Beyond the WADs’ Roulette - Part 11.1: Heretic Episode 1
The WADs of 2010s are upon us, people. But before we start taking a look at them, there is one game made on a modified Doom Engine, released in 1994… Okay, there are two, and the other one was released in 1995, but we will take a look at that game right tackling an honorably mentioned WAD from 2010 that uses it.
For now, we will be looking at-
Main author(s): Raven Software
Release date: December 23rd, 1994 (original release)
Version(s) played: Shadow of the Serpent Riders edition
Levels: 27 (three episodes, each with standard 8+1 format)
Heretic is the game made by Raven Software. It is the first installment of the Serpent Riders Trilogy, which includes this game, Hexen and Hecatomb Hexen II. While it wasn’t the first time Raven used the engine from id Software, Heretic is probably the first, commercial game that uses id Tech 1, AKA the Doom Engine.
I don’t really know much about this game’s development. I know that John Romero helped a lot as an executive producer, bringing the guys from Raven computers and even teaching them how to use the engine’s tools. It was supposed to have more RPG elements instead of just an inventory system, but then John Carmack recommended them to basically just make the game like Doom and color it in fantasy paint.
There might be more stuff about the development on the internet if you look at it.
As for the plot, it takes in the land that would be later known as Parthoris in Heretic II. Three mysterious characters known as the Serpent Riders arrived from the east, and they managed to conquer all of its seven kingdoms. One of them, D’Sparil, was left in charge of this land. The elves, known there as the Sidhe, didn’t fall for the riders’ mind control and became primary targets for the youngest of them. The elves were almost completely wiped out.
One of these elves, later known as Corvus, didn’t like that. So he went east to kick D’Sparil’s ass and send him back to science and outter space or whatever.
Now, before I finally start talking about this game (or, to be more precise, its first episode) I would like to mention that I played it on GZDoom (4.13 to be exact) and on the medium skill AKA Bringest Them Oneth.
With that out of the way, let’s begin with the first episode.
Part 1: City of the Damned
The first episode takes place in the dock city (or at least somewhere that looks like one). While still looking rather abstractional (Heretic is still a game made on Doom Engine), there are moments where it looks better than the ClassicDoom; buildings resemble actual buildings instead of just very tall blocks; there are some additional, non-sprite decorations like church benches, gravestones, tombs, coffins, etc. I also like the textures; they fit greatly for the medieval fantasy theme.
I think the sound effects are good. I can’t recon anything that would be annoying. Some might say that one of the weapons can be ear-grating but I wasn’t that bothered by it.
There are also some ambient noises as you walk by like the church bell, drops, or wind. And I think these were implemented greatly as well. At least they weren’t so loud you couldn’t hear anything else.
I enjoyed the music from this episode. Kevin Schilder did a great job on these tracks. I can’t even decide which music track was the best; I think I’d go with Mist if someone put a gun into my head.
The only problem I have with the music is that over half of the E1 tracks don’t loop properly. Normally, if this was another, amateurish WAD, I would probably blame the WAD’s author for it, but with this game, now that I think about it, I think it might be GZDoom itself that causes this. Now, I played this game the first time years ago so I can’t remember if that also happened with an older version of this source port, but the looping is definitely busted with around five or six tracks in the first episode.
Heretic is a typical Doom clone – kill monsters, find keys and/or switches, and get to the exit. Except, you know, it’s now a medieval fantasy instead of Sci-Fi and shit. I don’t recon the maps from E1 being complicated asides from like one or two (I’ll get to one of them in a minute). And I didn’t feel like they wasted my time.
Now, let’s talk about more noticeable things some of these maps have:
Dungeons has a reference to the blue key trap from Toxin Refinery, where the lights go out and you get ambushed after picking up the same-colored key.
Citadel doesn’t really have anything to explain on its own, but I feel obligated to mention that this map was an inspiration to Devastation from Karma Shwarma; it was basically a similar layout but mixed with Resistance is Futile from Hell Revealed.
