Hexen

First-person shooters can come and go, but who can argue that it was id Software's games (the Doom series) that paved the way for others to follow? Hexen is one of those games. Utilizing the Doom engine on the PC, Hexen brought new features and characteristics to the genre. Now, the game will be treated to a nice facelift courtesy of the Nintendo 64's excellent hardware capabilities.

Hexen is no ordinary Doom clone. You won't find shotguns, rocket launchers or chain guns here. Hexen takes place in a fantasy, medieval setting, where cold steel and powerful magic separate the strong from the weak. Your adventures will take you through ancient castles and dark dungeons. You will meet demons, wizards and other mystical creatures that may make Hexen look more like a fantasy role-playing adventure than a first-person shooter.

When you start the game, you will be given a choice of what character you would like to play as. Your decision will affect several factors, from how much damage you can take and inflict to what weapons and artifacts you'll be able to utilize. You can choose a warrior (a stereotypical strong, but slow fighter), a mage (a physically weak, but magically powerful character) or a cleric (a happy medium between the other two).

Each class has its own unique set of items to use throughout the game. This may help replay value tremendously. For example, the initial weapon that each player starts with will be either a pair of steel-gloved fists (warrior), a magical staff that offers a weak-ranged attack (mage) or a spiked mace (cleric). All of the stronger weapons to be found later in the game are also unique to each character class.

To make things even more interesting, common items have different effects, depending on which character is using it. The green potion, for example, can be an explosive concoction in the hands of the warrior, or can be dropped to form a floating poisonous gas cloud when used by the cleric.

Little changes like these help make Hexen a much more interesting experience than you get with the average Doom game.

Add to this a Four-player Split-Screen Mode (see sidebar) plus the N64's graphical prowess, and you have an aging game that may be worth looking at again.

Gamer's EDGE

So does four-player deathmatching work on a single TV screen? After all, knowing where your opponents are can defeat the whole purpose of deathmatching in the first place (which is the reason why Midway isn't planning on including a Multiplayer Mode in Doom 64). But why not include it? The N64 easily supports it. and any Doom-type game certainly warrants it.

The action can get fast and furious. Make sure to pick up power-ups and new weapons as soon as possible. The only thing you will have to keep in mind is that you can’t pick up every weapon you see. As we mentioned in the article, certain weapons are for specific classes only.

WELL, WADDYA KNOW? AN N64 game that's actually coming out in the UK within an eon of its initial release on import! Unfortunately, you can't help wishing that this particular game had been delayed in transit indefinitely, because it's Hexen.

We reviewed Hexen last issue, and our opinion of it hasn't changed. No, that's a lie. Our opinion has changed... for the worse, because in the meantime Goldeneye has come along to show just how a four-player shoot-'em-up should be done. Rare's game makes Hexen look even more pathetic and risible than it did already.

Hexen is basically a swords-and-sorcery version of Doom, with magic wands instead of rocket launchers, which is a point against it from the off. The main differences between Doom and Hexen, leaving aside the obvious fact that the former is ten times more fun to play, is that Hexen has a choice of three characters (a burly fighter, a caped cleric and a sinister yet rather camp mage), who have the ability to look up and down and jump over gaps. The last two might sound rather basic, but Doom never managed to include them...

Hex Maniacs

However, such cosmetic fripperies can't save Hexen. The game looks atrocious, most of the time being way too dim and murky to see what's going on, and is populated by some of the most boring, unimaginative and stupid-looking monsters this side of Lost In Space. Even the straightforward simplicity of Doom's gameplay has been compromised by annoying level design, which requires you to go back and forth over the same bits over and over again. This 'hub' feature is supposedly a major selling point. Yeah, maybe on Planet Barmey! The multi-player mode is another massive disappointment; each screen is tiny, which is pretty much par for the course, but the resolution of the graphics has been lowered still further (which, considering how bad the regular one-player levels look, is quite a feat) so that each player's window is a dark, blurred and jerky mess of ill-defined blobs. Is that another player? Is it a monster? Is it a wall? It's hard to tell, and after a few minutes of play it's hard to care either.

With a PAL release of Goldeneye not far distant, you'd have to be insane (or have a genuine hatred of James Bond) to buy Hexen rather than waiting a little longer for an infinitely better game.

