Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (1996)

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders came out a while after Heretic had been released as Shareware.  Two years by my count, checking Mobygames.  I remember as a kid I'd played the Shareware episode to death.  But actually purchasing Shareware games was a no-go since it involved giving my parent's credit card out over the phone, or mailing a check for a bank account I didn't have.  It was retail or bust for me as a young teen.  Lawn mowing cash only.  

So it was at some point post Quake 2 that I found the belated retail version of Heretic in a bargain bin or a bundle, probably at CompUSA, and snatched it up.  I may or may not have even installed it.  It mostly sat in my collection, a memory of all the fun I'd already had with the free Shareware episode.

Well I finally dusted off my old copy that I've kept with me ever since that day.  And I played through it to completion, all five episodes.

Like most Shareware releases, I have an incredibly sharp memory for the first few levels and the last.  Many parts in between get fuzzy.  Then of course, the four new episodes were completely new to me.  Right up front, I really enjoyed them.  Being from an era where everything was just a "Doom Clone", they weren't phoning it in like you'd think.  It feels like a labor of love.  In many ways, it's better than Doom.

Don't get me wrong, Doom, especially it's Shareware episode, has superb combat encounter design.  The maps flow excellently.  The plethora of secrets, and ways the maps loop back on themselves, preserving forward momentum, is fantastic.  I almost never get stuck on a Doom level.

Heretic's levels though have more artistic attention to detail in my opinion though.  Sometimes they don't flow as well, but wow do they have some detailed level geometry.  The audio sometimes feels punchier too.  The Golem cracking open, with their soul escaping, is probably one of the most satisfying death sounds in an early FPS.  Then it also has the fun addition of an inventory system.

My experience of playing it recently was interesting.  The first three, original, episodes felt like they logically built on each other in difficulty.  The progression felt very organic and pleasurable.  Episodes 4 and 5 however were real ass kickers.  In fact, the difficulty cliff at the beginning of each of them was quite surreal.  They aren't shy about throwing Iron Liches at you right out the gate.

In some ways it reminded me of the difficulty cliff starting an old gridder RPG like Bard's Tale or Might & Magic.  You'd roll up a bunch of level 1 characters, take them out, and inevitably a few would die to critical hits on a random encounter 2 steps away from your Inn.  But fuck em.  Kick them out of your party, and reroll replacements.  It's just a few level 1's.  It was a bloody grind to level 2, but once you got there, the game opened up a ton.

Episodes 4 and 5 of Heretic felt the same.  A bloody grind to get through level 1.  Level 2 also a bit.  But after that, the game opened up again.  I enjoyed the challenge.  Although now that I think about it, it felt like there were fewer secrets in the back episodes, and they weren't as fun to find either.

I hated the Maulotaurs.  Passionately.  They just felt excessively bullet spongy to me, especially for as often they got thrown at you later in the game.  Most especially for the very final level where they just throw 6+ at you, in an arena large enough to circle strafe effortlessly for the minute after tedious minute it takes to finally dump enough damage into all of them to mercifully end the game.

That aside, I loved every minute of it.  Go play it.