Me playing Hexen in 1995: “I don’t know where the hell I am supposed to go.” Me playing Hexen in 2021: “I don’t know where the fuck I am supposed to go.”
Oh Jesus, Hexen 2. We picked this game up for the 4-player co-op and pre-patch, you couldn't save your progress, so we hid in a barn attic and let the session run overnight. That game was a trip and I remember we did have to look up some solutions. Such memories...
@@NthReview oh yea yea i totally forgot. No matter the game really, playing coop is playing multiplayer or LAN and ofc you cant save in a network game.
@@Erikcleric I've never experienced DOS games online, so this might be a feature limited to source ports, but Duke3D and Doom support network saves. Shock 2 had coop deliberately added in with patch 2.3 and it supports save/loads. Diablo netplay basically saved anytime you did literally anything which made losing gear from death such a risk.
@@XenoSpyro Yeah i wasnt thinking of multiplayer, not in this case. :) Just the"what if" Quake 5 was made, i prefer it'd have manual saves and not checkpoints. But yea, playing Duke 3d coop or Doom over Doomseeker, Coop, yeah its nice being able to save in those cases. And System Shock 2 being quite long and complicated, yea you gotta save in that. My brother and i did some massive skirmishes on AOE 2 against brutal AI and ofc we had to save if we couldnt finish the game, sure! Yeah Diablo has always been risky, offline or online, gotta keep track of where you died and all that. But like i said, i was just thinking manual saves in single player. :D
Hey kids, Dad here. One of the possible reasons why Hexen II felt a little rushed and why Heretic II was such a different experience is that, prior to Raven being bought by Activision, a third installment in the Heretic/Hexen series was being developed with the working title of Hecatomb. John Romero was involved during production as well. But Activision saw franchise potential if they treated Heretic and Hexen as two separate series instead of a trilogy, so they ordered Raven to stop working on Hecatomb and instead make Hexen II and Heretic II. Romero has said that Hecatomb had some wild ideas that he really wishes they could have brought to life, but sadly, that'll never happen now. Fortunately, Graven is as close to a Hexen III as we'll ever get, so if you enjoyed the Gman talking about Hexen II, you should go play it (you seriously should) and then check out Graven afterward. It's a hell of an experience!
@@JohnSmith-gr3pq that's a fine complement, I appreciate that. The difference between me and Civvie though is that I actually genuinely enjoy the Hexen games.
My favorite part about playing the Hexen II demo was how immensely destructible the scenery is in Blackmarsh. You could totally wreck shop, and it felt super satisfying punching down a wall with your bare hands. Was such a shame when I eventually ended up getting the full game, and I found out that they didn't bother adding that destructibility to the rest of the game.
Check out GRAVEN, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin, Project Warlock II, Hellbound, Apocryph... most of promising FPS games have different settings and tone- like Prodeus, Arthurian Legends, Cultic, Blood West or DUSK.
I second the Amid Evil recommendation; greatest FPS I've played in the last ten years. Starts off a bit slow but the game gets incredible as it goes on.
Don't forget, that there is addon exists. It adds fifth playable character (demoness) which can be used in original game campaign, and winter and Tibetian themed levels.
Hexen 2 does have a midi soundtrack, although I think you have to specify that in the game, it doesn't automatically detect whether you have the CD inserted or not. 20:01 that puzzle. Yeah it's actually bugged, if you don't do it this exact way. 1) Save before stepping on it. 2) Read the glyphs. 3) Try a combination SLOWLY, each button needs to be fully pressed before interacting with the next one. 4) If you fail, reload, it gets more buggy if you fail it at least once. Reloading sets you back to a game state before you failed it. 5) Eventually it should work.
I've managed to get the MIDI music tracks working on Linux, but it was such an obtuse and laborious process I don't even remember how I ended up doing it, I just changed computers recently and I have no idea how I will set it up again
There is also the (sometimes hard to find) expansion pack, that added a fifth character (demoness) and two more acts and several new or refurbished enemies.
Yup, that's the Portal of Praevus expansion. Felt the same "where the hell should I go" feeling when I played it. Also the fact that the demoness was left handed while all the other characters were right handed kinda disoriented me at firts.
Same here, though I gamed on a crappy PC for so long, now that I finally have a good PC that can run most games on Max settings, I don't care about anything new that comes out. Most of my backlog consists of stuff from before 2006.
Linux made possible for me to have all my Retro gaming for 4 years in a laptop without hard disk (it can run straight from USB very handy) Well, in Wine (windows emulator) that must be said LOL
For older hardware, just go with Xubuntu 2016 release you don't need the latest one. Latest ones kinda ruined in a few aspects. if still works don't fix it
I feel u mate. I was like that, had a PC for about 12 years now, but i recently decided to buy a second hand gaming laptop from like 2018 from a local second hand website and it runs fine. It cost me about 500 bucks so it was not a fortune. I will still play classic games but now i can play some newer games too. The point im trying to make is you can get a decent gaming laptop second hand and play some cool games with a minimal investment and play some of the cool newer games too (not a lot of those nowadays, but still there are a few).
Brings me back to a time when you go to Babbage's and go digging through the crates looking for a new game to buy. A time when your PC game came with a disc with a colored booklet of instructions and backstory, all packaged in a box that had amazing artwork depicting the game inside.
Back then, you were only considered a serious gamer if you had an entire book case full of games. All of these were colorful and pretty to look at. Nowadays you buy a game from a black/grey menu screen and you see a loading screen artwork as the game is installing (maybe) that you will probably never see again. Sure it is easier and more convenient but i feel like something cool was lost in the process. The joy of seeing that game you have been waiting for in a physical form, the feeling of holding a game case in your hand, the smell of a fresh game manual as you open it, the feeling of anticipation as you insert the disc into you CD drive and wait for the game to spin up... The new generations will never know these feelings...
@@mancamiatipoola No kidding I was thankfully among those that still had the chance because I was born towards the end of that era so I had some form of feeling it. I especially liked how when it came to those like Doom 3 (original version) you had to put in multiple disks to get it to fully install.
