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Serpent Rider? I Hardly Know Her! (The Heretic & Hexen Games)

Which entry in Raven Software's Dark Fantasy FPS series (including the non-FPS) is your favorite?

  • Heretic

  • Hexen: Beyond Heretic

  • Hexen II

  • Heretic II


Results are only viewable after voting.
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The Weird West
First, there was...


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" Now you stand before the City of the Damned, its air thick with the stench of rot.
Your hate drives you to see these creatures oozing their heart's ichor before you.
Beyond these gates the dead and the creatures of the night writhe in dark corners, their bodies aching for your blood.

With luck, some of your peoples' ancient artifacts can be found hidden amongst the dark passages beyond."


And then came...


Blood-Scourge.gif%3E
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"Baratus, a warrior of the Legion; Daedolon, a Mage of the Arcanum; and Parias, a Cleric of the Church.
These three have sworn to destroy the leaders they once followed, and anything else that gets in the way as they execute their task.
Entering the mystical portal used by Korax to reach their world, the three become hopelessly separated,
forcing each of them to attempt on their own that which they had little hope of doing together;

find Korax's stronghold, defeat his legions of grotesque minions, and finally destroy the Serpent Rider himself."


Before we would return to the story of Corvus in Heretic, we first returned, once more, to Hexen in..


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"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse lurk in the shadows before you.
They are Death, Pestilence, Famine, and War. They are the root of all that is evil.
They are the least of your worries.
The last known Serpent Rider, Eidolon, lives.
As the Necromancer, the Assassin, the Crusader, or the Paladin,
you must defeat the dark generals and their Hell-spawned legions
before you can face the Archfiend and attempt to end his ravenous onslaught.

Go in peace and you will surely die."


Finally, we return to the character that started it all, in a great, but criminally-forgotten game.
This time, in a third-person action-adventure?!?


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"Corvus, having been cursed by the Serpent Rider D'Sparil upon the latter’s death, found himself trapped in the Outer Worlds.
He would spend ages wandering through them, hoping to find a way home.
All his former weapons had been rendered inert, save for his single staff.
Eventually, while in the midst of a battle, Corvus' Tome of Power was able to create a world ripple back to Parthoris.

Upon his return, however, he found himself in the middle of yet another conflict."





THY COMMANDMENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS!

1) Cast your vote for what you consider to be the best game in this series
2) Leave a comment, explaining your pick, and also rank all four games, should you feel so-inclined.
3) Discuss any upcoming games, indie or otherwise, that pay homage to the series, speculating
as to whether or not you think those will leven hold a gothic candle to these classics.
4) Don't follow any of these commandments, because true heretics don't follow shit, and instead
gaze at the poster parody of 1969's "Easy Rider" that I made below, just for this thread,
wonderingto yourself why anyone would waste time on such a thing.
5) If you are confused by any of the above, it would appear thou needeth a wet-nurse!!!



Serpent-Rider-Easy-Rider.png
 
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Lemming42

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Heretic's the best IMO. Heretic 2 is definitely underrated, and I loved the plot focus and the weird shit like the Tome of Power being able to talk. Hexen 1 looks fantastic visually and plays reasonably well but it's just too obtuse with the infamous switch stuff.

Hexen 2 is pretty good though, especially Portal of Praevus. Always loved the Demoness when I was a kid, I thought she was cool as fuck and loved that it let you go back and play as her in the base game. Makes all the other classes look like absolute shit. She can fly! Why play as the shitty Crusader or Assassin when you could be a flying statuesque Demoness who shoots fireballs?

Even just looking at those gifs in the OP makes me marvel at how strong the aesthetic elements of these games were. That final shot at the end of Heretic has always stuck with me, where it shows the Heresiarch watching Corvus in the crystal ball. I always wanted to read some novels set in that world.
 
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I always wanted to read some novels set in that world.