Cathedral has two moments where you are forced to look for two slightly misaligned walls to go further. It’s not that obnoxious moon logic now that I think about it (this map is pretty good without counting these), but I still think you might get stuck for a couple of minutes during the blind playthrough.
This is also the map that leads to the secret map – Graveyard. It’s a good map, even with the chessboard floor in the green key area; and even then, that part isn’t that annoying, since around 80% of this floor is optional aside from ammo and health if you need these.
The final map, Hell’s Maw, has an interesting twist, in that after killing the boss enemies, instead of revealing an exit teleporter (or in the case of this map a switch), a monster closet opens up. That might have been the only hard fight in this episode.
The modified Doom Engine gave this game a couple of new features (no shit). Comparing Vanilla Heretic to Vanilla Doom, you have the ability to look up and down in the former. Heretic also adds floors that can push you even when you don’t move; this feature is kind of janky since it’s more like the entire sector of a map instead of just a floor. So if the sector has water as a floor, and you fly above it (I will get to that later), you will still be pushed even if you are not standing on water.
Also, some of the projectiles can be affected by wind as well. Forgot to mention that.
There are two changes when it comes to keys in this game when compared to Doom. Firstly, visually, instead of a red key, there is a green one, there is only one type of these instead of two, and the keys have rotating sprites. The second change is much more interesting than the first one – the keys follow the pattern. No matter how many keys there are on a map, you will always grab the yellow key first, then the green one, and then finally the blue one. An interesting change but I don’t mind it.
Also, instead of the doors being marked with a specific color, there are special sprites called gizmos to mark which colored door is which if you don’t use the automap.
Oh, and the keys appear on the automap if you play on the easiest skill.
This game also features pods – a variant of Doom’s exploding barrels that can be pushed (which is another feature made for this game). Also, some of them respawn after being blown up (like the ones in Hell’s Maw).
Of course, Heretic wouldn’t be a Doom clone without a bundle of powerups. There are two types of these now – regular ones, and inventory items. Let’s start with the former that appear in this episode.
Silver Shield works as a bridge between the regular Armor and the Megaarmor from Doom; it gives you 100 points of armor like the former but with the latter’s 50% damage protection.
Bag of Holding and Map Scroll are just reskins of Backpack and Computer Map respectively. The former doubles the amount of ammo you can carry while the latter shows the undiscovered areas on the automap.
As for the inventory items, there is no need for a big explanation on how they work – just choose one and press the button that makes you use the item.
Here are additional things about this system in Heretic – You can carry up to 16 items on a map and moving to another map reduces the amount of items to one per type (except one where nothing is carried to the next map but I will get to that).
And now, to the E1 inventory items:
Quartz Flask is Doom’s medkit that now functions as, you guessed it, an inventory item. It brings back 25 health (up to 100) and it’s automatically used on the easiest skill if you are about to die.
Tome of Power is an interesting item. But I’ll talk about it later when we get to weapons.
Ring of Invincibility doesn’t require an explanation what it does. All I have to add is that instead of seeing everything in white and black, you see everything in orange when the ring is used.
Shadowsphere is Partial Invisibility, yes, but it also turns you into a ghost, making some of the attacks go through you (I’ll get to those later as well).
Time Bomb of the Ancients functions like it sounds – you lay it on the ground and it explodes after a couple of seconds. I guess it’s working on a mob of melee enemies, but I don’t use it that much, so I don’t know.
Torch is a portable Light Amplification Visor. Nothing to add here, although I’ve read that it sometimes flickers when used.
Wings of Wrath will allow you to fly. This is the only item that cannot be carried to the next map if you have at least one of these. I think I’ve read on Wikipedia that flying started as a bug that was turned into a feature (I like when it happens in games).
The final item of E1 is the Morph Ovum. It turns every non-boss monster into chickens that can be easily one-shot. They can still peck you, though.
City of the Damned is not a hard episode. Sure, it might be tougher than the original Doom (or at least tougher than the first two episodes of that game), but the advantage Heretic has over that game is that none of the enemies are hitscanners; which means that if you are good at dodging and know which item use when, you might end up with an easier experience than with Doom, even if it feels like there is a lot of more monsters in Heretic, and they feel kind of tanky. Even the final monster closet can be cheesed with one ring and one tome if you have these.
