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Hexen: Beyond Heretic - An Updated Review
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- čas přidán 17. 01. 2020
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#hexen #ravensoftware #gaming
While you were battling the evil forces of D'Sparil, the other Serpent Riders were busy sowing the seeds of destruction in other dimensions. One such dimension is the decaying world where Hexen takes place.
A world littered with the mangled corpses of nonbelievers and inhabited by the undead followers that executed them. Only three humans, a warrior, a mage and a cleric have escaped the leaders vicious spell. Now these brave souls have sworn to crush the evil regime that threatens to destroy the world forever.
Separated upon entering the mystical portal, the three are forced to attempt on their own what they had hoped to do together: find Korax's stronghold, destroy him and restore order in the physical world.
"Welcome to the Salty Spitoon, how tough are yah?" "I beat Hexen." "So..." "Without a guide." "Right this way sir."
I did that with Hexen. Hexen 2? No way.
On nightmare difficulty they dont even let you enter to the Salty Spitoon, you may kill everyone in sight.
Before the internet era, we beat all games like this - no walkthroughs, no FAQ's, no strategy guides. And that's why we, 90's gamers, are so tough ;)
@@AlexeiVoronin technically, if you are playing through a new game blind at launch, there are no guides and you have to do it the old fashioned way.
It's not just that guides are available that make figuring out where the hell to go next easier, but game devs have gotten a lot better at signposting where the hell you should go next instead of just leaving you in the dark about it and expecting you to wander into the right path.
Minimaps can go fuck themselves though. The level design of a game should be what leads you in any given direction, not your damn map, but NO good mapping system at all is just as bad of a sin, especially in an open world setting, where, at a bare minimum, a compass or one button access to the map would be nice.
@@DeisFortuna This is a good point, though nowadays some games have gone into the other extreme - holding the player's hand way too much, sometimes even going as far as punishing them for getting off track.
I can't be the only one who finds pixelated atmospheres more immersive. Hexen feels so incredibly dark and I love that.
I love the fact that video game maps was just video game maps. It didn’t need to resemble something real’ish. Doom 2016 falls into the uncanny valley between sense and contrived. The closest thing to an old school maze shooter with modern graphics is Bioshock 1,2 and Prey.
@@TheRexTera There definitely seems to be a problem with making things ultra realistic to the point that it's just kinda boring to look at. I'm referring to graphics and even gameplay in general. Developers aren't making well thought out environments with all types of little details all over the place or that capture a vibe. That's what makes Hexen so great. It's attention to detail rather makes it look so deep and immersive. The only modern game that really got me with ultra realistic graphics was the recent remake of resident evil 2.
You aren't the only one, but I don't think that it being pixelated is the only notable thing. The music and sound design play a huge part
You are not alone here pal, in fact, I find the 2D Doom and Hexen and Heretic and so on much more apealing to the eye than any of its 3D recent incarnations, thare is a charm on those old versions that seems to be unmatched!
Yeah I love that dark atmosphere too!! And the old fps inmersive me more than the actuals...
Extremely underrated FPS, and one of my absolute favorites.
Same here. I love it equally as much as DOOM2 and Duke3D.
It's not that underrated, it's very popular among the 3d community
Me too. Spent many nights in high school playing the Heretic Shareware until it was released and took me a long time to get through Hexen. Heretic 2 was a mess though.
I hated gimmick puzzles and levels in Doom, so Heretic with it's nonstop action was my top FPS. And than they made Hexen...
yeah but those mandatory secret areas is like keycards in games.. delete game. Its like 99 percent of games have flaws, only few of them have replayability value or you remember them for rest of life- deus ex, arcanum ect.
I still love Hexen so much. While it definitely has its flaws, the atmosphere it creates is impeccable.
me and my brother would play this together in the 90s. He would navigate the player and I would open doors and shoot. It was a strange way of playing. Both sharing the same keyboard.
Wow, did you guys manage to beat it that way??
Team Work to make the Dream Work
I recently did the sane thing in hl2 with steam remote play togethet, it is great fun!
when life was -gooder-
@@kaspereklund1647 it's like playing Co op almost yeah? : )
"Greetings Mortal. Are you ready to -die?- hunt for switches?"
One thirtieth of the puzzle has been solved.
One six hundredth of the first puzzle has been solved.
I could find the switches. I just couldn't figure out what they did.
Lmfao, this could put it how the game trully is!
Sounds like something Honest Trailers sould say.
"Who are the 5 best warriors in the realm? Dylon, Dylon, Dylon, Dylon, and Dylon. Because I spit hot fire."
Hahaha such a funny skit
This game was incredible, massive part of my childhood. So many days after school spent playing though this masterpiece. I was so proud upon completing it. No computer or guide and smartphones didn’t exist back then so I spent hours just wandering around 😭
No bullshit!!! Pound for pound my favorite game of all time... it's been since the 90's that I've even seen that game, but I bet it still stacks up... I have half a mind to buy a Playstation and Hexen just to play it one more time... and maybe the original Diablo and an obscure game I loved called DeathTrap Dungeon...
