Posted on: March 12, 2023
pzogel
Bestätigter BesitzerSpiele: 442 Rezensionen: 63
Guilty pleasure
First off, there are two main ways to play these games. Either through the BuildGDX source port, which does an excellent job bringing these games into the current year, or through the enhanced DOSBox build bundled with this collection, which has almost all of the important community fixes already integrated and runs fairly stable. Personally, I prefer the latter, as Witchaven is the type of game you want to experience in all of its pixelated, low-resolution glory. While thematically similar to Heretic and Hexen at first glance, Witchaven plays quite differently compared to these games. There is a heavy emphasis on melee combat, and progression through each level is entirely based around finding keys and ultimately the exit, while avoiding often deadly traps. Outside of a select few enemies capable of firing projectiles, most foes are restricted to melee attacks, and they often don't even chase after the player or move around much. Hence, once the maximum experience level has been hit, simply running past everyone is perfectly possible. The actual challenge comes from finding the keys and exits, which are often hidden in the most obscure places. The level design is actually quite varied, but never exceeds anything that would've been just as possible in the Doom engine. The exception are two vertical levels in Witchaven II, which happen to be the most annoying levels of them all. What sets Witchaven apart is the atmosphere. The first one in particular has some nice music, the sound effects are cool, and the environments are eerie and dark throughout. That said, be ready to deal with jank, a lot of jank. The second Witchaven in particular is quite buggy, and running against certain level objects at the wrong angle is enough to corrupt the memory for the remainder of a session. And don't jump towards barrels in the first game, lest you levitate towards the ceiling and stay there for good. So, are these games good? No. And yet, I couldn't help but finish them.
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