Circa 1995

Odin's Eyes

                While 3D level design and ambiance may have be new territory for game design at the end of 1994,Heretic was a step ahead of the competition. The level design is  reminds me of the simple joys of game play. Interacting with a 3d space in a creative and tactical way, while wanting to explore and experience every odd trap, moving platform maze, hidden item room and beautiful vista the game has to offer. Paired with an industrial 90's take on fantasy trope music, a beautiful use of color and pixel art makes the game engrossing on a auditory, visual and even environmental level.  Falling in love with Heretic was easy.
                  Lets talk about how wild some of these levels where. The game does slog through a couple introductory levels getting the players feet wet. Once the game picks up though it rarely drops off. Not every level is cranked to 11 but I've not found pacing to be a problem the game having all but finished the first chapter of the game so far. Where as DOOM II was more worried about not getting in your way Heretic wants the level design, maze like structure , platforming and sense of exploration to be in your face every second of every moment. I honestly felt like a rat running down a maze for it. There is rarely a moment in Heretic where you don't have line of sight of the next door, platform, wall or power up you want to go seek out. It constantly keeps you engaged. I find this amazing for the time and here is where my nostalgia goggles are glued to my eye balls. Heretic does something I never felt with DOOM. It makes you really engage in this 3d space. It becomes a living area. This is the best window 1994 would give us to the power the medium would later gain in letting gamers experience and wander to places they never could on their own. Its one of the pillars of video game faith that makes it a special form art unlike anything else.

                   Heretic lays that foundation well. Ravensoft was very experimental in level design however the game somehow feels vaguely uniform in its design choices. It almost feels as if they had a more managed approach to level design as a studio than say Id. The way the secret rooms, power ups, weapon locations and colored keys are guarded sounds like DOOM on the outside. Its the complex yet intuitive lengths that Ravensoft went to make it work and fun that I find special. "The Gatehouse" for instance isn't best example of this but it is the level that made me fall in love with Ravensoft's thought process. "The Cathedral" really shows what the art side of Ravensoft could accomplish. Stained glass windows, rivers, stone walls and complex geometry are beautiful accomplishments for 1994 and still hold up. "The Crypts' with its multiple platforms raising in elevating with a flat strafing moat around and enemies on each horizontal plane made for a wild fucking ride. Yes I did just say three levels that take place in a row. I'm not even done with the first chapter "City of the Damned" and I'm in love with the world Heretic has
.

                     Lets talk about the usable inventory. Heretic was the first fps game to have a unusable inventory. Ammo and health vials litter the level like DOOM or any other shooter of the era. What Heretic's inventory does is allow you to store things like invincibility rings, time bombs to drop on enemies or more mystical things like the Wings of Wrath or Tome Of Power. This inventory while not the most intuitive to use can be used at any time. It brings in a level of tactical play going through both the level and enemies engagements. Holding on to more rare items in case the emergency use or tough enemy encounter may need. Or having a Quartz flask ready when no health vials are left and enemies have you literally against the wall. It made me think how often we get stuff like this in games now.  It's extremely common FPS design to have some usable items or things to swap in and out of use in single player shooter campaigns these days but Heretic did it first and I can only imagine how such a simple but effective new feature set must have felt at the tell end of a DOOM clone heavy year.
                         I'm so happy this early in the blog and I'm already in love with a game I never played before. Heretic is a blast from the past and while far from perfect a must play if you love games of this era. It likely and by no means should dethrone DOOM II as the 1994's fps of the year but it should be on your list of timeless gems. The visuals, level design, mystical setting and magical "staffs" make it a fun ride. The inventory system was innovative and would go on to contribute in to the genre in a timeless and essential way.

                   

Little less blood, lot more magic.

