Classic Review - Heretic

[R4Z0RxTutorials]

Great review, as always. But I'm confused: I bought the id super pack when it came out because I lost some of my copies of old id games. I had never played hexen or heretic, so more new games at the same time, good deal. But what are the games in the series? You mentioned a second heretic, but I don't see one. I've got:

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Rider

Hexen: Beyond Heretic

Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel

Hexen II

Are those the only heretic/hexen games?

[DWTerminator]

Heretic II isn't in the ID pack (or on Steam at all for that matter). It was developed by Raven and published by Activision, and had very little to do with ID apart from being the sequel to Heretic.

[R4Z0RxTutorials]

@DWTerminator ok thanks for the info. I guess its kind of like quake 4 in that way then

[DWTerminator]

Well, Quake 4 is still lumped in with the ID games, but the thing is that ID is owned by Zenimax media now, so the status of the games they published with Activision are a bit shaky.

[IshidaTheQuincy]

You guys can get the full game on Steam, too, as well as Doom and Hexen. :)

[dronespace]

Great review

[DWTerminator]

Glad you liked it.

[alerommel1]

@DWTerminator Awesome review! Can I ask you something? Do you download these old DOS games or do you buy the retail versions? And if so, do you know where someone can buy the retail versions of these games (of course there is ebay, but is it trustworthy?)

[DWTerminator]

Glad you liked the review... as for where I get them... depends on the game. I either buy the game or get the freeware download (only if it's been *officially* released as freeware). Heretic, for instance, I happened to find at my local bargain bin. Sometimes you'll get lucky browsing used bookstores and such.

If you want to opt for the digital distribution route, GoG is a great option. DRM-free + cheap prices + great games = my location of choice. Steam's got some of the older games on it too.

[alerommel1]

@DWTerminator I see! Now, sorry I am not an englishman so I don't know exactly: as "local bargain bin" you mean stores that sell old games like Heretic and Hexen on their physical forms (not digital) ? By the way do you know any FPS-Doom-clone that is released as freeware officially (I mean the entire game), because all games I looked on dosgames.com are only shareware! Also, I preffer retail much more than digital distribution! Thanks for the answer ( you always respond like 5 min later :D )

[DWTerminator]

Freedoom. Should be easy to find, but you'll need one of the Doom engine source ports to run it. It'll also let you run all the Doom mods out there (like HacX and other stuff).

As for "bargain bin," yes, I mean stores that sell older stuff.

[alerommel1]

@DWTerminator Thanks! I also cosider of downloading Daggerfall and Arena! They require DosBox to run though, right?

[DWTerminator]

No problem. And yes, both Arena and Daggerfall require DOSBox to run decently on modern systems. You'll want to look up an install guide for Daggerfall as well since it's got some weird issues.

[alerommel1]

@DWTerminator I see! OK! Thanks for the info!

[teddyrubskin]

Yah, this game was awesome.. I don't think it was as popular as DOOM because of the lack of shotguns but still awesome.... Hexen was cool too

[DWTerminator]

It wasn't as popular for two main reasons: it's exactly the same as Doom apart from the stylistic changes and level designs, and it wasn't marketed as strongly. Doom was on everything from DOS to 3DO to SNES and N64. Heretic's a PC exclusive (DOS and Mac).

[JGrady997]

nice review, there's also an expansion called "The Shadow of the Serpent Riders" or something like that. It introduces 2 more chapters which are both really challenging.

[DWTerminator]

Actually, Shadow of the Serpent riders is simply the retail version of Heretic, not an expansion to it. It includes all 3 base episodes + the 2 extra, brutally difficult ones. I'm not exactly sure why they did this, but I do think that it's all that's available now as digital download from the ID and Raven Software online stores. Not sure on that though.

[kucoru16]

Don't forget that Raven had some hand in Alice!

[DWTerminator]

You know, out of all the games I've played, American McGee's Alice hasn't been one of them. Just never managed to grab a copy (but you can count on me eventually getting one). As for what part Raven had in it, I dunno if they even had any at all. ID Software on the other hand developed the engine used to produce it (IDTech 3, commonly known as the Quake 3 engine).

[FractalBolt]

Classic game. I remember this coming out shortly after DooM, back when everyone was trying to cash in on DooM's fame, and this game came out being actually quite nicely done.

[DWTerminator]

Yep, it's one of the all-time FPS greats. I actually prefer Heretic to Doom (just so you know, though the logo seems to say otherwise, it's just Doom) simply because of the unique setting.

[mantax55]

Have you reviewed Hexen?

[DWTerminator]

Not yet. I've played it, though I don't own the full game. I plan on reviewing it once I get the full game.

[mantax55]

@DWTerminator Try buying the Hexen+Heretic pack on Steam, you get the full version of Heretic, Hexen, the expansion pack for Hexen and Hexen II for 10$ Search up Heretic+Hexen Collection Pack on Steam. I'd give ya the link but youtube won't let me.

[DWTerminator]

I've already got Heretic, so I'd rather just get both Hexens individually. Besides, on Steam they don't use DOSBox, whereas getting the retail version of Hexen 1 would allow me to record it through DOSBox without any hitches. Recording Windows games is a bit of a hassle for me.

[mantax55]

@DWTerminator It does use DosBox, sorry for not telling you D: Forgot. Also, technically, you don't have the full version, since the full version has 5 episodes(I fell like a douche for saying that D:)

[DWTerminator]

Actually, I *do* have the full version. There were two types of full versions: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (Retail store version, which has 5 episodes), and simply the registered version (3 episodes). I actually own SSR, but at the time I made this video the shareware version was all I had handy, so the footage is of that.

