Heretic II

An interesting departure from Raven's previous Heretic/Hexen games. They've ditched the first-person shooting for a third-person action-adventure inspired by Tomb Raider. However, in my opinion it's better than Tomb Raider in pretty much every aspect. Like the original Heretic, combat is a big focus, and you get a good variety of both offensive weapons & defensive spells and a powerfull melee staff. Your arsenal doesn't exactly correlate with the originals, but there is a good amount of returning favorites. They all serve a unique purpose and feel satisfying to use (except the weak starting weapon). But unlike the original Heretic, platforming and maneuvering are almost equally important. You have a wide variety of moves, including special moves using your staff. For instance, certain platforms or secrets are only reachable by running & pole-vaulting with the staff. The controls aren't perfect but it feels good for the time. The camera is also pretty good considering it was made on the Quake 2 engine (made for first-person shooters).

Story-wise, it's quite disconnected from the original series. It kind of feels like they wanted to make a game in another universe but used the Heretic name for brand recognition. But the story isn't bad, and takes you to a variety of locations on a quest to rid the land of a plague and cure yourself. There are 4 main areas - Silverspring (a medieval Elven city), Andoria (a Meso-American-esque lizard civilization) , Tchekrik (an underground bug-people colony), and the Cloud Fortress (the villain's extensive lair). Each area has a distinctive feel, from Silverspring's moody cobblestone streets to Tchekrik's trap-laden labyrinths. The Silverspring section is probably the weakest because it has very straight, linear level design and the combat is pretty simplistic. The latter episodes have much interesting level design. The difficulty curve is pretty good, with a steady drip of new weapons & enemies until the last episode.