[WIP] Sacrilege - Heretic "Remix" Project

[Xaser]

HAPPY NEW YEARS MOTHERFUCKERS it's a HERETIC PROJECT

Heretic is a classic, but many of us in the community agree that it's very rough around the edges compared to Doom. Its map quality varies wildly, with some amazing classics (e.g. Guard Tower and Citadel) interspersed with a lot of forgettable filler. Its gameplay can get a bit monotonous, and all the maps start to blur together since the game barely has enough textures to sustain a single episode's theme... and there are five of them. There's some great stuff in there, but it's stretched too thin, like butter over too much bread, as a certain wise hobbit once said.

All that said, what would the game be like without these flaws? What if every map was as good as Guard Tower, each episode had a visually distinct theme, and the gameplay was polished to a really shine? What if these questions weren't hypothetical but instead part of a secret evil plot to use a Tome of Power on HERETIC.WAD itself?

Time to commit Sacrilege.

This project is essentially a "remix" of Heretic, sitting somewhere between a remake and a remaster. Map-wise, it's a mix of light touch-ups of the Good Stuff(tm), overhauls of the slightly-less-than-good stuff, and a handful of new maps to fill in the gaps, all arranged into thematically distinct episodes. Gameplay-wise, it uses Wayfarer's Tome as its foundation, with a few additional tweaks and tricks up its sleeve, and the maps themselves have been rebalanced to take advantage of all the new goodness (and just be more fun in general). Finally, there's a slew of new & edited textures to actually make each episode (and the maps within) not look like the same damn thing over and over. :P

As a disclaimer, this is mainly a fun personal project rather than an attempt to make "Perfect Heretic Exacly as Raven Ought to have Done" or anything, but I aim to make it much less left-field-crazy than Lost Episode was, for folks who remember that business. :P

 

 

THE MAPS

 

Maps in Sacrilege are divided into 5 episodes of 6+1 maps each, rougly totaling the length of the original Heretic (sans the SotSR add-on). In addition to the 3 original episodes, there are two brand-new ones with new themes, 'cause heck yeah.

The maplist thus far (with some details TBD):

EPISODE 1: City of the Damned -- classic Heretic Episode 1 style, castles n' towns.
- E1M1: Docks
- E1M2: Dungeons
- E1M3: Guard Tower
- E1M4: Cathedral
- E1M5: Crypts
- E1M6: Cataclysm (formerly "Hell's Maw"; renamed to avoid naming confusion)
- E1M0: Graveyard

EPISODE 2: Forsaken Kingdom -- new theme: spooky forests, castles reclaimed by nature, and lots of green overgrowth.
- E2M1: Copse (new map)
- E2M2: Quay (heavily remixed)
- E2M3: Guildhall (formerly "Gatehouse", heavily remixed)
- E2M4: Citadel
- E2M5: Academy of Magick (new guest map! details TBD)
- E2M6: Profaned Keep (new map; perhaps a new boss ;)
- E2M0: Reliquary (new map)

EPISODE 3: Hell's Maw -- fire, twisted iron, ashen brick, and a sprinkling of ice, Because Magic.
- E3M1: Crater
- E3M2: River of Fire
- E3M3: Ice Grotto
- E3M4: Chasm (fiery makeover edition)
- E3M5: Ramparts of Perdition
- E3M6: Portals of Chaos
- E3M0: Glacier

EPISODE 4: The Dome of D'sparil -- underwater palaces, waterlogged dankness, coral (maybe), and obligatory bathroom tiles
- E4M1: Cesspool
- E4M2: Confluence
- E4M3: Azure Fortress
- E4M4: Hydratyr
- E4M5: Colonnade
- E4M6: D'Sparil's Keep (new map, reusing the old name)
- E4M0: Aquifer

EPISODE 5: [NAME TBD] -- the borderlands of the afterlife. dark, evil, red, and bloody.
- E5M1: Sepulcher
- E5M2: Shadowlands (new guest map! details TBD)
- E5M3: Ichor Shrine (formerly E6M2, "Water Shrine" -- a bit more bloody now)
- E5M4: Foetid Manse
- E5M5: Abyssal Gates (new map)
- E5M6: Oblivion (new map)
- E5M0: Mausoleum (with infinitely less bullshit progression :P)

If you don't see your favorite map in the list, never fear... maybe. I have a vague plan for an "expansion pack" consisting of all the maps that didn't make the cut arranged into 3 more episodes (for 8 total, egads!), but no guarantees I'll get around to making it. Perhaps if this one pans out OK, then we'll see, but I'd better not get ahead of myself.