Oh, and by the way, RNG feels less bullshity than in Doom.
There are two types of projectiles you and your enemies throw – physical and magical. The difference between these two is that the former cannot hit ghosts (as I mentioned earlier with the shadowsphere).
As for the enemies you fight, in the first episode, we have five different monsters (counting the boss one), plus a couple of sub-variants; and yes, that includes ghost variants for three of these (two and a half really).
One of the guys above has different attacks. And I’m not talking about being able to throw projectiles along with melee attacks. I’m talking about having two, different projectiles that are not homing and non-homing projectiles for exchange.
I can’t really explain it in words. I think it will be better if you play this game yourself or watch a walkthrough.
Also, like in Doom games, some of the enemies drop items/ammo. Unlike Doom, where it’s only hitscanners (not counting Spiderbitch) that dropped ammo to their used weapons/weapons they were using upon dying, in Heretic, almost all of the monsters in this episode have a CHANCE to drop some ammo, and even a smaller chance to drop an item with two of them.
When it comes to who you fight in the first episode, we start with Gargoyles. They act similarly to lost souls except they can also scratch you when you get close. The fire variant can meanwhile shoot projectiles at you. It would be great if the variants looked more distinctive, though.
Golems are melee monsters, or at least they start off as one (they also look like mummies). Later on, you meet their Nitro variants that can shoot homing projectiles (not as sharp turning as revenants missiles). Both variants can appear as ghosts.
Undead Warriors throw two, green axes at you, and they have a chance to throw a red axe that is 3.5 more powerful than the green one. They also can appear as ghosts, and they always throw red axes.
If you are a Doom WAD enjoyer and played a lot of 2000s WADs, you might remember the void imp that functions similarly to the undead warrior. This is the enemy void imp was based on (although, he is more like a reskin of UW).
D’Sparil has an army of Disciples as well. They fly and flicker when they are about to attack, giving them a chance to dodge physical attacks. Probably the toughest non-boss enemy in the episode.
Finally, we have the boss of the first episode – Iron Lich. These ginormous heads have three attacks – a tornado that can throw you around, a firewall, and an ice ball that splits into smaller shards after hitting something in its path.
The weapons that you get for now in this episode are basically similar to the Doom guns. I’ll get later to which weapon references which Doom gun.
But here is something that you need to know about Heretic’s weapons – these can be powered up. Remember tome of power? That’s what it does when used.
The Staff is a weaker fist. Even when powered up and surrounded by lightning it’s just around 4 times more powerful (up to 81 damage). Compare it to berserk fist that deals up to 200 damage.
The Gauntlets of the Necromancer work like chainsaw – still great against melee enemies (even though golems have a smaller pain chance and attack faster than pinkies). When powered up, the green lightning turns red, its range is longer, and it can suck enemies health.
The Elven Wand shoots slightly faster than the pea shooter, and when powered it turns into a mini-shotgun, firing five hitscan attacks instead of one, and adding two projectiles on both sides.
The Ethereal Crossbow is like a projectile-based shotgun. It fires three bolts – two regular ones and one magical between those. Powered up crossbow shoots faster and adds two magical bolts.
The Dragon Claw functions similarly to a chaingun, but unlike that gun, it uses separate ammo from the elven wand. The powered-up version is where it gets interesting; it acts more like iron lich’s ice attack but with spiky balls (which is ironic since iron liches are partially immune to this attack).
Aside from slightly janky sectors that push you and most of the music not being synced properly, I don’t think I have encountered any bugs. If you are interested in what bugs happen in this game (without using a source port or not), check out Doomwiki or some videos on YouTube.
And that’s all I have to say about Heretic’s City of the Damned. It’s a great start for this game (although, you could probably say the same thing about many, other, old school FPSes) and I’m ready for the second episode.
Hopefully, I won’t have that much to talk about like in this part.
