''Hexen II'' is a

dark fantasy Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporate disturbing and frightening themes of fantasy. It often combines fantasy with elements of horror or has a gloomy dark tone or a sense of horror and dr ...

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

(FPS) video game developed by

Raven Software Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the stu ...

and published by

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

. 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 multiplayer game modes, as well as four

character class In tabletop games and video games, a character class is a job or profession commonly used to differentiate the abilities of different game characters. In role-playing games (RPGs), character classes aggregate several abilities and aptitudes, ...

es to choose from, each with different abilities. These include the "offensive"

Paladin The Paladins, also called the Twelve Peers, are twelve legendary knights, the foremost members of Charlemagne's court in the 8th century. They first appear in the medieval (12th century) ''chanson de geste'' cycle of the Matter of France, where ...

, the "defensive" Crusader, the spell-casting Necromancer, and the stealthy Assassin. Improvements from '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'' and '' Quake'' include

destructible environment In video games, the term destructible environment, or deformable terrain, refers to an environment within a game which can be wholly or partially destroyed by the player. It may refer to any part of the environment, including terrain, buildings an ...

s, mounted weapons, and unique level up abilities. Like its predecessor, ''Hexen II'' also uses a hub system. These hubs are a number of interconnected

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s; changes made in one level have effects in another. Furthermore, the Tome of Power artifact makes a return from '' Heretic''.

Gameplay

The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...

of ''Hexen II'' is very similar to that of the original ''Hexen''. Instead of three classes, ''Hexen II'' features four: Paladin, Crusader, Assassin, and Necromancer, each with their own unique weapons and play style. ''Hexen II'' also adds certain

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

elements to the mix. Each character has a series of statistics which increase as they gain

experience Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...

. This then causes the player character to grow in power as his or her HP and

Mana According to Melanesian and Polynesian mythology, ''mana'' is a supernatural force that permeates the universe. Anyone or anything can have ''mana''. They believed it to be a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being a ...

increases.

Plot

Thyrion is a world that was enslaved by the Serpent Riders. The two previous games in the series documented the liberation of two other worlds, along with the death of their Serpent Rider overlords. Now, the oldest and most powerful of the three Serpent Rider brothers, Eidolon, must be defeated to free Thyrion. Eidolon is supported by his four generals, themselves a reference to the

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand tha ...

. To confront each general, the player has to travel to four different

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

s, each possessing a distinct theme (

Medieval European In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire an ...

for Blackmarsh,

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

n for Mazaera, Ancient Egyptian for Thysis, and

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...

for Septimus). Then, finally, the player returns to Blackmarsh in order to confront Eidolon himself inside of his own dominion Cathedral.

Development

What was originally supposed to be the final game in a trilogy, the sequel to ''Hexen'' was originally titled ''Hecatomb'' but was abandoned after

John Romero John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

left

in 1996.

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

, the distributor at the time, pressured

to split development of Hecatomb into two different games, ''Hexen II'' and ''

Heretic II ''Heretic II'' is a dark fantasy action-adventure game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision in 1998 continuing the story of Corvus, the main character from its predecessor, '' Heretic''. It is the fourth game in the '' Hexen: ...

''. Activision felt that the previous entries in the series, Heretic and Hexen, were different enough from one another that they should treat them as separate entities going forward, instead of just one final game to complete a trilogy. Only a select few ideas of Romero's from ''Hecatomb'' would ultimately make their way into what became ''Hexen II'' and ''Heretic II''. ''Hexen II'' was based on an enhanced version of the ''Quake'' engine. ''Hexen II'', by way of the ''Quake'' engine, uses

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

for 3D acceleration. However, due to the prevalence of 3dfx hardware at the time of release, the Windows version of the game installs an OpenGL ICD (opengl32.dll) designed specifically for 3dfx's hardware. This driver acts as a wrapper for the proprietary

Glide API Glide is a 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx Interactive for their ''Voodoo Graphics'' 3D accelerator cards. Although it originally started as a proprietary API, it was later open sourced by 3dfx. It was dedicated to rendering performance, supp ...