Also, might check out the Steam releases if they actually do use DOSBox.

[mantax55]

@DWTerminator Ah, never knew that. And they use Dosbox 0.71. If you do have it, try using D-fend Reloaded, it's awesome.

[DWTerminator]

Might check that out.

[Whirl435]

Man the Morph Ovum was the funniest weapon in the entire game! Plenty of "WTF?" moments when you used that item

[DWTerminator]

Of course... Morph Ovum is always entertaining, like Rise of the Triad's Dog Mode.

[WarfighterStudios1]

This is actually a pretty good game. Nothing compared to Doom or Doom 2. I play it on ZDoom and ZDaemon engine from time to time.

[DWTerminator]

I generally consider Doom and Doom 2 about the same quality as Heretic, but Heretic's got a cooler theme. All of them are fun though.

[WarfighterStudios1]

Well, there all good. But I like Doom's story better. Not that much different from one another. I just prefer Doom.

[CorneliusGrim]

hey man whats your xfire username? Also Please review dragon age origins.

[DWTerminator]

Don't have Dragon Age yet. I'll probably get it later on.

You can find my Xfire on the forums.

[eatkeniii]

actually the Shadow of the Serpant Riders version has 2 extra episodes

[DWTerminator]

My bad. SotSR is actually just the retail version. Those extra episodes are available via download for those who have the original version.

[eatkeniii]

Actually it was more like the Atomic Edition. I had the original commercial release it was only 3 eps. Then i bout SotSR and it had 5

[eatkeniii]

Funny note if you type "idkfa" (doom's code for all weapons) it strips you of all weapons and calls you cheater. Do it a second time and it kills you

[DWTerminator]

And "iddqd" kills you instantly, while in Doom it's god mode.

[eatkeniii]

i realized that  right after i posted

[MJ1284]

I remember this game being one of my favourite FPS games of all time, after Doom it was a breath of fresh air. What I really liked about these older FPS games was that you could turn monsters to fight each other via getting them to accidently hit each other (anyone remember the classic level on Doom II where Cyberdemon duels with Spiderdemon?).

You may wanna check out jDoom or Doomsday too, they're both engince conversions which lets you play Doom 1 & 2, Hexen and Heretic with modern graphs.

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, turning the enemies on each other was pretty amusing.

Might check out jDoom or Doomsday, then.

[eatkeniii]

jDoom is part of Doomsday

[MJ1284]

Ooh that's right, it's been a while since I last played it.. my bad.

"Doomsday" is the engine's name while the modules are titled "jDoom", "jHeretic", "jHexen" etc.

[elobiretv]

where do you find all of your classic games to?

[DWTerminator]

I've had a lot of my classics for many years. Some of them are freeware as well (namely Arena and Daggerfall).

Still got some games on 5" floppies. ^_^

[MrVersipellis]

Believe it or not I've actually played this one.

Trouble is I set the difficulty to the most powerful cleric possible, thinking it would power me up instead of controlling difficulty.

I've been playing too many RPGs...

[DWTerminator]

Yes you have. Heretic's pretty tough. ^_^

[MrVersipellis]

Yeah. I've racked up 400 posts at bioware since December.

[DWTerminator]

That's a bit excessive. I've only made 11 since '04. O_o

[MrVersipellis]

But I'm a bioware fanatic. I check every day, usually while watching the latest DWT vid :-)

Most of those posts are in long off-topic things or about scripting however. Scripting for NWN is a pig without knowing any C++ but I've learned.

[DWTerminator]

I know scripting's a pain. 'Tis why I used Lilac Soul's script generator most of the time.

[MrVersipellis]

That's how I learned; making scripts with the generator and seeing what the commands were.

i still can't do cutscenes well, however.

[DWTerminator]

I never got around to doing cutscenes and sparsely scripted. I was working on a PW for about 2 years on and off but never got around to finishing it. Tried to get a lot of the framework down before going in and adding details.

[MrVersipellis]

That PW evolved into a forum, right?

BTW, it was actually Hexen i messed up with the difficulty, though I must say I prefer Hexen. It has cool artmosphere.

[DWTerminator]

That it did.

Yes, Hexen has awesome atmosphere.

[iscrewy]

lol into classic games? It's all my computer can run :(

[Karakta]

Great review of one of my favourite FPS. I prefer heretic over Hexen. Hexen was too confusing for me, I like old shooters to be straightforward, that's why I go back to them. On the minus side though, I found the weapon choice in Heretic pretty boring : something that fires yellow energy, another fires green energy, another fires blue energy, another fires red energy... and the last one fires whatever that is... but it's still energy. In that aspect, hexen has a more interesting weapon choice.

[DWTerminator]

Glad you liked it, and yes, the weapon choices in Heretic are limited. Then again, they were limited in Doom too, and Heretic was on the same engine.

Hexen's meant to be longer and tougher than Heretic is. There's a lot of backtracking and winding paths that make the game a lot more difficult. On the other hand, it's got only 4 weapons per character (my favorite of which is the vorpal sword simply because it's awesome).

[haroof]

Loved this game. I need to setup my old PC so I can run these games with no problems.

[DWTerminator]

Well you can always run them in DOSBox and make a shortcut for 'em. It's what I do.

[grimgor999]

fraps?

[DWTerminator]

DosBOX.

[RRhaegarr]

I still have Hexen on the Nintendo 64 still have not beaten it yet.

[DWTerminator]

Wow, N64. Wasn't aware they made a version for it. Knew they made a Doom 64 but Hexen seems a bit out there.

[Karakta]

They made pretty strange entries on that console, including a 3D version of Command and Conquer as well as a version of Starcraft.

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, that's true.