Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders

It's hard to describe where to begin. Amongst the gaming community, the general idea about Heretic is that it's a "good" game, not bad nor excellent, but in between. I used to have that same mentality until I stumbled on this game for 5 bucks and wow did my opinion change. Overall, even though this game heavily borrows aspects from Id Software (most call it a Doom clone I call it a Wolfenstein clone) I feel like it's better and for several good reasons. One is the environment/setting, instead of the cliché space setting of Doom (even a cliché back then too) Raven opts for the medieval/supernatural environment (though a cliché not as much as space though). The combat feels more frantic, consistent, and definitely easier than Doom which suffered (in one opinion) from major difficulty spikes where basically combat goes from incredibly easier to brutally difficult in a short notice (gamer jargon sorry if that's difficult to understand). The weapons are more fun to use. The game also has an inventory system which Id copied into their Quake series of games (not a bad thing at all). The soundtrack is superb, a little mellow especially compared to Quake, but still fits the mood of the game. The only thing I have a complaint about is the exploration or puzzle solving aspect of the game. Where as Quake had straightforward levels, Doom and Wolfenstein had levels that required somewhat of a brain to progress through, Heretic is a bit unfair in its progression since there are some cases in which the only way to continue the game is to find a very well hidden switch behind a very well hidden area and also maps that have schizophrenic level design as well. However, too many people give this masterpiece gruff, so I'll still give it the five stars because this game is near perfect. Overall, Heretic is an incredibly underrated game, a masterpiece, and a better alternative to Doom (in my opinion).

I used to love playing this game many years ago on my Windows 311 machine. This is still a DOS game so you will most likely need DOS Box to play it. Thanks you to the guy who posted how to work with DOS Box in the review section on the Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders description page. They game is still as fun and challenging as it used to be.

its an old game so the graphics are not amazing but the game in fact is nice, well done, smart and different, long but not too long, easy to control but so easy to win, i love it

Good game.but I have a hard time putting it on my computer. HD Window 7 .I can't seen to get on.

LOVED it, totally fantastic and definitely a good buy, make a good purchase with this one and you'll be pleased

It's fun, and definitely plays better than Doom. It has the same sort of "attitude" that its predecessor carries, except in a medieval setting. Yes, Heretic is simply a reskinned Doom, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially considering it gave rise to an indirect sequel, HeXen, which is fantastic. "Shadow of the Serpent Riders" contains two more episodes than the original Heretic, but the first three are where this game really shines. The maps are well-designed, the weapons interesting, and the baddies always keeping you on your toes. I found the last two episodes to be hopelessly frustrating and terribly designed (e.g. endlessly wandering hallways for long periods of time to find a hidden doorway necessary to proceed). Despite this, it's definitely a game worth playing, especially if you have any love of Doom.

Heretic is a very fun game with cool weapons, bad guys, and other things as well. True it won't win any points in terms of originality like the supernatural setting (borrowed from Ultima and a crap load of other games back then) the gameplay (Wolfenstein) and a cool but simple inventory system (Ultima) but Raven successfully combines borrowed elements from the past and masterfully incorporates them in this masterpiece of a video game. Highly recommended and well worth the measly amount of money.