There aren’t a whole lot of combinations on offer, and greater emphasis is placed on fast action than navigational puzzles, but what has been included works well. The complex but configurable interface, which takes some getting used to, allows for everything from tumbling to climbing ropes to pole vaulting. You get a solid sense that you’re controlling a character rather than just steering him. On an amusing side note, the spell randomly backfires in multiplayer games, turning human opponents rampaging super-chickens. Unless you couldn’t already tell, many of the weapon designs featured here were passed over from the original DOS game Even some of the more clever spells make a return, such as Morph Ovum, which transforms nearby enemies into helpless fowl. Particularly impressive is the Storm Bow, which creates a lethal red cloud over your enemy, complete with magical lightning bolts. Alongside your normal weapons you’ll be using powerful spells.īolts of red light, showers of sparks, and moonlight-blue explosions are hurled through the shadows. And navigate them hectically you will, for the combat is an unforgiving affair. You can jump around tight corridors, wide-open spaces, and complex vertical levels with ease. There are almost none of the clipping problems you’d expect from free-roaming cameras. Although suffering from a few noticeable quirks, the camera in Heretic II is quite function for the most part. Powering a third-person action game isn’t something you’d expect out of the aging Quake II engine, but here it is regardless. The game’s twenty or so linear levels have every flavor of dark fantasy attractions, including a dismal swamp, an ancient flooded city, a mountain dungeon and lots of other places. A quest starts to find out what exactly has befallen the town and who’s to blame, one that will take you to just about every corner of the kingdom. Heretic II starts immediately as the elven protagonist from the original ’94 game returns to his hometown of Silverspring, only to find it ravaged by a disastrous plague. It’s a mixed third-person game with some Tomb Raider tossed in as well. Yet Heretic II stands out not for rehashing the original game but for being the most different of the lot. Years passed and two indirect sequels followed suit, Hexen: Beyond Heretic and Hexen II, with a final fourth game to conclude the story. Early 90’s shooters were never much on storytelling, but Heretic did stand out with its dark atmosphere, great level design and creative monsters.
Raven Software’s dark fantasy saga first saw light when Heretic hit shelves in 1994, becoming the quintessential Doom clone to own that year.
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