 

 

SCREAMSHOTS

The project's still a pretty heavy work in progress so not all episode themes are represented just yet, but as a teaser, here are some before-and-after screenshots of the Hell's Maw episode to give everyone an idea of what to expect:

More previews to come as I work on more things. ;)

 

 

YE OLDE QUESTIONSE

Q: Why?
A: 'Cause it's fun. This is just something I've wanted to see for a while now, so I figured I'd try my hand at making it.

Q: OK, but "Better Heretic," really? C'mon man, ain't that a bit ego-headed?
A: Despite the cheeky marketing speak above, this really just a fun personal project; even though the rough goal is "improve things", it's still just "Heretic the way Xaser wants to see it" more than "The Definitive Most Objectively Best Heretic Version Ever". Though I'm doing my best to try and identify each map's strengths and bring them out rather than just steamroll everything with my own BS, it's highly likely that a map you love hasn't made the cut or I end up making some changes to something that feel poopy or weird, 'cause that kind of thing is inevitable with these sorts of projects. Do share if you think I ruined a thing though -- this isn't meant to be a pre-emptive deflection of criticism or anything, just an acknowledgment that I'm a goofy bastard with opinions. :P

Q: Why'd you pick map [x] and not [y]?
A: Buncha reasons, which all boil down to "it's how I felt at the time". I may make a longer post later explaining the map choice "process", including the hidden backstory of the project, which may help explain why some maps exist while others don't. If it helps demystify anything, one of my critera was "how easily can/does it fit the episode theme?", and as a result there were a few maps that either got cut or moved to another episode entirely. It's not strictly a "best of" collection, though the "lesser" chosen maps are all getting an overhaul, so in the end it oughta work out... even if that means more work on my plate fixing up a few problem children. :P

Q: I'm seeing a whole lot of red and brown in those "after" screenshots -- where's all the damn color?
A: Most of the work done so far has been on the Hell's Maw episode, so all the preview screenies have a pretty muted color palette. Other episode themes will feature much more color, especially Dome of D'Sparil and the new overgrown-castle-themed Forsaken Kingdom episode. The idea isn't to give each episode a boring monochromatic palette, but the lava-and-iron theme was a perfect fit for the Fire episode so that's what it got. :P

Q: When will this be released?
A: Soon, sorta! It'll be a while before the full project is complete, but I plan on sharing each episode when it gets done-ish and Hell's Maw is getting pretty damn close to completion at the time of writing. Stay tuned, I suppose.

Q: Are you gonna make it so Ice Grotto doesn't have ice directly next to lava?
A: Hell naw. Changing that actually would be sacrilege. :P

That's all for now -- stay tuned for more heretical musings, and comment away!
 

[Marisa the Magician]

Xaser bless.

[Walter confetti]

Impressive, also a very neat idea!

[Thelokk]

Going to pop a vein if I see another ':P' emote but, aside from that, looks interesting. Curious to see what made the cut. 

[ReaperAA]

9 hours ago, Xaser said:

Q: Are you gonna make it so Ice Grotto doesn't have ice directly next to lava?
A: Hell naw. Changing that actually would be sacrilege. :P

 

This was my only concern. Thank you keeping the greatness of Ice Grotto intact.

[Fernito]

I can't wait to play this o_o

[baja blast rd.]

This is cool.

 

6 hours ago, Thelokk said:

Going to pop a vein if I see another ':P' emote but, aside from that, looks interesting. Curious to see what made the cut. 

 

[Thelokk]

16 minutes ago, baja blast rd. said:

This is cool.

 

 

 

Please resize, it's too big to make it my pfp.   