👍😎👍
@@johnjones6049 you can get it on your phone for free, just get a controller for your phone
Hexen was always too complicated for my child brain. Maybe I should go back and try it. I sure am early.
Your child brain wasn't the problem. The map designs were doo Doo. It's a cool game but my god.
It was not really complicated. The "puzzles" were just a bunch of switches that opened a door miles away to activate another bloody switch. I love the game, but holy shit, the level design was evil.
You just had to find that switch. It even says something happened somewhere on some map.. maybe.
My child brain as well! I loved the art style and look of the game but it confused the hell out of me as a kid.
I was never able to complete the original game either. But I found that the expansion pack was more tightly designed and easier to play through.
I remember Hexen 64 having a incredible soundtrack, check it out it's overlooked heavily.
I loved the soundtrack... used to just play the songs in the sound section 😊
This is the one I played and I love it!
That's what I played hexen on loved it
I'm glad someone agrees. I think it's better honestly. Less silly MIDI, more melancholic and creepy.
Castle of Grief and Shadow Wood are lovely on N64.
I love Hexen to death lol.
yes uncle phill, i think this would be a pretty good game to remastered
This game drove me nuts, because it was SOOOO close to being awesome. Every thing in this game is pretty great except, of course, for the confusing-ass levels. Honestly, I really loved the idea of a more open-world design, but you end up having to re-explore every level each time you find a switch or a key, because there is never any clue as to what or where those things actually affect. A real shame, I've never finished it because there's always some point where I just lose patience with it.
And it is opposite of Heretic, which is nonstop action, even more than Doom. I love style and design of Hexen but this is puzzle game more than FPS.
The easiest fix to this which I don't know why they didn't think of it is just color code all the doors. After you find all the switches for a door it just says "blue gate unlocked"
@@nocturnal101ravenous6 still should’ve color coded it
@@backwardsface3046 nah he’s right
@@nocturnal101ravenous6 don't disguise obtuse game design as a fair challenge, they're not the same thing
It'd be cool to see a proper sequel to these games.
it has spiritual successor named Amid Evil
Amid Evil for sure.
Exist Hexen 2
@@dozensnake Amid Evil plays more like Heretic.
There's also "Ziggurat"
I played and beat Wolfenstein, Doom, and Heretic when I was a kid...
These games, especially Doom were scary to me
As a kid I was scared of the death animations in Dangerous Dave, werewolf's especially. And I had nightmares about that old hag with a throwing knives too.
Interceptor GT There's a lot of jump scares in those games so no wonder.
Oh man Hexen made my brother and I shit when we were about 7 years old... Don't know why this was the game we were playing.
"the dark souls is of this genre"
-any game journalist with any game that has the slightest bit of challenge
@@TheAngelOfTheBottomlessPit Translation: Hypocritically complaining about people complaining...
This was the Dark Souls of comments.
(Very challenging to read)
The cuphead tutorial was the darksouls of tutorials
On top of that half of you guys that talk about it/complain generally haven't even played the damn game for more than 10 mins.
Same with people who think that every game that doesn't have a save game feature is a roguelike.
One characteristic doesn't make a genre.
This is what I liked about FPS in the 90s, they focused more on exploration and not so much on linear levels and storytelling.
Like the Turok series for example, there would be these massive worlds where you had a main objective but then there would be a ton of secrets and power ups to collect if you took time to explore the levels, sometimes you could find weapons that wouldn’t show up until later.
I think when FPS entered the modern era with games like Halo and CoD that was all lost and replaced with more linear set pieces and action.
They need to bring Hexen back.
I mean doom2016 its pretty close to the original the levels arent so linear and its tough as nails on higher dificulties but yhea we need a hexen sequel or a reboot like doom had
I think Turok 2 is the only FPS game that I never finished for two reasons. First, after failing to access certain areas no matter how hard I tried, I told myself I needed a power/item that can only be obtained in a latter world, but I don't think I ever found a way to go back. Second, as you progress, the worlds become so inspired by the 90's perception of alien technology - neon lights and bugs. Just like in Half-Life, I don't think there's a single person whose favourite part is Xen.
I must add that since I had never played or even heard of Turok 1, I didn't have a clue what I was getting into.
If they bring it back they'll just give it that modern game treatment. Loses its original charm. Like thief is one game for example.
@@HammerHand83 Turok 1 wasn't as tedious with its levels, still quite open but the goal was finding the level keys and finishing the level. Turok 2 made me rage at times, i wandered around for hours in the second level trying to find the last sister, it only got more confusing later on.
@@brotbrotsen1100 This. I got stuck on the same part. Once when it first came out, then played the remaster and stuck on same part as you. Something was overlooked in the design there.
"calling it the dark souls of fps makes no sense to me"
*puts it on the thumbnail*
It's in quotes
I guess you failed to notice what he said after that...
In quotations...
@@jameswalt1 shut up nerd
@@Nomad-bl4yw lol ok
As a kid a loved this game, even though I never knew what to do at certain points. Then I just restarted later, and charged in again! There is a feeling in this game, that only Doom was able to give me. Never beat this game, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to finish it someday! Thank you for the nostalgia trip! Great work!
