/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10766850
I'll let you in on a secret for video games, anon
>easy = cinematic mode for literal babies, paraplegics, and girl gamers
>normal = easy
>hard = normal

>>10766850
input devices were trash back then

>>10766850
>normal
You're meant to play on the 4th difficulty otherwise the game is too easy.
Also >>10766869 is right. In addition to that, WASD + mouselook wasn't the norm (yes, some people had been using that since quake, but it wasn't widespread yet). People were doing really inefficient things like using Page Up/Page Down to look up and down, and having both keyturning and strafing keys to look around.

You should've played the game on Lord, but even then it's not really hard. The only difficulty on the last boss is not getting instagibbed by RNG lightning (which is why you save all your Icons of the Defender for the last part).

Also,, the classes are pretty much difficulty settings too. From easiest to hardest is
>Crusader
>Paladin
>Assassin on everything that isn't bosses
>Necromancer
>Assassin on bosses

If you include Portal of Pravus, the Demoness becomes the easiest character.

>>10766916
>You're meant to play on the 4th difficulty otherwise the game is too easy.
This. The game does not tell you this at all, but it was part of the culture back then for fps games to be balanced around whatever theier 'ultra violence' equivilant was. In other words, hard is the real normal.

>>10766997
>>10766916
I would I still have a great experience if I finish the game on Normal Paladin and then play through it again on Necromancer Hard?

>>10767025
I think so.

>>10766850
i'm playing this just now too and it's fun but it's pretty easy yeah
the real difficulty comes from working out where the fuck you're supposed to go

>>10766919
IIRC the first Hexen did something similar. Each character represented a particular difficulty (de)multiplier.

>>10767174
Even that part gets really blown out proportion. The "puzzles" aren't even that bad except maybe for a few. One that stumped me was the key in the stables buried in that grave. And that's only because I didn't see the lever in the secret room that lead to the shovel. I thought I was supposed to hack at the ground spot by the tree until it opened up and I was hacking at it forever. The only reason I thought this was because when you first enter the stables you see that stupid big ass shovel on the wall and think

>Huh I guess that's what this game world's shovel look like

The dirty clever pieces of shit knew what they were doing when they placed that big ass shovel there in the front of the level

>>10767261
Best part is, when you get the real shovel and dig the spot up, you get

>Digging really pays off!

They made the literal spot make a sound like something is breaking when you slash at it too

>>10767179
Warrior is easy, Mage is normal, and Cleric is hard iirc

Bump

>>10766860
>arbitrarily buffed enemies that do more damage than they should with the same weapons is "normal"

This is what brain damaged narcissism looks like.

>>10766860

IIRC episode 2 is one of the tougher parts of the game because there's not much mana, so you have to use your inventorty items and use them very efficiently. But then by the end of the game you'll have more mana and items than you'd ever need.

>>10769073
Honestly there seems to be a lot of mana for episode 2. I already got way more items than I'll ever need from episode 1.

>>10767447
Warrior is hard, Mage is normal and Cleric breaks the game.

>>10766850
I hate mazes

>>10766850
idk about hexen but i do know that Doom games, for example, were always balanced around the 2nd hardest difficulty level and scaled down for easier difficulties, and scaled up for the hardest one.

>>10766919
Why is the demoness the easiest character? (I haven't played Portals).

>>10766850
Why are the class ability so pathetic? Some are kind of useful but most are useless shit. Why?

Also what do the attributes do?

>>10771151
First weapon is ranged

>>10771159
So no mana cost? Is it strong?

>>10771176
No mana cost, limited range and not too strong but you can safely kill almost anything without mana which was probably the mage's strongest point in the first game.

I need to beat this game. I always loved (or at least was fascinated by, it sometimes pissed me off) Hexen 1. The absolutely abysmal graphics always stopped me from really getting into 2, but that's not a good reason to not play it.

Fuck I love this game fantasy aesthetics, it was that mix of dark and edgy 90s bullshit you dont see anymore.

>>10771158
The game was clearly rushed out the door and some of the RPG elements were unfinished. IIRC dexterity improves your armor effectiveness, wisdom increases your xp gain, strength improves your... strength. And intelligence literally does nothing.

>>10771881
I thought that even dexterity didn't do anything? Only wisdom and strength had an actual coded effect

These puzzles weren't even hard but I love how your average FPS fan (civvie, gman) act like they're super complex lmao. I mean they aren't super simple but they're still easy enough to understand

>>10770282
I think warrior is way easier than the other two. Maybe I'm only accounting for the early game, its been a while.