[knifeworld]

Finally, Heretic with more than 3 textures!
The after pics are looking really nice, although I kinda prefer the original sand texture contrasted against the blue water on Portals of Chaos.

[TheHambourgeois]

[Devalaous]

I do hope 'Fates Path' gets to be a full episode in the 'expansion' ;p

 

I've always wanted someone to complete that.

[Kyka]

Xaser? Aaaaaaaaaand Heretic? Together?

 

 

 

I think I just made my first new years resolution.

[Chainie]

OG heretic e1m4 was looking like a Xasermap with all circles and clean layout. Now we can see actual Xasermaps in Heretic. Hooray! 

[NeoWorm]

I am not a huge fan of Wayfarer's tome, it's "ballance" makes Heretic even more like DooM reskin than it was before. But otherwise I look forward to this.

[Rudolph]

Sweet! I have mixed feelings about Heretic as well, so I am definitely going to keep an eye on this project.

 

Especially if it is at the very least on par with The Lost Episode! :D

[roadworx]

oh, neat, right as i start playing heretic for the first time ever

 

can't wait to see what comes of this!!

[LadyMistDragon]

15 hours ago, Thelokk said:

Going to pop a vein if I see another ':P' emote but, aside from that, looks interesting. Curious to see what made the cut. 

Xaser's a total nerd unfortunately....you may have figured that out from his nirvana interview....

[Xaser]

Belated thanks, y'all! Taking me a bit longer than expected to get the first (er, second... no wait, third) episode ready for release 'cause there's yet another Heretic project that's been eating a bunch of my attention -- more on that later I guess? WTF I'm dual wielding.

 

re: maps making the cut or not, the maplist is in the OP for those who don't mind the spoilers. Fate's Path itself would've been a tricky one to try and turn into a theme since it really did feel like a series of outtakes (one proper map, one doom reskin, and a gimmicky 4th-wall-breaker), but they'll all show up somewhere if I ever get around to the expansion and one of the maps was cool enough to make it into the set proper, so there's that at least. :P

 

Anyhow, while I'm here, have some more screenshots of Ice Grotto:

 

 

This was a fun one to work on -- it's arguably the most iconic map from Hell's Maw, but its construction is frankly rather primitive. Certainly not short on cool ideas though, so it was fun to work with, though I did go pretty ham with the ending of the level to try and make the secret exit a bit more interesting than just a random hole in the wall (and up the cool factor of the famous "eye room").

 

Relatedly, here's automap screenshot showing off the aforementioned greeble -- forgive the Doom colors; the editor's not called Ultimate Heretic Builder, I guess. :P
 

[Ludi]

As someone who hates Heretic and has no water in this discussion, neat!

 

I think this looks more like Hexen than a "Remastered Heretic" but that's a-okay by me because I love Hexen.

[Xaser]

It's kinda hard to muck with Heretic without infringing on Hexen's territory since the games share so much DNA, but I'm trying to avoid using Hexen textures for the most part, since a lot of Heretic projects simply just pull in Hexen's graphics and turn the aesthestic into a sort of generic "Raven mush". Though I say that and a few snuck in anyhow -- those twisty skull columns were hard to resist. :P

 

That said, yeah, at a very basic level if you were to give Heretic's mappers a bunch more textures and go "hey make some new stuff"... you'd get exactly Hexen. :P

[Marisa the Magician]

My oh my... owo

[BouncyTEM]

Loving this version of Ice Grotto, Xaser.

[Gez]

13 hours ago, Xaser said:

That said, yeah, at a very basic level if you were to give Heretic's mappers a bunch more textures and go "hey make some new stuff"... you'd get exactly Hexen. :P

Nah, to get Hexen you need to also ask them to make the gameplay about 25% plinking away at hitsponges, 75% switch-hunting, and also to be sure to reduce the pacing to about 1% of Heretic's speed.

 

13 hours ago, Xaser said:

since a lot of Heretic projects simply just pull in Hexen's graphics and turn the aesthestic into a sort of generic "Raven mush".

Shadowcaster's too. And why not, I love Raven mush; it's delicious. They had a very distinctive pixel art style back then, which I find just looks great.