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Hexen II, Heretic II, and Birdie ShootPreviewed By: Bill Stiteler Review Date: July 15, 2002
MacPlay continues to "kick it old school," as we suburban white kids used to say after watching Yo! MTV Raps the day before. In their new "value series" of games, they're releasing Hexen II and Heretic II with OS X compatibility, and putting out a new arcade shooter, Birdie Shoot. In the former two cases, it's an embarrassment of riches. Yeah, for the first two, certainly. These previews are all based on gold master copies. HEXEN II Now this is retro gaming at its finest. The Hexen series, on its surface, may appear to be just another Doom clone. And, yup, that's what it is below the surface, too.
A first-person...well, I suppose you do "shoot" at times, but mostly you hack or cast spells, the interface of Hexen will be familiar. Your job is to travel from level to level and kill a lot of things, to become more powerful, so you can kill more powerful things, etc, etc. You've seen this classic idea for a first-person shooter a million times before, but the good thing about this is that Hexen II is one of those games that pioneered that feeling. Hexen II holds up surprisingly well, especially considering it still has that "2-D forced to look like 3-D" feel about it. And that's fine for someone like me who 1.) grew up with these games, and 2.) runs screaming from people who like to talk about "frame rates" and "triangles per second." Still, on a modern system, the graphics look great, for what they are (16 bit, I think). HERETIC II Attention everyone: I've just played a game that sets a new bar for third-person adventure games...and it was originally released in 1998! Small surprise, since it was originally developed by Raven Software, the fine folks who gave us the surprise hit Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force.
Heretic II is also a true 3D game, and you can interact with the environment in different ways. Sure, they're all combatative, but then, you'd be combatative too if every single thing you met was trying to kill you. In addition to the myriad (and impressive-looking) spells your character can cast, you also have an array of easy to do hand-to-hand maneuvers as well. My favorite so far is using my spear to pole vault onto my enemies. This is the game that Sacrifice wanted to be. In short, you run around, you kill demons, you get health and mana from crates. Note to game designers of today: if this is the plot of your new product, you've got a lot of nerve charging fifty bucks for it. BIRDIE SHOOT Hoo boy.
So, I don't have a problem with Birdie Shoot in and of itself. In fact, it reminds me a lot of "Duck Hunt," with better graphics. Your perspective spins not quite 360 degrees from an otherwise stationary position, and you take shots at the cartoony birds for points. If you miss the birds, they'll react, flying faster and making your shot harder. For what it is, it's fine. The backgrounds look good, and the birds look so ridiculous (sort of like Daffy Duck) you don't mind plugging them. But, lest you get twinges of conscience about hurting our fine feathered friends, guess what! You aren't hunting these birds. No, you're saving them! I quote from the MacPlay website:
Uh...yeah. What a humanitarian game! It's absolutely frightening how many great old games MacPlay is releasing for $20. All three gold masters played great with no crashes (although Hexen II did display a lot of DOS code while loading a level...not sure if that's a bug or a feature). These games may not be cutting edge in terms of graphics or "twitchiness," as I believe the young 'uns now call it, but in the case of Hexen and Heretic, they've both withstood the test of time and remain fun to play thanks to some ingenious design.
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In Hexen II, you play a lone hero trying to save the world from being overrun by demons. Hexen II came out in the 90s, I believe, and American game designers are still having trouble coming up with a different plot line. Weird. But I digress.
In Heretic II, you play...uh...a loner who has to save the world from being overrun by demons. But you have pointed ears! In this genre, that counts as innovation.
This is a game where you shoot birds. I don't really have a problem with that. I have friends who are hunters. I have friends who are falconers, and use birds to hunt other birds. One of my favorite games was "Duck Hunt" for Nintendo, except I hated that damn dog who mocked me.