Hexen

"Hexen's framerate is flawed on the Saturn."

With a combined mixed of abilities in stats and their own choice of weapons, Hexen creates a parallel game for three selective paths to undertake in all classes. Go melee face-to-face combat or shoot beams of mana through staves you find in later parts of the game. Each class plays under the same levels but altered very slightly to fit each classes abilities. Every aspect of the game was just as good as the pc version. Even with its one major flaw, the game created by ID was an excellent addition to Sega's library.

Graphics-8/10
Crisp, dark and slightly blurry, but only when you turn. A direct translation between the pc to the Saturn.

Sounds-8/10
The sound and the music are just the same as the original pc version. Not bad for the Sega Saturn.

Story-10/10
Hexen is the 2nd installment in its story, Heretic. but this is Beyond Heretic. Three men who have evaded being subdued to a cursed spell that plagued every inhabitant in their dimension. The three men, a fighter, a cleric, and a mage, set out into a new dimension where the reign of Hexen is set to eliminate any non-believer (Heretic). They fight to stop the reign at all costs.

Gameplay-6.5/10
While the actual movement and button layout is fairly good, it's the speed of the game that makes this game suffer. The Saturn did exceptionally well in port this game to the system, It was the framerate that utterly slowed the game in many areas consisting of many movings enemies on screen, or even just a semi-large area.

Buy/Rent
Definitely buy, but assuming you have computer (otherwise I doubt you'd be reading this review, right?) buy that instead. You can find it from $5 to about $30, dependent of version and system port.

Hexen is a noteworthy game to have and play, because of its storyline and gameplay. The Saturn wasn't entirely lucky with its variation of the game, but it gave Sega fans yet another classic to enjoy on the console. It was too bad the first Heretic was not made for the Saturn, but as it turned out, all ID games suffered from multiple sprites on screen, causing the poor framerate. Regardless, this is by no means unplayable, its just that some might be annoyed by the fact that it doesn't run 100% all of the time. A neat collective piece for your Sega Saturn game collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/08

Game Release: Hexen: Beyond Heretic (US, 04/30/97)