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Summary of the Hexen Experience Story:
A=Use Weapon Control Stick = Move. Hold Z while moving to sidestep. Z + Left or Right C = Change item
One of the things that I found quite interesting is how Hexen requires close combat. In Doom, players can gleefully take out enemies from across the room, but in Hexen you'll spend as much time clubbing or axing bad guys as you will shooting them. Battles seem to be in spurts, breaking up the puzzle elements of the game. The puzzles in Hexen involve many different worlds linked together by a central "Hub" world. Actions in each world open doors and solve puzzles in another world. Most puzzles involve finding switches in different worlds, and then trying to see the effects on the Hub world. I kind of liked the idea of Hexen's puzzle elements, but I found that when I got stumped by a puzzle, it wasn't because I couldn't figure out what to do, it was because I couldn't make out a switch or a secret ledge due to the game's poor graphics. The graphics aren't awful for a first-person shooter, but for the kinds of puzzles included in the game, Hexen's graphics simply won't do. Hexen offers the ability to play through the game with up to four players, which is a really cool idea. Unfortunately, the graphics are even more of a problem in the split screen mode, as both the detail and the framerate drop to even lower standards. You can also have a four-player deathmatch, but the game places participants far apart in actual game levels. This results in tedious gameplay involving tracking down opponents, and players familiar with an area have a distinct advantage. While Hexen certainly isn't a great game, I found myself sitting with a copy of Nintendo Power, taking turns trying to play through the game with a friend. It brought back memories of the good old NES days when a friend and I would rent a game we'd never heard of and try to finish it. The game lets you save one game to a Controller Pak (90 pages -- ouch!) with your exact location and status intact. This is also kind of cool, but there is actually load time for saving and loading a game. It also means $20 per saved game, as only one will fit on a standard Controller Pak's 121 pages. The Medieval aspects are also a little different. The whole game has sort of a Dungeons & Dragons feel to it. Unfortunately, the character animation is worse than Doom 64, and the enemies repeat quite a bit. The Medieval weapons, such as axes, magic staffs, and iron fists just can't compete with cooler weapons found in other games in the genre. I'd like to be able to definitively say that Hexen is a definite miss, but something about it kept me and my friend playing. I probably will never rent Hexen again, but I sort of enjoyed trying it out. Maybe you will too.
Overall Rating: Rental Only Back to Review Contents... To Breakdown of Hexen's Game Elements.... |
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