Hexen: Beyond Heretic
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Hexen: Beyond Heretic is a fantasy first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by id Software through GT Interactive Software on October 30, 1995. It is the sequel to 1994's Heretic, and the second game in Raven Software's "Serpent Riders" trilogy, which culminated with Hexen II.
Why It Rocks
- Unlike the original which was good but was more or less a dark fantasy version of Doom, this game decides to take that template and incorporate more RPG-like elements into the fray with things like mana, classes, and a hub world.
- Great graphics that are some of the best on id Tech 1 and even do some some amazing things with it, like doors opening outward instead of just sliding up, waves on water, and certain floors collapsing in chunks instead of just sinking all at once.
- Players can choose to play as one of three character classes: a fighter (Baratus), a cleric (Parias), or a mage (Daedolon). Each character has unique weapons and physical characteristics, lending an additional degree of variety and replay value to the game. Additionally, certain items, such as the flechette (poison gas bomb), behave differently when collected and used by each of the classes, functioning in a manner better suiting their varying approach to combat.
- The Fighter relies mainly on close-quarters physical attacks with weapons both mundane and magical and is tougher and faster than the other characters.
- The Mage uses an assortment of long-range spells, whose reach is counterbalanced by the fact that he is the most fragile and slowest moving of the classes.
- The Cleric arms himself with a combination of both melee and ranged capabilities, being a middle ground of sorts between the other two classes.
- There are 12 weapons in the game 4 of which are divided between the three classes.
- Fighter
- Spiked Gauntlets: A pair of heavy, metallic gauntlets with spikes on the knuckles used to beat down enemies at melee range, still longer range than most other melee creatures. Despite being a low-tier weapon, the spiked gauntlets pack quite a punch, able to kill an Ettin with three hits. Every third hit will deal double damage, with the animation showing a visibly meatier punch. After that, or if the player hits a wall or air, the counter is reset.
- Timon's Axe: It is a short, one-handed axe that uses Blue Mana for empowerment. Mana cost is 2 points per hit, but the mana will only be consumed if the axe hits an enemy or a decoration with a health value. Swinging at the air or striking a wall will not deplete any mana.
- Hammer of Retribution: It is a large, heavy Warhammer from which magical flaming hammers can be thrown when supplied with Green Mana, yet the real hammer never leaves the fighter's hand. The projectiles are very powerful and will explode in contact with objects, damaging all monsters within a short radius. This splash damage does not harm the player, however. At close range, the weapon will not fire a projectile and will simply strike enemies without using mana. The hammer does less damage when used as a melee weapon compared to its projectile. The projectile attack uses three units of green mana per shot. The weapon can still be used if the player runs out of Green Mana, but only as a melee weapon, as it will not fire a projectile.
- Quietus: It resembles a longsword with a fiery green aura, and shoots a barrage of five spherical green energy blasts in an arc pattern, each doing a heavy amount of damage to enemies. As with the Wraithverge and the Bloodscourge, the Quietus needs to be assembled from the appropriate segments found throughout the game before it can be used. The arc of the projectiles angles slightly to the left, and the Quietus requires 14 mana of each kind to use. Players cannot use the Quietus as a melee weapon. Despite this, Quietus is most effective at very close range; attacking a tough enemy from point-blank range, using Quietus as though it were a melee weapon, is very effective, as it ensures all the blasts simultaneously strike the same target, causing tremendous damage.
- Mage
- Sapphire Wand: It is a long metallic staff adorned with a large sapphire. The staff fires fast-moving magical blue darts, capable of piercing multiple enemies on a line pattern, and as with other starting weapons requires no mana. Although it causes the least damage per shot, it is the only starting weapon that can attack from a distance, offsetting the Mage's physical weakness. Whereas the first weapons of the fighter and the cleric, are generally used as a last resort, the mage's wand has its uses beyond that. Also, since the projectile rips through several enemies at once, it is very effective against columns and huge mobs of enemies, such as crowds of Ettins at the Hypostyle, or any corridor. It's also useful to preserve mana. Because the wand fires a "ripper" projectile, it cannot be reflected or deflected away. This, combined with its infinite ammo, makes it highly effective against "deflector" enemies such as the Centaurs and the Heresiarch.
- Frost Shards: This is something of the game's equivalent to the shotgun. It is a spell that uses 3 Blue Mana to launch a wide, cross-shaped spread of magical ice darts that can freeze enemies. If used at very close range, the Mage can touch the enemy with his hand inflicting significantly more damage. If used at medium-close range, not all of the darts will spawn before hitting the enemy, inflicting low damage. Thus, it is ideal to hit enemies either at melee range or medium range. The frost shards also have a very long warm-up time before attacks. All these reasons make the weapon somewhat difficult to use effectively.
