Phelot
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2009
- Messages
- 17,908
I've been on a Heretic and Hexen craze lately, right now on Heretic. It's amazing how different the two games really are and I've been trying to figure out which game is better or if they're both good in their own way. I also have a lot of free time at work today :D
I know we've had this debate before, but I don't think there's been a poll or proper thread for it. So, below are my thoughts and comparisons on the two games. I broke them down into a few categories.
Enemies-
Overall, I'd say Hexen had the more interesting enemies, although Heretic had a few really cool goons to slaughter. Hexen's enemies seem to have a bit more variety with each having a unique shtick. Ettin: the standard melee mob. Afrit: Annoying weak flying ranged menace. Centaur: Beefy melee (Slaughtaur can shoot, though) that will block your attacks. Stalker: water only, assassin like swamp creature. The Chaos Serpents can be extremely deadly up close. Like I said, each one had their specialty and each one may require you to switch up tactics., although admittedly later on, the final weapon can typically make short work of anything.
Heretic's enemies sometime feel redundant, though. The Weredragon, Undead warrior, Ophidian, Disciple, Nitrogolem, etc all have basically the same attack styles, albeit with slight variations. One fires one fire ball, another fires a row of fireballs, while one fires 3 balls that spread out. All pretty basic stuff and all dispatched the same way. While it is nice having the variety, when actually playing it is easy to zone out exactly what you're killing. Exceptions are the Maulataur and the Iron Lich which can both be fun dealing with since they switch up their attacks. The Iron Lich's tornado attack is a pain to deal with.
Weapons-
I think Hexen's weapons were much more memorable compared to Heretic. It is true that the weapon choices are limited per class and that there is no Tome of Awesomeness, but each added a lot of variety, save perhaps the Fighter's array of weapons. All kinds of cool things to consider: The Mage's Frost spell freezing an enemy in a corridor, thus blocking the horde behind it. The annoyance of dispatching a centaur with a Cleric's serpent staff. Although it can be somewhat boring until the third weapon is found and even on the most difficult levels you can usually swim in mana for your weapons so long as you take it easy with the fourth weapon.
Heretic's weapons are near exact duplicates of Doom's weapons, complete with a chaingun (dragon claw) chainsaw (Gauntlets) plasma rifle (hellstaff) etc. It would have been nice if they tried to make their weapons more unique. I mean, each weapon's input key is even the same as Doom's. For that matter, many of the weapons feel the same. Dragon claw, hellstaff, and firemace all feel the same even if their projectiles are different. Of course, the Tome makes all of these weapons aweomse and I have to admit that the effects are still amazing even after all these years. As for ammo for each, most of the episodes appear to do a good job at distributing ammo and weapons and on harder difficulties, I've found that I definitely have to get a little conservative with my shooting and often times have to switch back to the Wand to conserve more useful ammo.
Levels-
Hexen by far has better levels in my opinion. Better designed, stylish, and with more environmental obstacles than Heretic. They also offer more entertaining ways to progress through the levels other than the standard Yellow, Gree, and Blue keys of Heretic. I know some people don't like the switch hunting or the back peddling, but I always enjoyed it in this game since it was a thrill to see what a lever on one level opened in another. Seven Portals, the first hub, was a blast to go through for me. Hexen also had great environmental threats. Collapsing floors, spitting lava, and crushing ceilings keeps you on your toes. Also, some of the best environments in any FPS game ever, in my opinion. I still love seeing those blowing leaves, or the destroyable skeletons. The sound and music is also much better than Heretics.
Heretic has pretty standard Doom like levels. They certainly use the whole "flick a switch, trigger a trap" type deal and it never really gets old. Also, some great arena like levels to try the Tome of Power out on. While there were some pretty nice textures in Heretic, there were also some rather ugly or bland ones. The levels are built well enough for running and gunning, frantic firing down corridors, but they mostly seem bland. That's OK though because this game is all about the running and gunning and firing down corridors so the levels serve their purpose well.
Combat/Gameplay-
The unique enemies and weapons makes for some interesting combat situations in Hexen. Still plenty of running and strafing involved, though, so overall the game stays true to the style of Heretic, though I'd definitely say that it improves upon things. Despite me bad mouthing the some what redundant enemies of Heretic and championing Hexen's, it would have been nice to have had maybe one more variety of foe to deal with. Part of the problem is that Hexen is filled with ettins, centaurs, afrits, and to a lesser extent the serpents. The rest are somewhat special encounter and while that definitely makes those encounters fun events, it does get tiring dealing with the same 3-4 enemy types throughout the entire game.
In pure shooting and dodging, Heretic takes the cake... if that's what you're looking for. I've found that playing both games offer a pleasantly different experience. Heretic is great for zoning out and testing your reflexes. Some of its tougher enemies like the Iron Lich offer some sweet satisfaction when you finally off them.
This is getting to be a little tl;dr so I'll leave it at this. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few points.
