Hexen II

I was a bit disappointed with the previous entry as while I appreciated the departure of its doom influences, it resulted in a rocky game with confusing puzzles and a times unfair difficulty (with the less said about its expansion pack the better.) This sequel thankfully addresses all of the issues I had with that game and even runs on quakes engine to being the full potential of the formula that game had.

Speaking of quake, boy does this game’s graphics knock it out of the park as it looks more like quake ii despite coming out before that masterpiece. It also beat Id software to the punch in not allowing players to exploit collision detection issues in that game by putting up invisible walls in areas where that oversight would otherwise lead to accessing areas earlier than intended without cheats, again quake ii would perfect this, but this did beat that game to the punch ever slightly. The puzzle layout is also much better as it reminds me of the tomb raider games with how well they're designed, they're presented in a way where their solution isn't immediately obvious, but you can solve them without needing to look up a walkthrough which is something I couldn't say about the previous game. That game’s biggest strengths of having multiple classes of heroes akin to a dnd game to choose as your protagonist returns here, there being a wider selection which of course encourages replaying the game to experiment with the different mechanics this game has to offer. It also has a time travel element to it, meaning we get to explore many different set pieces as opposed to the medieval setting of the previous two games in the franchise in order to spice up what could've easily been repetitive level design.

It's another underrated game from the 90s that deserves more attention, one that I hope gets the remaster treatment as I feel that would be the perfect way of bringing this game back from obscurity.

Hexen finally takes the step into the world of 3D with this game and visually Raven hit it out the park with this one, there's this gloomy and foreboding atmosphere that really touches all the right spots to make this a worthy Dark Fantasy title. Especially in the first hub in Barbican.

This like it's predecessor is a confusing and puzzling game, however there's less switch hunting here and more observing your world environments to piece together narratives and lore to proceed to the next area, for instance finding a way into the barbican castle, if you read the guards book in the castle entrance you can find clues to a tower of sorts, but to get access to the tower you need to know about a secret wall, which you find through another clue in the level. From there you can gather the mill key, to go to the mill after collecting the Bones of loric, you grind them up, take them to the laboratory in the caverns and create a potion to break a mithril wall, to get the mithril castle key. What a mouthful.

If you want a game that's equal parts puzzle and combat this is your kind of game, but the combat is really nothing special and not all that satisfying and can be frustrating, especially when facing against the Werepanthers and Werejaguars who have insanely high sprint speeds and can pounce you from afar, it's best to lure them to lava when they're going to pounce, or pour your mana into their face with some tomes of power.

Artifacts make a return, and the Tome of Power comes back from heretic which increases the damage on your weapons, this is very handy for big rooms and troublesome enemies.

Overall, decent game. Can be frustrating and I wouldn't be surprised if you need a walkthrough. It succeeds in the ways of atmosphere and feeling a sense of accomplishment from solving each piece of a puzzle, but the combat leaves a lot to be desired.