with all the killing and three times the replay value.

The expiration date on this game has long past. Running around a 3-D environment and shooting slow-moving enemies used to be fun, when Doom first showed up. Now, it's boring. To make matters worse, Hexen looks too dated. Today's first-person perspective shooters have higher-res graphics, cooler effects and less pixelization. Hexen does offer one thing not found anywhere else: a choice of different characters to play as. This helps a little bit: it adds variety and replay value (but once you beat the game, would you want to play it again as a different player? Probably not). Unless you need another Doom game, skip Hexen.

Hexen - the 'Dungeons & Dragons' follow up to Doom and Heretic - is a poorly re-sprayed port of the PC original. Level design remains exactly the same, with the famous 'hub' system as mixed a blessing as ever. Players who've indulged in Hexen before will be disappointed by this, but even more so by the lack of effort put into the graphical presentation of the game, which, although boasting the N64's customary anti-pixellation filtering, fail to show the hardware off to its potential.

Way back in 1995 Hexen made its debut on the PC, and it offered a refreshing update to the then-popular Doom engine. Players were set loose in a system of central “hubs” that made exploring levels more challenging, were given the ability to use spells and fly, and could choose among three distinct characters to play. Now in 1997, Hexen in all its glory has made its way to the Saturn, and unfortunately, its age shows.

Hexen on the PlayStation is a huge and terrible mistake. The game moves at a sluggish pace, and the graphics are abysmal. Do yourself a favor and stay away from it at all cost.