@@mancamiatipoola God I used to love that smell so much, the scent of the fresh plastic and paper when opening a game for the first time. I would literally shove my nose in there and take a big whiff after opening the case for the first time. Now that I mainly game on pc, and the last pc I built doesn't even have a disc drive, that's something I don't get to experience anymore. I miss that, I also miss manuals, it was so cool seeing devs put effort into them, especially when they were in color. Much more focus was put on presentation, now we're lucky if we get a manual at all, usually it's just dlc codes or promotional material.
I still play hexen! There is an RPG mod (not brutal rpg) that adds a leveling system, shops, rings and more weapons and one more 3 part final weapon and also directly links hexen and deathkings together so it leads right into it after you beat korax , its just... BEAUTIFUL. I play it every damn day LOL
I remember running this game for the first time after I bought my first piece of computer hardware as a kid. A Vooodoo 3 2000 PCI. Going from software rendering to hardware accelerated OpenGL in this game was stunning.
ehhh i dont know. like yeah the fps and resolution increase was probably amazing back then. but just like quake, the software renderer looks a lot more interesting with its hard shadows and stronger colors. those early 3d accelerated games kinda all look samey and uninteresting
the source port makes it incredibly difficult for the midi music to work for whatever reason... it was such a laborious process getting it to work that now that I moved to a different computer I don't even remember how I would be able to do that all over again
For anyone reading this trying to get it to work (like I was), there's a good GOG forum post on it. But to summarize you have to rename the music files to the names the game is looking for.
Sir, I must say, I subscribed to you for over 2 years now and you HAVE to be the gold standard for shooters review, especially. Entertaining and informative, thank you again sir, may your videos be many and viewed. Cheers ! 🍺🍺
Love this game, got it back in the day on release, still got that old big box version, even played it again last year, still awesome. Looking forward to the video and your opinion!!!
One of the greatest games ever created. Imo the best game in the series. Been waiting for you to revisit this masterpiece. Also, there is a Midi soundtrack for this game, probably wasn't working for you because I only ever recall hearing it in the vanilla Hexen II/GLHexenII version
Gotta love the visuals and sound effects in this game, the old designs are what keep a game like this playable in a way. It is a shame that the series kind of died after Heretic II, but after games like Rune 2 I think we should be grateful that this series has never suffered a terrible fate at the hands of the industry in its current state.
I still have the original CD’s (& boxes) for Heretic, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, & Hexen II so getting the music isn’t a problem for me. The soundtrack is fantastic. Way better than the other MIDI guitar rock from the other Raven/iD games. I still remember the incredibly ominous soundtracks & how rich it made the game experience. I wonder if someone made a mod to put it back in or something because it is SO worth it. Hell, I would if I knew how to mod. I can’t imagine it without the music. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on my father’s lap when I was 3-4 & getting a front row seat as he’d kick ass in those games. Those, Rise of the Triad, & Quake were some of my earliest memories. Good times.
That bit about preserving those capable of beating this without a walkthrough is absolutely true! I wouldn't be one of them, this game kicked my ass endlessly back in the day. I just assumed I was too much of a dipshit kid to figure it out so it's great to see I wasn't the only dipshit! Apparently, every 9 out of 10 gamers had the same difficulty. That end card music in these vids fuckin' rules.
Never beat the game as a kid, the puzzles were cryptic, especially the 1st hub :) Sad that the Heretic and Hexen lore ended in Hexen. Hexen II was totally different game with quickly boring enemy roster, dull environments with grey/brown color palettes and a bit unbalanced gameplay with bulletsponge enemies. Some items and char classes have similarities with the prequel, but otherwise it is just a generic shooter from the golden age. Okay, the soundtrack of Hexen II is stellar even in 2021.
The puzzles sometimes are quite dumb and frustrating, like the egyptian one. But finishing this game without a guide must feel like being king of the world...
@@tommasobergamaschi4277 I finished the game without walkthrough AND without dying as paladin. Almost managed the same with other classes but they got one shotted at Eidolon lmao. For example at the puzzle where you walk over tiles where GGman struggled you have to move at a certain speed. Step on a tile, wait a second or two, then move to another.
A high-quality review here! Singing high praises, while providing enough information for me to know I'll absolutely hate it should I ever start playing it.
I love Hexen 2! Beat it again earlier this year thanks to that Hammer of Thyrion fan patch. Need to play the expansion again as you can get it to work via messing about it Steam, although it's not as good as the original campaign. I love Heretic and Hexen as well. The dark fantasy setting with some pretty cool sounds and visuals are among some of my all time favorites, even if Hexen and Hexen 2 to an extent can kick your ass.
I remember making a video on this a while back it was really bad and I unlisted it but it was where I started and I've always wanted to see this game done justice in a video glad it could be you man!
Gman:" your first time playing this game don't start with the assassin." Me: *nonchalant whistle* Also I think hexen 2 has a multiplayer thing so maybe the assassin was better suited for that.
Instead of those 2 useless abilities devs gave for assassin, they could give her: 1. Double Jump (since she is agile girl) 2. A chance to deal a critical attack with her weapons(since she is an assassin), with dedicated sound notifying that u dealt extra dmg. But Overall, i really adore Hexen/Heretic games. I miss games like these nowadays……
another thing that I would like to see for Hexen and Hexen 2 and perhaps even for Doom would be Randomizers to randomize key locations, progression items location, enemy placements, weapon location etc... it would breathe new life into the games... just like Brutal Doom did in its own way
I was obsessed with Hexen 2 back in the day and it was a mission for me later to get it running properly on each new computer. The good news nowadays is that you can find a port (Hammer of Thyrion) that lets you run the proper music with MP3 files.
This is actually the first 3D video game i can remember playing on an old 95 windows computer my grandma had. I still love it to this day and it is one of my favorites that i find myself going back to over and over again almost 20 years later.
Playing this game again with the Quake mobile source engine, I'm reminded how much I enjoyed this game when it was originally released... but also I'm reminded that it can be REALLY unfair and tedious to get from spot to spot at times.
