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| | Publisher: MacPlay  Genre: Action | | | Min OS X: Not Supported CPU: G3 @ 233 MHz RAM: 64 MB |
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Blood and guts Heretic II is actually quite a gory game, although you can turn the detail down (or disable blood entirely) if it's all a bit much. As Corvus hacks away at his foes, limbs will go flying, and lie around twitching for a while, before the enemy necessarily dies; killing one outright can take quite a bit of hacking, unless you take the head off cleanly. Aside from that, there are often dead or semi-dead bodies lying around; in the first level in particular, desperate former citizens lie on the ground pleading for you to have mercy on them (in the sense of 'put me out of my misery, please'). A quick hack or two with the fighting staff and they'll fly into pieces with a disturbingly satisfying fountain of red particles. This is particularly spectacular if you're finishing off an enemy who you've just toasted with a fiery spell, as the particles are then all aflame.The enemies you face are very detailed and quite varied. Aside from the fairly harmless rats near the start of the game, which you can squish underfoot, there are numerous varieties of 'possessed' members of the races inhabiting the world. These begin as relatively harmless zombies, but progress to creatures that belch poison clouds at you, bat-like harpies that swoop at you, and foes that spend much of their time invisible, fading into existence just as they're ready to strike. Taking them down can sometimes pose a significant challenge. Boss characters appear from time to time throughout the game, and not always at a particularly critical point in the game; you may be pursuing a side-quest, for example, when you round a corner to be faced with a monstrously large version of one of the poison-spitting creatures which you've just been battling. Throughout the game there are various cut-scenes (effectively done) and other events to help advance the story. This does at least help you to keep your place in the progress of the game, and there are written objectives which you can call up to remind yourself of what you're supposed to be doing at any particular time. Certainly, there is always a 'point' to what you're doing in Heretic II; you're on a quest to achieve an aim, and the whole game is designed with that story in mind, so it all hangs together better than the average shoot'em-up. Brawn vs brains There are no real puzzles in Heretic II. It does feature a rudimentary hub-system like the Hexen games, in that you can travel between levels in order to collect items and bring them back to a particular point. However, it's a much less complex system, and a far more linear game. There aren't any puzzles of the 'push a switch in one level to activate something in another' type, or any complex actions to work out, and you don't need to spend lots of time running between levels trying to find something. The levels are mostly pretty self-contained (when you leave one, it's usually 'finished'), and so the hub system plays a lesser role than in previous games. Some players may feel that this loss of the puzzle element makes it a less interesting game, but the outcome is really to place more emphasis on sheer fun and action, and to reduce unnecessary running around, so most players are likely to be pleased with the result.In keeping with this greater emphasis on action, there isn't really an inventory system as such, as there was in previous games in the series. You do have an inventory, but it only lists the objects you need to pick up to advance the story. The only real power-ups take the form of offensive weapons (and their ammo) and magical spells. There are of course health bonuses and mana pick-ups to replenish Corvus' statistics, but they're all 'instant action'; you can't carry them for use later. Special power-ups also appear in the forms of shrines, at which you can pray in order to receive bonuses. There are many kinds of shrine, and their effects include extra health, a big replenishment of mana, the ability to breathe for a long time under water, and armour bonuses. Such bonuses take immediate effect and eventually wear off. Weapons and magical defences that you pick up, though, are available permanently, as long as you have the necessary mana or ammo to power them. There are some great weapons in Heretic II. For example, the Storm Bow fires devastating arrows which create a fierce area of localised storm, and the Phoenix Bow fires very powerful Phoenix arrows which create a huge conflagration on impact. Other weapons are magical, such as the satisfying Firewall with which Corvus can fry the bad guys. Magic also takes the form of defensive spells, such as the Morph Ovum (making a welcome return from the original Heretic) which temporarily turns adversaries into clucking chickens.
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