Bethesda and Nightdive Studios have brought back Hexen and Heretic with a new updated version. This improved release makes it easier for both new players and longtime fans to enjoy the games. It also works on more systems and supports more languages than ever before.
This new version runs a lot better than before. It uses faster rendering to support up to 4K and 120FPS, which is great news for its old-school fans. However, the textures in both games haven’t been improved at all. That’s a bit disappointing. Still, Nightdive usually doesn’t update the textures in the games they remaster, so this isn’t really a surprise.
As you’d expect, this collection comes with all the expansions that came out for Hexen and Heretic. Moreover, it includes two brand new episodes. In total, there are 117 campaign maps and 120 deathmatch maps.
And that’s not all. Nightdive and id Software also fixed a lot of bugs from the original versions of the games. They added a Vault where you can see old concept art and unused sprites from when the games were being made. You can now play online with up to 16 players in deathmatch or co-op, even across different platforms. There’s also split-screen for up to 8 players on the same system. The games now include accessibility options, like a clearer user interface, better screen contrast, screen effects settings, and even text-to-speech support.
Before closing, I should note that there is community-published mod support with an in-game mod browser. There is widescreen support so that you can enjoy the games on modern PC monitors. And there is a toggleable, enhanced Tome of Power soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult.
In short, this is a cool re-release of these two classic FPS games. Oh, and the best thing? If you already own them, these updated versions will be made available to you for free. You won’t have to pay anything at all. Cool, right?
Enjoy!
