Hexen vs. Strife

Hi again. I'm just wondering which game you guys think is the more superior game: Hexen or Strife and why.

I have always been a huge Hexen fan. The game was a part of my childhood. Strife on the other hand I had not heard about until a few years ago. I have learned that it, like Hexen, is hub based and is generally a big game. I saw videos on youtube and it looked pretty cool.

So tell me what you think is better.

BTW: If someone has already made a post like this, let me know.

I pick Hexen. Even though it has its unique and interesting features, I never liked much Strife.

I say Hexen cause I can actually get my hands on a copy and I'm too lazy to order Strife on Amazon and wait for it to be delivered.

Strife. While I do like the Hexen universe, I feel that Strife has a lot more depth to it storyline-wise. The puzzles in Hexen are of the 'hit a switch and run around for five hours trying to figure out what it did' type, while the puzzles in Strife seem to have a bit more sense of direction.

As far as modding goes, it is a shame that most of Strife's sequences are hard-coded to the engine, while in Hexen you have more freedom.

I'm not picking either. Much much love to both of them.

I've never really played more than a few levels of Hexen, it just doesn't draw me in that much.

On the other hand, I've loved Strife ever since I discovered it in the late 90s, and have finished all 3 different endings.

Maybe I will finish Hexen one day and have an opinion worthy of this thread :)


edit: Played through half the first Hexen hub. Definitely Strife. Straight away, Strife has a story to draw you in and the goals are explained well. You know what you're doing and you have choices to make. The traps are balanced and the mapping is amazingly clever.

Hexen just seems to be "run around and flick some switches, explore every inch of the last couple of maps in the hope of finding out what you just did" or "here's an obscure bell/mask/wall, hope it does something good somewhere or doesn't kill you". Non-linearity can be cool but this is just taking it to the extreme. Also the traps are either stupidly easy or ludicrously deadly, and the monsters look out of proportion and don't move plausibly.

I will probably never play Hexen again.

lupinx-Kassman said:

The puzzles in Hexen are of the 'hit a switch and run around for five hours trying to figure out what it did' type

Super Jamie said:

edit: Played through half the first Hexen hub. Definitely Strife. Straight away, Strife has a story to draw you in and the goals are explained well. You know what you're doing and you have choices to make. The traps are balanced and the mapping is amazingly clever.

Hexen just seems to be "run around and flick some switches, explore every inch of the last couple of maps in the hope of finding out what you just did" or "here's an obscure bell/mask/wall, hope it does something good somewhere or doesn't kill you". Non-linearity can be cool but this is just taking it to the extreme. Also the traps are either stupidly easy or ludicrously deadly, and the monsters look out of proportion and don't move plausibly.

I will probably never play Hexen again.

These are the reasons why I hate Hexen. Plus, the level design, especially for the period it was created, is boring and ugly.

I haven't played Strife, but I'm willing to bet I'd enjoy it more.

Hexen is probably technically better (scripting, advanced map format, polyobjects etc) and so is more flexible engine-wise but the Strife scenario and general gameplay appeals to me more and I think that it is better presented too. If only it had featured a shotgun.

I had more fun playing Strife for the first time than I did with my first time through Hexen.

I like both games.

Can't decide.

Doom?

:P

Hexen is more "professional", Strife has a more "amateur" feel to it. However, this also means that Strife is more inventive and ultimately more ambitious; while Hexen is more formulaic.

I really love both for different reasons, so it's hard to choose one as being superior to the other. Both have issues too, of course. Hexen gets too gimmicky and resorts to abstract level design near the end, whereas Strife starts to lose what makes the beginning parts so unique and degenerates into a DOOM clone.

I can pick either up and play it at just about any time. They never seem to get old.

I played Hexen up to a longer point than Strife. But I also played it before trying Strife, and I didn't care for either of them.

Strife.

Hexen is confusing.

I would say hexen was best because I actually found it fun enough to want to finish it but as for strife it got tedious and boring and I never really bothered to play through the entire game.

Strife. It has a more interesting universe and, as already mentioned, way less confusing in its structure.

PS: This should've been a poll. :)

Strife came later than Hexen and has stuff Hexen hasn't. Unfortunately for it, Hexen doesn't reuse the naked Doom mapformat, preferring a systematic upgrade that allows a powerful level design much like today's ZDoom. I'd like to credit Hexen for ZDoom's popularity.

I love both games but I prefer Hexen because I like the choice of character classes and its fun playing it on coop(which sadly strife lacks).

Strife. Absolutely love everything about that game.

I have never played strife, so my opinion on this thread hardly matters, but I just want to say something.

I think the level design in Hexen is superior to anything before or since. In commercial games/mods that is.

That's it.

Strife. I beat Strife, but I still can't find my way out of the first hub of Hexen. WHYYYYYYYYY

Cutman said:

I still can't find my way out of the first hub of Hexen. WHYYYYYYYYY

Because you fail it! :D

Seriously, even though it is basically a switch hunt it really isn't that bad. All relevant switches print appropriate messages.

I've tried over 4 times in the past, on co-op too (although it was pretty buggy back then) and we still couldn't find what switch we were missing.

One day Hexen... you're MINE

Cutman said:

... but I still can't find my way out of the first hub of Hexen. WHYYYYYYYYY

You propably haven't figured out the guardian of steel... just before the "fast pilar doors" which let you in the center of the area, there are those pulling switches on the wall - they move some walls in the basement rooms you can reach with those elevators...

I always wondered what those switches were for. I always just pulled them all because they were there...

With that attitude I'm not surprised that some people are having problems with Hexen... :D

To be honest, HeXen's first hub is by far it's most confusing and progression actually feels a bit random (i.e switch X opens up an area on level Y).

All the hubs after are much more logical and give much clearer goals (i.e finding gems for a mosiac or killing sub-bosses).

Vermil said:

To be honest, HeXen's first hub is by far it's most confusing and progression actually feels a bit random (i.e switch X opens up an area on level Y).

Actually, except for the secret areas all the relevant switches in the sub-levels only raise the stairs on the main level. It's perfectly logical once you understand the puzzle.

Maybe the first hub only feels confusing, since - well - it's the first hub. No such things existed in the doomiverse before that. I know the firs time I played, it felt strange to go back to the same level again and again.

I never found Hexen's first hub to be too difficult to complete, I just found it to be really boring.

aaglo said:

Maybe the first hub only feels confusing, since - well - it's the first hub. No such things existed in the doomiverse before that. I know the firs time I played, it felt strange to go back to the same level again and again.

Exactly. The only thing like that in Doom was hitting a switch which lowered an elevator a distance away and you had to listen and run all over to see where what it was lowering.

Ahh good times.

... Strife > Hexen > Strife > Hexen ...