Heretic

 I've talked about "random shareware" quite a bit in the past. Those demos that everyone in the 90's seemed to have installed on their computers without any knowledge of how they got there. It's finally time to talk about the game that, for me personally, epitomized that phenomenon.

I had absolutely no idea how the first episode of Heretic ended up on my computer back in the day, but I can tell you for a fact I played those levels over and over again. As is apparent to anyone who follows my content, I am a huge fan of Doom. But I've always been more of a fantasy nerd than a sci-fi nerd. So now you are telling me there's a game that's basically Doom but in a fantasy setting? Sign me up! It's funny how things come full circle, the mystery of how Heretic got on my computer has been in the back of my mind for longer than it probably should have been. Yet thanks to the research I've done for this post, I think it is close to being solved. Whenever I would dig through files, I would always see files related to something called DWANGO. I had no idea what they were, but I always just kind of thought they were some sort of important game file that I shouldn't touch. It wasn't until recently I learned that these were related to what today would be considered a matchmaking service, players would pay a fee and dial in to (what for me would have been) a long-distance phone line in Houston. Essentially, this would allow you to play online via fast and convenient dial-up, all for the low, low cost of $2 a minute. I'm sure it's more technically complex than that, but that was the gist I got. I hope what you discerned from that is:

1) Gaming has come a long, long way in the last 20-30 years

2) Playing video games used to be a very expensive hobby

3) People were willing to jump through some insane hoops just to play Doom and Duke Nukem against each other

It may not have been the biggest name, but Heretic was one of the many games compatible with DWANGO. It's shareware version actually came bundled with the software, so I am going to assume that had something to do with how it got on my computer. But then how did the Dwango stuff get there? I'm guessing from our copy of Ultimate Doom or Duke Nukem 3D? Maybe it was the Nuke It! level pack (which is its own rabbit hole, more on that in another post)? The mystery continues.

After all that, we circle back to Heretic, this time unmysteriously installed on my computer via GOG.com. It was developed by Raven Software and published by Id, both studios that have or would go on to have plenty of familiarity with the FPS genre. It's what people nowadays might call a "boomer shooter," with more open levels focused on finding keys, exploring, searching for secrets and unrealistic shooting and inventory management. Most of these games also lack a need for vertical looking and aiming, though it is possible. I always have and always will prefer these to more modern FPS, especially when it comes to single player experiences. Doom is kind of the baseline for these kinds of games and anyone that has played it will be right at home with Heretic. The basic controls are the same and the overall feel is similar, though it did feel a little more slow paced to me. Again, Doom was so popular at the time that just about every FPS felt like it was trying to ape it in every way. However, Heretic did add a few new features that made it stand out from its more infamous breatheren. The biggest, and most innovative, was the inventory system. You can cary a variety of items, including single use healing vials and time bombs. You can find invinciblity orbs, boots of flight and tomes of power, which temporarily make your weapons stronger. My personal favorite is the ovum egg, which can be fired at an enemy to tranform them into a chicken. It's both effective and hilarious. There are other small changes here, you have things like rushing water that can impede player movement, but the inventory was the biggest new addition.

There is actually a story here, and it's a bit more fleshed out than what we were given with games like Doom and Wolfenstein. A trio of villains known as the Serpent Riders have used their magic to possess the seven kings of Parthoris, effectively gaining control of the kingdom. However, that control is not absolute. A group of elves called the Sidhe have the ability to resist their powerful magic...and as such are branded heretics by the all powerful mages. The Serpent Riders manage to slay the Sidhe elders and force the elves to flee from their home. All of the Sidhe retreat...except for one, Corvus, who you will play as throughout the game. Corvus is hell bent on revenge, deciding his first target will be the weakest Serpent Rider D'Sparil. He sets out through the City of the Damned to take on the Serpent Riders, ready to take down the hordes of undead that stand in his way. It's not a crazy deep story, but it's more than most shooters of the day offered. It perfectly fits the game's aesthetic, which is really what makes Heretic stand out from its contemporaries. The Martian bases of Doom have been replaced with castle keeps, the computer terminals with gothic architecture and the bullets with magical energy. Your enemies are wizards and warlocks instead of demons and your weapons are magic bows instead of shotguns. I like it and while I had some issues with the level design overall, I think they did a pretty good job of making them feel like they fit the setting.

