Guilty_AI
Member
Heretic 2 is such a weird game. It came out in 1998 after the two pseudo-sequels to Heretic 1 (Hexen 1&2) and follows the original protagonist.
The first thing that stands out in this game is that, unlike the previous 3, this has a third person camera.
Then as you play around with the controls, it becomes obvious they were trying to incorporate Tomb Raider elements into the game
So the end result is this weird mix of shooter, action game and platforming that is oddly reminiscent of - as the title suggested - Uncharted. Minus the larger focus on story and scripted events at least (altough there is more of a narrative to follow here).
The game ran very well in modern systems (using fan patches), at higher resolutions, support to widescreen and 60 fps. That said there's still some jank here and there, like an specific small area the game would crash as soon as i tried to enter (easily solvable using kiwi/no-clip, or by going to another connected level first for some reason), the aim aligning above where the shots would actually land - though there is some auto-aim at place here so it wasn't too bothersome - the typical stiff controls you'd see on the original Tomb Raider games, or the lack of some QoL features like how to change weapons i needed to cycle through them one-by-one (probably the worst offender imo).
Currently the game is abandonware so your choices to play it are either abandonware sites or getting a used copy. Apparently the reason there isn't a modern version available to purchase like the previous three games has something to do with publishing rights not being clear between id software and Activision. If only there was a larger company that happened to own both of them and made a proper remaster of this game happen.
The first thing that stands out in this game is that, unlike the previous 3, this has a third person camera.

Then as you play around with the controls, it becomes obvious they were trying to incorporate Tomb Raider elements into the game

So the end result is this weird mix of shooter, action game and platforming that is oddly reminiscent of - as the title suggested - Uncharted. Minus the larger focus on story and scripted events at least (altough there is more of a narrative to follow here).
The game ran very well in modern systems (using fan patches), at higher resolutions, support to widescreen and 60 fps. That said there's still some jank here and there, like an specific small area the game would crash as soon as i tried to enter (easily solvable using kiwi/no-clip, or by going to another connected level first for some reason), the aim aligning above where the shots would actually land - though there is some auto-aim at place here so it wasn't too bothersome - the typical stiff controls you'd see on the original Tomb Raider games, or the lack of some QoL features like how to change weapons i needed to cycle through them one-by-one (probably the worst offender imo).
Currently the game is abandonware so your choices to play it are either abandonware sites or getting a used copy. Apparently the reason there isn't a modern version available to purchase like the previous three games has something to do with publishing rights not being clear between id software and Activision. If only there was a larger company that happened to own both of them and made a proper remaster of this game happen.
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