Your favorite Hexen deathtrap

If there's something Hexen has mastered, it's frustrating death traps. One wrong step, and you die instantly with little or no warning. Sometimes you really have no way of knowing, and only extremely fast reflexes could help you (hit the hotkey for Chaos Device) if you didn't know about the trap beforehand. After you see one of them, bottomless pits seem gentle.

So, which one is your favorite ?

I especially like the crushing floor in the Orchard of Lamentations. When you activate the switch, the floor at the end of a corridor lowers. You enter a rectangular room. Then BLAM, floor moves back and squishes you against the ceiling. You may argue this trap is not very Hexeny (you can take a hint from the *lift* sound, or wait a second before you walk into the room). But I think it's stylish and brutal. You can kill monsters with it, too.

b0rsuk said:

If there's something Hexen has mastered, it's frustrating death traps. One wrong step, and you die instantly with little or no warning.

Actually, this is probably one of my least favorite things about the game. No-warning, no-hint death traps are irritating at best, and horribly frustrating at the usual. Not that Hexen was particularly bad about such things (especially in comparison to some other games -- I've been playing a lot of Bayonetta recently, which is particularly nasty in this department), but there are a couple of cases that really make you wonder how it fair it would really be if you couldn't save anywhere. But whatever -- tons of games have them. Doom had 'em, just in the form of pits of lava/nukage/ouch and the occasional slow crusher. But at least you had plenty of warning that they were there. :P

Now, I do like that Orchard crusher, mostly because it's fun to smash things with and it's pretty clear that good things will not happen if you get trapped in it. It's areas like the random "walk into ice room, floor cracks and drops out from underneath you" that bother me.

[EDIT] I suppose I should be fair and actually answer the question. I've always thought that scene in Wastelands/Circe (can't remember which) where you have an item at the end of a dark tunnel with an insta-death pit right beyond it to be absolutely hilarious. Most players (including me, of course) tend to dash toward it and end up running right off the edge into the pit. Still a bit cheap, but it's all the player's fault for dive-bombing into a dark corridor... :P

Not me. I was always the overly cautious player (and secret hunter). It won't be a surprise I played as the mage.

Speaking of most unfair traps, the worst one is probably in Ice Hold (last secret level in Deathkings). The one that after pressing a switch you have a split second to move away in the right direction or you'll be crushed. The ones in the Gibbet are also insane, particularly the one with the switch you have to activate. Basically jump and press the switch while already in air, or the trap will kill you.

There was one in... Caves of Circe, was it? An amulet underneath a suspiciously lowered ceiling. If you attempt to grab it the crusher will kill you. I remember the ceiling stopping when you get out, so there's no way to get the amulet, or at least not without severe HP loss making the amulet's worth questionable.

It's unfortunate that it wasn't a Quartz Flask. This would've been the perfect time to respond with a certain overused phrase.

Any random spike in Wasteland. Too bad that was the only map they were in (besides Dark Crucible).

I think this is why I never got into Hexen. Between the fetch quests and obscure puzzle solutions and the death traps, it's a game that seems to actively hate its players.

You can trade the Amulet of Warding in Caves of Circe for an Icon of Defender.

Ichor said:

Any random spike in Wasteland. Too bad that was the only map they were in (besides Dark Crucible).

...and Vivarium, and Castle of Grief. They are a good candidate for replacement in a mod, especially if I could make them work differently in different levels. Hub4 is by far my least favorite, most convoluted and frustrating puzzles and traps, no memorable levels. No new items, no new enemies.

Hexen is also surprisingly linear. Use a cheat to start playing in Silent Refectory (the crate level ! Yes, hexen has one, that explains a lot). Surprise, you won't be able to get out at all ! Similarly with the 3 chapel levels. Basically you're limited to starting a game in initial levels of hubs, and that may be only technically doable. Good luck starting in Heresiarch's Seminary as Cleric. Unless you try very hard and know exactly where the weapons are in that hub, you're screwed.

Oh yeah, I forgot about those two maps, especially Castle of Grief. And oddly enough, they both also have the Porkalator trap.

That one neat ice trap in the "Guardian of Ice" map once you pick up the steel key.

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Justince said:

Who honestly is surprised that a hub-based adventure/FPS would be kinda linear? Also what about hub4 is even remotely hard/frustrating after playing it the first time? But we have one thing in common, I'm surprised you've mustered up the braincells to keep posting.

Gee, I don't know, maybe someone who knew what hubs are would be surprised? I'm not sure what you mustered to post this, but it certainly wasn't brain cells.


Back on topic, I actually thought the huge drops were awesome. Especially because they put in the sound of the guy screaming on the way down. One of the best "I'm fucked" moments!

The earthquake on the lava based map *Guardian of Fire, was it? I forgot the name*.

I dunno why but to this day, It's still interesting to see the level's architecture transform so rapidly on an engine as old as it is.

Winnowing Hall, the fireball face shooters. It was the coolest looking thing to me in that level the first time I played Hexen. The most frustrating instadeath pit in the game was probably the switch early on in Shadow Wood to open the portal to Wastelands, this part may not seem like much nowadays but imagine doing it as a keyboarder.