EDIT: BTW, has anyone played the H!Zone level pack by Wizardworks? It has something like 250 levels for Heretic and Hexen. I'm mostly concerned about the Hexen levels. Are they any good?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/hzone
I know we've had this debate before, but I don't think there's been a poll or proper thread for it. So, below are my thoughts and comparisons on the two games. I broke them down into a few categories.
Enemies-
Overall, I'd say Hexen had the more interesting enemies, although Heretic had a few really cool goons to slaughter. Hexen's enemies seem to have a bit more variety with each having a unique shtick. Ettin: the standard melee mob. Afrit: Annoying weak flying ranged menace. Centaur: Beefy melee (Slaughtaur can shoot, though) that will block your attacks. Stalker: water only, assassin like swamp creature. The Chaos Serpents can be extremely deadly up close. Like I said, each one had their specialty and each one may require you to switch up tactics., although admittedly later on, the final weapon can typically make short work of anything.
Heretic's enemies sometime feel redundant, though. The Weredragon, Undead warrior, Ophidian, Disciple, Nitrogolem, etc all have basically the same attack styles, albeit with slight variations. One fires one fire ball, another fires a row of fireballs, while one fires 3 balls that spread out. All pretty basic stuff and all dispatched the same way. While it is nice having the variety, when actually playing it is easy to zone out exactly what you're killing. Exceptions are the Maulataur and the Iron Lich which can both be fun dealing with since they switch up their attacks. The Iron Lich's tornado attack is a pain to deal with.
Weapons-
I think Hexen's weapons were much more memorable compared to Heretic. It is true that the weapon choices are limited per class and that there is no Tome of Awesomeness, but each added a lot of variety, save perhaps the Fighter's array of weapons. All kinds of cool things to consider: The Mage's Frost spell freezing an enemy in a corridor, thus blocking the horde behind it. The annoyance of dispatching a centaur with a Cleric's serpent staff. Although it can be somewhat boring until the third weapon is found and even on the most difficult levels you can usually swim in mana for your weapons so long as you take it easy with the fourth weapon.
Heretic's weapons are near exact duplicates of Doom's weapons, complete with a chaingun (dragon claw) chainsaw (Gauntlets) plasma rifle (hellstaff) etc. It would have been nice if they tried to make their weapons more unique. I mean, each weapon's input key is even the same as Doom's. For that matter, many of the weapons feel the same. Dragon claw, hellstaff, and firemace all feel the same even if their projectiles are different. Of course, the Tome makes all of these weapons aweomse and I have to admit that the effects are still amazing even after all these years. As for ammo for each, most of the episodes appear to do a good job at distributing ammo and weapons and on harder difficulties, I've found that I definitely have to get a little conservative with my shooting and often times have to switch back to the Wand to conserve more useful ammo.
Levels-
Hexen by far has better levels in my opinion. Better designed, stylish, and with more environmental obstacles than Heretic. They also offer more entertaining ways to progress through the levels other than the standard Yellow, Gree, and Blue keys of Heretic. I know some people don't like the switch hunting or the back peddling, but I always enjoyed it in this game since it was a thrill to see what a lever on one level opened in another. Seven Portals, the first hub, was a blast to go through for me. Hexen also had great environmental threats. Collapsing floors, spitting lava, and crushing ceilings keeps you on your toes. Also, some of the best environments in any FPS game ever, in my opinion. I still love seeing those blowing leaves, or the destroyable skeletons. The sound and music is also much better than Heretics.
Heretic has pretty standard Doom like levels. They certainly use the whole "flick a switch, trigger a trap" type deal and it never really gets old. Also, some great arena like levels to try the Tome of Power out on. While there were some pretty nice textures in Heretic, there were also some rather ugly or bland ones. The levels are built well enough for running and gunning, frantic firing down corridors, but they mostly seem bland. That's OK though because this game is all about the running and gunning and firing down corridors so the levels serve their purpose well.
Combat/Gameplay-
The unique enemies and weapons makes for some interesting combat situations in Hexen. Still plenty of running and strafing involved, though, so overall the game stays true to the style of Heretic, though I'd definitely say that it improves upon things. Despite me bad mouthing the some what redundant enemies of Heretic and championing Hexen's, it would have been nice to have had maybe one more variety of foe to deal with. Part of the problem is that Hexen is filled with ettins, centaurs, afrits, and to a lesser extent the serpents. The rest are somewhat special encounter and while that definitely makes those encounters fun events, it does get tiring dealing with the same 3-4 enemy types throughout the entire game.
In pure shooting and dodging, Heretic takes the cake... if that's what you're looking for. I've found that playing both games offer a pleasantly different experience. Heretic is great for zoning out and testing your reflexes. Some of its tougher enemies like the Iron Lich offer some sweet satisfaction when you finally off them.
This is getting to be a little tl;dr so I'll leave it at this. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few points.
EDIT: BTW, has anyone played the H!Zone level pack by Wizardworks? It has something like 250 levels for Heretic and Hexen. I'm mostly concerned about the Hexen levels. Are they any good?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/hzone
It's a shame Raven got bought by Activision.
