Hexen: Beyond Heretic

If DOOM and The Elder Scrolls came together and had an illigitimate love child, this would be it.

A classic boomer shooter in a fantasy setting. Choose your class - Fighter, Cleric, or Mage - and rip through demonic hordes. The combat feels snappy and responsive, with a focus on arcade-style action rather than realistic physics. That said, I can't recommend the game due to its level design. Progression relies heavily on backtracking, which is why the game includes an map. You travel between "arenas" via portals, and the typical flow is: press a switch in one area, then try to figure out what changed somewhere else entirely. This is not a good idea. The map doesn't really help, because you have no clue which arena was affected or where exactly something might have opened. The repetitive textures don't make it any easier to memorize paths either. As a result, I spent about half of my playtime wandering in circles, unsure where to go. It’s a frustrating experience.

Hexen moved the needle from it's predecessor Heretic by adding some compelling new features to the FPS genre. First was the ability to smash windows. That seems silly now, but in 1995 that was a lot of fun.

[strike]Before you buy this, there's a major flaw of the Steam release.[/strike] The original crappy port of the game is no longer available for purchase, due to the new rerelease, which addresses all my previous issues. For the rest of the original review: The game comes prepackaged with DOSBox. Enough said. You must download a sourceport. I recommend GZDoom for playing with modpacks, International Hexen for the neat QoL improvements and Chocolate Hexen for the mostly authentic 1995 experience. Now for the actual review of the game itself: Hexen is a fantasy shooter running on the modified Doom engine. The game is unique to other Doom engine games released around the same time, due to being able to select from 3 different classes, each having their own arsenal and different abilities. The level design is tedious to say the least. The first level is OK, sets the mood for the game, but just wait till you get to the first hub. You have to find a million switches just to open one door, like 7 times over and over and when you finally do all of that, rinse and repeat for the 4 next hubs. If you have the patience and time to waste, go ahead. If not, play Heretic if you want mostly the same fantasy feel and the gameplay of Doom.

An absolute classic, at the time it was a big deal in the midst of all the Doom clones because this was more focused on melee combat and you also had different classes with different habilities. This version is packed in DOSBox, it works...ok, but to be quite honest it's recomended you use a sourceport like GZDoom.

The most obvious comparison here is going to be to Doom; after all, another semi-3D shooter from id Software and running on the Doom engine is going to inevitably draw those comparisons. If Doom is fast-paced guns, demons, metal and sci-fi labs, Hexen is melee and magic, fantastical, and has an expanded focus on exploration and puzzles. If you enjoy boomer shooters, Hexen is a pretty fun and engaging experience, but I'd recommend using ZDoom for the best experience. You may also get stuck as well... the level design and some of the puzzles are very subtle and you may be checking an area for a good few minutes finding a button hidden within a maze-like level.

I'm happy it got a remaster

Preface: this game is older than me. As someone that only briefly played the original DOOM and have very little experience with this engine, I had a great time playing Hexen (and plan to play more). I love being transported back to a time when games were simple, but still every bit as entertaining as titles made today.