(Played the Steam version of the three original episodes on ZDoom, Bringest Them Onest difficulty)
Another game I get to replay after almost 30 years... It's Fine. As other reviews have already said, it deftly negotiates the potential pitfalls of using the engine of a game as iconic as Doom, adding and modifying enough of the experience so it doesn't feel too derivative. The inventory system is pretty neat, though aside from being able to stash potions to heal on demand and using the tome of power to power up your weapons, the other items are either situational or gimmicky, and the levels aren't really designed around them so they feel like an afterthought. The aesthetic is where it really shines, with the gothic architecture and more piano-heavy tracks setting it further apart from Doom.
My gameplay experience didn't measure up to Doom's though, and it was down to some very marginal differences:
- The exploration aspect is a tricky part of FPSs in this mold, where linearity is boring but overly-obtuse key and switch hunting gets in the way of the action, and you end up endlessly combing through areas you've already cleared to try to find the way to advance. Heretic gets that balance off a bit too often for comfort, with a particularly egregious example in the Cathedral level where a switch required to progress is in a hidden room behind an unmarked wall.
- The lack of 'glass cannon' enemies. Unlike Doom's 'human' enemies (and the Revenant to a smaller extent), there are no enemies with hitscan attacks here, and no enemies that are very powerful but not durable. This reduces a bit of the split-second strategizing when you look at an enemy formation and decide who you absolutely need to take out first.
- The general difficulty curve is solid, but thanks to the sprawling level design, too many of Heretic's challenges can be overcome by simply kiting enemies and then circlestrafing; even the episode bosses were quite easy outside of their massive durability. There were a few good challenges such as Episode 1's final level where the presence of lava neuters your circlestrafing strategy, and I wish more levels used the level design and the enemy formations to create difficulty in a more organic way.
It didn't quite hit the same heights as the game that inspired it but it is a solid game! The fact that they were able to adapt fantasy tropes to the budding FPS genre does earn it a lot of goodwill, and based on that alone I would say this game is worth at least a cursory playthrough for anyone.
Another game I get to replay after almost 30 years... It's Fine. As other reviews have already said, it deftly negotiates the potential pitfalls of using the engine of a game as iconic as Doom, adding and modifying enough of the experience so it doesn't feel too derivative. The inventory system is pretty neat, though aside from being able to stash potions to heal on demand and using the tome of power to power up your weapons, the other items are either situational or gimmicky, and the levels aren't really designed around them so they feel like an afterthought. The aesthetic is where it really shines, with the gothic architecture and more piano-heavy tracks setting it further apart from Doom.
My gameplay experience didn't measure up to Doom's though, and it was down to some very marginal differences:
- The exploration aspect is a tricky part of FPSs in this mold, where linearity is boring but overly-obtuse key and switch hunting gets in the way of the action, and you end up endlessly combing through areas you've already cleared to try to find the way to advance. Heretic gets that balance off a bit too often for comfort, with a particularly egregious example in the Cathedral level where a switch required to progress is in a hidden room behind an unmarked wall.
- The lack of 'glass cannon' enemies. Unlike Doom's 'human' enemies (and the Revenant to a smaller extent), there are no enemies with hitscan attacks here, and no enemies that are very powerful but not durable. This reduces a bit of the split-second strategizing when you look at an enemy formation and decide who you absolutely need to take out first.
- The general difficulty curve is solid, but thanks to the sprawling level design, too many of Heretic's challenges can be overcome by simply kiting enemies and then circlestrafing; even the episode bosses were quite easy outside of their massive durability. There were a few good challenges such as Episode 1's final level where the presence of lava neuters your circlestrafing strategy, and I wish more levels used the level design and the enemy formations to create difficulty in a more organic way.
It didn't quite hit the same heights as the game that inspired it but it is a solid game! The fact that they were able to adapt fantasy tropes to the budding FPS genre does earn it a lot of goodwill, and based on that alone I would say this game is worth at least a cursory playthrough for anyone.