Using Doom 3's engine for a new Hexen & Hereitic

I just had a thought wouldn't it be cool if someone(company or individual) made a new and improved Hexen and Hereitic using the new Doom 3 engine. I'm not sure if the old ones used the exact same engine or were just based on it, but I think it would be really cool to see those two games remade using the Doom 3 engine. I always enjoyed both games, ofcourse they aren't as cool as Doom is but they were still good games. It would be awesome to see what they could do with the new technology. Both games had pretty cool monsters and atmosphere, just think what they would look like brought back to life using Doom 3's engine. If I knew how to mod I would probably give it a shot but unfortunatly I don't. But hey if anybody who does know how to mod wants to make a good remake I'm sure nobody would mind! Just a thought.

Hectecomb!!!!!

I'm sure it'd be great.

Heh, I believe I posted about such a wish ages ago, but yeah, it'd be totally sweet.
I doubt it's gonna happen anytime soon though - Raven, it seems, isn't interested in returning to these universes, judging from their comments on ravensoft.com (at least the ones I saw).

Another thing I've realized is that even if Raven did make a new HeXen, you can be damn sure it won't be like the first or the second as far as looks go - just take a look at Hexen 2. Basically it had many of the same weapons, but "in disguise" (the Paladin had a wimpy-looking sword instead of a badass battle axe for instance) and it had totally new monsters.
While most of those new monsters were cool, they also made sure that HeXen 2 had none of HeXen 1's feel to it.

In general, it seems to me that Raven doesn't like reusing old concepts like old monsters or weapons - can't say I agree with that philosophy myself as I like to see updated versions of old stuff, but a lot of other fans probably prefer stuff that's new and fresh.

Linguica said:

Hectecomb!!!!!

Is that anything to do with Hexen Tomb?

Yea that would be pretty wikid. I always did like those games but think of what kind of things you could do with them now with that engine :-).

Sounds fun-- I'd definitely look up the demo if there were one. I can imagine implementing realistic weather effects to add to the immersion. For once, I'd be able to see fog roll in and out of a valley. The best part about Hexen was the familiar(can't remember the exact name...). It'd be great to see the advanced scripting handling your familiar, acting almost like another player, making the both of you dependent on each other for longevity.

*goes off to think for a few hours...*

I also have often thought how cool a new Heretic in the Doom3 engine could be. If there would be a Heretic III, it should go back to it´s Heretic1 routes, a First-person Shooter set in a gloomy dark ages world and sporting an original and creative mix of medieval and magic weapons, along with some defensive and powerup spells.
I liked Heretic2, though it totally lacked the evil athmosphere of Heretic1, and 3rd-person view sucked.
Hexen I and II added some good new ideas, but most of them were not so well executed. The different player classes added nothing to the game, the replay value wasn´t big enough to play through the whole game again with each class. So in the end it came out like a reduction of weaponry, because each class only has 4 different weapons.

If you`re going to implement an RPG inspired skills system into a FPS, it has to be done cleverly so that it doesn´t interfere with the actual (real) skills like movement, aiming etc. So no player speed, acro, stealth or accuracy skill levels because they prohibit the player to develop his actual skills during the game. But skill levels for things like spell usage, healing or decryption skills would work very well.

There are also so many things you could do with magically enhanced medieval weaponry. A crossbow with different ammunition types (normal arrows, spreading nails, greek fire missiles, "etheral arrwos", "plague arrows"...), or some sort of grenade launching mini ballista (they used a wide assortment of grenades in the middle ages). Or different magical wands with some really new and fresh ideas (not just glorified plasma guns).

dsm said:

Another thing I've realized is that even if Raven did make a new HeXen, you can be damn sure it won't be like the first or the second as far as looks go - just take a look at Hexen 2. Basically it had many of the same weapons, but "in disguise" (the Paladin had a wimpy-looking sword instead of a badass battle axe for instance) and it had totally new monsters.

Yes, they always redesigned weapons and creatures from the ground up, but all games of the Heretic-Hexen series shared some recurring elements for a deja vu effect.

BTW, I think you can put Daikatanas Episode 3 (Dark Ages Norway) in a line with the Heretic / Hexen series. Romero worked with Raven on Heretic1 and you can find a very similar athmosphere in Episode 3. And some of the coolest wizzard weapons so far :)

Personally I think redesigned stuff from predecessing games is quite important for a series. If people want some completely new and fresh stuff, they should play the upcoming title X from the new developer Y (there are always some promising new titles in development), but a new game of a series like Quake, Heretic or Unreal should always have a fair ammount of recognition value.

heretic r0xors tu s0xors!

Tetzlaff said:Personally I think redesigned stuff from predecessing games is quite important for a series. If people want some completely new and fresh stuff, they should play the upcoming title X from the new developer Y (there are always some promising new titles in development), but a new game of a series like Quake, Heretic or Unreal should always have a fair ammount of recognition value. [/B]

I would definitely agree. There should be a fairly large amount of new additions but no radical alterations to a line-up.