PUT YOURSELF IN THIS position. You're hurrying through a load of dark corridors. Suddenly something evil with bigger teeth than Esther Rantzen's pet shark jumps out at you. Which would rather have in your hands? A six-barrelled Gatling gun that fires 300 flesh-ripping rounds per minute? Or a little stick that goes 'pth'?

In Hexen, the bad news is that you don't have a choice. It's little sticks that go 'pth' all round, or big sticks with bits of metal stuck on the end. For this is set in the fabulous world of fantasy role-playing! (Not my particular brand of fantasy role-playing, I've got to tell you. Mine usually involves blondes and baby oil, not beardy men with cloaks and hygiene problems.)

Hexen first appeared on the PC as a sequel to Heretic, a Dungeons and Dragons-style game using the Doom game engine. Like Doom, it's now been translated to the N64, but unlike Doom 64, which was written from scratch with new levels and updated graphics, Hexen is pretty much a direct port. Was the PC original strong enough for GT Interactive to get away with this cheap approach? Read on!

Unlike Doom, where you were a Space Marine whether you liked it or not, in Hexen you can 'be' one of three characters – a fighter, a cleric or a mage (see boxout). It doesn't make much difference which one you pick, as the levels seem to be identical no matter who you decide to play as. The only visible differences are the weapons – each character has a total of four. As this is fantasy rather than sci-fi, you get various clubs, cudgels, axes and hands with weird magical energy crackling over them, which sounds cool but turns out to be a hell of a lot less fun than the BFG9000.

The villain that these weapons are meant to be used against is Korax. Is he a Klingon or a brand of drain cleaner? Neither of these – in fact he's a skeletal demon who controls the Chaos Sphere, which has let him take over the land of Hexen and turn it into a haven for evil. Just another day in Fantasy Land. As the only remaining hero in the land, it's down to you to battle your way through the 31 levels of Hexen and sort out Korax so you can claim the Chaos Sphere and set the world right again.

OASIS? NO, BLUR

First impressions of the game aren't very promising. It looks a lot like Doom, all dingy stone and muddy brown colours, and the gloomy graphics make it hard to see what's going on. This is a game you should really play at night – not because it's more atmospheric, but because the slightest light reflecting off the TV screen makes it totally impossible to play. The textures themselves are picked from a limited selection as well. At least Doom had all sorts of sci-fi gadgetry and satanic symbols to liven things up, but Hexen is stuck with about three colours of rock – grey, brown and a slightly different brown – repeated endlessly through the levels like some depressive's wallpaper pattern. Like FIFA 64, Hexen makes lousy use of the N64's graphics smoothing talents, wall textures getting more blurred the closer you get to them. Maybe the fighter, cleric and mage are all long-sighted? Other games have near this bad. The problem can be overcome – sort of – with the game's monsters (or the other players in deathmatch mode), but the alternative isn't any better. You can choose what graphics mode the monsters are displayed in – Lego brick chunky, or so blurred you think you're developing cataracts. Either way, they're bad on the eyes. And even if they weren't they still would be, if you get what I mean, because it's hard to think of a more boring set of enemies, painted in colours straight out of the Dulux Mental Hospital Swatch.

Your basic enemy is a sort of two-headed ogre (brown), which lumbers around like a fool trying to club you to death. After them, you'll come across. spindly lizardmen (greeny-brown) whose heads look far too large for their bodies, evil mermen (greeny-brown), sword-swinging centaurs (brown), nasty wizards (green with purple bits), flaming bats (black with singed edges) and not really a lot else. Think of all the amazing monsters from mythology that we could have had, and we get this pathetic menagerie! There's no attempt to give the monsters any kind of intelligence either – they just charge at you on sight, trying to wear you down by force of numbers. Very soon, your more powerful weapons will run out of energy, leaving you with the basic fists/club/wand, and at that point you'll die because they're all rubbish.

KILL YOUR FRIENDS

However, if this scabby bunch of losers isn't good enough for you, there's always another scabby bunch of losers you can play against – your mates. Hexen has a multi-player deathmatch mode, which can support up to four players, splitting the screen into sections like Mario Kart. In this mode, the graphics automatically default to low-detail mode, though the only real difference is that the monsters are even more blurred than before.