Ah yes, now we get to talk about the level design. It's strange, but it's kind of the best and worst part of Heretic. At its best, the levels perfectly encapsulate the feeling of running and gunning through a castle keep, slaying hordes of undead as you try to make your escape. At its worst, it's overly confusing and labyrinthian, packed with difficult-to-find paths that have you running around aimlessly long after all the enemies are defeated. I have to say everything at least looks nice, there are some excellent design choices and the recreation of fantasy staples like castles and cathedrals are excellent. But a lot of these levels seem to have no clear paths forward and some even require triggering secrets to complete, which I don't like at all. I do like the amount of secrets and I do think they are fairly intuitive. Anyone who has played any other Id shooter will know exactly the kinds of things to look for, but there are some really cool and unique placements. Having the items also makes exploring more worthwhile, as there's always something to go and look for. A lot of the levels have what feels like a very circular design, like you always kind of end up back where you started and then use any keys you found on a previously locked door in the main area. This has its benefits, but it also kind of makes you feel like you aren't making progress, even though you really are. It's hard to say the level design is good or bad, the variation from level to level is so extreme here. There are some truly inspired maps, but also some truly awful ones and the vascillation between the two makes for something of an uneven gameplay experience.

The biggest problem here, though, is the enemies. First the positives, they all look awesome and have really cool design. I especially like the dark wizards, the Disciples of D'Sparil, that start showing up about halfway through the first episode, I think they are awesome. However, that's kind of where the positives end. The enemies here are scaled way too high, to the point that there are no enemies that can be easily taken out with the initially equipped elven wand. The gargoyles are probably the weakest enemies, but even they take three to four shots to put down and that's with them flying at you and attacking aggressively. The ethereal crossbow, the equivalent of the shotgun in Doom, is required pretty much straight away. Because so many of these 90's FPS use it as inspiration, let's look at Doom as the baseline. You start with the pistol and in the first level, you are pretty much only going to encounter humans (on the normal difficulty anyway). The humans go down relatively quickly with the pistol, but that's okay. The toughest enemy in the level are the imps, which take quite a few pistol rounds but can still feasibly be defeated with one. Even then, the imp on the first level can be run past easily if the player so chooses. If you are just running through the game, the first time you are going to absolutely need the shotgun is the third level, which is where the pinkys start showing up. It's not like it's impossible, but taking out the pinkys without the shotgun is really not doable for most players. But in Heretic, there is essentially no equivalent of either of the humans, or even the imps. I think the gargoyles were supposed to be, but their behavior makes them feel more like lost souls, another later Doom enemy. The golems, the most common enemy, are very beefy and even with the bow require multiple direct hits. I feel like you should be able to take them out with a direct bow shot. The undead warriors, who appear in the very first level, take even more. They are just as beefy as the pinkys from Doom, but they can also shoot, so it's very hard to get close to them for direct bow shots. You are better off using the dragon claw, Heretic's machine gun equivalent, but ammo for this drains fast and is hard to come by. Ammo in general seems harder to find than you would think, though this could just be because of how strong the enemies are. As a veteran of the genre, I was kind of okay with the challenge, but I don't know if it was a good design decision.

I have to give Heretic credit for its personality. A lot of FPS of the era kind of had an almost humorous vibe, even Doom had a certain 90's snark to it for such a violent game. Sci-fi has always been better at managing that kind of thing than fantasy, which seems to always take itself too seriously regardless of medium. Heretic definitely skews a little more serious than its contemporaries, but it still manages to keep that Id/early Raven Software level of sarcasm. Difficulty levels include "thou needeth a wet-nurse" for easy, "bringest them onethe" for normal and my personal favorite "thou art a smite-meister" for hard. With all the references to Doom I've made, you might imagine I've played it quite a bit. It seems the developers new that most Heretic players would have done that as well. You see, Doom has a number of iconic cheat codes, codes that are burned into my brain. To this day, I can recall from memory that "iddqd" will make you invincible. So to see what would happen, I typed the code into Heretic...and Corvus was instantly killed while I was given the in game message "trying to cheat, eh? Now you die!" Typing the all keys and weapons code from Doom, "idkfa," will prompt the game to call you a cheater, tell you you don't deserve any weapons and remove everything you have except for your staff. I think that's awesome, I love small touches like that and it showed the developers were kind of thinking outside the box a little bit. It's not a huge deal, but it was definitely a nice touch.

Overall, I don't think Heretic did quite enough to separate itself from Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake or any of the truly big name FPS of the era. The addition of items was nice, but they really didn't change the fundamental gameplay all that much. The level design was so all over the place that it led to an inconsistent, often frustrating gameplay experience. This was further hampered by the excessively strong enemies, who felt like they weren't balanced correctly with the player. However, when the level design was good, it was really good. While the gameplay was a little formulaic, it was still based on a proven formula that has given us some all-time great games. Heretic isn't that, but it's definitely very good and very much worth playing for fans of old school FPS, Boomer Shooters if you will. It might also be a good jumping off point for fans of fantasy who want to try their hands at the genre, though it's probably a little too difficult to really be an optimal entry point. Heretic was a very good FPS that should have wide appeal, even if it isn't the absolute best of what the genre has to offer.

8.25/10