Bethesda and Nightdive Studios have brought back Hexen and Heretic with a new updated version. This improved release makes it easier for both new players and longtime fans to enjoy the games. It also works on more systems and supports more languages than ever before.
This new version runs a lot better than before. It uses faster rendering to support up to 4K and 120FPS, which is great news for its old-school fans. However, the textures in both games haven’t been improved at all. That’s a bit disappointing. Still, Nightdive usually doesn’t update the textures in the games they remaster, so this isn’t really a surprise.
As you’d expect, this collection comes with all the expansions that came out for Hexen and Heretic. Moreover, it includes two brand new episodes. In total, there are 117 campaign maps and 120 deathmatch maps.
And that’s not all. Nightdive and id Software also fixed a lot of bugs from the original versions of the games. They added a Vault where you can see old concept art and unused sprites from when the games were being made. You can now play online with up to 16 players in deathmatch or co-op, even across different platforms. There’s also split-screen for up to 8 players on the same system. The games now include accessibility options, like a clearer user interface, better screen contrast, screen effects settings, and even text-to-speech support.
Before closing, I should note that there is community-published mod support with an in-game mod browser. There is widescreen support so that you can enjoy the games on modern PC monitors. And there is a toggleable, enhanced Tome of Power soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult.
In short, this is a cool re-release of these two classic FPS games. Oh, and the best thing? If you already own them, these updated versions will be made available to you for free. You won’t have to pay anything at all. Cool, right?
Enjoy!
![Hexen + Heretic | Trailer [GOG]](https://www.dsogaming.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2Fne30OUMe6oE%2F0.jpg)
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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This re-release can be seen as a mixed bag. Good if you already own the original titles in your library.
Btw, they added a JUMP option for the player in HEXEN, which is okay, but why add a SHIELD BLOCK feature ?
This kind of defeats the original gameplay style of this 90's old-school ID shooter to some extent, at least in my opinion.
But anyways, some "cheats" can now be directly accessed during gameplay via the main menu.
Typing some codes via the in-game console still works though, like 'God', 'Give All', 'Noclip' etc.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b943c61454eb1e8a55599398c994e68147ca2bb10c8e61dca70089c218bb1cd.jpg
….
I think you could always jump in the original Hexen. The shield block is a pretty stupid addition though. It made Doom the Dark Ages worse, we don't need it mucking up the classics now.
Yeah, jump was there in original Hexen. I forgot.
Yeah, jump was there in original Hexen. I forgot.
Hexen always had a jump button, maybe heretic didn't had it (I only played heretic through gzdoom, I dont know if the dos version has a jump button). The shield block I agree with you, only makes sense in some mods, like brutal hexen rpg
There's a lot more:
they also tweaked some levels for better navigation, added optional rebalance toggles for weapons, enemies, items and other things, hotkeys for potions and items, a toggle for objective markers in the automap since they were mazey games, clearer switches, quite more than meets the eye. I think I'll try them.
Now compare this to the Space Marine "Remaster" with slightly better textures in some places for 40 bucks
Oh daaaaaaaaaaamn
That's some really old memories…
I can enjoy an old RPG but old FPS titles really don't age well.
Depends on the game and the preferences, that's the opposite for me, i tried replaying Fallout a couple of years ago and it was an ergonomic disaster
I think that someday, maybe we should tell Nightdive Studios about GzDoom, BuildGDX, Raze, etc.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4fac05fe3c53c0dcf7587c9c8b084d3862dd68ed53a68eda5776a1e388822669.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f821ea6861e37771862070f18f98268b1a460bf67cb8743212f3c2be9f7f047.jpg
I do prefer the original pixelated look though.
I played Heretic and Hexen before, but I got stuck a few times looking for key cards.
Really nice that they tried to address this issue.
The improved design of the levels also looks sweet.
Man buying the complete ID collection on Steam back in the day really paid off.
I just keep getting free remastered games.