Here's a weird thing, though. Doom, which at heart was always a multi-player experience, came to the N64 in one-player-only form. Hexen, on the other hand, has loads of teleporters, puzzle rooms and twisty little mazes full of monsters, ideal for the lone player to hack through. And what does it get? Four-player deathmatches. Duh-huh! Something the wrong way round here.

With the screen chopped into four smaller bits, the already fuzzy graphics get even worse – when you get close to a monster or another player, they're so blurred they're almost unrecognisable. There's also a shedload of jerkiness when all four players are running around – this would be almost forgivable, except that the same thing often happens in one-player mode! Considering the amount of power the N64 has inside it, there's no excuse for this problem. In deathmatch (or co-operative play, but that's not nearly as much fun), you can choose whether or not to have monsters as well as the other players. It's usually a better idea to have no monsters, as that way you can be sure anything you see moving is an opponent rather than a glitch.

Unlike Doom, where anybody can grab any weapon, the different weapons for each character in Hexen are scattered around in different locations. If everybody is playing as the same character (for example, the fighter) this isn't a problem, but otherwise it's possible for the first player to grab a decent power-up to snatch up the other characters' good weapons (even though he can't actually use them) and keep on wiping everyone else out before they can fight back. As the mage is the only character whose basic weapon (the wand) can cause damage from a distance, fighters and clerics can have a big disadvantage on some levels. If two or more people play as the same character, they aren't even colour-coded, so without asking you won't even know who you just killed.

Playing in deathmatch isn't anywhere near as exciting as it should be, because the basic game itself is so bland. Pointing a stick at somebody and watching them pop like bubblegum full of ketchup may have the same effect as doing it with a shotgun, but you just don't get the same “Die, you bastard!” vibe from it. The same thing happens when you kill a monster in the regular game – they all explode and scatter their guts around the place in what should be a satisfying way, but they're so boring to fight against you couldn't care less.

BRICK IN THE WALL

The levels in Hexen don't do much to liven things up. Apart from being blandly textured, as mentioned earlier, the design isn't very inspiring as the creators chose to make them 'realistic'. Thing is, there's realistic and there's realistic. Duke Nukem has some 'realistic' levels in that they have familiar elements in them (cinemas, bookshops, city streets, nightclubs), but they still have fantastical features to keep things interesting. Hexen, on the other hand, just has loads of crypts and castles with the occasional moving floor or sliding wall. Oh be still my beating heart. There's nothing to match the architectural insanity of Doom's better levels – Hexen's maps are so uninspiring you might as well be wandering round Tescos. Even worse is a reliance on deathtraps, fatal falls and leaps across tiny platforms with lava beneath to add difficulty. It's cheap, it's cheesy and it's crap! Pack it in!

The gameplay style of 'collect the keys and kill the monsters' is a fairly old one, but it's still possible to make it interesting – Quake on the PC did it in style, and the upcoming Goldeneye on the N64 looks set to revitalise the genre for consoles. Unfortunately, Hexen just totally fails to do anything new or even vaguely interesting with the idea. All it ever was was Doom in greaves, and an inferior version of Doom at that. Why it was ever shunted across to the N64 is a complete mystery, because we expect a lot more for the amount of dosh we have to shell out for carts.

THIS LITTLE PIGGY

There are two things that are good about Hexen. One is the cleric's top weapon, which when fired makes like the Lost Ark and sends spirits flying around the room to rip any monsters standing there to shreds. The other is the spell which turns your enemies into pigs so you can slaughter them in a way which would cause Linda McCartney to burst into tears. Apart from that, it's mediocrity all the way. Doom 64 wasn't a particularly great game, but at least the programmers made the effort to spruce it up a bit for the Nintendo. Hexen can't even be bothered to do that. It's just a blurred PC port which is likely to send Horlicks instead of adrenaline pumping through your veins! Not even the ropy four-player mode can save it. It looks like anybody wanting a decent first-person shoot-'em-up on the N64 is going to have to wait for Goldeneye, because Hexen is about as magical as a wet evening in Grimsby with Paul Daniels!

Hang on a mo'. How can we have a sequel to Heretic when the first game never actually came out in the shops? What's going on? Have iD and Raven just copped out, called it quits and started again? Well, for those of you who've been looking out for Heretic but don't really know what happened to it - it was actually a product that you could only obtain by using two methods:

A Registering the shareware version B Sending off for it via mail order.