The ending was underwealming. The whole game was awesome, the 3 big bosses before the main boss were weak compared to some of the monster we had to face in this game ... the spell caster with a protection shield that repelled the attack could take a lot of damage and shoot me down. I had to use the magical tower to make myself indestructible for a brief moment to survive.
The big bosses and the main boss had no such protection. They went down quickly.
Hexen 2 end boss on the other hand was not easy.
I prefer hexen over hexen 2 because I had to charge and fight like crazy. Hexen 2 had less ennemies and had less possibilities for strategies. At least I could play necromancer.
It also annoyed that the ultimate weapon was in 2 pieces instead of 3. It made the weapon feel less epic to find.
@@ravenandthecrow Totally understand! Still even just fighting with the minions, for me as a kid, it was like an unimaginable battle. And I still feel somehow rushed. Same with Doom. I may cannot beat this game yet, but it still brings joy to me to remember it, or playing it. This game is legend!
@@szinkronguzu3391
They dont make games like this anymore. I prefer crappy graphics for good gameplay instead of good graphics and crappy gameplay.
@@ravenandthecrow
On the highest difficulty I found Hexen 2 quite unbalanced as compared to the first game. Regardless of the class I played, I found War to be always tougher than Eidolon. Eidolon was surely a formidable boss, but I guess they could have made the fight with War a little less broken. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed both games, and I really can't remember which one was tougher. But I must say, Hexen 1 was a lot more balanced and made more logistical sense at least when it came to bosses and other monsters.
@@Kevin5279
You are right about War. It was so difficult. I overstock for everything to go against Eidolon.
Hexen 1 if you use those disk thingy that repells attack and people, you can send back the boss attack against the boss, making the boss fight wayyyyyyyyy too easy.
The cleric can destroy centaurs easily with the green flasks. Once they reach the gas they just stand there screaming until they die. And the wand of the mage hit ALL enemies that the beam passes through. So best starting weapon. So there are a lot of little "balances" to make sure that no class is overpowered compared to another.
One can also use the cleric to chip away at the Heresiarch's health by using the flechettes. Their reflect spell won’t work against that. 🙂
basically, the flechettes all cover a weakness in some way.
The fighter lacks ranged options so his flechette is a ranged attack.
The mage doesn't like crowded tight spaces so his is a close range AoE attack.
The cleric is less mana efficient than the others and all his weapons are bad against centaurs (except the wraithverge) so his is a very ammo efficient attack that's also good against centaurs.
@@carljohan9265 Only the serpent staff is weak against centaurs though. Firestorm works great. And the mace can do the job, though it is a weak weapon in general.
As the mage I barely even use the green bottles. I just keep my distance most of the time.
As the warrior they are essential to take down dragons/serpents until I get the axe.
@@caligulawellington3171 Centaurs partially block the firestorm and both the mace and serpent staff are weak attacks that need many hits, which is bad against centaurs.
@@carljohan9265 Two shots of firestorm, and a centaur is dead. Just like with the sapphire wand of the mage it is not a projectile, but a hit scan like ray. The only reflect projectiles. The mace is weak in general, but you could still beat a centaur with it. It just takes longer time than the fighter's fists. I remember having no problem at all with centaurs once I got firestorm, and they were slow to take down before that. But no problem (without firestorm) unless they were slaughtaurs. :)
One of my favorite games of all time! The multiplayer split screen death matches on the N64 gave us a LOT of laughs. (Particularly the death sound of the mage whenever the fighter cut him in half with the axe lol)
There is a huge GZDoom TC, The Inquisitor 3, which somewhat akin to Hexen with added RPG elements, NPCs, side quests and so on. It's pretty long and really polished.
Ooh, thanks for the heads-up, never heard of that one. I assume the "3" means there are 2 previous installments?
@@mugwump7049 yes there are 2 previous installments. but they both have russian text. so thats kinda annoying. well 2 have it dont know about the first part. but its still fun to play through. part 3 is the best though. english text and everything. got 11 levels in total. but its clearly a continuation. so you have to play part 1 and 2 to understand the lore.
First two are comparatively simple and short, third one is full fledged total conversion.
There's also Serpent Resurrection, another total conversion with seven classes, spells, useful items, and rpg elements
Oh thanks and then there was me there thinking I was gonna spend next weekend with my family.
To Quote The Cutting Room Floor.
"So three RPG classes walk into a bar... They don't order a drink, though, because they're spending too much time trying to find more friggin' switches!!"
Also I'm pretty sure the title "Dark Souls of FPS" probably belongs to Kings Field.
@@dr.velious5411 well I mean they are both From software games so that makes sense to me.
I remember this was the first first-person shooter i saw on my life and it blew me away. To me it was like if some one today plays a virtual reality game. It was just marvelous
Those are some extremely good looking weapon sprites
We have to get Civvie 11 to do a Pro playthrough of this
YES
He won't. Watch his heretic 2 vid
Civvie hates the game.
@@purenitrogen1431 It really disheartened me to hear him say "fuck Hexen". He's right about puzzles consisting of switch-hunting, so I do understand his frustration, but it is still sad. :(
Well shit :(
ive always felt that this was the most metal game ever made lol
I think it still is
I'd give that award to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, but it's close.
