Hexen II

I remember Hexen II from the demo I played before its release. Never tried the original game since then. That's weird cauz I got nostalgia googles for a game I never really played. The dark fantasy setting is great and the quake like gameplay is awesome. The problem is how the levels are made. I don't mind a puzzle from time to time. But that game Is 95% puzzles. The monsters are just here to slow you down. So that a lot of backtracking without an auto map. Add 3 stars if you are really into puzzles and walking around trying to find what the hell you are supposed to do because you missed a button camouflaged in the wall.

If you enjoy games that are... - Utterly nonsensical. - Devoid of maps, even though you'll get lost AF. - Gives you no direction, and has no objectives. - Makes you follow a walkthrough, step-by-step, so you can find that hidden door, 3 teleporters in, to get a staff, that is to be placed on a nondescript pedestal, 2 areas away. - The difficulty isn't as punishing as Dark Souls, but if you enjoy that style of lostitude, and sans mappy goodness. ...then this is a game for you! And this is with Hammer of Thyrion & Portal of Praevus. This may have been a seminal FPS (can't figure out a better category to place this) at the time, but it's not really my kinda game now.

I'm sorry bit I don't understand all these glowing reviews. The game has ugly and confusing graphics, bad weapons, bad enemies, bad UI, and the camera sways as you move, giving you nausea. Plus, it completely breaks with previous Heretic/Hexen in graphic style. I really don't understand why anyone would want to play this game. I didn't like it when it came out, and I still don't like it today.

Don't forget to negrep this review as it's not conforming to expected woke beliefs that this is a 5-star "bezt gam eva", so this review needs to be cancelled. The second, the very second the game ran and I saw the almost unreadable ugly text of the options menu I thought, "eeeeyuk". Starting the game did not improve things. The low res, low poly old Quake engine just does not do it. Think "Blood II" and it's "Monolith" engine. This looks just as bad. I could not get the resolution/depth to change. Colours are brown brown and more brown, with a dash of grey, as per the original Quake games (which I "blasphemously" thought were crap too). It was just hideous to look at. What little level design I did see was poor, boring. Combat was clumsy and just, nope. Music was not a patch on it's predecessors. It should have kept their old original game engine. That would have left Hexen II behind the times, but also made it a much better game. This really is the "Blood II" of the "Heretic/Hexen" series. Don't forget, all you 5-star reviewers, be offended, hit the negrep button, everyone else does on all my reviews. Heck, even hit the report button, there's nothing here to break GOG's "guidelines", but you never know.....