Either way, it was an overbearingly average game and, not surprisingly, no one went gooey over it. Our ever-witty and devastatingly knowledgeable reviewer (well, okay, Macca) awarded the game 78% when we got our hands on the thing, and basically concluded that he'd rather play Doom. The fact that he'd rather play Doom than rub baby oil all over Cindy Crawford is beside the point. The point is, this was a game that relied on iD's Doom engine and er, sort of didn't quite work out.

So what's the point of a sequel?

Everything's different now though. The Heretic name has been shed in favour of the new Hexen moniker, and the boys at iD and Raven have come up with something which is hoped will truly do justice to the idea that Doom would be really rather good if you turned it into a fantasy rpg sort of thing.

As with any game that relies on fantasy elements, Hexen is chock-full of people with silly names with nowhere enough vowels in them. As with the original game, all of the action takes place in a world where the forces of magic prevail and evil beings dominate. Korax, the new bad guy, is yet another of the Serpent Riders (just as D'Sparil, the bad bloke in Heretic was) but he's quite confident that he's significantly more powerful than all that have gone before him. In an attempt to assert his dominance, Korax has tried to enslave all of humanity, and has succeeded thus far with the exception of three warrior heroes.

As you can probably guess, when you enter the world of Hexen, you can choose which of these warriors you want to be and then run around beating up monsties in the style of your choice. As with 'normal' rpgs the three classes of warrior have differing abilities and these vary from the out and out toughness of the Warrior, who predictably is expert ar beating people up, to the mysterious Mage who is a bit of a girlie pouf who lobs pretty-looking spells at people from a long distance. Obviously for the Librans among you who can't decide between brawn and magic there's the Cleric, who's a bit good at magic and has the ability to put up a reasonable fight if the opportunity arises.

Whatever you choose though, the addition of these classes of character adds a number of elements to the gameplay. Obviously there's the fact that Raven is keen to turn Hexen/ Heretic into something more akin to a 'real' rpg and secondly there are the netplay implications. Throwing yourself into a Deathmatch situation in which there are a variety of different styles of fighting means that the whole thing has the potential to be, well, a bit more fun. The Warriors can stomp in beating the crap out of everything while the Mages can hide behind a tree and wave their arms around a bit.

New bits

As you'd expect, this isn't just a new storyline with a few extra poncey characters. No, Hexen is quite an exciting prospect at the moment as it is our first glimpse at a next-generation Doom engine. The chaps at GT Interactive are keen to impress that the Hexen 3D engine isn't just a rehash of the Doom/Heretic system. What we have instead is a hybrid of Doom mixed with some of the new ideas found in Quake.

Excited yet? Okay, so it's not the full SVGA monty with all the flash stuff that we talked about at length in our Quake feature last month, but what it does have is a whole new array of graphical goodies which include transparent smoke (a la Magic Carpet), new lighting effects, fuzzy wobbly bits and (gasp!) dynamic scenery. Yep, now you can run around among the trees and admire the autumnal effects of tumbling leaves. Ah. To be honest, these little extras make a tremendous difference and prove that the engine is progressing with each new release we see from the Doom boys.

Obviously, aside from the graphical effects there are all sorts of new weapons to play around with and, unlike previous games from iD, these are charged up using Magic Carpet-style Mana. And it's interesting that one of the basic weapons on offer is a dirty great big Thor-style war hammer. Hmm... wonder where that idea came from? Maybe Hexen is closer to Quake than we all think?

Coming soon

What is most surprising about the announcement of Hexen is that it's actually very nearly finished. The version that we saw for this particular Blueprint was very stable indeed, even if it included only a couple of levels. It certainly looked very impressive and was considerably more playable than Heretic. Quite what the finished game will be like still remains to be seen, but we're looking forward to seeing it -there's a very good chance that this could end up being 'Doom-in-Tights' good and proper.

