Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (PC) review "Dungeons & Doom"

Ravensoft could have taken a relatively easier route when conceiving Heretic. “We'll just turn Doom into a fantasy game and call it good.” See? They could have stuck to that principle and the game would have been fine. Just fine... However, that's not what we received in the mid-'90s. You see, this was an example of a game that operated like an imitation of its inspiration, but remained entertaining in its own right thanks to some defining characteristics that give it a fresh identity.

The first and most obvious difference is the game's narrative genre. We've exited Mars and entered a damned realm ruled by a vicious “Serpent Rider” named D'Sparil. Our hero this time around, Corvus, didn't come to the party with a handgun, though. Sidhe-elves don't usually pack that kind of heat. Instead, he's got a wand with an amber crystal on the end that packs as much punch as a pistol, albeit with magical properties. An enchanted 9mm, if you will...

It's a good thing, too, because D'Sparil has a whole army of gargoyles, golems, demonic knights, possessed acolytes, scorpion-like warriors, and snake people doing his bidding. Oh, and massive skulls made of iron and bullet-sponge minoaturs he calls “Maulotaurs.” So yeah, good thing you left the Sig Sauer at home...

What nightmarish realm would be complete with tools to knock off its own denizens? While exploring, you nab steadily more powerful weapons, including a crossbow that fires ethereal bolts, a dragon claw that functions like a chaingun, the mighty plasma rifle Hellstaff, and a totally-not-a-rocket-launcher Phoenix Staff. Of course, ammo also lies around the place, just waiting to be reloaded into—wait, how do you reload these things? Is there a clip? Are the gems and such just absorbed into the weapon?

But wait, there's more! Heretic wasn't satisfied with giving you basic weaponry and thus included some useful consumable items to collect and hold in your bag. Instead of first-aid kits that automatically heal twenty-five health points, you now grab potions to carry around and use whenever you choose. Of course, there are some other nifty gadgets to claim, including a time bomb, an invincibility ring, wings to give you temporary flight, a tome to bolster your damage output, and a mask that makes you somewhat invisible. This feature more than anything sets this title apart from its inspiration and adds just a slight (and appreciable) amount of depth to play.

Well, that and the ability to look around. Of course, this one's default play control still feels like it's stuck in 1995, but some retooling and careful online reading allow you to set the experience up with full-blown mouselook capabilities. Of course, you can bypass all of that by nabbing the Source port of this title...

Anyway, you might suspect that I'm going to say this title copies Doom to a fault, but that's not entirely the case. In fact, it apes it to its benefit, presenting you with a similar and intuitive experience as you battle through convoluted temples brimming with beasts, hunting down colored keys that allow you to unlock doors eventually leading to an exit. As before, hidden item caches and challenges await those who scour the grounds in the utmost, checking out every wall or suspicious location to see if a hidden door or switch lies waiting to be exploited.

Sadly, later stages abuse this feature by requiring you to locate hidden doors and switches in order to advance. You'll eventually hit an impasse in some areas after you've felled every enemy and searched all corridors. Your only recourse at that point is to search for parts of the walls that might hold hidden doors or blast panels to open them. Even then, you have to hope you've actually found the pathway that will eventually lead you to your objective and not just another well-guarded stash and a dead end.

Of course, you eventually run afoul of a familiar old shooter device. Some areas require you to step on certain platforms or snag keys off obvious/ominous pressure plates. Stepping on these suckers does precisely what you think it's going to: open up the walls and summon a whole horde of beasts you probably weren't prepared to take on. Hell, this game goes an extra step at points and crams giant monsters into compact areas, surprising you as you enter a dinky room to find an Iron Lich or two occupying most of its meager space.

Fights start off pretty standard. It's all “pew-pew-dead” fare for the first few minutes, though the experience slowly builds to furious battles. You could be vulnerable and in the open, surrounded by monsters pulverizing you from balconies; or in a spacious field filled with creatures and enough free space to strafe around them and cut loose blasts as relative safety permits; or packed into a corridor as beasts advance from either end. Strategy becomes your best friend in any situation. You may have to backtrack to a previous location, using a doorway to limit the number of foes coming at you, making it easier to dodge their projectiles as they fire. Or maybe you've got to consider which weapon you use. Effectiveness remains a good deciding factor, but so does availability of ammo in any given level.

Unfortunately, even the best shooting doesn't remedy frustration in this outing. Depending on your love for dated concepts, you might either sigh with nostalgia or groan with irritation as you realize the standard campaign stands divided into three episodes. Of course, if you happen to grab the Shadow of the Serpent Riders add-on, you improve/pad out that number to five. In other words, you start a new game by selecting one of five miniature campaigns, beginning the affair with only your wand and twenty shots. When you finish that episode, you aren't immediately ushered into the next; you must go back to the main menu, start another new game, and select a different episode, taking it all from the top again with a wand and twenty shots. You have to amass your once-impressive arsenal you spent all eight (or nine, if you accessed the secret stage) levels building.

And yet, there's a little excitement in starting over and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. You get to say that you started as a peon and ended up a badass five separate times. That feeling captures the essence of a lot of older PC titles, really. You enter the foray with few resources at your disposal, learn the rules, get the mechanics down, and suddenly you're either death incarnate or at least middle management material. There's a thrill in either watching yourself develop into a warrior or just scraping by with a win.

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders is still a dated game; let's get that straight. I'm not going to pretend it can stand toe-to-toe with modern FPS fare. However, in its own right, it's still a worthwhile “boomer shooter” with plenty of bite, frenetic battles, and fun house-like stage designs that keep the experience compelling through all forty locales.

Staff review by Joseph Shaffer (December 14, 2024) Rumor has it that Joe is not actually a man, but a machine that likes video games, horror movies, and long walks on the beach. His/Its first contribution to HonestGamers was a review of Breath of Fire III.