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Theidkid

Does anyone remeber Hacx, a Doomlike shooter?

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Hacx is a shooter created in an era when 'Doom' was at its peak of popularity. Hacx was a total conversion for Doom 2 and was created by Banjo Software, it spent two and a half years of development in September 1997 and was actually commercially sold. History aside Hacx was a fun TC for Doom and is underrated by players due to the fact that the quake engine was far more superior than the Doom engine which Hacx was running on with a few modifications, and due to that fact games with the quake engine or quake in general had far better graphics and etc. So the story for Hacx is that humanity is being hunted for food and genetic mutation experiments, you take the role of a hacker; completing levels, mowing your way through mutants and robots, trying to reach the end of the level. Sound familiar? Hackx features enemies that fit in with the theme of the game, A Post-Apocalyptic Cyberpunk environment, examples are the common gunmen looking like humans genetically enhanced with some Bane type of serum and another example is this Humanoid Revenant type creatures that resemble the rake without eyes and some robot parts sticking out, It feels as if you live and fight in a word controlled by Humans and Robots, like The Terminator mixed with Mad Max and a tiny dash of Alien. The levels are another thing to point out in Hackx, There is one level in Hacx where you are in some sort of computer lab giving it the Cyber feel to the game, so what happens is that you enter your computer screen and a bunch of enemies just appear out of nowhere. The 'Computer' level wasn't much of a level but just filler or an excuse to put as much action to the game as possible. Also, another thing I want to point out is that some levels are just like a copy and paste of a hallway from or in another level and it does feel as the developers did not give their full effort of making levels than just filler. This topic is starting to sound like a review but there is one last thing I want to say about the game and it is the weapons! oh boy. The weapons in Hacx is well not great, but pretty fun to use against enemies. Examples are the stick which fires out a line of red-colored round shaped objects which can do a lot of damage in a few shots, another is the Cryogun, which I think is a shoulder-mounted ice cannon and the weapon has a special aiming system and is comparable to the Doom Super Shotgun for damage. That's all I have to say, go check this IWAD out and it does not require Doom or Doom 2 to run. Also, I am not sponsored by the developers, this IWAD worth your time.

 

Here is the link to download if you are interested http://www.drnostromo.com/hacx/page.php?content=download

 

Here are some pictures of the game

 

neucfk.jpg.c38e8ca40f7090d67bd06038970989bc.jpgoldhacx37.jpg.ae7e0d87164c4779d6e2add533567022.jpg

Edited by Theidkid

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If you enjoy Hacx; Xaser has been working on a sequel to it and it's looking amazing so far. I remember seeing footage of it and his level design really just  feels like it was destined to intermingle with the Hacx theme. :p

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1 minute ago, DeathevokatioN said:

If you enjoy Hacx; Xaser has been working on a sequel to it and it's looking amazing so far. I remember seeing footage of it and his level design really just  feels like it was destined to intermingle with the Hacx theme. :p

That's nice to know that this IWAD is getting recognized by some part of the audience

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Theidkid, I believe Hacx was once commercially sold if you didn't know this.

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12 minutes ago, Glaice said:

Theidkid, I believe Hacx was once commercially sold if you didn't know this.

Thank you for informing me

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Back in those days I thought HACX is a sacrileg and I did not like it at all. Maybe I should give it a 2nd chance..
Anyway HACX 2 looks quite impressive...
 

Edited by DoomGater

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DYK Doom:Hacx 2 was supposed to be a sequel to Hacx in the late 90s for the quake engine,it changed engines a few times and then died :(

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6 hours ago, Theidkid said:

it spent two and a half years of development in September 1999 and was actually commercially sold.

It actually came out in 1997, the same year as Quake II and Dark Forces II, therefore it had no way in hell of making a splash, a lot like how Strife fared when the first Quake and Duke Nukem 3D arrived the year prior.

I found it pretty enjoyable for what it was and decently lengthed. It definitely ends rather abruptly and with a cliffhanger, heavily implying there was much more intended but they rushed the release to try and beat competitors. I guess they never heard of or played Strife either to find out how well that went.

It definitely had no right to be sold for money for what is effectively a TC for Doom II and it shows in many ways, despite somewhat extensive DeHackEd behavior. It went freeware very quickly and the retail copies are extremely rare and most likely very expensive if found.

If you liked HacX you might also like Harmony, which is a free TC that also acts like its own game. I recommend it!

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This game always felt half-baked (because it was), and felt dreadful to play through to the end, which I only did for posterity's sake. The fact that the ending is a "to be continued" drops it from a C to an F, nevermind the lackluster enemies and for the most part crap map design.

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Hacx 2.0 was a project to rework the old maps using some zdoom features (like 3D Floors), to have more detail in them. It ceased work but the maps available are really amazing to play and it gives the feeling that the rest of the maps should be reworked too

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I've heard of this game, but never played it. Is it supported by GZDoom? I feel like this game is obscure enough that it is possible for it to have slipped past most source port developers' minds. If it is supported by GZDoom then I will give it a try.

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I agree with a lot of the other posts in this thread. I've been playing Hacx quite a bit lately although I haven't finished it yet. The game feels like a bit of an anomaly but in a good way. Something about the music, the maps, and the monsters strikes me as sort of odd and uncanny. I don't just find Monstructs creepy, but a lot of the other monsters as well. Even the basic Thugs are kind of unsettling.

 

So far, I've been enjoying it. I like all of the small additions and tricks that they incorporated into the game like locks that flip up to reveal a switch. Breakable furniture, particularly breakable windows, are really cool. I agree with cyan0s1s that Harmony is also worth checking out if you like Hacx. Harmony is pretty unique in that it went with the classic approach of developing sprites from original clay models. I hadn't heard about either game until fairly recently but they are both worth checking out.

 

I do find it really strange that they went with the decision to release this as a commercial product. I know that they paid the licensing fee to legally sell the game but as other mentioned, it was a questionable decision when true 3D engines were already hitting the market. There were also other total conversions from around the same time that were released for free, so I'm not really sure how they planned on marketing this. I'm glad that they ended up making it available for download eventually so that people could at least experience their work. Surprisingly, Doomsday Engine supports Hacx and it looks especially good, especially with the abundance of light sources that they have in some maps.

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Being cyberpunk my weakness, I really dig Hacx.

 

When I found that there was an attempt by the developers (or al least one of them) of polishing and improving Hacx, I was excited. I went to the forum to propose the idea of adding fluid weapon animations, and presented a showcase wad.

 

To my disappointment, it seems like I was late and the thing was dead or in an indefinite stasis, and I got 0 replies. This was almost a year ago, but the download is still there, so if any of you want to try that smoother weapon animation wad, here it is:

 

https://forum.drdteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=169&t=7431

 

QZDoom doesn't read the pwad apparently, so you should use regular ZDoom or GZDoom.

 

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Every year or so I take a look at the HacX 2.0 forum to see if theres any life. Seems abandoned, sadly.

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On 4/24/2021 at 7:03 AM, Devalaous said:

Every year or so I take a look at the HacX 2.0 forum to see if theres any life. Seems abandoned, sadly.

 

 

Me too, and it's sad indeed.

 

I also haven't found an official statement from the developers, just silence. 

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Sorry, project is on hiatus at the moment -- we're busy with other projects right now, and there's hardly an audience on the old dev forum.

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1 hour ago, Xaser said:

Sorry, project is on hiatus at the moment -- we're busy with other projects right now, and there's hardly an audience on the old dev forum.

 

 

Oh Alright, thanks for the update!

 

I hope the project gets revived someday, and good luck with your other stuff.

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