Heretic II Developer: Raven Software Publisher: Activision Category: Action/Adventure System Req: PII 233, 64Mb Ram, 250Mb HD, 3D accelerator card, Win95/98 or WinNT4.0 Might look like: ? Date posted: 11 February '99 Written By: Bjorn - This game was reviewed on P166, 64 Mb Ram, Voodoo Graphics, Win95 OSR2 - A little Introduction Ages ago, when Parthoris existed in relative peace, five races walked the land. The Seraphs had withdrawn beyond the Worlds End Mountains. Each race built great cities, temples, and centers of wisdom from the knowledge that the great Seraphs left in the wake of their passing. But the Seraphs left behind more than their wisdom when the removed themselves form the affairs of Parthoris. Their passing left them open to the Outer Worlds. You, playing Corvus are now stuck in this Outer world and all that you want is getting home. The Manual Heretic II's manual is also fully written in English. There are no other languages included. Still, that really doesn't matter. I noticed that there aren't any screenshots included, however, several art pictures are pretty cool too. Everything is well explained and the manual-writers have also spent a lot of time in writing Heretic II's storyline. It's huge. For the gamers that have some difficulties in installing or running this game they'll be pleased that there's a good troubleshooting guide included as well. The controls of your character, Corvus are also very well explained. Heretic is BACK! Many years ago Raven Software brought us the first Doom engine adapted game called Heretic. A fantasy gothic medieval game that really offered the gamer something different than any other FPS at that time, Doom I & II included. Then they developed Hexen which was really a spawned modified version of the very successful Doom engine from ID Software. Later followed Hexen II, based on the Quake II engine and with 3D accelerator support the game couldn't and wouldn't be a failure. And it sure wasn't, well to me at least because it gave me a retro feeling but then with magnificent graphics and better gameplay. Suddenly Raven Software announced that they'll develop a sequel of the orginal Heretic game which will be called ... ehm Heretic II. One of my first ideas was: 'Oh no, again a sequel. Where is the originality? Any new ideas?'. Anyway I was surprised by this announcement and I really thought that Raven Software would cash-cow their wonderful piece of adventure. Just like the Tomb Raider Series. Lets face it. The first Tomb Raider was phenomenal but after that version 2 and 3 (review soon ... promised) it was more of the same? Basically it's still the same game but with some little graphical improvements. While I was still surprised by Ravens announcement they also said that Heretic II will be played with a third-person perspective. Hugh? A-la Tomb Raider? They decided to get rid of the First Person view and changed it into a Tomb Raider clone. Really? Read on. Now, Heretic II has been released and the good jolly chap, Pascal, Product Manager for Activision has sent us a review copy to evaluate. Lets get started.    When I started its installation I thought it would be a super-cool one like Hexen II with good music, art and pictures that were all running in the background. But nope, I just saw some in-game 'screenshots' and that was it. Oh well, you can't have it all, right? You can't customize the installation mode in Heretic II. Enabling or disabling some checkpoints is the only thing that you can do and you can only install the necessary program files (270 Mb). If you want you can also install its movie files which is another 105 Mb. That means that the total Mb amount for Heretic II is 375 Mb. Corvus, that's your Man Raven Software has obtained for just one character this time, named Corvus because it will provide the gamer with a better plot than just 3 separate characters with no background at all. This was mainly the case with Raven's other previous titles and even if you think that you've more variety with 3 separate characters, think again. Also the first person view is gone ... Heretic II can only be played from a 3rd person perspective. It's neat and it's better! What to you want more? Several 'Weapons of War' are at your command and they are pretty exciting to watch when you attack your enemies. Your main weapon is the 'Durhnwood Staff'. This staff is made from the heart of a durhnwood tree that is one of the hardest materials in Parthoris. With a proper timing and aim (with the aid of a crosshair) it is a very powerful melee weapon. It has a very sharp blade on its top and you can actually split your enemy in half. Pretty cool. Another well known weapon is of course the 'Hellstaff'. This weapon is able to fire a nearly continuous stream of projectiles. However, those are not incredibly damaging but when fired continuously at a single target it can have a very devastating effect. Other weapons that are included in this sequel are the Storm- and Phoenix bow.    There are also a lot of spells that you can use against everyone. These will only work if you have the mana. Mana comes in 2 varieties: green and blue. Green mana can be used to power Corvus's offensive magic while blue mana is mainly used for defensive magic. There are quite a few offensive spells available here like the Fireball, Thunder Blast, Sphere of Annihilation, Iron Doom, ... Defensive spells are the well known Tome of Power (always present), the Ring of Repulsion, Teleport, the Meteor Swarm and others. The special effects are really nice and they are certainly not overdone. Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. 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