Hexen II

This felt like the very first "Diablo" game, except that it is in the format of an FPS rather than strategy, but to be honest though, this is the absolute golden classic that I was hoping to one day make it to this platform as to which it did, quite impressive.

Probably my favorite of the series. Just wish it came bundled with Portal of Praevus or at least sold separately.

Hexen 2 is a game that will kick your teeth in, it's difficult and some classes are superior to others (rogue for example is pathetically unreliable thanks to slightly janky hit-detection) but for its difficulty Hexen 2 (thanks to being built on the Quake engine) gives you fast and responsive movement and an aesthetic that takes the gothic/medieval style of some of Quake into its logical end-point. Outside of movement, you'll find this follows the same gameplay loop of Hexen and Heretic, you search for switches that unlock parts of the previous areas, collect items along the way, and have two ammo pools to draw from (easing the hassle of ammo management). Should you pick up Hexen 2? If you liked the first and love Quake, definitely, though for modern systems you might want to use the uHexen source port to get smooth performance alongside some more visual options.

Amazing level design, clever puzzles and ideas way before their time

This is one of those shooters from the late 1990s that really drives home how the Quake Engine felt like two steps forward, one step back at the time. Yes, environments are full 3D, but everything feels claustrophobic and lifeless compared to the Doom Engine-based Hexen 1. The "puzzles" amount to simple key-hunting, nothing on the level of what N64 games were doing at the time. The result is a game that is merely "okay," not an enduring classic that is begging to be played over and over. It's good enough to be worth playing in order to peek into a corner of gaming history that nearly destroyed Raven Software due to its poor sales.