DOOM Eternal is gonna blow all that outta the water.
Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 was pretty metal too. I mean, it has Metal in its name :P
@@sirius4k I didn't know it was developed by Ritual Entertainment, given that I enjoyed Scourge of Armagon and Sin I might give it a try (3rd person camera sucks ass though... I wonder if it would be possible to implement a 1st person mod)
GMAN you gotta review Heretic II now! That game was a massive departure from the HEXEN games and even the original Heretic! It ran on the Quake II engine and was a 3rd person action game instead of 1st person!
"..Gauntlets.."
"Literally with his bare hands"
🤔
Also "This is the best the engine has ever looked" while using a source port/widescreen/etc. is a little disingenuous.
Everyone has the right to have a pair of bear hands on there wall how could that possibly be misconstrued?
The Dark Souls of FPS was King's Field.
Or rather Shadow Tower 2, From's first person RPG that featured firearms and locational damage.
I haven't heard of these legends in a long time...man I feel old as hell now💀
Pretty much literally
But king's field isn't a fps,it's a fp dungeon crawler.
or ultima underworld
Man i love this series still play to this day. Planning on revisiting Hexen 2 later on. Was obsessed with it. Great to see a video on this . I miss Raven Software too
Good review. I also remember no being able to beat hexen as a kid but i liked the atmosphere. Years later I completed the game as warrior at work. Took me a while but I did it. Without walkthrough 😎
I finally beat Hexen (without a guide) and i gotta say i actually enjoyed solving all the puzzles and finding all the switches. If you know how to use your map the secret walls and switches are pretty easy to spot. My only problem with the game is that Korax himself was kind of a pushover. I think i had more trouble against the necromancer. Overall an awesome game.
Although funny enough, even Dark Souls for the most part was easy to work out where to go next.. for the most part anyway, was kinda the opposite of Hexen when you think about it, there's not many "puzzles" in DS.
Hexen was incredible. I remember being terrified so much that I couldn't play it with curtains closed in the middle of a sunny day! It was brutal, but what a game, one of the best
"This thing goes through mana like a pothead goes through a bag of Doritos." I feel attacked... and hungry.
Game has a little bit of difficulty in it: "OMG, it's Dark Souls everyone"
But this one is. I have trouble and played it my whole life since I was 3 when I first played it with my dad, now I am 24. Actually when I saw dark souls it was like.. oh they did Hexen like game with new graphics. Though I think DS is just jumpscares while in hexen even if it is it has some more hm...organic feeling. Like when you trip a spike or falling ceilling you then notice hints that you missed while in DS you just have to get killed to know it is there.
@@jakubrogacz6829 Not always. Your first Souls game absolutely, the game hits you with a lot of deaths you had no way to see coming.
But those only hit you once if you are paying attention. Once you've got some Souls experience you can start seeing the patterns and tell when a trap is coming even on a first run of a new game. The level design practically screams at you that there is a trap coming once you've got a feel for the games.
@@zeroattentiongaming820 well hexen just demands attention. It will tell you it was there if you werent rushing ahead. So its better since if care is taken you wont die. But if you rush it then you get torn in tutorial level
@@jakubrogacz6829 That's exactly how Souls works. Your first Souls game is brutal because you don't know the stuff the games throw at you yet.
A player being very careful can see the traps coming on a first play through. That's the trick though, you don't know to expect such things on your first run.
Once you've got one Souls game under your belt the traps become trivial. Each game is different but the structure and tricks they pull tend to be the same. If you can see the traps and ambushes coming in one game you can see it in all of them.
99% of players will die to the traps on their first Souls game because they don't have the experience to see them coming. After that first game you understand the formula, the structure and the patterns. You can see the traps and ambushes coming in all the games at that point because you can read the subtle clues the game is giving you. By the time you've cleared the whole series those subtle clues seem like the game blatantly screaming "trap/ambush ahead" because you are so used to it being the same patterns across the whole series.
Just like classic Doom. You'll only get caught off guard by a monster closet the first time. After that you are expecting and can see it coming even in levels you haven't played before.
@@zeroattentiongaming820 Yep, I 666% agree... If you've played one Souls game, you've basically played them all, and playthroughs become much easier, after the first playthrough, because of course you don't know what's coming on your first time playing it, so like you said, it's gonna be brutal the first time around...
This is one of my favourite games ever. I didn't have a pc back in the day so i played the N64 version to death and which i still own . Its my favourite version blasphemous i know. But the music is so much better imo and I do like the filter on the sprites better, i know also blasphemous. But hey it's just me. Also i don't know how i beat this back in the day without a guide, I remember beeing stuck on the 7 portals for months lol. Great video and it's nice so se that someone actually likes and talks about this game. It really has a special atmosphere to it that i haven't found in a game since. Great video 👌
It is the best version because of how easy it is to share the experience with people through couch co-op. It is the worst version because of memory packs, and the fact you miss out on all the cool cinematic cutscenes.
I loved this game back in the day. Definitely one of the best games of its generation.
