i don't like a lot of old expansion packs for fps games because they're all the same shitty idea of incredibly cryptic levels with horrible enemy placement which Heretic was especially guilty of (i didn't play Hexen's expansion) but i think Portal of Praevus is a much better expansion than Shadow of the Serpent Riders even if it does overcorrect a bit

this expansion contains 2 hubs to explore but only the second one Tulku is actually new because the first hub is Blackmarsh again which i'm not really fond of because you visit it twice already in the main game and in PoP it functions as a makeshift tutorial

Tulku is actually original and overall a pretty good hub but its also really easy which is where the overcorrection comes into play

PoP is not challenging enough and it gets to a point where i think the hubs in this expansion do a better job of teaching you the game than the first Blackmarsh visit does because the puzzles are very straight forward and don't require multiple visits to an area

the new Demoness class that's added in this expansion might have added to the feeling of overall easiness because she is absurdly overpowered as she is the only class in the game to have a projectile as her starting weapon which makes Blackmarsh 3 a total cakewalk and her ultimate weapon the Tempest Staff is easily the best weapon in the game with it functioning as a makeshift BFG and a destructive laser when powered up with the tome

Praevus is easily the best boss fight in the trilogy and is the defacto highlight of the expansion as unlike every other boss in these games he actually has more than 1 attack but even so you can melt him just as badly as every other enemy if you play as the Demoness

i might play Deathkings of the Dark Citadel in the future but from what i've heard of it it just sounds like more of Shadow of the Serpent Riders which i already don't like to begin with

it takes a bit to set up but its only like 2-3 hours long so it doesn't take much of a commitment to play

Reviewed on Apr 13, 2024


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