Hexen II

And not only a classic Hexen II was ahead of its time in many ways. First things first: Hexen II is hardcore! There is no auto-map, not even any map at all, no auto-heal, no auto-save, and of course, no quest marker. The game is challenging and demands your full attention even to the seemingly smallest detail. But Hexen II always plays fair. It gives you plenty of hints and tips. You 'only' have to read them and keep them in mind. Sounds more straightforward than it is. You can choose between four different characters, each of them packed with four unique weaponry. So you have plenty of replay value. The art of chaining puzzles together was almost as creative as in many point-and-click-adventures. And this is an FPS game. Imagine that! There aren't any simple locking mechanisms like red and blue key cards. You have to obtain the source ingredient for an item first, process it with the matching machine, and polish it once more with another device before you get the desired object that opens the magically sealed door. Artistically, Hexen II is excellent. Of course, the visuals don't stand up to modern-day shooters. No wonder, since it is almost 25 years old. But the art design is creative, so it still holds up. The map design and soundtrack complete the dense and remarkable atmosphere. The atmosphere is so intense that I remember many details after not playing the game for at least 10, maybe even 15 years. That speaks for itself. To me, those years around the millennium turn were the golden age of FPS gaming. Many great shooters came afterward, but by far not in that quantity, quality, and short time range. And to me, Hexen II holds up to the kings of that era, like, for example, Half-Life, Unreal, or Quake. If you love FPS gaming, you have to give Hexen II a try. You will love it.

Fast paced combat in close quarters, enemies get more spongy and faster as you advance, the puzzles are more complex than in the first game. There is no map, no journal, and you can only see the key items you are carrying, but any hints of where to use them you are gonna have to get them by yourself via exploration, you may think you found a secret area, but you are wrong, that's a room you'll have to visit later. This game is savage, is like King's Field on steroids, get ready to get beaten to a pulp all while you get lost in the increasingly complex levels, and that is on "normal" difficulty I strongly suggest you to take notes, unless you want to use a walkthrough, that's alright, there's no shame in it. Also, don't forget to save often and read the manual for the usable items descriptions, yopu are gonna need all those tools to get by. I loved the first game and I'm certainly enjoying this one, I haven't finished it yet tho

First, I played the game with the immensely useful instructions here https://www.gog.com/forum/heretic_hexen_collection/portal_on_praevus_cd_gog_hexen_ii/post8 With this setup the controls and graphics are much better than vanilla. I think the game was a pleasant experience overall. I think the puzzles are mostly smartly designed. It's too bad that the objectives feature did not work on my system, and it was hard to keep track of progress. The general experience is unsurprisingly fitting for a very old game. It takes some patience and tolerance to play it due to almost non-existent quality of life features. Still it was good fun for the few days it took to finish the game. I was curious about it since my childhood, and it was cool to play it.

Hexen 2 is great because of its mix of fantasy shooter and adventure-puzzle gameplay. Shooter part is very nice balanced and quite challenging (especially on hard difficulties). It's giving the same gameplay emotions as best 90s-00s shooters with strong but not numerous enemies (Quake 1/2, Unreal, Half-Life) but not Doom, Heretic, Blood. Puzzle part is not so straight-forward. Each episode is not a corridor, but a hub of several connected levels, and puzzle design often requires taking items from one location to another in order to proceed. I do not know how did I resolve all of them in childhood and how many time did it take - but for now I strongly advise to download a guideline but use it only in case you're stuck. Such approach will allow you to get satisfaction when complicated puzzle solved but at the same time avoid running around the whole hub trying to find what was missed. As a bottom-line - Hexen 2 is one of the best shooters of 90s and personally me has got a lot of fun when playing it - both in childhood and now, 20 years later. GOG version was good adopted to modern systems (from both video and controls sides) - just do not forget to configure the game using "nglide_config.exe" before start. Stronlgy recommended!!!

HEXEN (BEYOND HERETIC) used the DOOM engine to make a fantasy DOOM with emphasis on "puzzles", although these puzzles were rather primitive switch hunts that required finding a) the switch and b) what the switch did on another level. It introduced the hub system, an inventory and 3 playable classes which added depth to the DOOM gameplay, but otherwise played like a slowly progressing DOOM game due to the engine restrictions. HEXEN II used the QUAKE engine which allowed for better graphics (amazing at the time it came out) and a lot more complex puzzles. And yes, these are REAL puzzles this time around. HEXEN II can be frustrating, as it does not hold your hand at all. If it's your first time playing expect to get stuck, expect to backtrack and don't expect much in form of clues. Once you solve your first puzzle and make it into the first boss's lair and defeat him you will feel like you have earned that victory. My only gripe with HEXEN II is that many puzzles require completely demolishing the environment - tables, chairs, everything - to find a hidden button or item required to progress. That is a rather poor design choice. Otherwise, the worlds are well designed, each world having a distinctive style. HEXEN II is hard, enemies hit like Mack trucks and there's the puzzles. Unfortunately the addon "PORTAL OF PRAEVUS" is not available on GOG (yet?).