I wish I could love this game like Gman does. I can't overlook the "necessity for walkthrough" game design, but the art style and atmosphere are top fuckin' notch. I adore this game thematically, and will probably continue giving it second chances until I finally beat it.
I loved this game. Shooting Lighting out of my hands is on my bucket list! I can't argue with a thing you said about the game. A Mac gamer, I couldn't stop trying to play the game which would often bring down my whole system when it crashed. Save Games were bible. I was immediately comfortable with Bioshock many years later. There seemed to be more than a few tips of the hat to Hexen.
Played this for hours and hours back in the day and never understood how or why I made progress.
Lol
Hexen gamers: Make Dark Souls gamers look like casuals
"Serpent Riders" sounds like a porn title.
You can always quicksave in Hexen, it's not that hardcore
@@imjustsomeguy5048 You can also quickdie again and again after each load if you choose to save poorly.
@@lukaskolisek2208 Not with multiple save files.
@@imjustsomeguy5048
Are you saying, that the Souls are difficulty due to the poor save system?
These games have such an interesting story involving gods and fantasy world type stuff id love a proper sequel.
Also Firestorm is one of the coolest weapons in a video game.
Can't believe I never played this series. It looks pretty badass
Absolutely love this game,one of my all time favorites. Wish that I’d software/Bethesda would buy the rights to Heretic/Hexen from Raven software/Activision,imagine if they rebooted it like doom !!!
No way youngsta'... Raven is necessary. This isn't ID's game, even if they were tight before. Fuck Bethesda.
Love HeXen. One of my favorite games of all-time
SO MANY CHILDHOOD memories hitting me all over again. Loved these games, scared a bit to play alone Heretic (was around 6 years old)
playing Heretic without any music was legit SCARY, still is 🤘
okay here it is! I have uploaded a collection of mods for Hexen Veterans which gives you ability to Multiclass (all weapons available for pickup) and Disables Respawns (particularly useful for Deathkings expansion) along with Hexen Rebalanced Beta (less mana cost, more damage, Centaurs die faster) and Deathkings music fix. All in a single ZIP archive, extract & play 👍
search for Hexen Multiclass and Disable Respawn Repack... Footage: czcams.com/video/R_JXZEADEWc/video.html
Thanks for the in depth look, man. I freakin' love Hexen! I finally beat it a couple years ago on zdoom after having abandoned it back in the days on N64. The art style, the crazy weapons and the amazing atmosphere... it's all so brilliant. The N64 version wasn't perfect but it did have 4 player coop and I personally prefer its soundtrack over the PC version's.
I love heretic and hexen, probably even more than doom. In hexen I have beaten the game in the max difficulty with all 3 characters with the starting weapon only. Fun times
How can you call a playthrough with only the Cleric's mace fun times?
@@philippschmidt9499 haha it was a personal challenge, I include items as well, not only the weapon. the hardest enemies and bosses like the slaughtaurs and heresiarch can be killed easily with the cleric's gas flechette as they are locked in their position while being poisoned. for the mage, the wand is tremendously OP, infinite ammo, fast fire rate, pierce through enemies staying away from battles. for the warrior the punches are strong enough to kill major enemies quickly as well, just have to time the punches correctly.
Planning on reviewing Kings of Lorn, bud? I just beat it and I'm wondering if you'd review it! :-)
Dark? Confusing? Tough? Insanity-inducing? Difficult? Good. That's how games should be. Especially ones set in a world that has gone to shit. I love Hexen. It's pretty much perfect.
Miss playing this on the N64 with 3 other friends. Love the design and sounds.
Hexen's puzzles aren't that difficult at all (especially when compared to some of the stuff in Hexen II). They just require some patience and focus - yes, those may be a bit hard when you just want to kill stuff and move on.
Hexen has the best melee combat of all the Doom engine games. Select the Fighter class and enjoy crushing enemy skulls with your steel-clad fists, chopping them up with a magical axe, or smashing them with a hefty hammer.
No in hexen 2 there are just 2 or three hard puzzles others have hints and usually if you just hit everything you will eventually find them. In hexen if you don't know what to do you can be stuck for months.
I made a mod for GZDoom that gives ALL the weapons to the player when the nra cheat is typed. Honestly, I think this is the best way to play Hexen since restricting every class to 4 weapons actually gets monotonous real fast. The progression is still natural too since just because you have the weapon doesn't mean you have the energy to use them. And the big boy weapon for each class uses up more energy than the others so it's an even tradeoff.
@@arnox4554 The point of restriction weapon choice is to make each class play differently, I think. Due to his focus on melee, the Fighter has to be aggressive and always aim to jump into the fray without delay, whereas the Mage is all about striking from a safe distance and being more cautious. Having all weapons makes the overall gameplay more generic, IMHO.
@@AlexeiVoronin I've played with all the classes, and at the end of the day, it almost amounts to the same thing, assuming you aren't using any items. Use your main weapon, and sometimes use your big boy weapon. That's literally it.
I mean you usually use the hammer at range
Hope, you can do an updated review of the Hexen II and its expansion as well.
Oh man, Hexen. What an amazing game! I remember running this on my brand-new Pentium. I want to say that it was a 100MHz chip, which was just AMAZING for the time. In 1995. When I was in college.
