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Hexen II is a first person shooter computer game developed by Raven Software from 1996 to 1997, published by id Software and distributed by Activision. It is the third game in the Hexen/Heretic series, and the last in the Serpent Riders trilogy. Using a modified Quake engine, it features single player and multi player game modes, as well as four character classes to choose from, each with different abilities. These include the offensive Paladin, the defensive Crusader, the spellcasting Necromancer, and the stealthy Assassin.
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Plot
As in the first two games, a world has been enslaved by a powerful demon called a Serpent Rider. This time, the demon in question is Eidolon, the oldest and most powerful of the three Serpent Riders. The player must travel to four different continents, each with a distinct style (Medieval European, Mesoamerican, Ancient Egyptian, and Greco-Roman), destroy enemies, solve puzzles, defeat a horseman of the Apocalypse and continue to the next hub in pursuit of Eidolon, the final enemy.
Improvements from Hexen and Quake include destructible environments, mounted weapons, and unique level up abilities. Like its predecessor, Hexen II also uses a hub system. These hubs are a number of interconnected levels; changes made in one level may have effects in another. The Tome of Power artifact makes a return from Heretic.
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Instant pick items
These items will activate instantly once you get them:
Health vial: looks like a small vial with a blue liquid inside. Restores 10 HP.
Blue mana and Green mana: mana is magic energy which circulates freely in the world. In Hexen II, mana serves as a fuel for mystic weapons. Weapon 2 uses blue mana, weapon 3 spends green mana, and weapon 4 uses up both blue and green mana. Mana in this game comes for cubes, triangles and roundish boxes (these ones bring both blue and green mana).
Helmet, Bracers, Breastplate and Protection Amulet: these armor pieces encase your body and reduce the damage taken from enemy attacks.
Rings: there are 4 different rings: water-breathing, flight, regeneration and reflection.
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Inventory items
These are the items stored in the inventory for further use:
Torch: looks like a typical torch. This item allows better view in some dark or badly illuminated areas - even underwater.
Quartz Flask: looks like a small perfume jar with a purple liquid inside. Restores about 25 HP per flask.
Mystic Urn: looks like a gray urn with a golden ankh. It will boost your health by 100 points. If this boost exceeds your maximum amount of health, the points above will decrease slowly until reaching your health limit, just like in Quake.
Krater of Might: looks like a silver wine chalice decorated with ancient letters and a purple liquid inside. It restores your mana completely (both blue and green bars) when you use it.
Chaos Device: looks like a silver disk with the universal Symbol of Chaos carved inside it. This artifact makes you warp back to the starting point of the current area - ideal for a quick escape from unpleasant situations.
Tome of Power: looks like a black-grayish book with a skull on its cover. While its effect lasts, your attack power increases greatly for all weapons you have.
Stone of Summoning: looks like a small stone with a golden arrow on it. Once used, it will randomly summon a red imp to attack your enemies. The stone won't summon the imp in some situations, such as if there is no room for the imp to spawn. In this case, the stone will be recollectable.
Invisibility Sphere: looks like a stone plate with a golem-like face embedded on it. As the name implies, it renders you almost completely invisible for a short period of time. Good for sneak attacks on dangerous foes!
Glyph of the Ancients: looks like a kind of steel helmet/crown with red side crystals and spikes pointing downwards. The glyph is an offensive artifact, and it has a different use for each class, as seen below:
The Assassin: the glyph fixes at the wall towards it and creates a chain against another wall, and anyone touching the chain (including you) will get caught in a traitorous explosion.
The Crusader: it will stand still until anyone draws near it, then it will explode (just like a proximity grenade).
The Demoness (Portal of Praevus only): the glyph creates an almost endless steam of acid green gas.
The Necromancer: it floats towards the enemy and explodes once it reaches him.
The Paladin: it sticks at any surface (even at an enemy) and detonate into a huge dome of fire energy that annihilates everything within its reach.
Boots of Speed: looks like a pair of brown winged boots. Once you activate them, these allow you to walk and run much faster than normal.
Disc of Repulsion: looks like a small golden articulated disk. Its power reflects enemy projectiles back to their launchers as well as knocking back and damaging any enemies within the radius of effect.
