Thoughts On Hexen?

[Rudolph]

@Gibbon I guess I am more interested in "Doom With Wizards", then.

 

But credit where credit is due, at least Hexen does not look like it overwhelms the player with weapons and items like Heretic does: rather, it forces the player to learn how to make the most out of a few weapons. I do wish the Fighter and the Cleric could have been given a ranged weapon early on, especially to help deal with the Afrits, as the Flechettes are really not that great in that regard.

 

I still might get the game for the Mage alone: that freezing shotgun attack is really quite something! If only the character could have been given a melee attack to shatter frozen enemies, it would have been even cooler - no pun intended!

Edited December 6, 2021 by Rudolph

[magicsofa]

15 hours ago, Midnight_00 said:

I'm not sure if I'm missing something

 

Try having a walkthrough handy, give each puzzle an honest try for a few minutes and but when you get that "I killed everything and I'm just lost" feeling, use it without shame

 

15 hours ago, Midnight_00 said:

It's the fact that all you have is a fairly weak starting weapon

 

It's actually horribly broken because it goes through enemies. You can use it to pretty much beat the whole game without picking up a single mana or artifact. Tedious and boring for sure, and obviously not much advantage against bosses, but it will cheese through any horde like nothing. The larger the group, the more powerful it becomes.

[Cruduxy Pegg]

Sapphire wand is top tier if you want to get bored and have a headache at the same time.

[ReaperAA]

2 hours ago, Rudolph said:

Having watched a longplay of Hexen, I see that the game has respawning enemies, which is a big "No thanks" for me.

 

The respawning in vanilla Hexen is pretty harmless. Depending on the map, you have something around 1 to 3 Ettins (usually just 1 on most maps) spawn every 4 minutes. Ettins are melee enemies that are no stronger than Doom's pinkies.

 

Death Kings of the Dark Citadel (Hexen's mission pack) on the other hand....

[Rudolph]

If anything, playing as the Mage makes me want to play a Doom clone where your weapons are all elemental spells. Does anyone know if there is a gameplay mod for Doom, Heretic or even Hexen that does just that? I see that Realm667 has a Fire Blast, which seems to be a fire-based alternative to the Frost Shards; apparently, the Mage's only fire attack in vanilla Hexen is the class' ultimate weapon.

[ReaperAA]

1 hour ago, Rudolph said:

I do wish the Fighter and the Cleric could have been given a ranged weapon early on, especially to help deal with the Afrits, as the Flechettes are really not that great in that regard.

 

Cleric does get a ranged weapon fairly early on in the first hub. He gets his ranged weapon on the Guarding of Steel map.

[Rudolph]

@ReaperAA Yeah, but for whatever reason, it is absent from the demo - at least, on the penultimate setting. It is really weird.

[Captain POLAND]

Is there a mod that lets you use all of the Heretic and Hexen weapons in Doom (including the powered up forms and inventory items)? Adding other weapons from games like Strife might be fun too.

 

 

 

 

[ApprihensivSoul]

Romero's Heresy does the opposite, but I'm not sure what might do what you're asking. Wrath of Cronos might fit the bill, but it's a reimagination of the weapons and has an RPG system.

[Boomdav]

1 hour ago, Rudolph said:

If anything, playing as the Mage makes me want to play a Doom clone where your weapons are all elemental spells. Does anyone know if there is a gameplay mod for Doom, Heretic or even Hexen that does just that? I see that Realm667 has a Fire Blast, which seems to be a fire-based alternative to the Frost Shards; apparently, the Mage's only fire attack in vanilla Hexen is the class' ultimate weapon.

This one got caught under my radar

[Captain POLAND]

7 minutes ago, ApprihensivSoul said:

Romero's Heresy does the opposite, but I'm not sure what might do what you're asking. Wrath of Cronos might fit the bill, but it's a reimagination of the weapons and has an RPG system.

 

I'd just like to spam the Wraithverge in a Doom slaughter map.

[Rudolph]

@Boomdav Looks awesome, but also broken as hell and possibly too much for my computer to handle... :P

 

I might give it a try, still. Thanks!

[Midnight_00]

4 hours ago, magicsofa said:

Try having a walkthrough handy, give each puzzle an honest try for a few minutes and but when you get that "I killed everything and I'm just lost" feeling, use it without shame

Oh, I'm just talking about the combat when playing as the Mage. Sorry for the confusion.

 

4 hours ago, magicsofa said:

It's actually horribly broken because it goes through enemies. You can use it to pretty much beat the whole game without picking up a single mana or artifact. Tedious and boring for sure, and obviously not much advantage against bosses, but it will cheese through any horde like nothing. The larger the group, the more powerful it becomes.

That's useful to know. It sounds like it at least cuts down on busy work when fighting large groups of enemies.

[UAC guy]

love the gameplay and puzzles, although centuars can get annoying

[leodoom85]

4 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Death Kings of the Dark Citadel (Hexen's mission pack) on the other hand....

The expansion is a bitch. Guaranteed.

Coupled with some trollish traps, if I may add...

[Rudolph]

So if I buy Hexen, I should avoid the expansion?

[Cruduxy Pegg]

Yes the expansion is a shitty map pack and not much else.