As we pointed out in our rather fab booklet attached to the November issue, Hexen is easily the most effective development of the Doom engine so far. By blending some cool elements from the less cerebral side of role-playing with the high-speed blastarama that makes Doom so thrilling, Hexen: Beyond Heretic (to give it its full title) is one of the most playable games we've seen this year. Having said that though... ah, there's a problem; you see, the game suffers from a few bugs which tend to trap you in certain sections of the map as well as behave in a very odd way from time to time (as our freelance art bod, David, found out when he was playing the game very late one night in the office). It's still bloody playable, but it can be a little bit temperamental as well.

On top of the erratic bug problems, unless you are an absolute Macca and know all the intricacies of Doom like you know the way to your own underpants drawer, it can get a bit difficult in places, especially when playing some of the ninja levels.

N64 corridor-shooter fans now have more than Doom 64 and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter to blast away the time. With intense exploration and monster-slaying, Hexen--a quirky dungeon-crawler--may be just what you're looking for.

Hexen is based on a popular Doom spinoff for the PC. Although the PlayStation and Saturn versions (released earlier this year) were laughable with their pixelated graphics and immense slowdown, this version slays uglies with finesse and smoothness. That's not to say it's without its faults--the N64 version still looks dark and dingy, and the (limited array of monsters is blurry enough to give you vertigo when you get close.

Although not as polished as Turok or as fun and creepy as Doom 64, Hexen gives you three characters to choose from, and the action's addicting once you get into it. Hexen serves up the monsters medium rare, but still feeds you a full-course dinner.

Graphics

The enemies blend into the backgrounds too easily, and there's little variety in the lineup. Still, the game has minimal slowdown, and the gore factor is impressively high.

Sound

Moans, groans, and breaking bones all come through with clarity. Some audio clues throw you off track, however, like wailing demons that never materialize.

Control

The analog controller allows freedom of movement, including the ability to look up and down, a definite necessity in this exploration-intense game. Tricky jumps and the annoyance of not seeing drop-offs temper the rating.

Fun Factor

Though not as interesting as Turok or as solid as Doom 64, Hexen is still a good effort. Corridor crazies everywhere are sure to be bewitched by Hexen.

The sword-and-sorcery corridor-shooter Hexen joins Doom as another PC-to-n64 release. Instead of presenting new levels and monsters as Doom 64 does, Hexen casts the same 30 levels as the PC version, but with sharper graphics tor the monsters and smoother gameplay. The addition of the four-way split-screen mode where a quartet of players can engage in a death match or in a cooperative game sweetens this Hexen. The preview version controlled adequately, but the frame rate tended to dip, especially during the four-player death match, resulting in choppy visuals. Hopefully, the game will overcome these hexes before it hits in June.

Gamers may think that to deal effectively with the occult, special magic must be used (i.e., eye of newt, etc.), but in Hexen, players can simply use a giant sword to slash the opponent in two. After all, it is more effective.

Although the version of Hexen that we have is early, fans of the PC version should be pleased to see it coming to the consoles. The PlayStation version is to be no different (as far as levels go) than the computer version. Obviously the graphics are supposed to be enhanced when the final version comes through.

Those who are familiar with the Doom series know what Hexen is like-a first-person action shooter that has lots of weapons and texture-mapped graphics (but they aren't polygons like the upcoming Quake). The medieval motif of Hexen makes for some interesting textures on the walls as well as some meanlooking enemies.

Hexen is much different than many first-person games that are out now-or even that are to be released. The game has an RPG/adventure element that is unique. First there are three types of characters a gamer can choose to control: the fighter, the mage and the cleric. Check the Gamer's Edge for each of these characters' weapons.

Players can find items and artifacts to use later on. Unlike Doom and similar games which do not allow gamers to "save up" health or magic power-ups, Hexen allows players to store these for later use.

There is a whole array of various power-ups that players can obtain. Some include the mana increase that replenishes a gamer's magic power for later use and the Winged Bat Amulet which allows players to fly for a short period of time.

There are also artifacts that gamers can find throughout Hexen that are necessary in completing the game. These include gems and pieces of the ultimate weapon (which differs for each of the characters a player chooses). Check the sidebar on the items and artifacts for more info.

Players start in a wide open area that has many doors and rooms to explore. The evil leader of the enemies appears to tell gamers that they will die a horrible death if they continue. Obviously the programmers of the game don't want gamers to stop there! At first not all the rooms are open, but as levels are completed, these doors do open in a particular order. The levels are connected by portal warps. These allow players to travel back and forth from level to level, finding new open areas or possibly secrets. Jumping from level to level is key in Hexen since a switch in one opens the door in another.