Bo Peep/Seal of the Ovinomancer: looks like a sheepherd staff with a pink-purplish bow tie. It changes one or more enemies into sheeps for a short time, so you can take the chance to kill a weakened enemy. But there are two downsides: first, even morphed into a sheep, the enemy can still maul you, and will maul you badly; second, you will gain no experience by killing an enemy in such state, so use it only as a last resource to endure your life.
Flight Ring: looks like a small raven-looking black ring. It allows you to fly or glide while the effect lasts.
Cube of Force: looks like a small golden cube with colorful stones on its sides. Once activated, it hovers around you until detecting enemies; then it will hover around an enemy and shoot at him powerful energy blasts until killing the enemy or being dissummoned.
Icon of the Defender: looks like a gray miniature castle tower. It renders total invulnerability against all forms of enemy attack with a bright yellow screen.
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Weapons
As said before, weapon 2 uses blue mana, weapon 3 uses green mana and weapon 4 uses both mana.
Weapon 1- Katar
Weapon 2- Crossbow
Weapon 3- Grenades
Weapon 4- Scarab Staff
Weapon 1- War Hammer
Weapon 2- Ice Staff
Weapon 3- Meteor Staff
Weapon 4- Sun Staff
The Demoness (Portal of Praevus only)
Weapon 1- Power Claw
Weapon 2- Acid Rune
Weapon 3- Firestorm Rune
Weapon 4- Tempest Staff
Weapon 1- Scythe
Weapon 2- Magic Missiles
Weapon 3- Bone Shards
Weapon 4- Raven Staff
Weapon 1- Battle Gauntlets
Weapon 2- Vorpal Sword
Weapon 3- Double-Edged Axe
Weapon 4- Purifier
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Player abilities
As your character levels up, two new abilities are conquered; one at level 3 and the other at level 6, as seen below:
Level 3: Hide In Shadows - if not moving inside a dark area, the Assassin becomes partially invisible.
Level 6: Backblow - blows hitting enemies on their backs tend to be some more powerful.
Level 3: Revivification - The Crusader often restores full health at the moment he kills an enemy.
Level 6: Holy Strength - sometimes a golden cross appears above the slain enemy. If he gets it his strength increases three times for a short while.
The Demoness (Portal of Praevus only)
Level 3: Demon Glide - The Demoness can glide and land safely on the ground by holding the jump key in mid-air.
Level 6: Masochist Mana - The Demoness can convert damage taken into mana energy.
Level 3: Soul Steal - The Necromancer can absorb the dead enemy's soul, which appears as a skull inside a red aura above the corpse.
Level 6: Vampiric Drain - when hitting an enemy, The Necromancer's scythe will randomly steal health points from his enemy to transfer them to him.
Level 3: Free Movement - underwater, The Paladin will have total freedom of movements and will not die by drowning.
Level 6: Sacred Intervention - when killed, The Paladin will instantly return from near death, with some powers and often immortal for a short time.
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Regular enemies
Archer: The general "cannon fodder" enemies through the game. These armored demonic warriors basically shoot fast-travelling magic arrows, and also can do some player actions (like sidestep, duck down to avoid projectiles and so). Variants: Archer, Archer Lord
Spider: These tiny 8-legged fiends will prove to be very nasty with their continuous biting attacks. Still, they do not pose much of a real threat due to their low health. Variants: Spider, Crimson Spider
Skull Wizard: They can teleport in and out of existence, push you backwards with a "magic push" spell and fire explosive skulls at you. Usually they can summon spiders and/or drop magical items when killed. Variants: Skull Wizard, Skull Wizard Lord
Ballista: not a real enemy, but a big mounted crossbows that simply aim at you and shoot long pointy spears. These spears hurt quite a bit and the ballistas have some decent good "health", so take them down quickly or simply avoid passing by them. Variants: Ballista
Hydra: much more a nuisance water creature than a real threat, still they can be quite annoying. Variants: Hydra
Golem: these Goliaths are bad news. Their bodies are basically composed from hard materials and are incrediblely fast for their size. They have high endurance against all kinds of attacks and fighting them close-on is not a good idea. Variants: Stone Golem, Crystal Golem, Iron Golem, Bronze Golem
Imp: flying atrocities which can tear you down in a few blows, despite their low health. Imps can hurl powerful projectiles at medium or long range, perform a "torpedo"-like dive towards you and slash at you in close range with their claws. Variants: Fire Imp, Ice Imp
Scorpion: despite their crawling nature, their razor-sharp pincers and poison stings on their tails are something to be reckoning with. Variants: Golden Scorpion, Black Scorpion
