![]() Those final two episodes on 'normal' were harder than Doom 1 or 2 on Ultra-Violence. I found the game significantly harder than Doom, especially in the Shadow of the Serpent Riders episodes. There are sections of the map that will push the player along (running water) and I'm sure there are other minor improvements or changes from the days of Doom that I didn't notice. Other differences? You're also able to slightly look up and down (still no jump) and there are ambient noises such as dripping water at appropriate locations that help add to the atmosphere. The tome of power can be used by a chicken to revert to human form. There's also a low chance of the morph ovum backfiring and instead of turning an enemy player into a weak chicken it'll turn them into a giant devil chicken with insane hp and instant death pecks. If successful he will evolve into a super chicken, doing more damage. This item is rather interesting in multiplayer as a player chicken can still try to peck other players to death. These chickens are easily killed by the player. The morph ovum will fire out several projectiles that will turn any enemies (most enemies) they hit into chickens. The hellstaff, normally a rapid fire weapon, then fires slow moving projectiles that summon clouds of acid rain to deal damage to the surrounding area. The phoenix rod (rocket launcher) turns into a flame thrower. The gauntlets will drain health from enemies to the player. Your simple staff gains increased damage and knockback. It changes the function of all your weapons while it is in effect. One of the more interesting items is the tome of power. It's better saved for short cuts or access to secret areas rather than using it to gain the upper (no pun) hand in combat. The controls for flight are a little awkward but workable. The exception being the item that allows you to fly. These items can be carried from one level in an episode to the next but your player will drop all but one of each item upon completion of a level. These range from simple health restoring items to temporary invincibility or flight. The player can collect a variety of items and use them when he feels the need. One of the main differences in Heretic when compared to Doom is the inventory system. Now let's talk about some differences other than setting. The eighth level contains the end of episode boss that you must defeat and then you'll be returned to the main menu to start a new episode. You progress through the levels finding the colour coded keys to open the colour coded doors. ![]() The game is divided into episodes with each episode having nine levels with the ninth being a secret level. Instead of power armour you collect shields and instead of a backpack you have a bag of holding. Crossbows, magic wands, staves, rods, gauntlets and others. So yes, you run around medieval settings fighting demons and the like using a variety of fantasy weapons. It is a medieval fantasy version of Doom but that sells it short. So what is Heretic? Some might say "Doom with a crossbow" and that's not entirely false. So if you haven't played Doom then you might want to get on that? Seriously, what are you doing reading about old school FPS having not played Doom. I'm also going to be comparing it to Doom a lot. The original mail order version could be upgraded to Shadow of the Serpent Riders via a free download so for the entirety of this review you can assume I'm talking about the five episode version of the game unless specified otherwise. The retail version contains five and it was called Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders. The original mail order version of Heretic only came with three episodes. Released in 1994 using a modified version of the Doom engine Heretic and its "expansion" Shadow of the Serpent Riders was a great FPS that in my mind, trumps Doom 1 or 2. The recent article on Doom inspired me to give my two cents about my favourite "Doom clone" Heretic. What was that about it being too PC heavy around here? Sorry, but I'll get to that later.
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