The enemies in Hexen are many. They range from two-headed monsters to flying flame-throwing bats and everything in between-big and small. Besides monsters, there are traps to foil gamers plans. Overall, there are plenty of things to stop gamers from completing the game but with fat weapons that keep on pumping, who minds?

Players may be disgusted with the plethora of Doom-ish games out right now, but Hexen provides something a little different. That may be a good switch for fans of first-person action titles. Whatever the case may be, Hexen is a much more effective way to take care of evil instead of those darned lizard tongues potions or other spells.

This is one of id Software's last first-person shooters using the original Doom engine. Hexen is basically a Doom game that takes place in the medieval world of swords and magic.

Hexen has many more features than Doom has. First off you'll be able to select one of three characters: a fighter, a mage and a cleric.

Each character will have weapons and special weapons unique to the class. Magical potions that are found in each level will behave differently. depending on who you are playing.

Besides that, the levels and creatures are well done, fitting the medieval and mystical mood of the game perfectly. Doom fans should thoroughly enjoy this great title.

A Dungeons & Dragons-style take on Doom, though unlike Doom 64, Hexen hasn't been updated from its PC roots. This means blocky graphics, an abundance of nasty brown textures making everything blend together on screen and no real thrills. Play the four-player game and you'll think someone's rubbed Bisto into your eyeballs, such is the fuzzy brown-ness.

With Doom enthusiasts likely to find themselves spoilt for choice come the end of the year - Doom 64 itself, Final Doom 2, Turok 2, Quake 64 and GoldenEye 007 are all at various stages of development -- a breath of fresh air is plainly needed. And cloud-swallowing PC smash Hexen may well have a crate already bottled.

The main reason is its four-player splitscreen mode, where said four competitors can compete against each other head-to-head.The set-up went down a storm on the PC and has already proven similarly successful in early tests on the N64. 70% complete versions, however, did suffer some horrendous slow-down, so with the game nearing completion it's hoped that's been fully sorted out.

Across the fair seas, the US are hoping to see Hexen in June and a European release may well follow fairly shortly after.And with its 31 medieval levels and corpse-filled dungeons already looking up to scratch, hopes are high for the N64's third first-person shoot-'em-up.

Risible port of a feeble PC Doom clone, in the running for a 'Most Blurred Graphics' award. Trudging gameplay and dull enemies.

Sadly, exactly the same as its elderly PC mum. Still fun in a retro kind of way but. in the light of GoldenEye. hard to recommend.

Doom is back, but this time it's gone all medieval!

Hexen is due to bound onto the Nintendo 64 this summer, with one particular plus which makes it worth a look: four player, splits-screen blast-'em-up action. Okay; at first it's pretty confusing (and the general graphics of Hexen look as though they need tidying up) but once you get the hang of this role-playing shooter, it's a great deal of fun.

As far as the game Itself goes, the 75% complete version doesn't seem to have much that you can't find more of elsewhere. As in Doom 64, levels are all polygonal, but the enemies are 2-D sprites and not especially attractive ones at that. The 31 levels are exactly the same as last year's PC version.

Gameplay-wise this does entail more brain-power. As well as the usual panoply of weapons there are a multitude of spells with which you need to familiarise yourself. And, as a player you can take on the persona of Mage, Warrior or Cleric.

Development house Software Creations has made the most of the Nintendo 64. The special effects can be found in the enemy and object sprites which have been mip-mapped and anti-aliased. There's also an element of fogging where use has been made of the transparency hardware (although this seems to have become pretty much obligatory among N64 developers now).

There's also fun to be had in certain levels where you are able to fly; and it's always worth crashing into the game's furniture in order to see what's behind a fake wall or stained glass window. In that respect exploration is more intriguing than in other games based on id's Doom engine.

But, for us the major excitement will be the ability to frag your pals on screen which means that, despite some reservations about this in pure one-player terms, it's going to be one of the multi-player hits of this year.

Prospects: Doom was a bit flat, but hexen could well take the first person crown. Don't forget Duke Nukem and Quake though.

