And how does it hold up against the N64 port?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/72016/heretic--hexen-switch-review
After three decades, Heretic has made its debut on consoles alongside its sequel Hexen which hasn’t seen a home console release since its original launch. The last time Hexen was playable on home consoles it was on Playstation, Saturn, and Nintendo 64. This re-released, dubbed Heretic + Hexen makes its way to Switch from Nightdive studios, who’s experience updating games of this era is hard not to be familiar with at this point. There is a lot to unpack in this release with both original games, Hexen’s Deathkings of the Dark Citadel expansion, a brand new expansion for both Heretic and Hexen, and a good amount of bonus content.
Heretic, the first game in the series, is a fairly straightforward follow-up to the Doom formula but in a swords and sorcery setting. And I don’t mean that to be demeaning. Heretic, though saddled with a lot of the same technical limitations as the first two Doom titles, exhibits an overall more impressive use of the engine in its level layouts. That being said, it's also very easy to draw 1:1 comparisons between Heretic’s weapons and enemies and counterparts in Doom.
But if Heretic is more or less medieval Doom, Hexen is a complete reinvention of how these early first-person shooters could work. Hexen asks the player to choose between three different classes, each of which have different weapons, abilities, and stats. Mix this with level design that is significantly more non-linear and focuses more on exploration and puzzle solving, and Hexen at times has as much in common with a Zelda or a Metroid as it does with Doom.
Beyond the two base games are three expansions. One for Heretic and two for Hexen. The first of Hexen’s expansions was originally released in 1996 while its second, along with the expansion for Heretic, are brand new to this release. The new Heretic expansion, Faith Renewed, is very well done and pushes the engine even further than the original game. Both Hexen expansions are solid, and I actually think I prefer the new Vestiges and Grandeur over the 1996 Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, but I don’t think either quite capture the magic of the original game. Still, they’re both very good.
The only actual hurdle I faced as I jumped between what essentially operate as five unique games, is that all five for some reason share the same save system. Worse, they all share a single quicksave slot. At multiple times I’d forget that I was using the quicksave slot for Hexen, only to then use it in Heretic and have to fall back to an earlier save in Hexen. Even just finding the correct save to load up becomes a hassle when you’re sorting through saves for every game. Keep in mind that this is after you’ve already booted a specific game, your saves are not filtered for that game.
As for visual options, Nightdive has played it pretty straight on this one. By default, the game runs in high definition (keep in mind this is a Switch release not Switch 2, so resolution is capped at 1080p). From the options menu you can drop it to its “original” resolution or several scaling factors in between. You can also toggle between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios, choose from a couple different HUD options, customize your crosshair, and pick from remastered or original soundtrack options. I did notice when using the full screen HUD option (which aligns with the Nintendo 64 version of Hexen I have nostalgia for) that the sky boxes don’t scale quite right. Meaning that if you look all the way up you can actually see them tile back to the bottom. Given that the N64 version makes use of this same HUD setup I was curious to see if the same happened there, but the issue is not present in that version. I don’t have the original PC release so I’m honestly not sure if this was an existing issue or if it is unique to this re-release.
But speaking of the Nintendo 64 version, that port was generally considered the best home console version of Hexen up to this point. It was based on the original floppy disc version of Hexen so it lacks the pre-rendered cutscenes, but is otherwise significantly better than the Playstation and Saturn versions in terms of accuracy and performance. Playing these back-to-back, I’m impressed by how spot on the Nintendo 64 version truly was. But I have to admit, it did make me wish I could filter the textures on this updated version. I think the sprites themselves definitely look better unfiltered, but in HD the raw unfiltered textures really create a lot of visual noise. Probably an unpopular take but let me filter those or add a CRT filter.
Heretic + Hexen is a fantastic collection of one very good game and one absolutely incredible game. The added content both new and old only serves to strengthen these two titles. That being said the clumsy save system and somewhat limited options for how these games are presented on a modern TV do lightly mar the experience. Even a CRT filter would do wonders for translating the visuals at a higher definition. But given that the previous best way to play this on a home console was to dig out a Nintendo 64 or put up with compromised versions on Playstation or Saturn, this is still certainly an improvement overall. Hopefully down the road we can get the rest of the Heretic/Hexen series as well.
Topic: Heretic + Hexen (Switch) Review (Read 35 times)
