Why didn’t it catch on like DooM/Quake despite having more guns and music
>>12063963Quake music was great but it was removed from the modern release for some reason.
>>12063963The fantasy setting wasn't as appealingNone of the weapons and enemies were as iconic as the ones in Doom
because doom and quake were big technological breakthroughs and multiplayer social contagions and heretic was just a good game
>>12063984ThisRaven software always just made solid games based on id's tech, but never made anything groundbreaking
>>12063969>it was removed from the modern release for some reasonIt originally played directly from the CD (probably just to save install space because HDDs didn't have shitloads of space in 96) and they just didn't bother fixing the Steam/GOG release so it plays music from the install before the 2021 version. It's fine now
levels are mehgameplay is designed around powerupsmost weapons feel underpowered
Shitty weapons, shitty monsters, drab monotonous levels, uninteresting plot, and the new mechanic it offers over Doom - the Tome of Power - makes the game less fun instead of more fun. It would have been a better game if you had the tome of power weapons all the time. (It also has flying which is incredibly inconsequential and basically only used to reach secrets.)More importantly, Doom was perhaps the most technologically revolutionary game of all time. When it came out it was in a different league from everything else that existed at the time. It redefined what video games can do. Heretic was just reusing the already familiar Doom engine, of course it didn't get the same hype.
Hexen was better and more interesting than just a Doom clone in a fantasy setting
>>12063997>gameplay is designed around powerups>most weapons feel underpoweredI thought the opposite. There is no big enough reason to use the items most of the time. Early expansion levels that strip you of ammunition are better in that regard.
>>12064016>When it came out it was in a different league from everything else that existed at the timeRidge Racer was in the arcades months prior and Daytona USA had its first location tests before Doom came out. You could buy a 3DO at retail before Doom launched. PC gaming was filled to the brim with first-person space shooters like Star Wars X-Wing and Wing Commander and Frontier Elite II.Doom wasn't revolutionary. It wasn't the best looking game of its time and it didn't demonstrate tech that was a decade ahead of everybody else. What Doom did different from everything else is that it ran pretty damn fast on the common office PCs of the time, when most other PC FPS games could barely reach double digit framerates and the fancy fully 3D single-game arcade machines cost as much as a new Corvette.
>GunsIt didn't really have guns, and fantasy was seen as "Gay ass nerd shit" back then, where as Doom was cool, edgy, gritty and sci-fi.
>>12064047Doom is in a different league from racing games and space shooters.>when most other PC FPS gamesWhat other PC FPS games??
>>12064056There was Wolfenstein which was way more primitive
>>12064060Wolf3D was the "It runs fast on my machine" fps, Doom was a step up but required some decent hardware if you didn't want to shrink the screen down to a postage stamp. Where Doom excelled was it's pickup and play, get into the action nature, there isn't much learning curve, just move around, shoot shit, collect items, open doors and throw switches.
because its virgin fantasy geek shit for limp dicked poindexters that get shoved in lockers and sexually humiliated by the football team
>>12064067What was the first "thinking man" FPS? Ssytem Shock?
>>12064060>>12064067Doom was in a different league from Wolf 3d, you literally weren't there if you somehow think otherwise
>>12063994Digital music formats like mp3 and ogg didn't exist back when Quake was new but source ports of Quake (including Quake engine games like Hexen 2) can play them so all it required them to do was rip the music into a digital format in decently high enough quality without much loss to work. It was just laziness that they didn't do that for the Steam/Gog releases since source ports could do it around 2010.
>>12064070but enough about John Romero
>>12064071shadowcaster
>>12064071William Shatners Tek War
>>12064192KekThat came after System Shock
>>12064070Heretic rapes Doom and stretches your simping little boypussiCry about it fag
>>12064028>Doom clone in a fantasy settingThis statement is so NPC it might as well be AI
Doom had BFGHeretic had a shitty mace
>>12063963Raven had aesthetics and ideas. But the execution was mostly poor. To be honest, their best games are the Jedi Academy saga, including the only good Heretic/Hexen game, Heretic 2.
>>12064262Soldier of Fortune games were pretty good too>not liking HexenFiltered
Hexen 2 was good aside from class balancing issues. The passives for the Assassin for example were dogshit, enemies didn't forget about you when you went into stealth, couldn't move in stealth, the backstabbing with the katar didn't work very well and was just "circle strafe around enemy while spamming attack and hope it works." And this was the case for quite a few class passives. Could have used more work. If it gets a remaster I hope they do some minor tweaks to that like they did with some of Hexen 1's classes.
>>12063963Heretic was still pretty popular in its time.>>12063984Pretty much.>>12064272You either love or hate Hexen, there seems little inbetween. I think most people don't jive that much with the strange half-breed that it ends up being.
