Hexen II

The Good
Hexen II is very unique, even by today's standards its "hub" system and mixture of RPG, traditional fragging, and adventure elements add up to an intriguing style of gameplay. In a way, many things we take for granted came from this game despite its relatively low profile in the industry. While the graphics don't measure up today, back in 1997 Hexen II blew everything out of the water visually. Using a spruced up Quake engine, it managed to look great and to be fair, the visual style still stands out. The audio is well done too, the ambient music and sound effects help add to the immersion and everything is recognizable, and the sound of a blade ripping into flesh or a hammer cracking skulls still sounds satisfying and helps lend a brutal feeling to the combat.

Speaking of Combat, Hexen II's combat is very fun. It may be simple, but it's very well done. Each weapon is unique and you will want to play around with the different classes just to see what different weapons and abilities they have. Each class is unique and gain unique attributes along with their unique weapons and powers, and the way they use various items is different making the game different each time you decide to pick a new class. Each monster also requires different approaches, some spells effect certain monsters, others don't. Some weapons work better than others, and some monsters even effect the playing field.

The boss fights are great, the battles against the four horsemen play out just how you think they would; Famine drains your life and mana, Death lays instant-kill traps and spells, you get the idea. The final boss fight against Eidelon is worth mentioning as well. These fights are even more fun with friends, and while co-op games are hard to set up in the modern age, they are definitely worth it because the co-op is much more unique than say in "Doom," because each player takes on the role of the different classes.

The Bad
As fun as Hexen II can be, it's marred by massive flaws. Most of them all add up to confusion and frustration. After killing your enemies you'll notice something strange: You have no idea where in the name of god you are supposed to go, what you are supposed to do, and where you are to begin with. The hub world is messy, the only indicators of where you are being signs to other levels. You may eventually learn to recognize each level, but it can become tedious running across levels trying to find out what you are supposed to do. Cryptic clues can help, but the clues often lead to more confusion, and it doesn't help that when you finally achieve something, there's no indication of what you have achieved or what it will change until you brush against an object or destroy an object and something happens. An objectives screen would've been nice; coincidentally enough they added this into the expansion pack.

Because of the aforementioned confusion, Hexen II can be very frustrating as well. Sometimes you will have broken your back figuring out one puzzle, going to an obstacle you have yet to figure out, and finding out that what you broke your back doing earlier had no effect here, which often results in swearing and the game being shut off to blow some steam.

Another thing that can set in is boredom, while the game is immersive enough to keep things going, when the aforementioned confusion/frustration combo is in effect and you are lost in the game, if you are lost too long it's easy to get tired of the game. It doesn't help that you will have often killed most of the monsters by now, meaning that when you have to return to another level they will be devoid of nasties. This is one of the rare instances where respawning enemies would have been welcome, to at least keep the combat flowing so the monotony doesn't set in so quickly.

The Bottom Line
Hexen II is a strange brew .. it uses the lifeblood of a shooter, throws in a few adventure and 3D platformer games, and then peppers it all with light elements taken from RPG games. Even today it is hard to classify. Hexen II is by no means a classic, but if you are patient and willing to put up with the confusing design, it can be very fun as long as the flow keeps going.