Overview

Another hit PC title has made its way to your humble little Playstation. The basic game engine has been carried over, along with all of the action that made the PC version a success. Prepare to battle through vast levels and sub-levels, killing anything and everything that stands in your path.

The story of Hexen is two pages long and, although interesting enough, can be summed up by saying you are one of only three humans alive. You must battle your way through huge worlds and plenty of enemies to reach Korax, the Serpent rider. Beat him and turn the world around. Time to be a hero!

Gameplay

I have heard of Hexen on the PC for quite a long time, but I don't play PC games very often. So I didn't even know what type of game it was. Was it an adventure game? A first-person shooter? A fighting game? Yes, it turns out to be all of these. Hexen is best described as a first-person adventure game that, depending on which of the three selectable characters you choose, uses more short range weapons (clubs, fists, etc.) than a typical corridor shooter. There are no plasma guns; instead, Hexen has magical staffs that shoot fire balls. The game focuses more on puzzle solving and switch tripping than all out assaults on the bad guys. Of course there are plenty of bad guys to beat up on, but this is only one aspect of the game. The gameplay reminded me of Kings Field II.

A big part of the appeal of Hexen is the ability to select from three different characters to try fulfilling the quest. Each of the three characters are quite different from one another. You can play as Baratus, a strong, fast warrior who specializes in close combat. You can also try to beat the evil Korax with Daedolon, a physically weak sorcerer. What he lacks in physical strength, however, he makes up for in magical attacks. The final character is Parias. He is a cross between the other two characters and is probably the best character to start the game with.

Before I continue on, I must issue a warning. If you do decide to purchase this game, you may as well buy another memory card that is solely for this game. A standard memory card has 15 blocks available and Hexen uses all 15. It is also not a progressive usage either. If you take one step into the game and save it, you are looking at 15 blocks. And it doesn't matter how far into the game you are, saving still takes 15 blocks. The reason I bring this up is that Hexen is a big game that, unless you really have no life, you will not finish in one sitting. You will want to save the game and come back to it.

I mentioned above that Hexen is a combination of a number of different genres. I think that the setting and combat styles give it an almost role-playing aspect. Don't get me wrong. This is not Legend of Zelda or Suikoden by any stretch of the imagination, but it does have that type of a feel. For example, each character starts the game with different strength and armor. As you progress, your armor levels increase, and you build yourself up and become stronger.

One thing I did not like about Hexen was the monotony. You will experience the old cliche "been there, done that" feeling more than once. There are quite a few new areas to be discovered, but there are also some rehashed rooms along the way. I will give credit to the developers on one large point: they open up the worlds of Hexen instead of limiting the game to dark, dank corridors.

Graphics

From a graphics point of view, these types of games have always been rough around the edges. Hexen is no different. Pixelization is a problem as you get too close to enemies or walls. Most games hide this by dark lighting and, on occasion, Hexen does the same. On a more positive note, the enemies are all creative and do look good from a step or two back. All of the worlds look good and there was no mistaking doors or switches. If there was something you needed to interact with, it was obvious. This is not always the case in this type of game. On the whole, the graphics are about par for the course.

Bottom Line

I enjoyed Hexen for what it was. I can't really call it anything new, even though in many respects it is. I could not really call it revolutionary, but that does not mean it is not fun. I could not call it eye candy but that does not mean that the graphics were poor. I could not really call it a bad game because it isn't.

Hexen features a unique blend of Doom-like first-person corridor shooting and role-playing elements, but loose controls and choppy graphics hex the game.

Placed in a medieval sword-and-sorcery setting, you choose from one of three warriors--a cleric, a warrior, or a mage-each with different attributes. The three fighters lend variety as each is equipped with spells and weapons that get more powerful during the game.

The visuals and audio are a mixed lot. Graphically, there are some arresting elements like fiery skies and blowing leaves. Moving through the surroundings, however, is a slow, choppy affair with heavy pixel-ization on the enemy monsters. The music is innocuous, but the sound effects provide a variety of screams, grunts, and groans.

The controls are pretty responsive but you sometimes slide while running and while jumping from narrow platforms--causing you to lose a life very easily.

Hexen is worth a rental, but in the court of other corridor shooters like Doom, Pow-erslave, and Disruptor, it's a pauper's offering.