Although I did play DOOM 1 and 2 growing up, I always fuckin’ loved Hexen and it held a special place in my heart. Also, it took me MONTHS but I distinctly remember beating the original Hexen without any guide and handholding back when I was like 9 years old. I unfortunately can’t say the same thing for Hexen II which I played 3-4 years later when I was 12-13. I remember I always got up to the 4th (and final?) hub world but would always reach a point where I couldn’t figure out what the fuck I was supposed to do next.
aaah Hexen, never played Hex2 but I remember discovering this on some old Shareware disk of the original and Heretic and being blown away by them. Think I remember getting stuck on one bit for Heretic and just going back to my 138th playthrough of Doom. I would love to see ID Software create a remake of Herectic/Hexen very much in the new Doom style but with no forced combat style mechanics and more of an emphasis on the puzzle aspect of the game.
@@quarreneverett4767 oh yeah for sure. I remember calling to order my build editor floppy disk when i was a teenager. I waited by my mailbox every day that week waiting for it to come in. Once i got it, i realized how much dedication it takes to realize a complete level
Damn I Love Hexen! Havent played in a while now! Gman, Keep it up my Brother!!! I honestly look forward to all your content. A lot of the nostalgia you get from these experiences is legit the same experiences I had! When you tell a story it sounds so similar to what I did it's crazy!
Just wanted to let you know that the amazing Blazing Saddles reference didn't go unnoticed. 10/10. Oh and I love your hexen vids from before so I was pumped to see this!
I’ll love if they re release them on the switch and other consoles and make it into an anniversary collection just like they did with Duke Nukem and other FPS classics.
Absolutely love the Hexen II game! We beat it without any walkthrough in 1996 with my friend. The toughest parts were 2-3 minute wait level loads on Pentium 166Hz, and then, of course, clanking every wall with the katar in order to find a secret button or a stained-glass window passage (Later in our life we realized all the clues were in messages and we've paid low attention reading then). It took us a couple of weeks / about 8 sessions to finish the game. The computer we had access to was at my friend's divorced father place he was visiting once or twice a week with me as a "gaming luggage" :)
I beat this game without a walkthrough. The thing that impresses me most about Hexen II (as you pointed out) is that the clues can be sometimes cruelly subtle, but it does give clues. There are inscriptions in the Egypt level telling you which constellations need to be set. I think I was stuck the longest in Egypt wondering where I was supposed to go next, and finally noticing that there was an unassuming breach in a wall with a collapsed hallway behind it in the modern, ruined temple. I went to the corresponding location in the 1000-years-ago temple and discovered a breakable wall there, with the progress I was looking for. It feels really good to figure these things out on your own. However, now that I'm an adult with less time to spend stuck in a game, I can see how stuff like this can be frustrating.
Gman, the way to solve puzzle in egyptian world is to read those black texts inscribed on the walls. They do not tell you what to do, but rather hint on what u should be doing.
I’d love to revisit hexen 2, back in the day my pc could barely run it and combined with the pixel hunt in my low rez probably with frames in the teens I couldn’t get through it. Loved the first and heretic to death though. My poor 486 loved doom engine games.
My brother and I got this game along with Quake 2 for Christmas back in 1997. It was the first time I ever experienced a FPS. Quake 2 was beaten rather quickly, but we were stuck on Hexen for months. And like gman said, it was because of the painfully cryptic puzzles. The Egyptian level was the worst, but one day, I happened to get the constellation puzzle lined up and was able to move on to the next level. It felt like I conquered an army. The game was completed within a few days after, but my goodness, the puzzles on this game are unforgiving.
I discovered the Hexen series is when I noticed a game manual for Hexen 2 when I was helping clean up my uncles house. I asked if I can keep it seeing how he was moving out of his house in Franklin Lakes and moved to Jersey ashore. He agreed and took it back to my house. When I read it, I was fascinated by the dark setting of this game. I couldn’t play it today because I’m more of a console gamer on the ps5, but I do hope that Hexen 1 and 2 get a remake the same way Doom 1 and 2 for the same treatment.
In the floor puzzle in Egypt, its imperative to stop within the confines of the last tile without going too far or fast. I read that advice somewhere after running over it too fast countless times...
Absolutely love your reviews man, especially these titles from my most cherished gaming years. I asked my grandparents to get me Hexen 2 for my birthday but my older sister talked to my parents about the devil sign on the front cover so I didn't get to play it. It is currently in queue for me to play on a Windows 98 system I built with a Voodoo 3 3000.
The assassin class reminds me of the heretic 1 character which also had a cross bow. Maybe he inspired this new class just as a call back to the first game and it's weapons and items.
i remember not being able to finish the first hub, then heard some clues about how to find the bones of loric, it was then that all started to make sense to me. i began looking for secret doors, switches, reading every book, then connecting the clues. my native language is Spanish, so i translated with an old dictionary every word in the clues to make sense. in the end, for me, the most interesting aspect on this game turned it to be its puzzles, they were so well-thought and i really *really* miss when FPS (and games in general) had this kind of mind-bending puzzles. i really hope a new Hexen with the same spirit.
Hexen II has midi music, you just have to switch it on in the menu because it defaults to CD when you first install it. the option is just above the Music volume slider. the neat thing is that it uses windows default midi, so you can install a virtualsynth with something like Crisis.sf2 and have some top notch midi playing.
I don't remember if I beat it back in the days, but few years ago some puzzles sof-locked me... twice. Still love the graphics and whole atmosphere of this game.
Hexen 2 was definitely part of my childhood and holds a special place in my heart even though I don't think I even completed half of the game, and it had me running in circles for hours. I really wish someone would mod or re-release this with more helpful direction. I know it's a puzzle game, but it's HARD navigating everywhere by memory and understanding what you're supposed to be doing. Extremely beautiful artwork and design that even holds up today though. This could have easily been the over taker of DOOM if it was simpler and the timing was right.
Nice review and well done! Definitely one of the seminal games of my (our) childhood, and worth investing time into - as you say: not a masterpiece, but a great game nonetheless. I am currently playing through Graven and all I get is delicious Hexen 2 vibes.