- Arc of Death: It is a spell that summons a great bolt of electricity from floor to ceiling, which travels in a straight line away from the player. When the bolt strikes an enemy, it will follow them around inflicting damage for three seconds before it wears off, or until the target dies. This weapon uses Green Mana at a rate of five per shot. This weapon is very effective against the Centaurs as their shields are unable to block the bolt and the Heresiarches' shields cannot deflect either.
- Bloodscourge: It (along with the Wraithverge) is considered the BFG of the game. It takes the form of a long, gnarled wooden staff with a large swirling red orb set into the skull-shaped headpiece. As with the Quietus and Wraithverge, the Bloodscourge needs to be assembled from the appropriate segments found throughout the game before it can be used. When assembled, it shoots three rotating bladed fireballs that home in on enemies, often tearing through them and continuing until they hit a wall or other object. The fireballs can be repelled by the Heresiarch, Centaur/Slaughtaur. The Bloodscourge uses 15 blue mana and 15 green mana to fire. Because the Bloodscourge combines very fast travel speed and slow homing ability, it may take some practice before the player can use the weapon to its fullest effect. Getting the enemies to form into a straight line pointing at the player often works best, and lessens the likelihood of the fireballs hitting a wall too early. It is also recommended to line up the enemies next to a wall as the splash damage can seriously wound or multiple adjacent enemies. It is also best used against bosses as their large detection box makes them easier to be homed.
- Cleric
- Mace of Contrition: It is a short, spiked mace that does little damage and does not require mana. However, it has quite a long reach for a melee weapon, so a player can strike enemies without being in a range of their target's melee attacks.
- Serpent Staff: It resembles a short, snakeskin-bound staff with a large reptilian eye set into the headpiece. The eye blinks every so often when the weapon is not being fired. The neck of the weapon has the trident of Neptune on it, the symbol of the Serpent Riders. The weapon fires twin magical projectiles at a decent rate. When used in melee no bolts are fired, but the staff will instead leech the life of the nearby monster and heal the player 1-4 points of health for each attack. Each attack, both ranged and melee, costs one point of Blue Mana.
- Firestorm: It is a spell that launches a streak of flame directly ahead of the player. If it comes into contact with a monster it will explode and spawn a small ring of flames that rotate around the point of impact, which will detonate upon contact with an obstacle or wall, heavily damaging the target and any other monsters within a short radius. Its icon is a spinning eight-pointed iron cross with a flame shooting upward. The spell uses four Green Mana per shot.
- Wraithverge: It is a staff (verge) whose visible part is a large, ornate cross with a large ruby on the end. Like the Quietus and Bloodscourge, the Wraithverge needs to be assembled from different segments found throughout the game. The Wraithverge is the most destructive weapon in the game. When fired, it shoots a sphere of spiritual energy which splits into four ghosts (wraiths) that rend and tear at enemies that get in their way. It is also the most mana-consuming weapon in the game, requiring 18 of each kind of mana.
- Fighter
- New items are introduced along with the ones from Heretic.
- Banishment Device: Like the Chaos Device, the Banishment Device has teleporting capabilities, but rather than being used to teleport the player out of dire situations, it teleports an enemy to another area in the level away from the player, provided that the enemy gets hit by the resulting projectile when the artifact is used. When banished, a creature is sent to one of the deathmatch start points on the map. If there are no deathmatch starts, it will instead be sent to a regular player start. If another creature or player is standing at the destination point, the banished creature may telefrag them. The device is useless against the Death Wyvern, the Heresiarch, and Korax.
- Boots of Speed: When a player uses them, they will run at twice their normal speed, and also leave behind afterimages of the character that the player is using.
- Dark Servant: It looks like a small Maulotaur doll. When thrown, it can become a Maulotaur who will fight for the player. The Maulotaur disappears again after a little while. If it lands in a place where there is not enough room for the Maulotaur to spawn, the artifact will simply float there, where it can be picked up again.
- Disc of Repulsion: When activated, it hurls nearby enemies and projectiles a safe distance away from the player, dealing a small amount of damage to any monsters that collide with a wall or other object, including another enemy. Monsters that collide with one another will start fighting each other as if they had been attacked.
- Dragonskin Bracers: When used, they temporarily grant the player an additional four points to their Armor Class. In terms of game mechanics, it adds +1 point of Armor Class to each of the four pieces of armor in the character's inventory (1 each to the Amulet of Warding, Platinum Helm, Falcon Shield, and Mesh Armor), for a total of +4 Armor Class. If the player does not have one or more of the four armor pieces, a "temporary" piece(s) will be created with 1 AC on it, which can be seen in the Inventory screen. This temporary piece will disappear when the effects of the Dragonskin Bracers expire.
