Hexen: Beyond Heretic (GOG)

Corvus’s shadow still hangs over a darker, stranger fantasy battlefield where steel, sorcery, and demon blood replace the usual sci-fi arsenal. Hexen: Beyond Heretic is a first-person action classic built around three very different champions—the hard-hitting Fighter, spellcasting Mage, and balanced Cleric—each trying to overthrow the serpent-riding tyrant Korax. Its atmosphere is grim and oppressive, full of ruined keeps, lava caves, haunted forests, and twisted medieval machinery. Despite its age, the game feels notably more adventurous than a straightforward corridor shooter, with a world that demands attention as well as aggression.

Combat centers on class-specific weapon sets, from brutal axes and maces to magical projectiles and devastating late-game relics. Levels are linked through hub areas rather than played as isolated stages, so progress often means locating switches, keys, and secret routes that alter places visited earlier. That structure turns each episode into a compact fantasy dungeon, mixing monster fights with environmental puzzles, collapsing bridges, shifting architecture, and traps that punish careless exploration. Artifact items add tactical options, letting players heal, fly, become temporarily invulnerable, or unleash powerful magical effects when a crowded arena turns ugly. Local-era multiplayer remains part of its identity, supporting competitive chaos with several heroes tearing through maps together.

What separates Hexen from Doom-like contemporaries is its willingness to slow the player down and make navigation part of the challenge. The class system gives repeat runs genuine variety: the Fighter thrives up close, the Cleric combines melee resilience with ranged magic, and the Mage rewards careful use of potent but demanding spells. Raven Software’s dense sprite art, ominous soundscape, and abstract level design create a memorable dark-fantasy mood that later shooters rarely match. Players who enjoy Heretic, Doom, Quake, or old-school dungeon crawlers should find plenty to like, though newcomers should expect cryptic objectives, punishing ambushes, and a design philosophy that assumes patience rather than constant direction.