Heretic + Hexen

Genre: Compilation / First-Person Shooter

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local / Online), 1-12 Competitive (Local Wireless, LAN, Online)

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Review:

Heretic + Hexen, released in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation of the two named games, plus three expansions (including 2 all-new ones), and mods The Iron Forge, Shadows of Cronos, and Icebound + Reclamation + Torture, with all of these being old-school “Boomer Shooter”-style First-Person Shooters dating back to the mid-1990s, after the original Doom but before Quake.

Heretic was in many ways a medieval fantasy take on the Doom formula, with players using magic, crossbows, and other medieval weapons to fight imps, skeletons, and other dark fantasy threats. While in many ways this plays like a re-skinned Doom, I’m not thrilled with the ammo caps that result in the player running out of ammunition more often than they’d like.

Despite being a sequel, Heretic plays quite differently, having the player choose one of three character classes. Two of the classes rely heavily on melee combat, which is pretty terrible. The third character class defaults to a distance attack that has unlimited ammunition, but is slow and weak. I would argue that this makes none of this game’s playable characters all that enjoyable.

Okay, so I’m not very thrilled with the actual games, even though I admit they’re classics from the early days of the genre. However, while they may not be games I see as especially worthy of a great remaster on modern platforms, that’s exactly what we have here.

The low-poly low-resolution textures from the original release have been left intact, but pretty much everything else has been brushed up. Players can opt to play with the original soundtracks, but they can also choose to use some really excellent remade versions of the games’ metal-style instrumental songs. And the framerates are super-smooth.

There’s an absolute wealth of gameplay options here, including display and control options. Speaking of controls, the standard gamepad controls work fine here, but you also have optional gyroscopic controls, as well as full mouse and keyboard support on Nintendo Switch (using standard USB keyboard and mouse in the dock).

You also have 4-player local split-screen both for co-op play and for competitive play, and support for up to 12 players in competitive play via local wireless, online, or even apparently LAN play (which I wasn’t able to test). Unfortunately, the online servers were completely empty when I tested the game, so you’ll need to bring your own friends.

On top of all of this, there’s plenty of bonus content as well, including behind-the-scenes photos, art, and production sketches. It’s clear that a lot of love went into bringing the Heretic series to modern platforms in the best possible way. Well, almost all of the Heretic series – it appears that licensing issues prevented Heretic II from being a part of this bundle and making it a comprehensive collection of the franchise.

In the end, I don’t love Heretic and Hexen, but I do like them. What I love is the sheer amount of effort that went into making Heretic + Hexen the best possible version of these games in a package that truly shows its creators cared. If you’re a fan of these games, or of “Boomer Shooters” in general, this package is a no-brainer, and if not, you might at least find that the effort that’s been put into this package can overcome the shortcomings in the games themselves. However, I don’t think this bundle is going to take the place of classic Doom any time soon.

tl;dr – Heretic + Hexen is a Compilation of remasters of the two named games, both retro-style “Boomer Shooter” First-Person Shooters, plus a wealth of additional expansion content. I think the games themselves have some frustrating issues, but this collection overshadows that somewhat with the sheer amount of love and care that has gone into presenting them in the best possible light, with tons of options, features, and bonus content. I think the main audience for these games are fans of this particular niche of the genre and those with a fondness for retro games. Everyone else? You have better options.

Grade: B-

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