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QuakeCon is upon us once again, and with it, Nightdive Studios surprised the veteran PC gamers, continuing to revive old and beloved IPs back from the grave, and this time, they chose one of the great titles from the PC back in 90s, with a remastered re-release of not only Heretic, but also Hexen, combined in a pack called "Heretic+Hexen".

Both Heretic and Hexen were released back in 1994 and 1995, respectively, and both use a modified version of the Doom engine by Raven Software back in the day, with the usual 1st person gameplay that made Doom so unique, but also, giving it an interesting spin with a medieval essence, magic, gothic architectures and delving more into puzzle solving than what Doom did with both Doom 1 and Doom 2, and that is what separates both Heretic & Hexen from the typical "Doom clone" to give it its own unique style and feel.

This brand new re-release of both titles includes a complete package for both games, to make it available and in the best presentation both games ever had, with the package including the following games and episodes:

• Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
• Hexen: Beyond Heretic
• Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
• Two all-new episodes created in collaboration between individuals at id Software + Nightdive Studios:
  • Heretic: Faith Renewed
  • Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur

As for new features, both releases include the following:

• Online cross-platform and local split-screen deathmatch and co-op modes
• Toggleable enhanced soundtrack from Andrew Hulshult
• In-game mod support
• Behind the scenes vault with concept art, monster information and more
• Support for community-published and features mods
• Improved performance with support for modern hardware, including 4K 120 FPS on consoles, modern controllers, and widescreen monitors
• An array of accessibility options, quality-of-life improvements, and engine fixes

This package is a must-have for anyone interested in the golden age and the surgeance of FPS on PC, with almost all the major FPS titles that made PC gaming so unique back in the 90s being remastered by Nightdive, although we're still missing a remastered version of Wolfestein 3D.

Heretic+Hexen is available right now on Xbox (+Game Pass), PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC with Steam and GOG.
The Steam release of the remastered pack includes the original DOS versions of both games as well!

 

[Bladexdsl]

oh fuck yes first doom now this

 

[yankii]

Wow, more slop

 

[such]

Community-lead project that has two new (good) episodes, one for each game, optional tweaks to balance tackling the monster sponginess for Heretic, new mechanics for Hexen, very good music remixes, and a bunch of other source porty things. Plus, if you ever paid for anything Hexen or Heretic on Steam or GOG you get the whole thing for free.

Tl;dr: made with care, switch off what you don't like, not slop.

 

[Silterpy]

It was just added to my steam library for free. I dont know why but im not complaining

 

[Kioku]

Now if Duke Nukem could get this treatment...

 

[raxadian]

Both Heretic and Hexen are so forgetable that good thing the article explains things. Back then people were playing Doom 2 and Quake so these two games had no chance.

Well you needed a beefy PC to play Quake so in most cases it was Doom 2, unless you got a ram upgrade

 

[Bladexdsl]

aw yeh it's OWT there already

 

[FemtoFalcon]

Typical nightdive rushed remaster with bugs at release again, got an enemy on the first level not displaying correclty, almost invisible and could only see 5 pixels of it and could damage when the 5 pixels of the enemy appears.

Love how a remaster of very old games, where you can you use free source ports and have zero issues but a paid one always have bugs at launch.

Nightdive needs to seriously stop releasing the game with tons of hype untested and fix it after release.

 

[such]

My problem with Heretic 1 was always how long it took to kill everything. The concept wasn't bad on paper (large, twisty levels, more exploration, meaningful items, all coupled with the enemy thing, so more and slower to kill, possibly encouraging you to actually use said items etc), but it never quite worked for me. The damage rng made it worse. It just quickly became tedious to slowly pew-pew those hundreds of enemies to death.

I dare say the remastered Heretic - for the first time ever - is balanced really, really nicely.

Typical nightdive rushed remaster with bugs at release again, got an enemy on the first level not displaying correclty, almost invisible and could only see 5 pixels of it and could damage when the 5 pixels of the enemy appears.

Love how a remaster of very old games, where you can you use free source ports and have zero issues but a paid one always have bugs at launch.

Nightdive needs to seriously stop releasing the game with tons of hype untested and fix it after release.

Played perfectly fine for me, definitely better than last year's DOOM remaster at launch with its frame pacing issues etc. I've seen people get some texture issues, but none of that happened to me. Could be hardware-dependent.

 

[Xzi]

Yeah I noticed this popped up in my library yesterday, apparently it's free for anyone who owned any of the originals, at least on PC platforms. Very cool of them.

"Important Note: Existing owners of the digital versions of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond Heretic and/or Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel on Steam, the Windows Store/Xbox Windows app and Good Old Games receive a free upgrade to the new combined Heretic + Hexen and can still access their previously owned versions on those platforms. (See FAQ below for details.)"

 

[ShadowOne333]

Yeah I noticed this popped up in my library yesterday, apparently it's free for anyone who owned any of the originals, at least on PC platforms. Very cool of them.

"Important Note: Existing owners of the digital versions of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond Heretic and/or Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel on Steam, the Windows Store/Xbox Windows app and Good Old Games receive a free upgrade to the new combined Heretic + Hexen and can still access their previously owned versions on those platforms. (See FAQ below for details.)"

That's something that I find really freaking cool.
Same happened with Doom, it automatically updated to the remastered versions and I didn't spend a cent since I owned the originals.
That is absolutely badass and based af.

 

[such]

There's a lot of small things in here that you wouldn't even notice if you're not familiar with the original. Small tweaks to the levels (a bit like what they did with the Q2 levels in places), new textures, all subtle, they blend in. Love the more gibby crossbow.

I never had this much fun with Heretic.

 

[lincruste]

Both Heretic and Hexen are so forgetable that good thing the article explains things. Back then people were playing Doom 2 and Quake so these two games had no chance.

Well you needed a beefy PC to play Quake so in most cases it was Doom 2, unless you got a ram upgrade

That's simply not true, Heretic was a great succes, otherwise there wouldn't have been sequels. By the way, PC gamers by that time would prefer Heretic multiplayer over DOOM (with DWANGO/IPX), at least when it launched.

 

[The Catboy]

Wow, more slop

How dare you say something so wrong and low quality bait

 

[yankii]

How dare you say something so wrong and low quality bait

FPS is an outdated genre with nothing new or exciting to offer. Cope harder.

 

[Xzi]

FPS is an outdated genre with nothing new or exciting to offer. Cope harder.

But that would include Metroid Prime, I thought you simped for all Nintendo games?

 

[yankii]

But that would include Metroid Prime, I thought you simped for all Nintendo games?

It's made by Retro Studio or some shit, not Godtendo EPD, so no.

 

[Xzi]

It's made by Retro Studio or some shit, not Godtendo EPD, so no.

So you think Drag x Drive is gonna be a better game than Prime 4? What a hill to die on.

 

[The Catboy]

FPS is an outdated genre with nothing new or exciting to offer. Cope harder.

Okay, so just bait
Anyways, I am looking forward to these remakes