It was actually just today that I checked Amazon, just in case there had been some and I had forgotten. Alas, nope! I remember reading a Doom novelization in middle school. Not that I had "taste" yet where I could be trusted to vouch for something being good, but I will say that (perhaps from being raised on MST3K) I think I had confidence in detecting anything bad to a "beyond the pale" degree. I say this, because I remember the Doom novel being fairly okay compared to other novelizations of movies, games, etc. I had read (and there were A LOT. Don't think I ever finished a one).

My point is...if a "fairly good" Doom novelization could be made, one whose plot could be boiled down to "Demons show up on Mars. Commence James Cameron's 'Aliens', just with demons instead." then I'm truly curious why there was never an attempt to novelize the Serpent Rider games. Are they mostly typical "Dark Fantasy", with religious themes, occult themes, and generic sword and sorcery for good measure? Sure, but they still technically had more world-building in their manuals (or hell, even just their boxes) than Doom ever did. There was, despite the generic elements, still a unique sinister brand of horror-meets-fantasy and, while some Heretic/Hexen novels would likely have not been amongst the deepest fantasy out there, they still would have been some gloomy, blood-drenched, pulpy fun. I'm thinking the writings of Robert E. Howard if he were into black metal, dungeon synth and Amando de Ossorio's "Blind Dead" series of films.

They could have tapped some of the more-respected Forgotten Realms dudes who were killing it at the time, or even (and this would have pleased me more) lean into the "dark" part of "dark fantasy" and get some horror writers to really make some sickeningly descriptive necromancy-filled tales. I basically agree with what I quoted above, except you said in 11 words what I needleslly prattled on about in three paragraphs. Speaking of prattling on, though, I suppose I do so because I just like to write...about anything, really. I fancy myself a writer (Well, I'll truky be one once I self-publish or find someone interested in publishing my own pulp novel I've nearly finished). Maybe I'll just write a fucking Heretic novel! Won't be able to sell it or anything, of course.

Maybe I'll just send it to you, haha,
 
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Darth Roxor

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(reposting due to shenanigans)

I replayed them all except Hexen 2 earlier this year actually, and they are still very good. Funnily enough this time around I had no problem finding the switches in Hexen, while I remember it drove me into utter frustration the first time around, and it was long enough ago that I definitely didn't remember their locations, unless this is some kind of arcane deep unconscious memory at play.

Was particularly surprised about Heretic 2 because I was concerned it might not hold up today, but it definitely does. Very fun all around slasher.

I don't think it's fair to pick which one of them is the "best", because all are significantly different. Heretic is just a straight-up Doom clone with an inventory, Hexen is a first-person dungeon crawler and Heretic 2 is a third-person action-adventure.

I should probably get around to finally playing Hexen 2 though, since I never did, and it's bad manners to leave a series unfinished.
 

NecroLord

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I like Hexen a lot and currently doing a Mage run (after a Fighter one).
Great dark fantasy atmosphere and just a really cool game. They don't make them like this anymore. No handholding, you gotta complete objectives and puzzles on your own.
Heretic is another absolute banger and I think people who just refer to it as a "Doom clone" are dumb and are missing out on this game's qualities.
Really, all the games in the series are good.
I miss these kinds of FPS Gigachad protagonists - Corvus, Baratus, Daedolon, Parias.
 

Hag

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I was very non-plussed with Hexen and its hub design. Fond it more tedious than fun.

However Hexen II is one of my favorite all-time shooter. Beautiful, well-designed and balanced, I was always on the brink of lacking ammo but barely making it each time. Tense indeed. Complete with a couple of puzzles that will get you brain and feet running - clearing Egypt without reading a guide is one of my personal pride. The Horsemen made for very good bosses. Extremely underrated in my opinion.

Haven't played any Heretic yet.
 

Hag

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Also, have an internet point for the excellent thread title.
 

Darth Roxor

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Heretic is another absolute banger and I think people who just refer to it as a "Doom clone" are dumb and are missing out on this game's qualities.

If you removed the inventory from Heretic, you'd be left with a near-total Doom reskin in terms of mechanics.
 