I played this back in the day and have it on Steam. I play as the Necromancer. We even got a 4-player LAN party and beat it at the highest difficulty. Then the expansion came out and we did that too. This is also the first time I had to apply a patch to a game that enabled saving a game in co-op.
The temple of nefertum floor puzzle is actually bugged. There's a teleport volume placed over the final switch that stops you from just charging through. But it doesn't get removed fast enough when you get the right combination. The trick is to do the right combination very slowly, preferably by crouching. Whenever you get teleported out to the courtyard without the 'nothing seemed to happen' prompt, it's because you actually got the combination right but did it too fast. Some of the devs were asked about it years later, and they apologised for that one puzzle.
Currently playing a port of Hexen 2 for the PS Vita. This game still looks and sound great. The soundtrack really adds a lot to an already very atmospheric game.
Great review. I got my copy of Hexen II in my box copy of Heretic II. I love both games for totally different reasons, but being nostalgic for either makes me wish we had old Raven software back again.
The time travel astral chart puzzle is hell. Every time I start playing this game I'm like "I've only completed this once, why is that? This is damn good!" Then I get to that puzzle... and I'm like "oh yeah, this is why, time to load up Quake instead".
It really was a filter. I remember growing up in the 90s playing Doom, Quake and Heretic. My dad got a copy of Hexen thinking it was the "next heretic game" and I was utterly confused as an 8yo kid. Thanks for reminding me now I'm old to play through it.
I wanna live in the timeline where the hexen series ended up as an open world daggerfall like fps rpg with the movement system and smoothness of Doom. I think quake started out with that in mind...
to this day I still imagine what a full-fledged RPG focusing on Melee combat would look like in the Quake 1 engine... it's even surprising no one attempted to do it
then I tried Brutal Hexen (a mod that as far as I know was never properly finished unfortunately) and it blew my mind in terms of how much life it breathes into Hexen 1, it plays so well
@@FeelingShred I had a great time with Wrath of Cronos, which added level ups, skills, and enemy randomization to hexen. It was brilliant, but very easy to wildly unbalance the game. I agree too, I adore the aesthetic and feel of quake 1, an rpg set in that world would be amazing. Hell I'd even play a tabletop rpg set in the quake universe...
@@GeorgeL909 that's one of the things I wanted in Doom or Hexen mods, even Heretic maybe... randomization of key locations, new weapons locations, enemy placements, etc... with options to tune On Off of course
Me playing Hexen in 1995: “I don’t know where the hell I am supposed to go.”
Me playing Hexen in 2021: “I don’t know where the fuck I am supposed to go.”
1/500 of the Puzzle has been solved.
Same.......
Turok 2: "cute"
In all seriousness I LOVE Turok 2 to death but god damn, half the game is "Where am I, how did I get here?"
@@ZigealFaust Turok 2 has nothing on this game regarding confusing levels and objectives.
and the second one its a lot worse XD
Oh Jesus, Hexen 2. We picked this game up for the 4-player co-op and pre-patch, you couldn't save your progress, so we hid in a barn attic and let the session run overnight. That game was a trip and I remember we did have to look up some solutions. Such memories...
@@Erikcleric you couldn't in co-op, no, hence the scenario I described.
@@NthReview oh yea yea i totally forgot. No matter the game really, playing coop is playing multiplayer or LAN and ofc you cant save in a network game.
@@Erikcleric I've never experienced DOS games online, so this might be a feature limited to source ports, but Duke3D and Doom support network saves. Shock 2 had coop deliberately added in with patch 2.3 and it supports save/loads. Diablo netplay basically saved anytime you did literally anything which made losing gear from death such a risk.
@@XenoSpyro Yeah i wasnt thinking of multiplayer, not in this case. :)
Just the"what if" Quake 5 was made, i prefer it'd have manual saves and not checkpoints.
But yea, playing Duke 3d coop or Doom over Doomseeker, Coop, yeah its nice being able to save in those cases.
And System Shock 2 being quite long and complicated, yea you gotta save in that.
My brother and i did some massive skirmishes on AOE 2 against brutal AI and ofc we had to save if we couldnt finish the game, sure!
Yeah Diablo has always been risky, offline or online, gotta keep track of where you died and all that.
But like i said, i was just thinking manual saves in single player. :D
Hey kids, Dad here. One of the possible reasons why Hexen II felt a little rushed and why Heretic II was such a different experience is that, prior to Raven being bought by Activision, a third installment in the Heretic/Hexen series was being developed with the working title of Hecatomb. John Romero was involved during production as well. But Activision saw franchise potential if they treated Heretic and Hexen as two separate series instead of a trilogy, so they ordered Raven to stop working on Hecatomb and instead make Hexen II and Heretic II. Romero has said that Hecatomb had some wild ideas that he really wishes they could have brought to life, but sadly, that'll never happen now. Fortunately, Graven is as close to a Hexen III as we'll ever get, so if you enjoyed the Gman talking about Hexen II, you should go play it (you seriously should) and then check out Graven afterward. It's a hell of an experience!
Thanks dad
Read this in Civie 11’s voice. Fits his style
@@JohnSmith-gr3pq that's a fine complement, I appreciate that. The difference between me and Civvie though is that I actually genuinely enjoy the Hexen games.
Hi dad. Can u buy us some more beerz?
@@pistool1 only if you don't let your mom catch you like last time. I got an ear full about it and I don't wanna end up on the couch again, you know?
My favorite part about playing the Hexen II demo was how immensely destructible the scenery is in Blackmarsh. You could totally wreck shop, and it felt super satisfying punching down a wall with your bare hands. Was such a shame when I eventually ended up getting the full game, and I found out that they didn't bother adding that destructibility to the rest of the game.
I guess even back then they did the trick of "polish up just the opening to entice people to buy."
I really wish Hexen would make a return. Really enjoyed them.
Theres Amid Evil.
Check out GRAVEN, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin, Project Warlock II, Hellbound, Apocryph... most of promising FPS games have different settings and tone- like Prodeus, Arthurian Legends, Cultic, Blood West or DUSK.
It’s just a matter of time before someone dusts off the name, the real question is whether or not the next Hexen will be any good.