Man, I'm old. I getting tired just typing this.
Thanks for the amazing review! I played through the game the first time as the Cleric and really enjoyed all of the puzzles and tense fights. It was a memorable experience that I remember clearly all these decades later.
Very well said; it's easily one of my top 5 games, it deserves more recognition and a more active community. If you enjoy Magic: The Gathering, D&D, text based games and basically anything fantasy related then it's likely you will fall in love with the truly adventurous nature of this game, especially back in the 90s this was way ahead of it's time. 10/10 super cosy game
Played Hexen all the way through on all 3 player classes at highest difficulty: Titan, Pope & ArchImage. I think I discovered all secrets including the unofficial secrets and all secret doors. For example to visit Desolote garden on Hub 4, you need to visit both secret levels on Hub 1 & 2 to trip these lines. And Heresiarch's Seminary has a secret door on the left. And the secret level to Hub 3 has an area to jump to through an illusionary wall. Also played Death Kings of the Dark Citadel which is pretty much murder as the enemy refresh is high. Again, discovered all secrets and secret areas.
One thing about the Mage's wand: If you are plinking away with 5 Centaurs in front of you, the wand will do damage to all 5, it passes through all of them. It does not do _JUST_ damage to the first enemy in front.
Discs of Repulsion are useful to cause monster infighting.
I have disassembled Hexen's scripts as well.
For Centaurs and Slaughterers, the Flechettes are useful (vary for all 3 character classes) with clerics poison gas most useful. And try damaging any mushrooms if available as they release poison gas. These enemies including Heresiarch are taken down quickly with lots of poison gas.
Nice tactic against centaurs while playing mage is either keeping them shielded up by shooting wand at them and then placing flechette right next to them. Or if you have fast reflexes, you can try to time correctly frost shards spell before their attacks. If you are up close, it usually only take 2 hits to freeze them.
BTW I disagree with Gmanlives here, using frost shards can be very tactically helpful because frozen enemies can shield you from melee enemies and ranged attacks. Firestorm taking more than one attack to kill ettins is actually bug in Zdoom/Gzdoom/Zandronum source ports. It works instantly in original game.
>>And Heresiarch's Seminary has a secret door on the left
could you please write XYZ coords of this door?
@@theleo_ua : can't do that unfortunately because I dont have Hexen installed on my computers. It is packed in boxes.
But see here:
doomwiki.org/w/images/6/62/MAP27-heresiarchs-seminary.svg
Look on the left of the map (the south west of the map)
You can see the thin concentina staircase that goes to that has the invisible teleport to the right of the map staircase. You get to the overlooking ledge which has the switch that opens the portal to Orchard of Lamentations. See the stairs going down? To the immediate right is the door I mentioned. A double pair of lines. The door only opens from the inside. It is near the exit of the hub, the portal to hub 4, Castle of Grief. The other side of the door leads you to the ground area, the ground area you overlook when starting Heresiarch's seminary. You cannot get through the door from the ground area, only the other side.
somehow my brain made a connection between a Linux class and AppImage difficulty level
@@stephenhowe4107 got it, thanks
An oasis filled with Victoria's Secret models, cocaine and single-malt scotch sounds pretty good ...
I think I'd fill my oasis with Suicide Girls, roxys and weed, but hey to each his own.
Ooooh Suicide Girls. Nice.
Jesse H. That’s cause you’re broke and have shit taste.
@@Gggmanlives 😂 wtf? Just trying to play along with your joke, old man. For that total 180 on the tone of this little thread you can go ahead and bite me. If you were going for a cheeky followup comment it didn't land that way. You just sound like you're being mean for no reason 😅
(Also, roxys are more expensive than cocaine, yes even good cocaine.)
I picked up both hexen and heretics shareware discs when I was a kid and played the first campaign over and over! Then went and rented both games! Heretic and hexen both deserve a remaster, remake or series reboot!
One thing I always loved was the N64 version had extra flavor text at the start of each level. It helped fill in more of an idea of the setting and the world in general.
Me: **fighting the shield-bearing centaurs** There is so much... goddamn waiting... in Hexen!
I remember playing this a lot on the N64
split screen co-op was awesome!
The console ports didn't compare to the PC original; Neither N64 or PS1 versions.
@@TexasHollowEarth I don't know, the N64 multiplayer was great. For single player, of course PC was better,
Dark Souls:"Who are you"
Hexen:"I'm you but an FPS"
Countless nights from my teenage years spent sitting in the dark behind the glow of my monitor just reveling in the atmosphere of Hexen, Heretic, Doom and Quake are priceless memories.
this seriously needs the doom/doom eternal treatment. criminally underrated game
2:32 I cheeki'd when you breeki'd
the game that started it all for me, good times. thanks for the nostalgia hit
God I LOVE THIS GAME! my brother and I used to play this all the time with doom, goldeneye 64, mario 64, and perfect dark. Man....miss those days. Hes passed now...but at least those memories will never go away. Anyway, great review! Love this game!
