HeXen: Beyond Heretic, which was Raven Software’s second trip into the Serpent Riders saga, was, admittedly, an impressive piece of old-school FPS software, but, while it managed to add lots of new stuff to the recipe… just wasn’t fun. The right thing to do? Well, just repeat the whole thing all over, of course! Continuing with Cubed3’s “celebration” of HeXen II‘s 20th anniversary, here’s HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, the expansion of the original HeXen.
This will be short. Anyone wanting to know all about the base game, can simply go to the original HeXen review, as this will mostly focus on what this add-on has to offer… which is nothing. No, really, this adds nothing new. The basic concept is, once again, this: choose amongst three different character classes, and then start crushing skulls and taking names later, and, of course, search. Search. Every. Single. Pixel!
Like the original, the availability of three different classes, and the abundance of various items that can be used to make the lives of those nice monsters that inhabit this dark fantasy land a little harder, is thrown out of the window. Whether one prefers the up-close-and-personal style of the fighter over the ranged weaponry of the mage, the core of the gameplay revolves, once more, around searching around for keys, levers, and buttons.
In other words: it sucks. Of course, that’s the opinion of this lowly reviewer, so, for those willing to try this out, the only thing that these fine people need to know is that Deathkings of the Dark Citadel is just harder than the original. Not, as hard as The Ultimate Doom compared to Doom, or Shadow of the Serpent Riders compared to Heretic, but hard nonetheless.
I wasn’t a fan of the original Hexen (I preferred the linear nature of levels in Doom/Heretic).
However, years later I’m playing this as an adult and I love it! I got used to using the Map so I wasn’t wandering aimlessly before getting bored (admittedly for one part I’ve used a walkthrough but if you can swallow your pride that’s fine).
Once I complete it, I’m going to give the original Hexen another chance. I think the use of items gives it a bigger dimension to the original Doom games.
It does have its own unique charm – I gave it plenty of chances throughout my life, though, and its just isn’t for me. Still glad u like it!
Fair enough, did you like Heretic? I personally think it’s better than the original Doom games.
Also have you tried the recent 2022 Hexen expansion?
I’ve covered like 99% of all these titles here 🙂
For a year or so I thought that Heretic was better than Doom, but after 100.000 hours in Doom it still remains my favourite game of all time