Who knows what id software is working on now 😈
I second the Amid Evil recommendation; greatest FPS I've played in the last ten years. Starts off a bit slow but the game gets incredible as it goes on.
Don't forget, that there is addon exists. It adds fifth playable character (demoness) which can be used in original game campaign, and winter and Tibetian themed levels.
up voting this, maybe the makes a add-on review.
You mean the expansion Portal of Praveous?
@@AndreasElf yes. I thought it was obvious, as I've mentioned demoness playable character.
"Acktualie"
Winter Tibetan levels? I am in!
Hexen 2 does have a midi soundtrack, although I think you have to specify that in the game, it doesn't automatically detect whether you have the CD inserted or not.
20:01 that puzzle. Yeah it's actually bugged, if you don't do it this exact way.
1) Save before stepping on it.
2) Read the glyphs.
3) Try a combination SLOWLY, each button needs to be fully pressed before interacting with the next one.
4) If you fail, reload, it gets more buggy if you fail it at least once. Reloading sets you back to a game state before you failed it.
5) Eventually it should work.
I've managed to get the MIDI music tracks working on Linux, but it was such an obtuse and laborious process I don't even remember how I ended up doing it, I just changed computers recently and I have no idea how I will set it up again
Can't you just save scam the puzzle? Like pass the first button, quick save, then repeat for all three?
There is also the (sometimes hard to find) expansion pack, that added a fifth character (demoness) and two more acts and several new or refurbished enemies.
Yup, that's the Portal of Praevus expansion. Felt the same "where the hell should I go" feeling when I played it. Also the fact that the demoness was left handed while all the other characters were right handed kinda disoriented me at firts.
Another game to add to my ever growing retro games list. I would like to thank my shitty laptop for making me experience epic classic games
Same. My pc is outdated and I use console a lot more, so it became an classic gaming machine
Same here, though I gamed on a crappy PC for so long, now that I finally have a good PC that can run most games on Max settings, I don't care about anything new that comes out. Most of my backlog consists of stuff from before 2006.
Linux made possible for me to have all my Retro gaming for 4 years in a laptop without hard disk (it can run straight from USB very handy)
Well, in Wine (windows emulator) that must be said LOL
For older hardware, just go with Xubuntu 2016 release you don't need the latest one. Latest ones kinda ruined in a few aspects. if still works don't fix it
I feel u mate. I was like that, had a PC for about 12 years now, but i recently decided to buy a second hand gaming laptop from like 2018 from a local second hand website and it runs fine. It cost me about 500 bucks so it was not a fortune. I will still play classic games but now i can play some newer games too. The point im trying to make is you can get a decent gaming laptop second hand and play some cool games with a minimal investment and play some of the cool newer games too (not a lot of those nowadays, but still there are a few).
Brings me back to a time when you go to Babbage's and go digging through the crates looking for a new game to buy. A time when your PC game came with a disc with a colored booklet of instructions and backstory, all packaged in a box that had amazing artwork depicting the game inside.
Those were the days man
The golden years of PC gaming.
Back then, you were only considered a serious gamer if you had an entire book case full of games. All of these were colorful and pretty to look at. Nowadays you buy a game from a black/grey menu screen and you see a loading screen artwork as the game is installing (maybe) that you will probably never see again.
Sure it is easier and more convenient but i feel like something cool was lost in the process. The joy of seeing that game you have been waiting for in a physical form, the feeling of holding a game case in your hand, the smell of a fresh game manual as you open it, the feeling of anticipation as you insert the disc into you CD drive and wait for the game to spin up...
The new generations will never know these feelings...
@@mancamiatipoola No kidding I was thankfully among those that still had the chance because I was born towards the end of that era so I had some form of feeling it. I especially liked how when it came to those like Doom 3 (original version) you had to put in multiple disks to get it to fully install.
@@mancamiatipoola God I used to love that smell so much, the scent of the fresh plastic and paper when opening a game for the first time. I would literally shove my nose in there and take a big whiff after opening the case for the first time. Now that I mainly game on pc, and the last pc I built doesn't even have a disc drive, that's something I don't get to experience anymore. I miss that, I also miss manuals, it was so cool seeing devs put effort into them, especially when they were in color. Much more focus was put on presentation, now we're lucky if we get a manual at all, usually it's just dlc codes or promotional material.
I was absolutely obsessed with the first Hexen, played it for hours every day after school along with Heretic. Good times👌
I still play hexen! There is an RPG mod (not brutal rpg) that adds a leveling system, shops, rings and more weapons and one more 3 part final weapon and also directly links hexen and deathkings together so it leads right into it after you beat korax , its just... BEAUTIFUL. I play it every damn day LOL
@@IMN602 Wrath of Cronos mod ;)
I remember running this game for the first time after I bought my first piece of computer hardware as a kid. A Vooodoo 3 2000 PCI. Going from software rendering to hardware accelerated OpenGL in this game was stunning.
Those Voodoo cards were awesome back then :) I had a Guillemot Voodoo 1, then a Voodoo 3 I think.
Ahh voodoo 3. I bought one way after it was obsolete so it was way cheap but man it still made my games look great.
@@chiarosuburekeni9325 'member when you could buy graphics cards? 😂
ehhh i dont know. like yeah the fps and resolution increase was probably amazing back then.
but just like quake, the software renderer looks a lot more interesting with its hard shadows and stronger colors.
those early 3d accelerated games kinda all look samey and uninteresting
@@khhnator GLQuake did look a bit... melty.
Not gonna lie: After the Quake port I wish for a Heretic/Hexen collection for consoles as well as Quake 2.
A quake 2 port is more likely. The rights to this series are in Activision’s hands now.
Nitghtdive studios, hear our call!
True
the Hexen 2 expansion pack adds the demoness as a character class too
Hexen 2 is where it's at. I really liked the game back when I first played it. I don't think I paid attention to the story though.
To me it was the best of the series, puzzles are really mind-blowing and the ambience feels unique within the old school fps titles.