- Fléchette: It is a small flask of green liquid that serves as a supplementary weapon. Its precise effect differs between classes:
- In the hands of the Cleric, it is dropped directly onto the ground beneath the player and will quickly explode into a poisonous green gas cloud, choking any monster or player that walks through it. The Cleric's fléchette attack, with its lingering cloud, is considered by most players to be the most effective of the three, especially because he can lure monsters into the gas cloud where they take damage and are easy targets for cheap shots.
- The Mage's fléchettes act in almost the same way as Heretic's Timebomb of the Ancients. They are dropped on the spot where the player stands and explode for heavy damage after one second.
- When used by the Fighter, it is thrown like a grenade and will bounce on the ground and explode after three seconds or on contact with a monster. When thrown into water or swamp muck, it will helplessly sink into the liquid with no bouncing or exploding effect.
- Icon of the Defender: It grants total invulnerability to all classes; however, the precise effect differs for each character:
- The Fighter is rendered completely invulnerable, an effect similar to Doom's Invulnerability artifact except that the player's view is not affected.
- The Cleric phases between partial and total invisibility. Whilst completely invisible, projectiles can travel straight through the player.
- The Mage deflects incoming projectiles away from his body.
- Krater of Might: When used by the player, all Blue Mana and Green Mana will be fully restored to the player.
- Mystic Ambit Incant: It is a scroll with a blue rune on it, and activating one has a different effect depending on which class is using it.
- The Fighter gets a temporary boost of one point to his armor class.
- The Cleric regains a significant portion of his health if injured.
- The Mage gets more Mana. If the player can have any more Blue Mana, it fills that first, and then gives the remainder in Green Mana.
- Porkalator is Hexen's equivalent of Heretic's Morph Ovum. When used, several projectiles are fired in a spread, and any enemies hit by them will be transformed into small pigs (instead of chickens, as with the Morph Ovum). If a monster gets hit by a Porkalator projectile, they are transformed into a pig. In this state, they have 30% health and cannot go above that limit. The Porkalator's effect does not last forever, and enemies transformed into pigs will return to normal (except an activated Dark Servant, or Stalkers). The Porkalator does not affect any of Hexen's bosses (the Death Wyvern, Heresiarchs, Zedek, Traductus, Menelkir, or Korax). However, it is particularly useful against packs of Centaurs and/or Slaughtaurs.
- The armor system is much different from that of other shooters as specific armor pieces will give a set number of armor points depending on the class.
- Amulet of Warding: Its appearance is that of a necklace with a leather strap and with a blue gem set in silver. The Fighter receives 1 point of armor, the Cleric receives 4, and the Mage receives 5.
- Falcon Shield: Its appearance is similar to that of the Enchanted Shield of Heretic but taller and has an image of a falcon on it rather than a face. The Fighter receives 4 points of armor, the Cleric receives 5, and the Mage receives 3.
- Mesh Armor: It appears as a suit of sleeveless chain mail armor worn on the upper torso with plated shoulders. The Fighter receives 5 points of armor, the Cleric receives 2, and the Mage receives 1.
- Platinum Helm: It appears as a replica of the helmet worn by the Cleric; an almost all-encompassed dome with horns similar to stereotypical Viking helms. The Fighter receives 3 points of armor, the Cleric receives 1, and the Mage receives 2.
Bad Qualities
- The PlayStation version. Naturally, you get the port of the same quality as Doom for the Super Nintendo, but with floor/ceiling textures present and made for a console where such quality won't work anymore. Obvious screws include: one-sided enemy/character sprites, choppy framerate along with low resolution, several interior replacements and programming oversights, and, for a dessert, the soundtrack has been butchered to fit all those CD-DA tracks into the remaining part of the disc when they could've easily used XA tracks. To make the port even more frustrating, one save eats the entire memory card, compared to Total Meltdown which used, in the worst cases, seven blocks of it! Although, in its defense, it has pretty good FMVs for a game like this and more comfortable controls than the N64 version did. The loading times (from the CD, that means) are not large either.
- Zig-zagged with the N64 port. On one hand, the sound is much more muffled, the graphics aren't as good, and the controls are incredibly awkward. On the other hand, the game runs surprisingly well, it doesn't take up an entire memory card like the PS1 version, and this is arguably the easiest way to play the game with three players.
- Some levels are pretty loathsome.
- One particularly nasty section is a hidden room in the Guardian of Steel level that must be crossed to open the way to the secret level. You get teleported into a small room surrounded by several Wendigos who must be killed before the walls of the room open to let you out (or let more Wendigos in). At this point you don't have a great deal of firepower yet, so expect to take a beating.