Falksi

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Hexen 2 is my bag big time. I loved it as a kid, didn't play it for years, then returned to it a couple of years back braced for the worse and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

Not only is it a fucking masterpiece, but if shite action games like The Witcher 3 and Nier Automata can find their way into the Codex's top 101 RPGs, then it's more than deserving of place in that ranking too. It's both a better game and has more genuine RPG/adventure components than both of those other two games which are included.

I can't think of many other games which have immersed me in such a wonderfully atmospheric dark fantasy world, and backed that up with fast paced action and great puzzles to boot. Delicious stuff.
 

schru

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(reposting due to shenanigans)

...

I should probably get around to finally playing Hexen 2 though, since I never did, and it's bad manners to leave a series unfinished.
The intended version of the game is the 3dfx OpenGL one with texture filtering. It should be possible to make it work with the help of dgVoodoo.

As for CD music, _inmm can be used to add it back in, but I can't recall if it had to be applied to a certain DLL file which comes with the game instead of the main executable; the latter is probably only the case for Heretic II, but I can't recall for certain.

Heretic is another absolute banger and I think people who just refer to it as a "Doom clone" are dumb and are missing out on this game's qualities.

If you removed the inventory from Heretic, you'd be left with a near-total Doom reskin in terms of mechanics.
I would rather say that the similarities of gameplay or mechanics are superficial and only amount to the two games sharing the same form or template. Apart from that, the flow, balance, monster design, and the way the enemies and mechanics synergize are very different and vastly inferior compared to Doom's. The latter is a great game, while Heretic is only interesting and has a nice theme.
 
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deuxhero

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I tried playing Blasphemer (The same idea as Freedoom, but for Heretic). Is it just me, or are the levels super stingy with ammo?

With Phil Spencer mentioning Heretic/Hexen multiple times as something that would be owned by MS after buying Activison (he even wore a shirt with Hexen art on it at a recent reveal event), I fully expect MS will do something with this franchise. Best case scenario is some kind of retro FPS (like Hexen 3 on Quake 3 engine), since those are in-vogue enough that even notoriously stagnant Games Workshop is willing to dip into it, but I have little doubt we'll get something far worse.

Edit: Since EA mentioned as a marketing point for their Star Wars themed casino that non-M rated FPSes are really scarse and that would be a differentiation point, I think a new Heretic/Hexen could actually enter that market niche without sacrificing identity by using unliving monsters with Samurai Jack style "gore" that still only falls under Fantasy Violence (from what I've seen the ESRB lets games get away with lots of blood as long as its not red. For example the fact that the bloody crime scene photos were in color instead of the original trilogy's black and white is explicitly why the 3DS Ace Attorrney games got an M rating). Gargoyles could shatter, Mudmen splatter, evil wizards turn to dust when defeated (that last one was already in original), etc.
 
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Heretic 2 is one of my favorite games of my childhood. It represented a leap from DOS action games to fully 3d ones for me. It's often forgotten that Heretic 2 was made with Quake 2's engine which only speaks to the quality of early id Soft's programming. Those two couldn't be any more different. While everything about Heretic's and Hexen's setting is familiar to anyone who had experienced 80s fantasy, it's also so enjoyably odd. I like that the DOS games are refined versions of Doom, as well. Doom 1 will never be surpassed, but Heretic 1 came damn close.
 
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Heretic 2 is one of my favorite games of my childhood. It represented a leap from DOS action games to fully 3d ones for me. It's often forgotten that Heretic 2 was made with Quake 2's engine which only speaks to the quality of early id Soft's programming. Those two couldn't be any more different. While everything about Heretic's and Hexen's setting is familiar to anyone who had experienced 80s fantasy, it's also so enjoyably odd. I like that the DOS games are refined versions of Doom, as well. Doom 1 will never be surpassed, but Heretic 1 came damn close.

Finally some Heretic II love. I love how its focus on nailing really cool staff-based combat ended up being Raven’s testing ground for their later beloved work with lightsabers in Jedi Outcast/Academy.

I’ll still always be a Dark Forces Ii: Jedi Knight guy, if we’re talking games as a whole, but the lightsaber combat in JO (lol) and JA was undeniably the best yet at the time. To some, it still is. Those people have Heretic II to thank.
 

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