, and thus is only compatible with 3dfx hardware. Custom OpenGL drivers were also released by PowerVR and Rendition for running ''Hexen II'' with their respective (and also now defunct) products. Removal of the ICD allows the game to use the default OpenGL system library. Much of the music in this game is remixed versions of the soundtracks of '' Hexen'' and '' Heretic'' to match the hub themes. Activision acquired the rights to publish versions of the game for the

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and

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

. Neither port was released. ''Hexen II'' was made available on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

on August 3, 2007.

''Siege''

modification Modification may refer to: * Modifications of school work for students with special educational needs * Modifications (genetics), changes in appearance arising from changes in the environment * Posttranslational modifications, changes to prote ...

titled ''Siege'' was created and released by Raven Software in 1998 using updated

QuakeWorld ''Quake'' is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive. The first game in the Quake (series), ''Quake'' series, it was originally released for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Linux in 1996, followed by ...

architecture, aptly dubbed "HexenWorld". The production concept was to eliminate a normal deathmatch environment in favor of a teamplay castle siege. The basic premise was to divide the players into two teams—attackers and defenders—with each side either assaulting or protecting the castle respectively. At the end of the time limit, whichever team controlled the crown was declared victorious. The mod featured appropriate objects used in the single-player portion of the game, namely catapults and ballistae. The classes were drastically altered with new weapons and abilities, reflecting the departure from the normal deathmatch experience presented in ''HexenWorld''.

Source release

Following the tradition from ''Heretic'' and ''Hexen'', Raven released the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

of the ''Hexen II'' engine on November 10, 2000. This time the source was released under the GNU GPL-2.0-only, allowing

source port A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Description Source ports are often c ...

s to be made to different platforms like

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

and the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

''Portal of Praevus''

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or ...

called ''Hexen II Mission Pack: Portal of Praevus'' was released on April 1, 1998. It features 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, Tulku, featuring a

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Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

an setting. Unlike the original game, the expansion was not published by id Software, and as such is not currently available via digital re-releases. The expansion features new quest items, new enemies, and new weapons for the Demoness. She is the only player class to have a ranged starting weapon (similar to the Mage class in the original ''Hexen''), whereas all other characters start with melee weapons. It also introduced minor enhancements to the game engine, mostly related to user interface, level scripts, particle effects (rain or snow), and 3D objects. ''Portal of Praevus'' also features a secret (easter egg) skill level, with respawning monsters. The only released patch for the expansion added respawning of certain items (such as health and ammo) in Nightmare mode, so that it would be slightly easier for playing.

Reception

Upon its release, ''Hexen II'' received mixed to positive reviews. ''

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

'' praised the game for being different from other ''Quake'' engine-based games, highlighting its inventive and interactive levels, enemy variety, and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

. The magazine also credited the game's diversity of weapons and spells for offering different combat strategies. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' summarized: "''Hexen II'' is a game with many strengths - its design is superior to the original ''Hexen'', it has a significant payoff for single players winding through its twisted corridors, and visually it is without equal in the action genre. But the game's attempt to break from the standard first-person shooter mold has some nasty side effects, and the end result is a confusing and often frustratingly difficult experience". The reviewer elaborated that while the lush, detailed environments and astoundingly animated bosses make ''Hexen II'' "one of the most beautiful games ever made", the actions needed to progress are so obscure that they are comparable to what is required to find optional secret areas in most games, forcing the player to undertake frustrating, exhaustive searches of the game's environments. ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' praised the high speed of the multiplayer sessions, the selection of character classes, and the high detail present when graphical acceleration is used. They concluded: "For replay value and sheer fun, ''Hexen II'' is going to be hard to beat; you could spend days playing through all four characters in single-player mode without even entering multiplayer battles". According to Erik Bethke, ''Hexen II'' was commercially unsuccessful, with sales slightly above 30,000 units.

References

External links

Official ''Hexen II'' website at Raven Software
(archived)
Official website from id Software
(archived) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hexen Ii 1997 video games Activision games AmigaOS 4 games Cancelled PlayStation (console) games Cancelled Sega Saturn games Classic Mac OS games Commercial video games with freely available source code Cooperative video games Dark fantasy video games First-person shooters Heretic and Hexen Id Software games Id Tech games Multiplayer and single-player video games Raven Software games Video game sequels Video games featuring female protagonists Video games with expansion packs Windows games Video games developed in the United States