Alright, so here’s my take on it:
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Okay, so, Heretic and Hexen are finally hitting consoles again after what, like 30-something years? Madness, right? Anyway, these games used to hang out on old PlayStation and stuff, back when that was the cool thing. Now they’re hopping onto the Switch, thanks to Nightdive Studios. Honestly, if you know them, you know they’re kinda the pros at this sort of old-game revival thing. Tons of stuff to dig into here. We’ve got both original games, Hexen’s extra add-on from back in the day, and a bunch of fresh stuff too. Pretty stacked lineup.
Let’s chat Heretic for a sec. It’s like Doom’s younger sibling but decked out in medieval garb. Same kind of tech constraints as early Doom games, but it kinda does more tricks with what it’s got. I swear, playing it feels like Doom but with magic wands and knights running around. It’s oddly charming in that way.
Hexen, though, that’s a whole new beast. It shakes off Doom’s linear, run-and-gun vibe and gives you classes to choose from—like, pick a fighter, a mage, you know the deal. And suddenly, you’ve got abilities and stats to worry about. It’s more like Zelda or Metroid than you’d think. Reasonably sure I spent more time wandering around and solving puzzles than actually shooting stuff—wild.
And the expansions, oh man, there are three. Two for Hexen, one for Heretic. The first Hexen add-on is an OG from, like, 1996, but they cranked out more for this re-release. The Heretic one, Faith Renewed, is truly spicy—can’t lie, it pushes the game limits. Hexen’s new add-ons are neat too. They might even be a smidge sharper than the old Deathkings expansion, but still can’t quite top the core game vibe. But hey, close enough.
Now, this save system… how do I put this nicely? It’s like five games squished into one barely functioning save slot. Legit annoying. Do I lose my Hexen progress because I goofed? Yep, did that. And trying to find the right save later is basically a treasure hunt with no map.
Visuals? Nightdive kept it pretty chill. HD is the standard, but the Switch is still, well, a Switch. So, 1080p max. You can pretend you’re on an old TV by changing the aspect ratio, though. There’s something oddly pleasing about swapping between remastered and OG soundtracks—nostalgia hit. But like, I’m messing with HUD options and notice the skybox totally tiles weirdly. Was this just me or…?
Also, special shout-out to the Nintendo 64 port; it was top of the line back in the day. It didn’t have those fancy cutscenes, but it ran smooth like butter compared to the others. Swapping back to these re-releases, it makes me wish we could slap a texture filter or even a CRT effect on here. You know, clean it up a bit for today’s screens.
All in all, Heretic + Hexen is a treasure. One solid game pairing with a bit of a saving hiccup, but it’s great to see them in the spotlight again. Sure, a few more fancy visual tweaks would be a dream, but hey, it beats dusting off the old N64 or fishing out the PlayStation. I mean, maybe we’ll get more of the series soon? Fingers crossed.
