Heretic (video game)

Heretic
Box art of the expansion pack - Shadow of the Serpent Riders
Developer(s)	Raven Software
Publisher(s)	id Software
Distributor(s)	GT Interactive
Director(s)	Brian Raffel
Producer(s)	John Romero
Composer(s)	Kevin Schilder
Engine	Doom engine
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Mac OS
Release date(s)	NA December 23, 1994[1] Shadow of the Serpent Riders NA March 31, 1996 EU 1996
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer deathmatch and co-op

Heretic is a dark fantasy first-person shooter video game released in 1994. It was developed by Raven Software, published by id Software, and distributed by GT Interactive. The game was released on Steam on August 3, 2007.^[2]

Using a modified version of the Doom engine, Heretic was one of the first first-person games to feature inventory manipulation and the ability to look up and down. It also introduced multiple gib objects that spawned when a character suffered a death by extreme force or heat. Previously, the character would simply crumple into a heap. The game used randomized ambient sounds and noises, such as evil laughter, chains rattling, distantly ringing bells, and water dripping in addition to the background music to further enhance the atmosphere. All of the music in the game was composed by Kevin Schilder. An indirect sequel, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, was released the following year. Heretic II was released in 1998, which served as a direct sequel continuing the story.

Plot

Three brothers, known as the Serpent Riders, have used their powerful magic to possess seven kings of Parthoris into mindless puppets and corrupt their armies. The Sidhe elves resist the Serpent Riders' magic. The Serpent Riders thus declared the Sidhe as heretics and waged war against them. The Sidhe are forced to take a drastic measure to sever the natural power of the kings destroying them and their armies, but at the cost of weakening the elves' power, giving the Serpent riders an advantage to slay the elders. While the Sidhe retreat, one elf (revealed to be named Corvus in Heretic II), sets off on a quest of vengeance against the weakest of the three Serpent Riders, D'Sparil. He travels through the "City of the Damned", the ruined capital of the Sidhe (its real name is revealed to be Silverspring in Heretic II), then past Hell's Maw and finally the Dome of D'Sparil.^[3]

The player must first fight through the undead hordes infesting the location where the elders performed their ritual. At its end is the gateway to Hell's Maw, guarded by the Iron Liches. After defeating them, the player must seal the portal and so prevent further infestation, but after he enters the portal guarded by the Maulotaurs, he finds himself inside D'Sparil's dome. After killing D'Sparil, Corvus ends up on a perilous journey with little hope of returning home.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Heretic is heavily derived from Doom, with a level-based structure and an emphasis on finding the proper keys to progress. Many weapons are similar to those from Doom; the early weapons in particular are near-exact copies in functionality to those seen in Doom. Raven added a number of features to Heretic that differentiated it from Doom, however, notably interactive environments, such as rushing water that pushes the player along, and inventory items. In Heretic, the player can pick up many different items to use at their discretion. These items range from health potions to the "morph ovum", which transforms enemies into chickens. One of the most notable pickups that can be found is the "Tome of Power" which acts as a secondary firing mode for certain weapons, resulting in a much more powerful projectile from each weapon, some of which change the look of the projectile entirely. Heretic also features an improved version of the Doom engine, sporting the ability to look up and down within constraints, as well as fly. However, the rendering method for looking up and down merely uses a proportional pixel-shearing effect rather than any new rendering algorithm, which distorts the view considerably when looking at high-elevation angles.

As with Doom, Heretic contains various cheat codes that give the player invulnerability, obtain every weapon, be able to instantly kill every monster in a particular level, and several other abilities. However, if the player uses the "all weapons" cheat from Doom, a message appears warning the player against cheating and takes away all of his weapons, leaving him with only a quarterstaff. If the player uses the "god mode" cheat from Doom, the game will display a message saying "Trying to cheat, eh? Now you die!" and kills the player.

The original shareware release of the game was to come bundled with support for online multiplayer through the nascent DWANGO service.^[4]

Shadow of the Serpent Riders

The original version of Heretic was only available through shareware registration (i.e. mail order) and contained three episodes. The retail version, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, was distributed by GT Interactive in 1996 and featured the original three episodes plus two additional episodes:^[5] The Ossuary, which takes the player to the shattered remains of a world conquered by the Serpent Riders several centuries ago, and The Stagnant Demesne, where the player enters D'Sparil's birthplace. This version was the first official release of Heretic in Europe.^[5] A free patch was also downloadable from Raven's website to update the original Heretic with the content found in Shadow of the Serpent Riders.

Source release

In 1999, the source code of the game engine used in Heretic was published by Raven Software under a license that granted rights to non-commercial use, and was re-released under the GNU General Public License on September 4, 2008.^[6] This resulted in ports to Linux, Amiga, and other operating systems, and updates to the game engine to utilize 3D acceleration. The shareware version of a console port for the Dreamcast was also released.

The Blasphemer project aims to create a free content package for Heretic, with a theme of metal-inspired dark fantasy, in a similar way as Freedoom does with Doom.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score GameRankings 62%[7] Review scores Publication Score PC Zone 78%[8] Maximum [9]

Heretic received mixed reviews, garnering an aggregated score of 62% on GameRankings^[7] and 78% on PC Zone.^[8]

While remarking that Heretic is a thinly-veiled clone of Doom, and that its being released in Europe after its sequel and with Quake due out shortly makes it somewhat outdated, Maximum nonetheless regarded it as an extremely polished and worthwhile purchase. They particularly highlighted the two additional episodes of the retail version, saying they offer a satisfying challenge even to first person shooter veterans and are largely what make the game worth buying.^[9]

References

External links

• Official webpage
• Official community website
• Heretic on MobyGames
• Heretic at DMOZ
• Heretic article at the Doom Wiki