Oh man, where do I start with this? Imagine being pinned down by nostalgia while trying to wrangle with a beast of a game collection. So, yeah, Heretic and Hexen. They’re finally on consoles after what feels like a million years. Well, not exactly—a couple of decades. Anyway, here we go.
First off, Hexen was last seen hanging out on consoles like PlayStation, Saturn, and Nintendo 64. Now it’s crept back onto the Switch, thanks to those Nightdive folks. They’re like wizards resurrecting old games, right? Anyway—or wait, was I talking about Heretic first? Whatever. They’re both here with expansions and bonus stuff thrown in like confetti.
Heretic, it’s like they took Doom, gave it a sword, waved a wand, and bam—medieval chaos. Kinda trapped in its era, but it’s got heart. And despite looking like Doom’s magical sibling, it somehow feels, I dunno, bigger? Not sure why, but there it is.
And Hexen? It flips the script entirely—three character classes, each with their own quirks. Reminds me more of Zelda or Metroid, which is just wild. It’s got this funky non-linear level design that’ll make you scratch your head a few times. Or maybe that’s just me being bad at puzzles…
Anyway, there are expansions here. Hexen’s got one from ’96 and a couple of newbies, including one for Heretic. Faith Renewed, they call it—sounds dramatic, right? Must admit, I kinda favor the newer expansions. They push the engine to do more, but yeah, sometimes it feels like they’re chasing the OG magic and coming up just shy.
Now, here’s a trip—the save system is bonkers. I get tangled every time I switch games and end up overwriting something. There’s only one quicksave slot, and it’s like a trickster god messing with my efforts. Seriously, whyyyy?
Let’s talk visuals. Nightdive kept it pretty basic—HD definition but capped at 1080p, obviously. And the HUD—switch it around, but beware the sky box issue. It tiles weirdly when you look up. Thought I’d seen it all with the N64 version, but nope. Maybe it’s a re-release exclusive bug? Who knows.
Ah, speaking of the N64—it was the golden boy back then. Solid performance, minus some cutscenes, but hey, it was a standout. Kinda wish they’d bring in some filtering options here, though. HD gets noisy—let me put a CRT filter on, or something. A sacrilege? Maybe.
So here we are with Heretic + Hexen: a killer collection marred by save quirks and slim presentation options. Still, it beats digging up an N64 or wrestling with worse ports. Maybe we’ll even see the rest of the Heretic/Hexen family joining in someday. Fingers crossed.
