Basic Information Game title o HEXEN II Company Author o Raven Software Type of game o Action Price o o 49 99 at release in October 1997 9 99 I found a marked down copy at Super K Mart early 2002 Minimum stated hardware requirements o o o o o o P90 16MB RAM 24MB RAM is required on NT 120MB Disk Space 2x CD DirectX 3a Video Card that supports OpenGL if the OpenGL installation option is chosen Actual hardware required o o o o P120 24MB RAM 3 button mouse 8x CD Game Summary Quick overview Hexen II is a continuation of two previous games Heretic and Hexen The game takes the player to an era in the dark ages where sorcery monsters and creatures of the supernatural reign The player has to overcome various obstacles such as traps mazes puzzles etc conquer four levels and finally save the world by battling and killing the third serpent rider Eidolon the first two serpent riders are supposedly killed in Heretic and Hexen Story line The HEXEN II story is a continuation of the one presented in HERETIC and HEXEN The whole story is centered around the three Serpent riders three very powerful demon type creatures that go from one world to another dragging an army of supernatural creatures demons imps golems etc destroying everything they encounter and killing everyone they come across The first two serpent riders are killed in the course of the first two games HERETIC and HEXEN In HEXEN II the third serpent rider Eidolon most powerful of all summons the armies of the first two serpent riders and attacks the world of Thyrion Eidolon uses four very powerful demons to command his army They are the 1 four horsemen of apocalypse known as Death Pestilence Famine and War It s the player s task as one of the characters provided by the game to travel in world of Thyrion and kill the four horsemen and finally face off with Eidolon himself whose death is the only way to save the world from infinite despair and agony Player s role The player can choose among four characters the Necromancer the Assassin the Crusader and the Paladin Each of the characters has his her own special weaponry and powers but the obstacles remain the same for all and the goal of the game remains to attain the final level and kill Eidolon the last serpent rider The deeper the player goes into every level the tougher the obstacles become The player s character has to keep upgrading his her weapons and picking up more and more ammunition The weapon upgrades four different weapons for every player and ammunition are found scattered around the different levels Moreover it doesn t matter how skillful the player gets he she will not be able to constantly avoid getting hit thus the player needs to keep picking up healing vials in order to be able to continue Installation The player will be drawn to the game from the moment of installation The installation process besides providing an easy to use user friendly wizard is presented in a medieval frame where dark age war music is played and a narrator presents the story line The installation process also offers the user two different types of installation regular and OpenGL The OpenGL option provides immensely better graphics but requires an 3D video card User Interface The game is presented via a first person view The important stats life points mana levels etc are kept on a toolbar docked at the bottom of the screen leaving plenty of room for comfortable viewing of the play area The user can use the mouse to move but I found using the keyboard much easier especially that the keys are customizable The player can also enter some commands via a command line prompt which I used heavily when using the shortcuts or cheats Game Play The player starts by selecting a character The four choices are Assassin Crusader Paladin and Necromancer Regardless of the character chosen the player always starts a new game at the same location in the first level At the start of a new game the chosen character has a 2 basic weapon The player goes on a journey of exploration along which he finds more weapons that he she can acquire The more sophisticated more powerful weapons require mana to work there s two different kinds of mana green and blue Every character can gain or upgrade up to four weapons The fourth and most powerful weapon is usually split into two pieces that need to be found separately A lot of other artifacts can be used for defense and attack besides the character s main weapon For example the character can pick an invisibility disk or an artifact that can turn most demons to sheep etc The character gets to different locations by walking or running but he she can also duck jump move sideways and swim above and under water The player should always keep track of his life level if it hits zero the character dies Fortunately the character can pick up immediate healing vials or ones that he can carry and use when necessary The character gains points by killing monsters and demons When enough points are gathered the character becomes more powerful and gains new abilities The game play depends on exploration The character has to explore the terrain and find his way to the horsemen After every horseman is vanquished the character moves on to the next level until he she arrives at the final location to battle Eidolon which marks the end of the game The game presents mazes and puzzles and requires the character to move back and forth among different realms There are always clues that can be found usually in the form of wall plates that can serve as a map or heads up type of warning but the player has to be patient and have fun in exploring new unknown territories Scoring The player s score depends on how many monsters he she kills Obviously the more he she kills the higher the score gets The score affects the characters performance When certain score levels are attained the character becomes more powerful Other stats are kept besides the killing score there s the amount of mana and life points the character has the number of artifacts of a particular kind the character is carrying every character can carry up to a maximum of 20 artifacts of every kind Artwork The artwork in this game was nothing short of magnificent at the time the game was released The OpenGL version of the game offered superb graphics which at the time of release exceed any other game I had played All the elements seemed to stand out of the screen It had marvelous outdoor scenery from rivers and valleys to hills and changing sky The
View Full Document
Unlocking...