Heretic + Hexen Remasters: Nightdive's Wildest Trip Down Retro Lane, And Why It's Pure Wizardry
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Nightdive Studios, those retro-FPS alchemists, have dropped remasters for the quirky *Heretic* and the complex *Hexen*, proving that while these titles aren't their most essential, they might just be their most fascinating portal into the wilder side of 90s gaming history.
Right, so apparently August is the new December for us old-school FPS fiends. You know the drill, mate: Nightdive Studios, those digital alchemists, drop another classic remaster, and we all gather 'round like it's QuakeCon Christmas, judging keyboards and waiting for the gibs to fly. It's become a sacred tradition, hasn't it? After conjuring up pitch-perfect revivals of the first two *Dooms* and both original *Quakes*, you’d reckon they’d be running low on ancient scrolls to unearth from id and Bethesda’s dusty, eldritch archives.
But oh no, Nightdive, those delightful mad scientists, just kicked the door in, dual-wielding their most intriguing offering yet: Raven Software's fantasy-infused *Doom*-alike, *Heretic*, and its wonderfully peculiar, labyrinthine cousin, *Hexen*. This one, fair dinkum, snuck up on me. And after tinkering with it, bloody hell, it’s wilder – and more fascinating – than it first appeared.
Now, you might be thinking, "Hold on, Jeff, *Heretic* and *Hexen*? Are those even... *essential*?" And that, my friend, is precisely the curious knot Nightdive had to untangle. With *Doom* and *Quake*, the challenge was simply to do justice to undisputed classics. Nobody needed convincing to replay them; it was about getting the pixels *just right*. But *Heretic*? It's often been seen as *Doom* in a dressing gown. And *Hexen*? A fascinating, if sometimes frustrating, experiment in level design that many, even at the time, thought maybe went a bit too far off the rails.
So, the real question here isn't *if* Nightdive did a good job – because let's be honest, they’re practically wizards at this point – but *can* these two hastily conjured relics of the mid-90s *Doom*-mania truly hold up in 2025, even under Nightdive's loving care? What would a curious gamer actually want to know about these resurrected beasts?
Let’s dive into *Heretic* first, shall we? You've got Corvus, an elf-mage, off on a meandering quest to smack down the sorcerous serpent rider D'Sparil. On the surface, it’s playing *very* close to *Doom*'s template, but it’s doing it with colours so bold they practically scream "fantasy!" And it sprinkles in a few nifty ideas that *Doom* didn't have, like the ability to look up and down (revolutionary at the time, mate!) and a simple inventory system for using picked-up items on the fly.
Nightdive's remaster has taken that "look up and down" mechanic and polished it into proper, modern free-look. It's still a bit wonky with how the original 2.5D geometry shifts, but practically speaking, it makes navigating those often-larger, more complex levels a whole lot smoother. Couple that with a buttery-smooth 120FPS framerate, and suddenly *Heretic*'s spell-slinging combat feels gloriously fast and fluid. Those sprawling levels, which could feel a bit of a slog in the original, now clip along at a much healthier pace, letting you appreciate their surprisingly coherent designs – more recognisable buildings and environments than *Doom* often managed.
But what truly makes *Heretic* sing, for me anyway, are its weapons and enemies. The arsenal is a clever, colourful reimagining of *Doom*'s classics. The Ethereal Crossbow? Totally Corvus’s shotgun equivalent, spewing green-arrow scattershot like nobody’s business. And the Hellstaff? A crimson death-ray that cleverly reuses the plasma gun’s lock-on chain fire. Okay, fine, the Firemace still kinda sucks, but honestly, it wouldn't *be* Heretic if it didn't, would it?
The real magic, though, lies in the "Tome of Power." Pop one of these bad boys, and your weapons unleash alternate modes that are just pure, unadulterated chaos. The Hellstaff starts spawning scarlet clouds that rain bloody hell on your enemies, and the Phoenix Rod (which is basically a rocket launcher) suddenly unfurls a tongue of flame that lashes your foes to death. It’s glorious.
And the enemies? Oh, the enemies! They are arguably even more fun to squish than *Doom*'s demonic crew. There’s something deeply satisfying about watching D’Sparil’s arcane disciples explode in a flash of viscous pink energy, or seeing mummies crumble into purplish dust. But the absolute highlight, the digital tea leaves of Raven Software’s future, are the golems. When these blokes kick the bucket, they burst into an extraordinary fountain of pixelated flesh, before their skeletal soul literally screams and ascends from the remains. I can just imagine the devs back in the mid-90s, probably after too much Mountain Dew, going, "Dude, what if his *f***ing ghost came out*?!" It’s a detail that makes them endlessly fun to murder, and you can totally see the lineage to *Soldier of Fortune* there.
