Is heretic 2 any good?

[Boomslang]

I found out there's a heretic two, what the fuck. is it a good game? and where can i get it (if it's a good game)

god i need help

[seed]

 

I think so. It's a sequel that follows Corvus' adventures after the events of the previous games, and it plays very different from them too.

 

As about where to get it... there's some problems apparently, which is why the rest of the games are available on Steam and GOG, but not Heretic 2. I don't know if it can still be found in shops either, a quick google search shows nothing but used copies on Amazon and sellers on e-bay.

[Ichor]

I managed to get it when they were still selling it in stores. It's a good game. It's an actual sequel to Heretic (same player character, same world), but there are many differences. 1. Third person perspective. It's different, but you'll get used to it before too long. 2. Jumping, climbing, and other acrobatics mostly related to the staff (which now has a shiny pointy thing at the end of it so it's not so useless anymore). 3. The world may be the same, but there are all new enemies, and the tome of power works slightly differently, along with your items and mana in general. A couple of weapons from Heretic do make an appearance here though. 4. It's based on the Quake 2 engine rather than the Doom engine.

 

There aren't any real aggravating things about this game unlike that Egyptian floor puzzle in Hexen 2 or the wendigo trap in Hexen, but it can still be hard at times. Also funny (who doesn't like it when that trial beast smacks its head into the pillar and cause the bridge to collapse on itself?).

[seed]

23 minutes ago, Ichor said:

There aren't any real aggravating things about this game unlike that Egyptian floor puzzle in Hexen 2 or the wendigo trap in Hexen, but it can still be hard at times.

 

Or that Wheel of Ages puzzle... fuck I hated that one.

 

I still don't know how others found Hexen 2's puzzles easier than the original's, the castle hub was obtuse as fuck, the Egyptian hub had this right here, and probably more I can't remember right now... I still loved it, but I had to constantly check walkthroughs to beat it, which sucked, at that point I didn't even feel I was playing anymore...

[Vermil]

Heretic 2, like HeXen ii pop, was published by Activision I believe and it's probably notable that neither game is available on Steam.

[Boomslang]

Just now, Vermil said:

Heretic 2, like HeXen ii pop, was published by Activision I believe and it's probably notable that neither game is available on Steam.

Hexen 2 is on steam.

[Vermil]

Yes, but the HeXen 2 expansion, portal of praevus isn't.

[seed]

1 minute ago, Vermil said:

Yes, but the HeXen 2 expansion, Portal of Preavus isn't, probably because ID had nothing to do with it.

 

It is on GOG though. No idea why they didn't put it on Steam as well.

[Vermil]

I see. I didn't know it was on GOG.

[unerxai]

32 minutes ago, Vermil said:

I see. I didn't know it was on GOG.

I don't see any of those games in GOG myself. Maybe it's a location thing.

[xvertigox]

I played it heaps when I was younger and always enjoyed it. The movement was satisfying as was the combat. Def recommend playing it.

[Gez]

Hexen II on GOG? Since when?

 

Anyways, Heretic II is a very game, but be warned the gameplay is completely different to Heretic 1. It's more like a sort of Tomb Raider, but with a lot more of pole-vaulting and kicking people in the face with both feet. If you like the idea of a third-person Parkour game full of flying kicks, you'll have fun with it.

 

But you'll probably have to get it from websites of questionable legality, since it's not on sale on the usual stores.

[seed]

45 minutes ago, unerxai said:

I don't see any of those games in GOG myself. Maybe it's a location thing.

 

I don't think it is.

 

I just rechecked and they're not there. What the hell? I swear I saw Hexen 2 there. Otherwise I must be going insane.

[Boaby Kenobi]

50 minutes ago, Gez said:

Anyways, Heretic II the gameplay is completely different to Heretic 1. It's more like a sort of Tomb Raider, but with a lot more of pole-vaulting and kicking people in the face with both feet.

That's a very accurate description of the game.

 

I enjoyed Heretic 2 and Hexen 2 but I prefer sprites so I mostly play the original games more.

[printz]

1 hour ago, Gez said:

If you like the idea of a third-person Parkour game full of flying kicks, you'll have fun with it.

Yeah but compared to specialized games like Prince of Persia, the parkour aspect is rather weak. Also even if Corvus is equipped with a spear-staff which can even perform a few combos, he's still too exposed to melee damage, let alone projectiles, to be any fun. I tried fighting with the spear, but ended up preferring the ranged attacks, because I was open to all spear attacks of the infected sidhe.

 

The game is definitely not as fast paced as Heretic I unfortunately. Due to the needed realism of showing a live humanoid, you're just no longer as maneuverable as in DOOM/Heretic. This makes the combat much smaller in scale. Also the enemies tend to be really aggressive, so you also need to be a lot more careful. Often it's like a cover shooter, where you need to get out of hiding to throw a fireball to an enemy who also throws fireballs continuously to you when he sees you -- this kind of gameplay.

 

I also found it imbalanced. If I waste too much ammunition (mana and stuff) before facing one of the bosses, the game is practically lost, I have no chance. I mean that would be easy to fuck up in any classic game, but in this particular case I didn't really fuck up, and couldn't find any supplies or restart with more ammo...

 

The use of the Quake II engine is another disadvantage, because that particular engine has aged terribly with regards to Windows support. Without any game studio's salvation of rerelease, I think it's doomed.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

The question "is Heretic II good" depends a lot on your definition of "good".

 

As a game in its own right, taken individually?  Yes.

As a sequel to the rest of the series?  Less so.

