Revisiting Old Games #1 — Hexen II
When I was a young gamer, I did not know English. That is because I was born in Brazil, therefore my native language is Portuguese. I was also dumber than I am today, so past me was at a really big disadvantage.
Then I decided to revisit some old games. I have a personal list of old games that I did not understand really well so I can replay them and get into what they are really about, but I am not going to publish this list here. You will know the games as I post, which might make things more interesting, or not. I do not know. Keep it mysterious, maybe?
I already put in the post title which game from my childhood I replayed. Let's talk about it, right after the advertisements! (Joke, there is no advertisement)
What is Hexen II about?
Hexen II is a single player first person shooter with dark fantasy elements. Like every one of its eras, it was based on the DOOM engine, and it had a twist! You could choose 3 different characters to play. The map would not change, but different characters called for very different playstyles. I do not know if finishing the game with them all makes any difference, but it was fun anyway.
It is a 3D beat’em up, with a few puzzles! The evil minions of Eidolon (the big evil boss) lurk around the corners, and they will try to stop you from stopping them (Who knows what gender Eidolon is?). To make matters worse, they put some puzzles because, if you are not smart enough, you will fail to take down the boss and save the world. Somewhat like DOOM, but instead of ammo, you have mana to use the weapons. The first weapon does not use mana, but it is usually the riskier.
In terms of story, Eidolon is an evil entity that wants to take over the world, but they will fail because capitalism is evil enough already, so we do not need them. To make their job easier, they summon 4 apocalyptic knights to take over 4 lands. Just like every big evil boss, they have evil managers. Before taking the evil CEO, you need to take down the 4 managers. I felt battling the knights was harder than facing Eidolon themself.
Ah! But I said 3 characters earlier, but that was the beginning with Herectic/Hexen. Hexen II has 4! Each character has its own particularity. I am not going to dive into what every character can do, but, naturally, different characters have different gameplays, just like the previous games, but things get wackier, like the Assassin’s backstabbing skill.
Furthermore, in a twist, you can go back to the stages you already finished to check for secret locations and cool items. Something that you could not do in DOOM. Some items are really good, but some are really… meh. In part, I did not know how to use the items properly as well, even though I am wiser now, but I still managed to finish the game!
Resentment and Triumph
I remember playing a demo of Hexen, but then I had the chance to actually play Hexen II. I knew how to walk around and hit the monsters, but I did not know how to resolve the puzzles! As easy as they were! Really, the puzzles would be really easy if you could think with two brain cells, but I did not know English, so I was not able to capture the clues and do what was needed. Therefore, the past me stopped trying after spinning round and round in the first stage.
A bit frustrating, but the gameplay of walking around and slaying the bad guys was not bad at all. I grew up with the frustration of never beating Hexen II, but Steam started to republish old games together with GoG (Good old Games), and Hexen II came to my hands once more. They even created a DLC, which I did not play because that was not my goal.
I finished the game twice. Once in the medium difficulty, another time in the very hard. It was enough to me. I proved that I was able to beat the game, and that was great! Really! Reviewing an old game and being able to beat it was actually really cool, and then I started revisiting old games, especially because the purpose of the oldies is totally different from today’s games. This is why this is the first article of a series!
Was There any Advantage?
There were two really good things about it. The first is that I was able to follow the storyline of the game that is streamlined along the puzzles that you have to face, and, as silly as it is, it is something that was tried and that makes it more interesting. The character you control is actually a champion summoned by another person that writes the lines in between the stages.
The second thing is related to the aesthetics generated for each stage, and this is something that I have to praise the developers for. They tried to go to cultures that are underrepresented (is this right?) to add in the visuals and bring new ideas to a fantasy game. These fantasy games are very focused on the medieval fantasy that persists up until today, so the aesthetics are usually focused on those castles and everything that was usually presented as european things.
The third stage of Hexen II drinks from Egyptian aesthetics and mythologies! It calls on Horus, Set, and other deities with some sand flooring. This is a twist in the aesthetics and to me it is part of the charm of the game. When I played the second stage, which dives into the Maian and Aztec styles, I felt like: “Wow! This is something!” Getting in touch with different aesthetics is important to have different ideas and concepts to write about, to imagine stories, or even to think on different cultural processes of other people in other places in the world.
Playing other old games helped me see other cool stuff from these other games, but we will talk about them in the following articles.
-Fortunate Gaming!