Hexen 2 actually does have midi music. Might be a port issue but it is there.
the source port makes it incredibly difficult for the midi music to work for whatever reason... it was such a laborious process getting it to work that now that I moved to a different computer I don't even remember how I would be able to do that all over again
For anyone reading this trying to get it to work (like I was), there's a good GOG forum post on it. But to summarize you have to rename the music files to the names the game is looking for.
Sir, I must say, I subscribed to you for over 2 years now and you HAVE to be the gold standard for shooters review, especially. Entertaining and informative, thank you again sir, may your videos be many and viewed. Cheers ! 🍺🍺
Man, this game just looks so good. Never actually played it. but the aesthetics are 10/10
Gmanlives was so tired of wating for civvie11 to cover hexen 2 he say "fine i will do it myself"
Love this game, got it back in the day on release, still got that old big box version, even played it again last year, still awesome. Looking forward to the video and your opinion!!!
Hey there I also played it last year and again this year 😊 I love Hexen 2
@@CMONCMON007 Great minds think alike mate!!
One of the greatest games ever created. Imo the best game in the series. Been waiting for you to revisit this masterpiece.
Also, there is a Midi soundtrack for this game, probably wasn't working for you because I only ever recall hearing it in the vanilla Hexen II/GLHexenII version
This game was my favorite until the release of Dark Souls.
One of the many 90's FPS classics that's for sure and the multiplayer was fire . Still got my Big Box version too. Great review as always, Gman.
Gotta love the visuals and sound effects in this game, the old designs are what keep a game like this playable in a way. It is a shame that the series kind of died after Heretic II, but after games like Rune 2 I think we should be grateful that this series has never suffered a terrible fate at the hands of the industry in its current state.
I still have the original CD’s (& boxes) for Heretic, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, & Hexen II so getting the music isn’t a problem for me. The soundtrack is fantastic. Way better than the other MIDI guitar rock from the other Raven/iD games. I still remember the incredibly ominous soundtracks & how rich it made the game experience. I wonder if someone made a mod to put it back in or something because it is SO worth it. Hell, I would if I knew how to mod. I can’t imagine it without the music. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on my father’s lap when I was 3-4 & getting a front row seat as he’d kick ass in those games. Those, Rise of the Triad, & Quake were some of my earliest memories. Good times.
The rise of the triad music is pretty good too :)
That bit about preserving those capable of beating this without a walkthrough is absolutely true! I wouldn't be one of them, this game kicked my ass endlessly back in the day. I just assumed I was too much of a dipshit kid to figure it out so it's great to see I wasn't the only dipshit! Apparently, every 9 out of 10 gamers had the same difficulty. That end card music in these vids fuckin' rules.
Never beat the game as a kid, the puzzles were cryptic, especially the 1st hub :)
Sad that the Heretic and Hexen lore ended in Hexen. Hexen II was totally different game with quickly boring enemy roster, dull environments with grey/brown color palettes and a bit unbalanced gameplay with bulletsponge enemies. Some items and char classes have similarities with the prequel, but otherwise it is just a generic shooter from the golden age. Okay, the soundtrack of Hexen II is stellar even in 2021.
The puzzles sometimes are quite dumb and frustrating, like the egyptian one. But finishing this game without a guide must feel like being king of the world...
@@tommasobergamaschi4277 I finished the game without walkthrough AND without dying as paladin. Almost managed the same with other classes but they got one shotted at Eidolon lmao.
For example at the puzzle where you walk over tiles where GGman struggled you have to move at a certain speed. Step on a tile, wait a second or two, then move to another.
@@deliq9607 You are a badass 🍻
wow what a frame rate... back in the day this was like 10 frames per second like this it looks fabulous! I want it on my switch!
A high-quality review here! Singing high praises, while providing enough information for me to know I'll absolutely hate it should I ever start playing it.
Love that our man here goes back & reviewes the classics instead of spending unnecessary time with the newest cod & bf.
I love Hexen 2! Beat it again earlier this year thanks to that Hammer of Thyrion fan patch. Need to play the expansion again as you can get it to work via messing about it Steam, although it's not as good as the original campaign.
I love Heretic and Hexen as well. The dark fantasy setting with some pretty cool sounds and visuals are among some of my all time favorites, even if Hexen and Hexen 2 to an extent can kick your ass.
I remember making a video on this a while back it was really bad and I unlisted it but it was where I started and I've always wanted to see this game done justice in a video glad it could be you man!
Gman:" your first time playing this game don't start with the assassin."
Me: *nonchalant whistle*
Also I think hexen 2 has a multiplayer thing so maybe the assassin was better suited for that.
Her bomb of ancients was totally going for pvp
Assassin is the best class IMO. After you get the timming with the grenades, the game becomes too easy.
Instead of those 2 useless abilities devs gave for assassin, they could give her:
1. Double Jump (since she is agile girl)
2. A chance to deal a critical attack with her weapons(since she is an assassin), with dedicated sound notifying that u dealt extra dmg.
But Overall, i really adore Hexen/Heretic games. I miss games like these nowadays……
it's time for the genius semi-autistic modders out there to make this a reality and mod a 6th class into the game, that would be DOPE
another thing that I would like to see for Hexen and Hexen 2 and perhaps even for Doom would be Randomizers to randomize key locations, progression items location, enemy placements, weapon location etc... it would breathe new life into the games... just like Brutal Doom did in its own way
I'd totally play a remake of this though.
I was obsessed with Hexen 2 back in the day and it was a mission for me later to get it running properly on each new computer. The good news nowadays is that you can find a port (Hammer of Thyrion) that lets you run the proper music with MP3 files.
This is actually the first 3D video game i can remember playing on an old 95 windows computer my grandma had. I still love it to this day and it is one of my favorites that i find myself going back to over and over again almost 20 years later.
Playing this game again with the Quake mobile source engine, I'm reminded how much I enjoyed this game when it was originally released... but also I'm reminded that it can be REALLY unfair and tedious to get from spot to spot at times.
Although I did play DOOM 1 and 2 growing up, I always fuckin’ loved Hexen and it held a special place in my heart.
