An early standout in the first-person shooter genre, Heretic remains remarkably well loved, lo these many years later. It was essentially little more than a sophisticated mod of the original Doom, coming as it did very shortly after that most seminal of early PC titles, published by the same company (the venerable ID Software), built on the same engine, and reflecting the creative influence of several of Doom's original designers. While occasional improvements in graphics capabilities and new player control options did crop up, the differences were overwhelmingly cosmetic.
This was just fine with me for at least two reasons: 1) those differences do represent numerous real (if slight) positive refinements; and 2) in the process, Heretic lost nothing of what made Doom the behemoth success it was. The action was no less enthralling (therapeutic, even, if you'd had a particularly frustrating time of it that day), the weapons and enemies were novel (visually, at least - in terms of tactical function and capability they were precisely analogous to their counterparts in Doom), and above all, the slick, high-medieval fantasy setting was a refreshing change from the grimy industrial complexes and flaming, entrail-festooned hellscapes of Doom.
For the uninitiated, what all this means is simply that the game consists of you, running around
a series of worlds, each of which appears to be roughly three parts castle and two parts cathedral, and all of which have been absolutely stuffed to the gills with evil, waging a nonstop campaign of unremitting demolition. The bulk of your less-than-constructive impulses will be directed, quite reasonably, at the natives: an assortment of grotesque, ill-tempered magical hooligans with a predictably single-minded enthusiasm for your grisly demise.
Since you have undertaken your holy quest with a keen mind full of wisdom in the ways of evil-stomping, your initial weapon of choice is, of course, a stick. As in, down a weight-class from the common baseball bat. As luck would have it, however, the baddies have left an arsenal of six or seven additional, increasingly impressive tools of mayhem just kind of lying around everywhere, and before you know it you'll be launching massive orbs of hot flaming righteousness down every dark hallway, and through the occasional, oddly charming stainglass window. As in Doom, technically there's a storyline in there somewhere, but aside from being utterly silly, it was also entirely beside the point.
Bottom line: Perhaps in the end, Heretic was basically more of the same, but consumer demand (in my case at least) was more than adequate to make that a winning proposition. Highly recommended, as it will be great fun in general, and no doubt for some of you it will absolutely reek to high heaven of sweet, buttery nostalgia as well.