 

I hated it the first time I played it, at least in part because it's nothing like what I'd expected a follow-up to Heretic or Hexen to be, although I also wasn't too fond of 3rd person 3D games in general at the time.  But it's grown on me a lot since then.  And as a sequel... well, it was pretty well defined that there were three Serpent Riders and they were all killed off in the previous games so there's only so many places they could have gone with the story, and they'd also already used the "resurrection plot" option in Portal of Praevus, so...  It's also worth noting that it was made after Raven Software split, so some of the original devs of the series were no longer involved which might also explain some of its "weirdness" with regard to the rest of the series.

[Avoozl]

I really did not enjoy it, it also differed so much from the series of both Heretic and Hexen games.

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Avoozl

[Jello]

I thought it was enjoyable enough, but it's been quite a while since I've played it. Never finished it either; got pretty far but ended up getting stuck, or running out of mana, or something like that. But it was enjoyable, especially if you like third person gameplay. It's very different from Heretic or Hexen, but that's not a bad thing, and I recall being pretty impressed with it at the time. Hell of a lot more impressed than I was with the absolutely obtuse, head smashingly frustrating mess that was Hexen 2.

 

Probably still have the disc around here. Think I tried to re-install it back when I had Windows 7, but I ran into issues. Might try it on Windows 10 and get frustrated all over again.

 

Edit: Just found it. We'll see what happens.

 

Shit, there's a phone number for Activision's Hints & Tips line in the case. Only $.99 a minute in the US, $1.49 in Canada. Anyone want to try calling it? Touch tone phones only!

Edited December 27, 2019 by Jello

[Doom_Dude]

One thing that impressed me with Heretic II besides what others have mentioned was the multiplayer (and I'm primarily a SP guy) side of things with the blade matches. Back in the day (which I missed) the servers were full of custom maps and players would be lined up to play against one another in arenas. It wasn't until later when the game was in major decline that I started to play online. I'm not even sure if the blade match was intended by the developers or if the fans came up with it. I guess my brain is foggy on that. Due to the various moves with the pole weapon, 1v1 battles were pretty damned fun. The guy in the arena that won, faced the next player in line. The match was over when the kill count was met. I got to play it with a couple online friends, one of whom was the guy who made the TMod. I even went so far as to make a few maps for it, which was pretty interesting. Good times.

 

Hmm wonder where one could still download Talon's Tmod. Don't even see it on Mod db.

[Jello]

Well... got it running on Windows 10. Took forever for the setup to start, the original is a 32 bit process, so of course that wouldn't work. But there is a file in the bin folder on the CD called Demo32.exe which launches the installer. Except it took about 10-15 minutes to actually start the installer. Then I installed the Heretic 1.07 patch and it ran. Except I blew up a barrel right next to me and the game crashed when I tried to reload an earlier save (of which I made two, just in case one got corrupted). Well, restarted the game, crashes when I try to load either save, and it reverted my key bindings after it crashed. And now it starts up in what looks to be a huge low resolution windowed mode, so three quarters of the screen are cut off until I stumble into the video settings menu and turn fullscreen off an on and guess at what resolution I'm setting it to.

 

So I'm sure there are ways to get it working somewhat reliably on 10, but I'm not messing with it any more tonight. But what I did get to play was kind of fun, pretty much how I remember the game. It's a Quake 2 engine third person shooter from 1998. General gameplay 'feel' and movement reminds me quite a bit of American McGee's Alice really.

[Master O]

On 12/26/2019 at 12:23 PM, seed said:

 

I think so. It's a sequel that follows Corvus' adventures after the events of the previous games, and it plays very different from them too.

 

As about where to get it... there's some problems apparently, which is why the rest of the games are available on Steam and GOG, but not Heretic 2. I don't know if it can still be found in shops either, a quick google search shows nothing but used copies on Amazon and sellers on e-bay.

 

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders is not on GOG.  It is on Steam, though.

[SonicWind]

I first got my hands on the full version of Heretic II in early 2017 alongside Portal of Praevus to complete my Heretic/Hexen collection. Honestly, it's a pretty good game with enjoyable combat, and the switch to a third-person perspective doesn't stop it from feeling like a competent shooter. I wish I could have experienced the multiplayer at its height, though.

 

That said, I really wish that the source code was made public like the other games and that Activision and ZeniMax would settle their disagreements over the series so that it would get rereleased on Steam for newer gamers to experience, alongside Portal of Praevus.

 

This game doesn't deserve obscurity, in my opinion. I think we should do more to ensure it gets out of that state.

[Murdoch]

I concur with the others, it is definitely a good game that did not get the recognition it deserved. It was a bold call to go third person but I think it paid off though I can understand why people found it off putting. It is unfortunate it is no longer available for sale so you will likely have to find an eBay auction or sail the high seas to get ahold of it.

[Tetzlaff]

I played Heretic II back in the day, when it was newly released. I remember it as a good Third-person Action Adventure game, but at the same time I was kind of disappointed because it wasn't a dark fantasy FPS with Doom-like gameplay, like it's predecessor.

[Matthias]

I LOVE Heretic 2.

 

It's not like first Heretic, but aside of that it's a great game. Probably one of my TOP10.

[Doom_Dude]

Found a couple thousand screenshots from when I used to play on the servers, several + years ago.

 

Malaclypse trying to break into a pop machine.

 

Waiting in line to face Talon. haha.

 

Talon and Malaclypse dueling.

 

Here is a map I made with a sunken arena. I completely forget the name of this one.

 

Just hanging around one day. Not sure what this map is. Not sure why Storm is naked. haha.

 

 

 

 

[Jello]

56 minutes ago, Doom_Dude said:

Just hanging around one day. Not sure what this map is. Not sure why Storm is naked. haha.

I think the better question is "Why isn't everyone else naked"?

 

I always kind of wanted to try out the multiplayer for Heretic 2 back then, the manual made it sound pretty interesting. But on a 33.6k modem, I don't know how well it would've worked. Seems like it would've been interesting though, especially with the dueling.