Also, it took me MONTHS but I distinctly remember beating the original Hexen without any guide and handholding back when I was like 9 years old. I unfortunately can’t say the same thing for Hexen II which I played 3-4 years later when I was 12-13. I remember I always got up to the 4th (and final?) hub world but would always reach a point where I couldn’t figure out what the fuck I was supposed to do next.
I want to be able to listen to your closing credits song on repeat, I love whatever song that is.
aaah Hexen, never played Hex2 but I remember discovering this on some old Shareware disk of the original and Heretic and being blown away by them.
Think I remember getting stuck on one bit for Heretic and just going back to my 138th playthrough of Doom.
I would love to see ID Software create a remake of Herectic/Hexen very much in the new Doom style but with no forced combat style mechanics and more of an emphasis on the puzzle aspect of the game.
So you want a developer to remake these games that you had a fleeting interest in? Seems reasonable
@@buhshmuh Oh I went back and completed both shareware versions and got the full games eventually too. But Doom took over my life! haha
@@gladiatorscoops that's awesome. Doom was always number 1, at least until Duke nukem 3d came out 😂
Checked out the large doom and build engine molding scene? Recomend it. We also got some new stellar games from it
@@quarreneverett4767 oh yeah for sure. I remember calling to order my build editor floppy disk when i was a teenager. I waited by my mailbox every day that week waiting for it to come in. Once i got it, i realized how much dedication it takes to realize a complete level
Damn I Love Hexen! Havent played in a while now! Gman, Keep it up my Brother!!! I honestly look forward to all your content. A lot of the nostalgia you get from these experiences is legit the same experiences I had! When you tell a story it sounds so similar to what I did it's crazy!
We need HeXen 1 combat, scale, and atmosphere with HeXen 2 mechanics, depth, and puzzles.
we need the Arcane Dimensions of mods equivalent for Hexen 2
I recently wondered when you would make a video about this game, and here you deliver. I'm impressed sonny!
The soundtrack takes this to a whole new level. It is a must!
Just wanted to let you know that the amazing Blazing Saddles reference didn't go unnoticed. 10/10.
Oh and I love your hexen vids from before so I was pumped to see this!
I’ll love if they re release them on the switch and other consoles and make it into an anniversary collection just like they did with Duke Nukem and other FPS classics.
I love how Gman can upload a video on a game I literally know nothing about and still find it interesting...
"Both are men of faith, both share the patrician fetish of facesitting..."
As a man of faith, I approve this message.
Hear, hear!
Heretic/hexen series always have been my favourite of the old shooters.
I look forward to Graven. Also because like most old shooters, it has coop.
13:07 I'm a little late to the party but that's a noice reverb fart, maaaate. Awesome vids, I love them all!
Absolutely love the Hexen II game! We beat it without any walkthrough in 1996 with my friend. The toughest parts were 2-3 minute wait level loads on Pentium 166Hz, and then, of course, clanking every wall with the katar in order to find a secret button or a stained-glass window passage (Later in our life we realized all the clues were in messages and we've paid low attention reading then). It took us a couple of weeks / about 8 sessions to finish the game. The computer we had access to was at my friend's divorced father place he was visiting once or twice a week with me as a "gaming luggage" :)
I remember my video card came with a full version of Hexen 2. I love that game to this day. It really sold me on OpenGL.
I just downloaded them all on PC last weekend. Glad to see ppl still remember this game!
I beat this game without a walkthrough.
The thing that impresses me most about Hexen II (as you pointed out) is that the clues can be sometimes cruelly subtle, but it does give clues. There are inscriptions in the Egypt level telling you which constellations need to be set. I think I was stuck the longest in Egypt wondering where I was supposed to go next, and finally noticing that there was an unassuming breach in a wall with a collapsed hallway behind it in the modern, ruined temple. I went to the corresponding location in the 1000-years-ago temple and discovered a breakable wall there, with the progress I was looking for.
It feels really good to figure these things out on your own. However, now that I'm an adult with less time to spend stuck in a game, I can see how stuff like this can be frustrating.
Gman, the way to solve puzzle in egyptian world is to read those black texts inscribed on the walls. They do not tell you what to do, but rather hint on what u should be doing.
Hexen coop on N64 was so fun! I still play it with my bro and friends on emulator from time to time!
The weapons seems to be inspired by Heretic as well. The crusaders whirlwind thing-->the Iron lich from heretic.
I’d love to revisit hexen 2, back in the day my pc could barely run it and combined with the pixel hunt in my low rez probably with frames in the teens I couldn’t get through it. Loved the first and heretic to death though. My poor 486 loved doom engine games.
I see where Amid Evil got it’s inspiration now
My brother and I got this game along with Quake 2 for Christmas back in 1997. It was the first time I ever experienced a FPS. Quake 2 was beaten rather quickly, but we were stuck on Hexen for months. And like gman said, it was because of the painfully cryptic puzzles. The Egyptian level was the worst, but one day, I happened to get the constellation puzzle lined up and was able to move on to the next level. It felt like I conquered an army. The game was completed within a few days after, but my goodness, the puzzles on this game are unforgiving.
Thanks for bringing back memories. Have you played the mission pack Portal of Praveus? What did you think about it?
Speaking of old Raven Software classics, I would love to see you review Take No Prisoners!
I discovered the Hexen series is when I noticed a game manual for Hexen 2 when I was helping clean up my uncles house. I asked if I can keep it seeing how he was moving out of his house in Franklin Lakes and moved to Jersey ashore. He agreed and took it back to my house. When I read it, I was fascinated by the dark setting of this game. I couldn’t play it today because I’m more of a console gamer on the ps5, but I do hope that Hexen 1 and 2 get a remake the same way Doom 1 and 2 for the same treatment.
People who beat this game without a walkthrough don’t need to be saved from the asteroid. They are gonna save us.
He is right, the sound effects are amazing
In the floor puzzle in Egypt, its imperative to stop within the confines of the last tile without going too far or fast. I read that advice somewhere after running over it too fast countless times...
Absolutely love your reviews man, especially these titles from my most cherished gaming years. I asked my grandparents to get me Hexen 2 for my birthday but my older sister talked to my parents about the devil sign on the front cover so I didn't get to play it. It is currently in queue for me to play on a Windows 98 system I built with a Voodoo 3 3000.