     

    Heretic's dark fantasy violently earns its place in hell alongside DOOM. It's 90's edge lord mixed with DnD is a testament to how these games fit in culture of the day. Mystic staffs, gauntlets and devices to shred through all kinds of undead and dark magic. It's violent, fun and a beautiful graphics feat. This is my first time with Heretic. A game I decided belonged on this blog and would give me a rare first timers chance on one of these games. Raven Software's first hit fills my heart with all the feelings and memories that made me set out on this blog. So playing its been a real treat thus far.
           Heretic sent 1994 out with a bang. DOOM II and its clones may have had the share of the year but right before Christmas, Raven Software brought something while not wholly original , felt different enough to not just justify its' existence but be enjoyable. It was the first fps game to feature a usable inventory system. It pushed a modified Id Tech 1 engine in all kinds of new and colorful ways in a fantasy setting. The game still has a lot of quick and violent shooting and gore that I'm honestly wondering how used to the industry was after the earlier part of the year. In 1994 this would have been a very mature game like the rest of its genre, offing a nice reprieve from Nintendo's family systems. I started luke warm with this game and very quickly found myself really enjoying it. By no means does it dethrone its' older cousin but its a hidden gem I wish now more people knew about.

               The movement in Heretic feels a good bit slower and different in dynamic than the in and out  of DOOM II. Heretic's controls are largely outdated by today and took some getting used too. Perhaps I'm still getting used to them but after some time with the game I find it to be a fair bit slower and more direct line of firing sight than its older cousin. Strafing seems nigh impossible to do properly so I usually wind up zipping from one point to the next until I can line up sight at the appropriate distance from the enemy and fire. I find enemies ranged attacks do interact mostly alright with this system of movement. For instance enemies tend shoot less projectiles in general than some other shooters of the time. Also this gives the player some small windows and mobility options of when to go through the games quick inventory system and use items or potions. It really goes to show how much in infancy fps games where in 1994. Basic movement systems and dynamics could vary wildly between games. I can see why Heretic has the game design choices it has and honestly I have a lot of fun with the game in part because of its movement choices. Its not great and certainly no where on DOOM II's level of fun.
                 Aesthetic is something that really makes us all fall in love with games and I'd be mistaken to not give Heretic a massive amount of credit here. The fantasy setting and art direction of this game look great. I remember in the last blog talking about the cost of realtime 3d graphics in comparison to 2d graphics at the time. It's no Nintendo SNES master piece in art direction and visuals but in my opinion looks drastically better than DOOM which ran on the same engine. The game is no stranger to color. Spells, magical lightning, fire, water all these things are colored vibrantly and displayed in a very respectable way for the age. Castles and stone towers rise to the sky with entry in and up, all surrounded by moats filled with water crossed with draw bridges. This was some cutting edge PC shit. Sure a lot of the games weapons where reskins of DOOM weapons. The staff that shoots magic orbs is the pistol exactly. Dragon orb staff is the plasma gun etc. But the effect of having them and firing them with corresponding repainted enemies is still a lot of fun. Its a nice fresh coat of paint that does plenty of new and fun things.
                      By the end of 1994 we see the genre taking shape. Most of these games would be called DOOM clones one way or another but its clear set rules and design guide lines where taking place. Technology while advancing was playing some catch up. Many people probably had trouble running DOOM back when it launched. But the potential audience and market saturation of capable hardware was much bigger by the end of 1994.  It's clear despite this 3d gaming and fps gaming where very much limited in their infancy. I'm having a blast with Heretic.I haven't even got to its quick item use. I'm by no means done with the game and 1994 just yet.

Labyrinth

                           DOOM II's level design lets all that sweet movement I was just raving about shine. DOOM II came from a day when a handful of talented staff could make the entire level design of a video game. Because of this it takes on an artistic quality once you become familiar with the game. Personality takes hold be it John Romero's lovecraftian hallways with horror shows flickering in the light or Sandy Peterson's often chaotic and demon horde focused mosh pits like my first favorite level of the game "Tricks and Traps". Sandy Petersen. Shawn Green. American McGee. and of course John Romero made magic happen.
                     
