Hexen II
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| Hexen II | |
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| Developer(s) | Raven Software |
| Publisher(s) | Activision, id Software |
| Engine | Quake engine |
| Release date(s) | August 31, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T ELSPA: 11+ PEGI: 12+ PEGI: 11+ (FI) USK: 18 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh |
Hexen II is a first person shooter computer game developed by Raven Software from 1996 to 1997, published by id Software and distributed by Activision. It is the third game in the Hexen/Heretic series, and the last in the Serpent Riders trilogy. Using a modified Quake engine, it features single player and multi player game modes, as well as four character classes to choose from, each with different abilities. These include the offensive Paladin, the defensive Crusader, the spellcasting Necromancer, and the stealthy Assassin. The score was composed by Kevin Schilder.
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[edit] Plot
As in the first two games, a world has been enslaved by a powerful demon called a Serpent Rider. This time, the demon in question is Eidolon, the oldest and most powerful of the three Serpent Riders. The player must travel to four different continents, each with a distinct style (Medieval European, Mesoamerican, Ancient Egyptian, and Greco-Roman), destroy enemies, solve puzzles, defeat a horseman of the Apocalypse and continue to the next hub in pursuit of Eidolon, the final enemy.
Improvements from Hexen and Quake include destructible environments, mounted weapons, and unique level up abilities. Like its predecessor, Hexen II also uses a hub system. These hubs are a number of interconnected levels; changes made in one level may have effects in another. The Tome of Power artifact makes a return from Heretic.
[edit] Portal of Praevus
An expansion pack called Hexen II: Portal of Praevus was released in 1998 featuring new levels, new enemies and a new playable character class, The Demoness. It focuses on the attempted resurrection of the three Serpent Riders by the evil wizard Praevus, and takes place in a fifth continent featuring a Sino-Tibetan setting.
[edit] Glide dependence
Hexen II, by way of the Quake engine, uses OpenGL for 3D acceleration. However, Hexen II only supports 3dfx hardware because the GLHexen executable is a Glide wrapper. Custom OpenGL executables were released by PowerVR and Rendition for running Hexen II with their respective products. Other 3D cards may use a Glide emulator or wrapper to run the official GLHexen. Alternatively, with the release of the source code, players may opt to download a source mod that no longer uses Glide.
[edit] Source code release
Following the tradition from Hexen and Heretic, Raven released the source code to Hexen II in 2000. This time the source was released under the GNU General Public License, allowing ports to be made to different platforms like Linux.