[leodoom85]

I think that you should play both the game and the expansion with an open mind, at least once.

It's really unfair to give an opinion of "Nope, not gonna try the whole game" without trying it firsthand.

 

EDIT: Uh...and if you didn't like the original game, some custom wads might interest you. Personally, I recommend Serpent: Resurrection because it has 4 classes with 7 weapons per class, if I'm not mistaken.

[Midnight_00]

7 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

So if I buy Hexen, I should avoid the expansion?

Definitely not from a price standpoint, since you can get the whole series (well, everything that's available digitally) dirt cheap in a bundle during sales. If you have it anyway, you might as well give it a try for yourself. I've yet to complete it, but I've heard mixed opinions.

[Rudolph]

9 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

It's really unfair to give an opinion of "Nope, not gonna try the whole game" without trying it firsthand.

What can I say, I do not like buying games that I end up hating. :S

 

It is not my fault that the Hexen shareware ends before the Guardian of Steel.

[leodoom85]

8 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

What can I say, I do not like buying games that I end up hating. :S

 

It is not my fault that the Hexen shareware ends before the Guardian of Steel.

True that. Well, the demo only contains one half of the whole "puzzle" after what I saw here...(yes, haven't saw the demo myself but I had a much worse experience thanks to the PSX version of Hexen, which THAT you should really avoid to get).

Yes, I think that would be MUCH better if it had like 7 weapons per class instead of giving a weapon in the first, second and third hub. Yup, it sucks but it's what we got.

[Rudolph]

It is disappointing to hear that the Playstation port is this bad, given the good reputation of the Doom port.

[leodoom85]

32 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

It is disappointing to hear that the Playstation port is this bad, given the good reputation of the Doom port.

It is really bad, trust me. Heck, I even made a video if you wanna see it for yourself...

Literally it's like if the game was slowed down for the speed.

 

 

[Rudolph]

Oh, I believed you. It just sucks that they were unable to make a good port like Doom.

[ApprihensivSoul]

5 hours ago, Rudolph said:

So if I buy Hexen, I should avoid the expansion?

5 hours ago, leodoom85 said:

I think that you should play both the game and the expansion with an open mind, at least once.

It's really unfair to give an opinion of "Nope, not gonna try the whole game" without trying it firsthand.

 

EDIT: Uh...and if you didn't like the original game, some custom wads might interest you. Personally, I recommend Serpent: Resurrection because it has 4 classes with 7 weapons per class, if I'm not mistaken.

I agree with this, level/puzzle design the mapset is slightly stronger than the base game. 
However, what it gains in those, it also has issues with balance, being more aimed at endgame players, and constituting a "challenge". It also reuses puzzle content from the base game, though in different ways. So there are perfectly valid reasons people don't enjoy playing it as much. Monster placements are more similar to a Doom or Heretic level, which doesn't work very well with early game (or sometimes lategame) HeXen equipment. But I do earnestly recommend the levels combat aside, they're much more fun to solve than the base game. You might just have to turn down the difficulty to really appreciate it, unless you're like me and like things to be as masochistic as possible.

 

[speedy206]

This topic is timely since I just started a playthrough of Heretic this weekend and intend on playing all the way through Hexen too. Every time I attempted Hexen over the years I just ended up getting lost and frustrated... this time I'm caving and using walkthroughs so I can experience the entire game. Hexen seems to have real atmosphere and design language that draws me in. We'll see how I feel after I make it through all the idTech1 games... if it goes well then I may also take Hexen II and Heretic II for a spin.

[Somniac]

I've always loved Hexen for its dismal, gloomy atmosphere and brilliant soundtrack. Some of the puzzles are a bit "wtf" but just go play Hexen II, see how worse it gets, and the original is a walk in the park next to it.

[dyshoria]

its the most impressive game with the doom engine and i think that it is worth playing. Not only for how impressive it is just how good the levels are and how the game looks. Raven were great devs

 

[leodoom85]

8 hours ago, ApprihensivSoul said:

You might just have to turn down the difficulty to really appreciate it, unless you're like me and like things to be as masochistic as possible.

The difficulty in the game is the least of the problems for the game. The main issue to many players is the vague progression that involves switches, the guess-where-to-go messages and the weapons available (only 4 per class).

[ApprihensivSoul]

5 hours ago, leodoom85 said:

The difficulty in the game is the least of the problems for the game. The main issue to many players is the vague progression that involves switches, the guess-where-to-go messages and the weapons available (only 4 per class).

Oh, I was just referring specifically to Deathkings, my mistake for being unclear. 
All those other problems are present in base HeXen as well, and the puzzles are alot more clear/organic in Deathkings than vanilla (though still kind of arbitrary compared to anything in H2).

But the four weapons, lack of signposting, guesswork are all HeXen standbys. I was just pointing out that if someone is just playing to see what the level and puzzle design are like compared to vanilla, Deathkings is probably best first played on a skill level below the original levels due to how quickly the difficulty ramps up. Otherwise it can be really overwhelming. The four weapons are still definitely a problem, though at least you get them faster in DK.

Thanks for pointing out my communication error, hope my statement is more clear.