Should I play this?

[xXoscargonzalesXx]

Been looking at videos and stuff about this game, and how complicated some of the puzzles in this game are. And its just been sitting in my library for like a year now so I decided to just ask about it and see what people have to say.

Thanks

[Stalker2010]

Quite the classic for me, that's all I'll say.
You should give it a try at the very least instead of playing it through videos.

[Assassinamento]

The puzzles are not reeeally complicated, sometimes it's just a "not fair" thing, hidding in plain sight or hidden in plain sight.
I really like Hexen, have played it at least 4 times back to back over the years, definitely, it's a Classic, but the first playthrough can be frustrating, as some goals are a bit "dry" on the objectives, or, as avgn usually says, is one of these "Were the f* do I go" kind of game.
But, being direct: Yes, you for sure should play this game!
The visuals are really impressive for a modified Doom engine, and the atmosfere and architecture are really cool and unique for the era.
Get the warrior, throw some punches, and if you really get stuck, see what to do online.
I'm saying this because I Really get to enjoy Hexen on my second/next runs, after the "suffering" of learning the patterns and switches have passed.

[Latharion]

Why not give it a go. The experience can be improved dramatically by running the game through GZDOOM instead of the default DOXbox. One tip to add value to the game is turn on "mouselook" and use the keyboard to move the character. The default is set to use the mouse to move back and forth and use the keyboard to look up and down, neither of which is intuitive today.

[hj]

There's just a lot of backtracking which can get annoying, but the puzzles aren't very tough. It would have been nice if the puzzles switches weren't so vague. The game is absolutely gorgeous and blew me away when it first came out. So, probably my love for it is influenced by nostalgia, but I still think reviewers like Civvie gave it too hard of a time. Give it a try. I bet the first level Winnowing Hall sucks you right in.

[Wei]

Yes, it's an absolute classic and very different from other DOOM engine games. Avoid looking for spoilers and try to solve the puzzles by yourself. The only difficulty in the puzzles is that certain switches are well hidden, but it’s nothing that should get in the way of your progress too much, so just keep your eyes open for details. I recommend using Crispy Hexen instead of GZDOOM.

[Nyx]

It is up to you. It is a classic from my childhood. Like the game ''Blood'' and ''Doom'' was.

[inkus]

Originally posted by xXoscargonzalesXx:

Should I play this?

Probably, not. Our zealous and distilled with years community does better without random 'tourists' . :sarcastic:

[Ffabbia]

The notorious puzzles mostly take the form of hunting for switches, and some of them are very cunningly hidden, or located in very remote alcoves within confusing, labyrinthine cave mazes.

Further on into the game this is supplemented with the need to collect various artefacts which you can then slot into something (no clue is provided about what the artefact is, or what it's used for, but it's usually somewhat obvious - i.e. a room full of clocks and you later pick up a clock piece.) which provides access to previously locked areas, the game even sometimes gives you a vague hint about which new door has opened, which, given how unforgiving Hexen can be, feels pretty generous.

Once you've completed Hexen a couple of times it all becomes second nature, but I won't lie - the first run (assuming you don't follow a guide) can be challenging.

I played this game on release, and back then internet access was a rare thing, and we had no access to guides or walkthroughs, we just had to work it all out for ourselves. The time I spent stuck in Guardian of Steel trying to figure out how to get a particular door to open is longer than I've ever spent stuck in any videogame ever. I was probably well over four hours trying to work the damned thing out - though in my defence I was only in my teens. Solving it brought an incredible sense of satisfaction.

The combat (assuming you don't play on easy difficulties) can also be challenging, given how often you're swarmed by huge packs of monsters. I personally find the Fighter to be the easiest and most fun class to play, but I guess this is a minority viewpoint, as most people are all "Cleric, Cleric, Cleric" which is almost entirely due to how overpowered his ultimate weapon is. This is fine, but ultimate weapons require a lot of mana to keep on using, meaning you can't rely on them all of the time and they're best saved for bosses and deadly situations. The Fighter is an absolute mana miser, who can do serious close range damage with his axe and hammer, while using only tiny amounts of mana, and is thus a far more efficient class, at least in my opinion.

(BTW I don't own this game on Steam, hence the lack of 'mouse' icon on my profile. I still have the original release on floppy disks, which I simply copied to my HD years ago and play using the Doomsday source port).