My two buddies and I back in the day finished it on the N64, it took us two days of non-stop gaming. We didn't use gamefaqs or anything like it to solve the puzzles and navigate our way through the maps, it felt like we were completely on our own, considering our inexperience with how much of a "hardcore" experience it was compared to other FPS; it's probably some of the most fun I've had when it comes to gaming.
3:49 - Wait...so in Australia Computer Studies class consists of playing ultra violent Gothic FPS's? I guess the plot of Crocodile Dundee IV should be Paul Hogan's son travels to the US, attends high school, & is disappointed to learn in the rest of the world CS class means getting bored to tears learning MS Word & Excel...
I've played this in my child hood....and I still play it for memories.....on my nintendo 64 it's still alive
One of my all time favorite FPS games. I remember the "second level" being the most difficult, because all the portals lead to the similar looking "tunnels" - but at the time I did manage to beat the game without the walkthrough. The second hexen was different but also very-very good. I just wish there would be more FPS games in similar dark setting, I just love it. But the last one I played - Lichdom Battlemage got really boring fast.
"He's wearing gauntlets"
'He goes into battle with just his barehands'
Uh what? Gauntlets make his hands not bare. 1/5 would not hear again.
I always felt the mage was actually very challenging, but very powerful when used right. The railgun effect of the saphire wand can push your damage output over the top in confined spaces and hallways with lots of monsters and means you have two options against centaurs. The ice spell leaving behind statues actually reinforces the need to play tactically and you can use frozen corpses to block off the battlefield and funnel enemies to where you can start railgunning with the wand. Being the only character with an infinate ammo ranged weapon also allows you to wear enemies down with patience as long as you don't run into the room like you were the warrior after a 30 minute session of self-hype. He honestly makes the necromancer from Hexen 2 look like a total joke.
My friend next door got Hexen when we were about 8 years old and we did exactly the same thing - got to the first hub and weren't able to work out the puzzles to progress. Came back to it a few years later in my early teens and got a full appreciation of the level design, artwork, sound design, music and story.
This game defined a significant period of my life and I will love it forever. It really is a masterpiece.
"You have activated one of 64 switches"
I guess Im part of those 12 bommers that beated this game .... 3 times (onece per character class) no walkthrough , I frickin love this game approach to level design.
Hello there, another of the 12. I beat it on Nightmare with all three classes. Let me tell you: on nightmare, that fighter goes from "starter" character to toughest very quickly, once you see that insanely quick shroud of projectiles coming from all directions.
Count me in. Beat the game several times, no guides needed. It's actually not as hard as people make it out to be.
Outstanding analysis!! I remember playing this as a kid with my older brother. Awesome times, though we never completed it, because of the difficulty. I returned to it later during high school and had my revenge!
"Are you strong enough to face your own master?" Favorite part in the game.
"The Dark Souls of FPS".
Oh, please...
The true "Dark Souls of FPS" is 'Severance: Blade of Darkness'. I hated that game, its bugginess and, most of all, its difficulty level, but it eventually became a challenge more than an amusement so I finished it to not feel like a quitter.
Shadow tower
@@Juanjitsu135 STONE KEEP
To be the "Dark Soul" of any genre doesn't just mean it's hard, it means predicable encounters under identical conditions, it doesn't take into account bugs, rng, or flat out cheating by the game, as well as any condition that can't be duplicated, those are rogue-like game.
shillman is joke
Nobody:
Absolutely Nobody:
GMan: My bowel movement after turkey chili.
Man this fucking game
...I was like 7 when I played this the first time 😅
And I've ALWAYS wanted to play it again. The sounds and the idea of building those awesome weapons again tickles the strongest feelings of nostalgia I've ever experienced.
Okay, first: Thanks for reviewing this game and showing off the beautiful artwork and design that went into this old gem of a game. Second: I'm going to attempt some constructive feedback on some of the gameplay mechanics that you mentioned as well as expand on it:
The Mage's Frozen Shards ability to freeze enemies can be annoying, but it also offers cover and crowd control from enemy attacks until the frozen corpse shatters. This synergizes well with the Mage's first weapon (Sapphire Wand?) as that weapon can pierce through enemies and damage anything behind them. So if you're in a hall full of Ettins you can freeze one then back away and whittle down several of them at a time while using the corpse as temporary cover, or use a flechette or two as a swarm of enemies pile around the frozen corpses. You can also use frozen enemies as a platform which can sequence break some parts of the game.
The Mage's ultimate weapon Bloodscourge isn't as powerful in terms of damage compared to the respective weapons of the
Fighter or Cleric. What it does do is pierce through enemies, a mechanic similar to the Sapphire Wand, but does less damage after each enemy contact. It seems counterintuitive but the weapon is mostly a mid to close range weapon that will track and damage enemies behind your target (if it survives the initial hit). This is most effective in small rooms and corridors and has potentially the highest damage to mana ratio out of all the ultimate weapons. If you want to damage single enemies at a distance use the lightning spell as it has better tracking and does comparable amount of damage to a single enemy.