Your old review was one of my favorites when I discovered your channel back in the day. Thanks for the update, friend
I dunno what it is about watching this Australian bloke’s videos that soothes the soul but god damn I am addicted
The assassin class reminds me of the heretic 1 character which also had a cross bow. Maybe he inspired this new class just as a call back to the first game and it's weapons and items.
You mean Corvus??
@@IMN602 yeah. Played mostly the first and barely heretic 2. I had hexen on saturn and I think it has drop in co op but likely poor frame rate.
The thumbnail killed me. Great job!
Sorry, I'm not from Australia... Who are the people in the thumbnail? Рогп stars?
I feel like g man and me would have been best buds in the 90s
Finally an update review from this game, just completed the game over 100 time. Got flaw and some doesn't make sense, but it still decent game.
i remember not being able to finish the first hub, then heard some clues about how to find the bones of loric, it was then that all started to make sense to me. i began looking for secret doors, switches, reading every book, then connecting the clues. my native language is Spanish, so i translated with an old dictionary every word in the clues to make sense. in the end, for me, the most interesting aspect on this game turned it to be its puzzles, they were so well-thought and i really *really* miss when FPS (and games in general) had this kind of mind-bending puzzles. i really hope a new Hexen with the same spirit.
Hexen II has midi music, you just have to switch it on in the menu because it defaults to CD when you first install it.
the option is just above the Music volume slider.
the neat thing is that it uses windows default midi, so you can install a virtualsynth with something like Crisis.sf2 and have some top notch midi playing.
Why is it that whenever I start playing a game, this man does a video on it??? I love this channel.
I don't remember if I beat it back in the days, but few years ago some puzzles sof-locked me... twice. Still love the graphics and whole atmosphere of this game.
tbh I need a remake of Hexen 2.. the game itself is a masterpiece
This game was the first fps that I played until the end so I started my fps player life on hard level lol
Hexen 2 was definitely part of my childhood and holds a special place in my heart even though I don't think I even completed half of the game, and it had me running in circles for hours.
I really wish someone would mod or re-release this with more helpful direction. I know it's a puzzle game, but it's HARD navigating everywhere by memory and understanding what you're supposed to be doing. Extremely beautiful artwork and design that even holds up today though. This could have easily been the over taker of DOOM if it was simpler and the timing was right.
Blazing Saddles reference in 2021. Ballsy mate.
I totally celebrate the tumbnail of this video.. and always crack up if when I see it. :-D
Did you raid a costume-selling website for it?
A really important game from an unrepeatable era. Thanks for the effort you are putting in honoring these classics my man. Really, thank you.
Nice review and well done! Definitely one of the seminal games of my (our) childhood, and worth investing time into - as you say: not a masterpiece, but a great game nonetheless. I am currently playing through Graven and all I get is delicious Hexen 2 vibes.
I played this back in the day and have it on Steam. I play as the Necromancer. We even got a 4-player LAN party and beat it at the highest difficulty. Then the expansion came out and we did that too.
This is also the first time I had to apply a patch to a game that enabled saving a game in co-op.
7:27 OI! That's uncalled for!
The character abilities also worked in multiplayer. The assassin's abilities were more useful there.
@8:30 🤔 sounded like " Timone's axe " lmao 😂 - Lion King would have been a very different movie....🤣
love that game and for the puzzle in the egypt chapter : you just need to slowly crouch over them to activate. its a bug which never got fixed ;)
The temple of nefertum floor puzzle is actually bugged. There's a teleport volume placed over the final switch that stops you from just charging through. But it doesn't get removed fast enough when you get the right combination. The trick is to do the right combination very slowly, preferably by crouching. Whenever you get teleported out to the courtyard without the 'nothing seemed to happen' prompt, it's because you actually got the combination right but did it too fast.
Some of the devs were asked about it years later, and they apologised for that one puzzle.
Currently playing a port of Hexen 2 for the PS Vita. This game still looks and sound great. The soundtrack really adds a lot to an already very atmospheric game.
Great review. I got my copy of Hexen II in my box copy of Heretic II. I love both games for totally different reasons, but being nostalgic for either makes me wish we had old Raven software back again.
The time travel astral chart puzzle is hell.
Every time I start playing this game I'm like "I've only completed this once, why is that? This is damn good!"
Then I get to that puzzle... and I'm like "oh yeah, this is why, time to load up Quake instead".
in defense of the assassin, her stealth + backstab make much more sense when you're playing co-op!
It really was a filter. I remember growing up in the 90s playing Doom, Quake and Heretic. My dad got a copy of Hexen thinking it was the "next heretic game" and I was utterly confused as an 8yo kid. Thanks for reminding me now I'm old to play through it.
I always loved hexen 1 and 2
I wanna live in the timeline where the hexen series ended up as an open world daggerfall like fps rpg with the movement system and smoothness of Doom. I think quake started out with that in mind...
to this day I still imagine what a full-fledged RPG focusing on Melee combat would look like in the Quake 1 engine... it's even surprising no one attempted to do it
Daikatana had bows and the Disqus weapon, that was almost it in terms of weapons
then I tried Brutal Hexen (a mod that as far as I know was never properly finished unfortunately) and it blew my mind in terms of how much life it breathes into Hexen 1, it plays so well
@@FeelingShred I had a great time with Wrath of Cronos, which added level ups, skills, and enemy randomization to hexen. It was brilliant, but very easy to wildly unbalance the game. I agree too, I adore the aesthetic and feel of quake 1, an rpg set in that world would be amazing. Hell I'd even play a tabletop rpg set in the quake universe...
@@GeorgeL909 that's one of the things I wanted in Doom or Hexen mods, even Heretic maybe... randomization of key locations, new weapons locations, enemy placements, etc... with options to tune On Off of course
I still remember how long it took me to get through the first act. understanding what I had to do was a titanic undertaking. And i love it.
xD That Bela Lugosi "Fuck you" just deserves an automatic like
To this day I cannot fathom how anyone could finish HeXen 2 without a walkthrough.