DOOM II easily could have been a failure if these young industry innovators hadn't had a grip on the future. DOOM's movement system as I've said is utterly brilliant but it'd completely when to waste in the wrong play ground. These maps have an arcade quality to them. Your timed, there's often all or most of the weapons littered or hidden about the level. We all know the DOOM key card staple made possible by the often maze like design of intersecting rooms, hallways, elevated platforms and later even a city. In the mid 2000's and well into the Xbox360/PS3/DX9 generation of games shooters often saw very linear style levels. But DOOM can often get you lost. It makes the game so interesting. While some levels like ever boring spotty encounters in "Waste Tunnels" didn't do much for me but the game picked up quick and I found favorites with every level designer, looking for secrets, more BFG ammo and enemies the game has a great bar of quality it rarely falls below.
                      The DOOM engine, Id Tech 1, was something incredible for its day. But despite that artist still have very little pixel and color space to work in. The price of true 3d gaming becomes apparent. Where artistic wonders like Donkey Kong Country came out in all its 2D glory, DOOM was letting us run through rooms shredding down demons. The cost though of this shows. Often the same metal walls, gross dirt, or textured goop your walking through repeats itself so much the entire environment looks the same. Its great to see the buildings show up in the second chapter of the game.The game obviously cant render much of a city but the game suddenly shifts into using much more verticality and planes of it which makes it pretty fun and maintains the "illusion" well for its setting.
                       Putting on the historical glasses and I have to stress just how innovative these guys had to think. There wasn't much of a FPS genre to build from, no real set rules or accepted general quality of life practices.  I found EGM's vintage 1994 review of the game and Chris Nashawaty puts its perfectly,

                         

"But while a slew of other point-and-shoot game titles like Ground Zero Texas and Lethal Enforcers provide the same time-killing high of mindlessly blowing opponents to a pulp, what really sets Doom and Doom II apart from the pack is their graphics. Using 3-D modeling and scrolling, Doom II gives you a real feeling of space and speed as you zoom down the game’s claustrophobic, mazelike hallways. Maybe even too much speed."

                           

-

Wading in blood.

 I can be dramatic with nostalgia as much as I want but it wouldn't change the fact that one instantly knows what DOOM is and has always been. It's apparent as soon as the game starts.  Moving forward and back, left to right, bobbing and weaving through demonic fire balls and bullet shells. Doom guy doesn't feel like a person running in 3d space. You feel like some UFO fighter jet constantly, thrusting and lurching in and out. Its fast. Real fast. But that doesn't matter. As long as you can see the enemy and fire your going to land a shot. It's all about being in the right spot at the right time.
                It still holds up. Once I got past the timid introductory levels of DOOM II; I was treated to some thrill ride levels that excited me just as much as any shooter I've played from the current generation of video games. DOOM's mechanics like any good game play on some very basic and natural dopamine receptors.  It is frantic as things move in some sense of organized chaos while a very brutal and grimy visual feedback loop keeps you stimulated. The ascetic has some retro charm in 2019 but in 1994 with the unknown future of technology its easy to see why DOOM disturbed many. Nothing was on this level. No matter how you felt about violence in games the jaw dropping reaction was the same.

               DOOM is very much a testament to how game design and rendering technology exist in symbiosis. It required hardware and software processing capabilities just not possible on the then mainstream home console market. The first person , 3d shooting mechanic required by it and Wolfenstien simply couldn't have been done with less. Sidescrolling platformers on Nintendo's family friendly ecosystem was the main stage of video games. SNES and its competitors offered some incredible takes on the genre's invented during the previous arcade area but what DOOM offered was something incredibly different and dark. Its fun and violent in a way video games had rarely dared to be. Its important when playing to remember just what a gem and product of its era. DOOM had to exist for games. It was always that much needed new catalyst to what would be come a completely new genre of games and gaming possibilities. Wolfenstien and brought it to reality but DOOM made it feel right. 3D gaming was here to stay and the possibilities where endless.

            DOOM II really drove home shooting for first person shooting. Each gun is legit a blast to use and I often find myself trying to apply them strategically based on ammo, available enemy type, and position. In a day and age where games give us a couple weapons at most it can take a bit to get used to having a good old classic arsenal available for your badass. It's something I dearly love about games from this era. Unlike Call of Duty or some games where different guns fit a general broad outline and vary to only a preferential degree, DOOM II's guns all work dramatically different.  Your welcome to use them however you like and it creates from some interesting encounters and thinking on your feet. There's a level of thought that goes into the weapon choice and how it ties into the fast movement system. All these years later its still a blast. \

                      It really is one of those shooters I recommend everyone play at some point.I still have plenty more to talk about. DOOM II really inspires me on why I wanted to do this project. Playing this game and seeing it through a lens of history has been real rewarding and simplistically fun. It reminds me even as games get complex and deep to cherish that simple joy of interactive entertainment. Rip and Tear.