- The Caves Of Circe is probably the most loathed stage. It is an utterly labyrinthine series of tunnels and caves that are extremely easy to get lost in and are filled with hidden passages, some of which you have to find to complete the stage. In particular, there is a room with a key that can only be entered by falling down a tiny hole in the corner of another room which is almost impossible to spot unless you're right next to it, meaning most players will only find it by mistake.
- The Griffin Chapel has a puzzle switch that you have to go through one hell of a nasty room to activate four other switches (if you don't do this first, the ceiling falls and kills you). The room has four moving walls that deal massive damage if you touch them. Even worse, the walls sometimes get stuck, forcing you to use no clip or glitch through into the "safe" areas and kill you unless you cheat or use a chaos device.
- All the bosses are pretty bad.
- Death Wyvern is a pretty pathetic boss. It's an undead flying beast, which always moves in circles and has only one attack which is constantly firing explosive fireballs at you. You have to also fight it in a big pool of lava with a narrow path around the perimeter. If you walk on this path, you’ll pick up Wings of Wrath and will be able to fly just like the Wyvern and take him down pretty easily.
- The Heresiarch is quite a step up from the Death Wyvern but is annoying. He has an invulnerability shield spell that he casts frequently and lasts a while. This causes the fight to go on longer than normal since you won't know when he casts the invulnerability spell leading to a constant wait-and-shoot strategy to see if you're attacks affect him and he has 5000 hitpoints. He also has an attack which is a stream of explosive bolts that, while not too hard to dodge, can kill you quickly. When he gets closer to dying, he starts summoning dark bishops as well.
- Zedek, Traductus, and Menelkir. You'd expect the leaders of the player characters' classes to be tough, but they go down in a few hits. Sure they get their classes' ultimate weapons, but that just means you have to dodge a couple of times, and that you can kill Traductus easily by using Discs of Repulsion to send his ghosts to eat him. Menelkir doesn't even always get the ultimate weapon every time, leaving him to shoot lightning pillars with the Arc of Death as if that's a threat to you. You can also get a cheap shot on Zedek before he can even attack as he's always facing the same way when his chamber opens, meaning once you know it you can just stand behind him and get at least one or two free hits in.
- Korax. Despite being one of the three Serpent Riders, he is not that intimidating to fight. Just shoot him until he dies after fighting a bunch of easy Mooks at the end of phase one. The only catch is that he likes Teleport spam, but this just drags out the fight slightly. If you've hoarded at least two Icons of the Defender, then the fight takes little to no effort as Korax can't kill you, and when you finally catch up to him, you can spam your BFG on him. He will die in seconds on the second phase if you get lucky.
Reception
Hexen: Beyond Heretic received positive reviews upon release, though the various 1997 console ports were negatively received because of problems with frame rate and controls and the aging of the game itself.
Maximum gave the game 5 out of 5 stars and their "Maximum Game of the Month" award remarking that Hexen sets itself apart from other "3D slashers" with its selection of characters and novel approach to level design, which "leads to your character choosing their path rather than being guided around a rather linear series of rooms, proving that 3D games have matured". They also commented that the gameplay is consistently intense due to the difficulty of the enemies, the variety of weapons and power-ups, and the sheer size and breadth of the levels.
A reviewer for Next Generation opined that "Hexen takes everything that was good about Heretic, and makes it even better." He commented that the ability to choose between three different character classes gives the game replay value, something that had been missing from first-person shooters up until then, and though the graphics are blocky and pixelated, the "eerily lifelike" sound effects make up for it to a large extent. He praised the non-linear level design and concluded the game to be a must-have for any first-person shooter fan. Chris Hudak, citing the differing abilities of the three playable characters, called Hexen "Slicker, smarter and more stylish than Doom---with all the killing and three times the replay value."
YouTuber, Civvie 11, gave it a pretty negative review with most of the criticism levied around the idea of having to look for switches to unlock the exit, referring to it as a "ball-breaking switch hunt". He also makes note of how the game throws too many enemies at the player and the design of some areas is confusing. Civvie does, however, praise the game's technical achievements calling them "amazing".
Accolades
Computer Games Strategy Plus named Hexen the best "First-Person Action" title of 1995. It was also a runner-up for Computer Gaming World's 1995 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to Crusader: No Remorse. The editors called it "another Doom bloodfest distinguished by its fantasy setting and the fact that it let you play as either a fighter, priest or mage, each with unique attributes and weapons".
Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide named Hexen the 1997 "Game that Should've Stayed on the PC", commenting that while the Nintendo 64 version was the best of the console ports, all three were poor conversions, and Hexen was too old by the time they were released.
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