Werepanther and Werejaguar: humanoid black panther and jaguar warriors carrying saw-bladed swords and huge shields. These monstrosities are intelligent enough to run very fast and perform powerful jumps (like true felines), duck down, roll and evade attacks. Sometimes they'll roar with head upwards, remaining invincible for a moment, then strike again. Their swords will rip good chunks out of your health in each swipe. Variants: Werepanther, Werejaguar
Mummy: their "handsome" Anubis-looking visual hide a monster that's somewhat powerful. His staff shoots out magic missiles and is as hard as steel in close range. As his health decreases, the Mummy loses its limbs one by one until finally dragging themselves across the floor in a miserable state. The Mummy Lord has an extra attack, in which he plants his staff to the ground and projects a stream of fire which travels fast and causes heavy damage. Variants: Mummy, Mummy Lord
Medusa: even if this gruesome counterpart of the Medusa from the greek mythology has no arms and a serpent-like body replacing legs, this enemy is a considerable match by firing homing magic blasts, the traditional petrifying gaze and having a lot of health. Variants: Medusa
Fallen Angel: definitely the toughest non-boss enemy in the game. He can do ALL player actions plus they can fly. His massive steel wings can shield him from your attacks and even reflect projectiles back to you! Once you drain half of his health he'll phase from "transparent" to corporeal and finally can be destroyed. The Fallen Angel can project two types of deadly laser blasts that can kill you in a single volley. Variants: Fallen Angel, Fallen Angel Lord
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Bosses
The bosses in Hexen II are Eidolon and his four Dark Generals, which are entirely based behind the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The Famine: the first of Eidolon's four Dark Generals, he is found at the end of Blackmarsh act. The Famine is a skeletal-looking man carrying a gold scale and riding a lanky brown horse. He can phase in and out of existence, shoot powerful red energy blasts from his gold scale and launch a kind of red "tractor beam", which captures the player and drags him/her towards The Famine. Once he falls, Act I: Blackmarsh is completed.
The Death: the second Dark General serving under Eidolon, he appears at the Realm of Death, ending the Mazaera act. The Death is the classic Grim Reaper-alike (complete with a hooded black robe and a scythe) riding a flying white horse. The Death can spawn rings of unholy flames, shoot at you strong red blasts of evil energy (quite similar to The Famine's ones) and summon spectral skulls which collapse to cast a heavy rain of boulders above you. Decay him to finish Act II: Mazaera.
The Pestilence: the third Dark General resides inside Pestilence's Lair at the end of Thysis act. He depicts a warlock-looking demon in black scaley clothing, a brown side purse hung through his neck, rides a giant white boar and carries a crossbow. His attacks are: a green poison arrow from his crossbow, which eats up the player's health few by few; a cocoon that spawns a swarm of locusts to hunt down and kill the player; and a painful ram from the boar's fangs on its nose. Act III: Thysis will end once The Pestilence has fallen.
The War: the last and hardest of Eidolon's Dark Generals, guarding the Colliseum of War at the end of the Septimus act. The War is a demonic muscular warrior wearing heavy armor, wielding an enormous black battle axe, and riding an armored bronze-colored corsel. He has only two attacks, but they are both powerful and hard to evade: by swinging his axe in air, The War casts several rotating axe blades which follow the target to rip his/her head out, or by swinging his axe, The War will cast a red rotating blade which explodes upon hitting the target causing heavy damage or even instant death. Defeat him to seal Act IV: Septimus.
Eidolon: the eldest of the three Serpent Riders. Eidolon is a gigantic goat-like red demon and appears at Eidolon's Lair, the final part of the game. He has a good assortment of powerful magic attacks. Also, as told in many passages through the entire game, the demon grants power from the Chaos Sphere, which is said to be the origin of the Serpent Riders' power. Once Eidolon is destroyed, you've beaten Hexen II.
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Portal of Praevus
An expansion pack called Hexen II: Portal of Praevus was released in 1998 featuring new levels, new enemies and a new playable character class, The Demoness. It focuses on the attempted resurrection of the three Serpent Riders by the evil wizard Praevus, and takes place in a fifth continent featuring a Sino-Tibetan setting.
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Source code release
Following the tradition from Hexen and Heretic, Raven released the source code to Hexen II in 2000. This time the source was released under the GNU General Public License, allowing ports to be made to different platforms like Linux.
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