can someone explain the relationship between hexen and heritic?

[Boomslang]

so today on steam i got the HeXen+Heretic collection (and blood fresh supply) on steam for less than 5 dollars,  what i'm confused about is HeXen's full title which is HeXen: beyond Heretic, is HeXen a sequel to heratic? and what is HeXen Deathkings?

[Komenja]

Yeah, it's sort of a sequel. The story line is only loosely related, in that the villain of Heretic (D'Sparil) and the villain of Hexen (Korax) are two of three Serpent Riders that go around taking over different dimensions. There's a few references between the games (like D'Sparil's heart showing up in Hexen), but for the most part they're unrelated stories taking place in different worlds.

 

The "Beyond Heretic" part of the title is pretty much just a way of boasting that Hexen is more advanced than Heretic. Three playable characters, doors that swing open, more effects like fog and leaves blowing on the wind, hub worlds, etc.

 

Deathkings is just an extra set of levels for Hexen. The heroes of Hexen get transported to another realm and have to find a way back home.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I think the subtitle says it best, Hexen is "beyond Heretic".  It's sort of a sequel, and sort of not, they're based in the same universe and share lore but Hexen takes place on a different planet, there's no direct connection between the stories beyond "Serpent Riders are evil and they are conquering worlds" and the gameplay mechanics are different.  A few items are held over and such that will be familiar, but generally, Heretic is pretty Doom-like, Hexen's more "action-adventure" as they used to call it.

 

Deathkings is an expansion pack for Hexen.  It takes place pretty much immediately after the main game.

[Boomslang]

ah! ahhh! thanks! 

so far i'm loving heretic!

[Gez]

Heretic and Hexen are about the sage of the "Serpent Riders", three powerful wizards who traveled across dimensions to conquer worlds with armies of undead and demons. After conquering three worlds together, each one remained on one of these worlds to rule over it.

 

Heretic is about the weakest of the three serpent riders, D'Sparil. He rules over the world of Parthoris like a god, however, one of the people on this world refuse to worship him, so they've been branded as "heretics" and exterminated by the worshipers. You are Corvus, one of the few remaining survivors of this heretic nation, and you're going to get revenge by going through D'Sparil's army of monsters, demons, undead, and disciples.

 

Hexen is about the second of these evil wizards, Korax, who rules over Kronos. The entire world was under a rather rigid dictatorship of three orders (legion of fighters, church of clerics, and college of wizards) so he just took control of the three leaders, turning them into undead pawns, and that was enough to seize near total control, including transforming the legions into monsters and so on. You can play one hero from any of the three orders who resisted the control and likewise, you set out to liberate your world by going through the army to kill Korax and his dead kings.

 

Deadkings of the Dark Citadel is a mission pack for Hexen where you go about killing the dead kings again because apparently it didn't stick the first time. Korax is still gone for good, though.

 

The third Serpent Rider is dealt with in Hexen II, which is based on the Quake engine. (Or Quake II engine? I forgot.) Heretic II is about Corvus' ongoing adventures in Parthoris as a new evil rose there after the defeat of D'Sparil.

 

So Hexen is not really a sequel to Heretic, but it's connected to it nonetheless. It's just with different heroes on a different world with different villains. Gameplay-wise, Heretic is fantasy Doom, Hexen leans harder towards dungeon crawlers so it's less about running through the levels trying to kill everything as fast as possible, and more about exploring everything methodically to find all the hidden switches that will let you open the way to the next level, and sometimes you need to backtrack all the way to a previous level.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

9 minutes ago, Gez said:

The third Serpent Rider is dealt with in Hexen II, which is based on the Quake engine. (Or Quake II engine? I forgot.) Heretic II is about Corvus' ongoing adventures in Parthoris as a new evil rose there after the defeat of D'Sparil.

Quake engine for Hexen II, Quake II engine for Heretic II.

[snapshot]

You just needed an excuse to show off that wallpaper didn't you.

[Boomslang]

7 minutes ago, sluggard said:

You just needed an excuse to show off that wallpaper didn't you.

no..

i was just wondering about the relationship of HeXen and Heretic.

 

but if you wanna know, i made that wallpaper myself out of a game screenshot.

[Redneckerz]

It is funny that you started talking about Heretic, because it has a development story all of its own on Linux.

 

And that's without the source code issues that existed for years.

[Boomslang]

19 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

It is funny that you started talking about Heretic, because it has a development story all of its own on Linux.

 

And that's without the source code issues that existed for years.

oh no. don't get me into that!

i'm already having too much fun as it is!

[hybridial]

I'll just leave this here, clicking on it will be very worth your while once you've had your first run on Heretic (excellent choice by the way)