>>12064298The biggest problem with Hexen is definitely the weapon limit and low enemy variety so the combat gets repetitive quickly
If Heretic actually was fantasy Doom that would have been awesome. The shareware episode is great but the full game is undercooked. I think it was a mistake to buff the health of upgraded enemies like projectile gargoyles which means you no longer have any popcorn enemies and it all feels like a slog.
>>12064310Then you have the 2 extra episodes which are way harder than the base game
>>12064310>projectile gargoylesWish they at least made them a different color than the regular ones.
I'm pretty sure the iron linches are pre-rendered 3D models, but what about the other enemies? They look like traditional pixel art to me. The Maulotaurs are particularly impressive.
>>12065018I'm pretty sure that most if not all of the enemies in Heretic and Hexen are mostly pre-rendered 3D, Raven got in on that fairly early on when it came to first person shooters, they were using that for CyClones, and might even have done so for Shadowcaster.
I liked it a lot as a 40 year old, I was hooked, it was like D&D and Doom mixed up. Looking back I see how tech limits and some choices probably went wrong, music wasn't great. Yeah you never felt like OP or just flat strong, even in Doom1 you always felt like a badass, just thrown at odds that suck.It should be better and as a kid who got this and it hit his nerd buttons, it wasn't as good as it should be. I think even back then they could have done better. But they tried adding stuff and didn't want just a doom but wizards, frankly that would have been the hit.I haven't got the new ones.
>>12065054>you never felt like OP or just flat strongTome of Power and Ring of Invincibility make you quite the badass. If we speak of weapons, phoenix rod is pretty OP when you have the ammo for it.>music wasn't greatAgreed, but it has some bangers. I really like The Cathedral, Guard Tower, The Crater, Lava Pits, and Citadel.
>>12063963It was not a stellar game - for me it's a 4/10.The box artwork is outstanding though.
>>12064016Doom was the most amazing thing - when I saw it running for the first time I nearly fell out of my seat.An all around masterpiece.
>>12064047>Ridge Racer was in the arcades months prior and Daytona USA had its first location tests before Doom came out. Those are racers. Completely different kinds of games.>You could buy a 3DO at retail before Doom launchedIt came out like two months ahead of Doom, was RETARDEDLY expensive ($700 in 1993 is over $1500 today), and had almost no games on launch, and would only start getting some mostly shit games in 1994.>PC gaming was filled to the brim with first-person space shooters like Star Wars X-Wing and Wing Commander and Frontier Elite II.Which get away with a lot by rendering most of its screen as solid black a lot of the time, and which are variously arcade-ified flightsims for what it matters. Quite a different world and interacted with very differently.>Doom wasn't revolutionary. It wasn't the best looking game of its time and it didn't demonstrate tech that was a decade ahead of everybody else.It looked and ran better than any other first person shooting game, and had more depth of gameplay than most of them. It doesn't have the same kind of depth and complexity of Ultima Underworld or System Shock, but it also wasn't aiming to be those kinds of games either.Doom has realtime 3D environments with height and volume, with action shooting gameplay that can go really fast, far faster than UU or SS did.
>>12064031I think the biggest problem was the situations such as 'kill like 20 imps / mummies but there's no rush'. You can't justify using the better ammo or powerups so you just walk around a bit and pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew endlessly, it's boring.
>>12066137Thats because you were supposed to manage the waves of enemies instead of just one shotting them in groups, as concepts like circle strafing weren't as big as they'd later become. The crusher in E4M1 is basically there to help you conserve ammo by stunlocking enemies as they pass under it.>>12065054 kinda tells the tale, people who wanted pure power fantasy felt underpowered while simultaneously not utilizing the inventory system outside of just throwing on a tome of power to lifesteal with the gauntlets instead of planning encounters around them. People are allowed to have their opinions and can like what they want, but I feel like a lot of why it doesn't stick with people is because they basically play it wrong. And I've even indirectly contributed to that personally.
>>12066137yeah its got some odd and uncreative design choices>lots of samey feeling weapons>starter wand and dragon claw are boring>"rocket wand">too many lazy symmetrical levelsIts still a charming ass little game though>gothic castle vibe is awesome>great texture work>The bath tile levels are fucking awesomeNot shilling here, but the remaster just got a big update and the new soundtrack genuinely fucking slaps
Heretic's level design mogs Doom and Doom II.
>>12067053too many monster closets
>>12067053It really doesn't.
>>12063963I would just much rather play Hexen, which has a more distinct feel of its own.
>>12067076Hexen's aesthetic is unmatched but the combat utterly pales compared to Heretic.
>>12067053there are definitely some highlights but ehhhh overall its kind of samey
>>12063978>>12063978>>12064070>>12064236>DOOM: Dark Ages has entered the chat
>>12067472That's a modern game
>>12067472>Today's world doesn't have much of a divide between scifi and fantasy, or that much of a stigma against fantasy like people did in the retro eraWowWhoa
>Doom but fantasyjust finished playing it for the first time and it was fun