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Hexen II
Hexen II from Raven is a great
example of how to create a workable 3D game. It features quality
graphics , sound , and utilizes a reworked Quake engine and
interface.
Hexen II supports both 3dfx and normal graphics. This is great for those
of us who can't afford a 3dfx card. And unlike Quake 2 , it doesn't
suffer from low performance without one. We tested it on a P-133 with
32Meg of RAM , a 2Meg graphics card (no 3dfx) running under Win95 , and
it was playable at 640x480 resolution. It gave significantly improved
performance at 320x200 , and surprizingly , didn't suffer from severe
graphics loss at that resolution. However , the game performs
terribly on an S3 Virge graphics card. If you have one of those ,
save yourself the money. To give you an example , on the P-133 it was
playtested on , it was a little jerky but still quite playable at
640x480 resolution. However , when we tested it at the same resolution
with the S3 Virge , the machine running it was a PII-233 with 64Meg of
RAM. Of the two , at 640x480 , the little P-133 outperformed the bigger
machine.
Unlike any other 3D game I've played , Hexen II has an almost totally
destructible universe. Table in your way ? Smash it. Bad guy above you
on stairs ? Break 'em and watch him fall. This provided a refreshing
change from other games , including Duke3D , where breaking objects
serves very little purpose (except for the amusement of watching it
break. In Hexen II , breaking things can reveal hidden rooms and other
goodies. (in fact you can't finish the game without breaking stuff , so
you might as well enjoy it).
Hexen II is , however , a difficult game. Not only are the bad guys hard
to kill , the game REALLY makes you think. It took us close to 12 hours
to finish the first section of the game until we worked out just what
had to be done. The subsequent sections were just as challenging , but
once we had the hang of it , it was easier.
Best of all , Hexen II uses the Quake engine , so if you know the cheats
for Quake , you also know some of them for Hexen II.
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| Graphics |
Superb details and effects. Some of the monsters are a
little bland , but the overall graphics were fantastic , even at
320x200. In 3Dfx , its unreal. 90%
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| Challenge/Fun |
Gameplay : easy controls , nice selection of weapons and items ,
unique tactics for each character type that were reasonably well
balanced. 80%
Difficulty : What can we say ? Its frackin hard ! Probably a little
too tough , and a lot of zigzagging around between areas. 70%
Strengths : Graphics are smooth , game plays well , even the physics
of the universe are accurate (water will slow down all creatures but
swimming ones and the Paladin , who has free motion underwater as one of
his special powers). Best of all , what hurts you also hurts the enemy
(kick them into water and they drown. push them into lava and they burn.
Try this on Duke and all you get is underwater combat)
Weaknesses : Can be VERY difficult to figure out at times , like
when you have to find some item and have no clue as to where it is (the
Bones of Loric come to mind in the first HUD). ZigZagging between
sections of the game can be tedious on a slower computer (like our
P-133).
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| Overall |
All in all , Hexen provides a quality game on a budget ,
even for those without state-of-the-art hardware.
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