The Fighter's mana based weapons are interesting in that they can all be used without mana, with the exception of Quietus. Timon's Axe without mana does the equivalent amount of damage to the Fighter's gauntlets, but with better range and speed. The Hammer is unique in that it will not use mana when used in close range whether it has mana or not, and does damage that is comparative to a mana charged Timon's Axe. I think a mana powered Timon's Axe still has better range and speed, but the Hammer Of Retribution nearly makes the axe obsolete.
The Cleric's Serpent Staff MAY a poison DOT effect. I say it MAY have one, as it definitely does in PVP matches. If it does in the main compaign it doesn't really factor too much, but I thought it an interesting thing to mention as it fits with the theme of the weapon. I think its 1 HP every two seconds for an overall of ten seconds, but don't quote me on that. Its been too long since I played any PVP matches in Hexen.
The Centaurs are especially vulnerable to flechettes. The flechette offers big damage in a small AOE burst (with the exception of the Cleric), so dropping a couple of them will take out a centaur fairly quickly. Admittedly out of all of the versions, the Mage's flechette is the hardest to use as it is a timed explosion that you set down rather than throw. The Cleric's flechette seems to bypass the Centaur's shield and overall a great crowd control mechanic.
Hexen was crazy, when I was a 10 yr old playing this game like what am I doing lol I was struggling lol
o im kinda early :D
also hexen was my favourite out of them. i only loved heretic because of the d'sparil boss.
but hexen was more fun because it had these puzzles u had to figure out.
Also the visual design, especially the color scheme, is so much better than Heretic's.
@@mugwump7049 Dunno about that. Nothing like slaying legions of ophidions under that dome.
I played Hexen on 64 as a kid and loved it, none of my friends remember it though.
The more complicated level design of this game reminds me a lot of the Turok games. If you like those, you'll dig Hexen for sure.
Yet another retro shooter added to my list, thanks boomer.
Its a classic. Play the others as well. Heretic, and this and Hexen 2. Hexen 2 uses the Quake engine really well
@@CMONCMON007 Will do, thanks for recommendation. Rip and tear.
i had the same experience when i played this when it was new in 1995, got to the second hub, never got any further.
I loved hexen. Played it and gave up, only to return as a teen with renewed vigor and beat it, and I loved it dearly... My favorite old school shooter. Thanks for giving it some light, that's great to see.
I remember playing this game at my room, with headphones on and one time one those underwater creature jumped at me, and was so scared that i shouted so loud :} it was more then 25 years ago i still remember :}
I always preferred Heretic as a whole more than Hexen but then again I was only 12 when I played these games.
Heretic's a way better game.
Yes, been waiting for this one! Hexen had convoluted progress imo, sure, but more doom-ey user-maps solve that... even if they still use puzzle items across levels (glorified keys) !
In the Shadow Wood hub, a grey switch behind a grey statue on a busy grey cave wall should be a SECRET but nope, needed to progress.
Hell, I worked on the Doom 3 mod Hexen - Edge of Chaos and while I feel it didn't look 'Hexeney' enuff (similar to cancelled doom 4 version) one thing it did get right was less convoluted progress.
Now to add 'hexen mage vertical lightning' to a new Hellknight variant in Slayer's Testaments - you can AVOID it with skill, unlike shambler.
I've played this on PC and N64 decades ago and I don't think I ever managed to get past the 2nd hub. Excellent rundown, thanks for the info and the great vid!
This might just be the most metal game ever made. I remember playing this in Highschool stoned as hell with some Electric Wizard in the background; one hell of an experience
IMO, this is by far the best looking game on the Doom Engine.. Hard to believe its 2D
Ummmm 👆
I agree. Its overall one of the most impressive looking games in 1995 and still looks fantastic thanks to its artstyle.
"Ahh , finally ! I found the switch for the door to get into the next level !"
*presses switch*
One millionth of the puzzle solved
" Like i dont wasted my time enough ...."
I'm praying daddy Hugo gets the opportunity to bring a Hexen reboot into the world
I still have vivid memories of the night the Hexen demo dropped. I was 15 and it was a school night. I stayed up until everyone went to bed so I could use the modem without issue. The 5MB download on a 33.6k modem took a bit more than an hour, only for me to find that the file was corrupted. I was pissed but I started it again. Nodding off in the chair, only to snap awake in panic and check to see if the download was still going... :) Once I got it installed I stayed up until the following morning, totally blown away at how different Hexen's mechanics were than the dozen of Doom clones that were popular at the time. Was a big fan of the cleric.
You bet your ass I bought the game when it came out. The CD soundtrack (A SOUNDTRACK ON CD that played while you were in the game!!!! HOLY SHIT!) was amazing. Long after I stopped playing the game the CD stayed in my CD carry case for years.
Dark Souls is a bit of a meme when talking about older games. yes, the Dark Souls games are hard, but they are also fair are well balanced. There are lots of older games that are unfairly hard. Hexen is one of those games.
I'd like to nominate Catafalque for that list too! That level is just bullshit
That being said, i still did an all kills and secrets on BP, it was just hard as fuck
To be fair, they're actually not that hard as many people claim. For me Dark Souls I is the hardest of the bunch, and Bloodborne being the most easiest, they really toned down the difficulty on that one.
Hexen is not unfairly hard. You just need to know how to navigate the levels.