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| | Publisher: MacPlay  Genre: Action | | | Min OS X: Not Supported CPU: G3 @ 233 MHz RAM: 64 MB |
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To the game The most striking initial point about Heretic II is the quality of its graphics, as compared with its predecessors, and its first level is particularly moody and atmospheric. Although its system requirements are roughly the same as Hexen II, it really does look an awful lot better. Whilst it hardly represents the cutting edge of today's graphics technology, the graphics are more than respectable, and provide a good balance in terms of looking impressive whilst not demanding too much from a system. Any fairly modern G4 machine ought to be able to cope very well with the game, as should faster G3s.Of course, the striking difference for fans of previous games in the series is the fact that you can now see Corvus in the third person, rather than looking through his eyes. The ability to control the main character alters the way the game plays quite a bit, and there are many new moves available such as rolls, jumps and spinning attacks. Corvus is no Lara Croft, or even Alice (of the American McGee variety), though there are more similarities with the latter. Lara mainly runs around and performs a few well-defined and largely non-violent moves. Alice is less ladylike, but her moves are quite restricted, and amount to little more than you'd expect from a first person shooter (basic movement, sidestep, climbing and so on). Corvus has a significantly wider range of moves available to him, and some of them depend on the weapon he's holding. The control system is actually quite well thought out in that it doesn't involve an excess of keys. You can pretty much stick to your favoured layout for a first-person shooter. However, there are various modifications of the 'double-tap' variety, where a quick repeated press of a key will cause Corvus to spin, leap or roll out of the way of an oncoming assault. The actual interface to this is quite well done, although it does take significantly longer than for a regular action game before you become totally familiar with the moves available. There are two main problems, though, to the interface. The first is that the keyboard controls can be quite awkward and susceptible to mis-pressing; you have to be very 'clean' with your actions. If you're in a 'panic' situation, for example, with several enemies attacking from multiple directions, it's not hard to catch a key accidentally, or inadvertently register a double-tap action, which causes Corvus to do something unexpected and usually unhelpful. The second problem is that Corvus seems excessively susceptible to influence by the scenery. You can be running along happily across an apparently empty piece of ground and Corvus will suddenly stumble over a hump, or unexpectedly leap sideways wildly to avoid the smallest and most inconsequential piece of detritus, and this can be both disconcerting and irritating. You do get used to the way the control system works, of course. There are also other bugs that turn up at times. For instance, on one occasion I was guiding Corvus up a staircase on the first level when he decided, without provocation, to become stuck within it. I could spin him around, but nothing I tried could persuade his feet to become unstuck from between the cracks. On another occasion, in the midst of a frantic battle, Corvus decided he enjoyed pirouetting so much that he just wouldn't give up. He spun around continually in one spot and nothing I did could dissuade him from continuing with his ballerina act. In both cases, the only solution was to hit 'reload'. I didn't find these to be common problems but they did occur from time to time and marred the game. Furthermore, given the sometimes quite intricate scenery in the game, I did find Corvus' propensity to spring sideways unexpectedly at the least provocation to be quite annoying. What this boils down to is that the control system is a bit more fiddly than you would perhaps expect from a game of this type. Luckily it isn't bad enough to really detract from the enjoyment. In fact, you can get by without even knowing the full range of Corvus' moves, although it obviously helps if you've spent time mastering them. Helpfully, though, there's a useful tutorial level which introduces all the necessary concepts and leaves you to practice your attacks on an unfortunate (but undeniably game) suspended chicken. Some of Corvus' moves only work in conjunction with his fighting staff, which is the default weapon. This is a tall pole with a blade at one end, and Corvus is quite adept at lopping off creatures' limbs with it. He has a number of special moves that only work with the staff. One is the ability to take a running leap and use the staff to propel himself over a wide gap, or vault up onto a ledge. Another is a rather devastating running attack, which may involve spinning around and chopping off an opponent's head if the aim is right.
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