Nightdive's new episode for *Heretic*, "Faith Renewed," is basically a love letter to all that sorcerous extravagance. It nails the original vision of building more coherent 3D spaces, casting you into a step-by-step assault on a city culminating in a vast citadel. Two levels stand out: the "Crimson Palace," a warren of scarlet halls that's visually distinct and where the challenge truly ramps up with gnarly ambushes and enemies bursting through stained-glass windows. And then there's the "Eye of D'Sparil," an enormous, mind-bending temple complex that’ll have you scratching your head wondering how you’re meant to navigate it – unpicking its many nightmarish outbuildings is incredibly gratifying. It pumps you right up for the final assault, which is a bit of a shame it just drops you into a boss fight rather than letting you explore the imposing Grand Chapel itself. Typical for *Doom*-style, I suppose. But nonetheless, *Heretic* and its new episode? Easy recommendation.
Now, things get a bit more... convoluted for *Hexen*. While it shares the same fantasy theme and engine as *Heretic*, it's a completely different beast. *Heretic* wore its *Doom* lineage like a badge of honour; *Hexen* tried everything it could to rip itself away from that DNA.
It's clear from the get-go. *Heretic*'s world felt like a direct channel from the designers' runaway imaginations – gaudy colours, madcap enemy types, all childish energy and glee. *Hexen*, by contrast, feels like it was designed in a dark room filled with stacks of sword and sorcery novels. It’s got a dark, autumnal world that’s far more artistically consistent, but also, dare I say, drearier? And the enemies! My word, every single one of them has a six-pack. The centaurs, the snake guys, the flying imps, even the swamp monsters look like they’ve been doing more crunches than your average triple-A game developer. Seriously, these guys are *hench*.
But *Hexen*'s biggest departure, beyond its ridiculously swole mermen, is its attempt to mash the pace of an FPS with the roleplaying elements of a dungeon crawler. You pick from three archetypes – fighter, cleric, or mage – and instead of linear levels, each episode is a complex hub-and-spoke design, basically one giant environmental puzzle. Historically, this approach was divisive. Like a spell gone a bit wonky, it either clicked or utterly bewildered players. Nightdive’s remaster even has literal arrows etched into floors to help with navigation, which tells you something, doesn't it?
Personally, I reckon this element of *Hexen* is hugely rewarding. There’s a quiet satisfaction in mastering these elaborate hubs as they gradually unfold around you – cavern walls shifting, floors crumbling, stairs rising from the ground. Given the tech Raven was wrestling with, the environments are astonishingly dynamic. In a post-*Dark Souls* world, where gnomic design is almost celebrated, it wouldn't surprise me if *Hexen*'s navigational puzzles get a serious re-evaluation now.
That said, and this is where the gentle skepticism comes in, *Hexen* is undoubtedly an inferior shooter compared to *Heretic*. Your enjoyment depends heavily on your class choice (the mage typically has the most consistently fun arsenal), but in all cases, you have fewer combat options. And the fighter and cleric are saddled with a heavier emphasis on melee fighting that simply hasn't aged gracefully. There are only so many times you can feebly rub Timon's axe against those two-headed dogs before you’re just politely stifling a yawn, waiting for your head to smack the keyboard. Enemy death animations are still darkly creative, mind, but the combat loop just isn’t as tight.
*Hexen*'s new episode, "Vestiges of Glory," aims to validate that hub-based idea, using the same crisscrossing puzzle design but smoothing out some of the original's more obscure navigational challenges. This works a treat, benefiting from 30 years of accrued level design know-how. But it also tries to ramp up the combat challenge with more populated environments, which, if I'm being honest, just makes the rudimentary melee even more exhausting. Never bring a hammer to a mage fight, mate.
All told, both new episodes are thoroughly entertaining. They might not be as jaw-droppingly distinctive as the bonus content Nightdive crafted for *Doom* or *Quake*, but remember, they had to cook up *two* new adventures rather than one. And *Hexen*'s unique, often baffling, structure makes its new content a genuine achievement in itself.
So, *Heretic* and *Hexen* were never exactly essential entries in the FPS Hall of Fame. Nightdive's wizardry doesn't magically turn them into *Doom* or *Quake* level masterpieces overnight. But what it *does* do is peel back the layers on two genuinely fascinating tangents in the sprawling story of the first-person shooter. It makes it far, far easier to appreciate how they each responded to the radical shift in the gaming landscape that *Doom* unleashed. And, perhaps most importantly for us curious gamers, it’s a brilliant reminder that those pixelated enemies we so mindlessly massacre sometimes have souls, and it’s way, *way* more fun when you see them escape their bodies like a glorious, bloody confetti bomb. Fair dinkum, Nightdive. Fair dinkum.
Tags: Retro FPS, Nightdive Studios, Game Remasters, Gaming History, First-Person Shooters
Original article: Eurogamer