"Defy The Gods"

Heretic is an FPS developed by Raven. Let me get this straight. The haters, (and not only), are correct, Heretic is a total rip-off of Doom… and that's good. Heretic is some sort of a medieval Doom, with a magic crossbow instead of a shotgun, a magic staff instead of a plasma gun and Maulotaurs instead of a Cyberdemons. The funny thing is that me, being a pure Doom fun, have great difficulty in accepting a simple thing, that Heretic is equally great if not much better than Doom!

Story: N/A

Grrr… no plot… again!!! Just a couple of manual scribblings that give us some background story. There is some sort of a new religious cult that has been forced upon the people by the black magicians, the powerful Serpent Raiders. The only ones that couldn't be converted where the race of elves that you belong to, so you've been marked as heretics. After this promising start, the game offer nothing more than a couple of lines after you kill each of the three bosses in the game… nothing more. At least like Doom, Heretic doesn't need a plot, so I won't score it, but it would be great if there was one…

Gameplay: 8.8/10
ReplayValue: 9/10

I'll say it once again. Heretic is Doom in a medieval\fantasy world, which means that we talk about a fast paced, action-packed-to-the-top old school FPS, with many enemies attacking you. Addicting and entertaining like Doom, Heretic makes one step further by adding some more spices. First the enemies, still have the simple, run-towards-the-good-guy AI but are a bit more sophisticated. Gargoyles that fly around, Golems that throw homing flaming and screaming faces, (say what?), undead knights that throw 2 kinds of axes and that when semi-transparent some weapons can hit them, the fan-favorite Disciples Of D'Sparil that shoot energy balls at you, giant bosses with 3-4 attack skills and many, many more and all of them not only look good but are good.

Another good thing is the overall design of weapons and powerups. The weapons are fantasy versions of the typical FPS game weaponry. A simple rod instead of a pistol, a crossbow instead of a shotgun and so on, but fighting with their aid is quite fun even without something special about them. The main innovation in Heretic though is the use of inventory items. You can gather many different items in your quest that substantially change the gameplay. Stuff like bombs, healing potions and defensive skills, items that make you fly, make you invisible or invincible and my all time favorite the Tome Of Power which alters your weapons for a certain amount of time. For example, when you use a Tome Of Power your crossbow hits with more arrows, your “rocket launcher” becomes a flamethrower and many more.

The basic concept of the game is, find the keys open the doors, exit the level and kill a lot of baddies along the way… it may sound too simple but it is very entertaining and is surely quite addictive. The level design is very good serving as a nice stage for all the required killing, furthermore there are many secret areas you must find. The replay value is quite high not because it is a great game but because of all the available Mods. Literally thousands of maps and various special modifications exist on the net that will surely make you love the game even more.

Graphics: 9/10
Design: 10/10

While it is very sad that the resolution hasn't changed from Doom, Heretic looks very good. Great texturing and nice variety and diversity in level design, with dark dungeons full of vines, spider webs and rotten corpses hanging from the ceilings, hellish caverns with lava flowing and chunks of rocks popping out of it and finally great magical domes with very good water flowing everywhere. Apart from the level design Heretic has some small details that back then in the age of Doom looked great, like for example the fact that when you step on water you splash it around, when you kill a creature it leaves behind some small flesh bits, flowing water and lava and great animated textures. There are also many special effects concerning your weaponry, especially when you use some special items like for example the Tome Of Power that makes your magic staff throw big homing red flares that explode and create a tiny blood rain! Finally the enemy design is great and equally great to the Doom demons. Here we have flying gargoyles, golems that when destroyed you can see their spirit leaving them, tall undead nights and many more with the boss enemies being the best of the bunch. The only problem as I've said is the fact that the resolution remains the same something that means heavy pixelated graphics.

Sound: 10/10
Music: 8/10

Simply excellent sound effects for every aspect of the game. The various weapons you have sound great and very powerful, like for example the Dragon Claw that when you use it you feel as if you have Rumple support in your keyboard. Enemies have great sounds too, with each one being very unique and with some of them clearly sounding dangerous, like for example the Disciples of D'Sparil, those eerie flying cloaked “Medieval Darth Vaders”. Another great thing in Heretic is the use of ambient sounds, something not present in Doom games. While running in the corridors of Heretic, you'll hear wind blowing, the distant sound of a waterfall, evil laughter and many more! Finally Heretic has great music that fits with the overall action of the game and creates a nice and sometimes spooky atmosphere.

Positives:
-An addictive and fast paced old-school FPS
-Great level design, enemies and weapons
-Tons of Mods
-The medieval counterpart to Doom
-Great sound effects and music along with beautiful graphics

Negatives:
-No plot
-Haters of Doom will hate this too…
-The resolution of the game…

Also Play:
Doom, Doom 2 (PC)
Hexen (PC)
I highly recommend using the free DoomsdayEngine (PC)

Overall: 9.1/10

I consider this game to be the epitome of old-school FPS games along with Doom 2. I highly recommend it even to new gamers that got used to the magnificent 3D graphics of Doom 3.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/11/09

Game Release: Heretic (US, 1994)