>>10772282

Both dunked on the game like shitheads for the zoomie audience, the only puzzle is the egypt zodiac map one and its fine if you dont mind reading like 6 or 7 fucking lines which is way over what most people do so theres that.

But yeah I miss this art style, the little town is so comfy, now with futa tieflings because of bg3 western fantasy is ruined for some time. And Graven was really a let down.

Sadly there was a fan expansion that i think was never finished. Hexen 2 also reminds me a lot of playing Thief 1.

>>10772906
Hexen 2 really does have a unique art style.

>>10772282
They are complex... For your typical FPS fan lmao

>>10773670
Its the 90s dark edgy shit, very muhc like a mix of classic D&D, Howard and Tolkien.

Diablo 1\2 still shared this.

Its kinda lost today because of wow and GOT dirty shit, but might still return one day, at least souls games somewhat preserved it in their own unique way.

But Hexen is more over the top.

>>10772282
>>10772906
Youtubers are fucking retards. It's not exactly a shocker that they think Hexen 2 has "hard" puzzles

>>10766860
Nah man for those old ass retro games, hard was actually ball busting and normal was hard.

>>10772282
>>10772906
>>10773947
What did these youtubers say about Hexen 2?

>>10773947
I wouldn't say that Hexen 2 puzzles are hard, but the game sure can be cryptic sometimes. More so than the first game even.
That said, it's nothing new for Raven level design in general.

Bump

>>10774015
What is Raven's best game?

>>10775826
I wonder.

I do like jedi outcast. I can just imagine a heretic 3 made with better engine.

I really do miss how fantasy used to be

>>10775826
That's a hard question. For majority of people that would be Jedi Academy, as it's the most known and accessible one of the bunch. With everything else you'd either really love those games or would get filtered by one thing or another.

>>10775826
Hexen 1, obviously.

>>10773951
Not at all true of Doom though. Like you can't play on anything below Ultra Violence and get any real challenge.

So I got halfway through the game before realizing I was playing on garbage graphics settings. You have to download a third party wrapper to get proper lighting and scaling effects; jesus. I guess I didn't mind it looked like total shit because I remember it looking like total shit when I downloaded the demo as a kid. The software version didn't have any fancy lighting or anything.
Level design is just as good as Hexen 1, but it doesn't feel nearly as fantastic, what with all the levels being based on real world settings.

>>10776115
that's because in the old days you only had a keyboard terminal and no mouselook.

>>10775826
Take No Prisoners.
>>10776247
Skill issue. Keyboard-only works well in Doom engine games.

>>10775919
Is this game actually good? I remember reading the reviews, which were mostly positive, but I never played it. I think the very fact that it wasn't first person made me lose interest. I think that 3d third person action game = unplayable jank was subconscious truth to me or something.

>>10776609

Yeah its pretty nice. Its basically proto jedi knight outcast\academy.

Watch a vid of it

>>10766850
doom is supposed to be played on UV. hexen as well, on whatever UV was called in that game

imo the easier difficulties were made to accommodate players that didnt have a mouse
not that you cant beat UV without a mouse, but it is much more difficult

>>10776609
you talking about dark forces 2?
games fantastic
absolutely worth a play if you enjoy boomer shooters and/or any of the later jedi knight games

dont watch a vid of it
play it

>>10776524
>Keyboard-only works well in Doom engine game
it works
its pretty obviously inferior to having a mouse tho

>>10776664
Heretic 2.
I've played Dark Forces 2, though I do need to actually replay it some time, as I always cheated to beat most of the later levels when I was a kid.

>>10776672
my mistake
i just always wanna bully more people into playing DF2
and yah dont be a cheeter tbf some of the powers, themselves, can almost feel like cheating if you know how to use them

>>10776609
Heretic 2 is better than one would think by looking at it, but also fairly different from the Serpent Rider Trilogy.
It's not nearly as jank as Tomb Raider games, if that's your worry. Maybe closer to MDK.

>>10776670
Obviously. It's just it doesn't matter in any of the official levels.
Multiplayer and custom maps are whole other story.

Hexen 1 & 2 beats both Heretic games

Bomp

Act 1: Kind of dull visually, but contains the most annoying puzzle in the game. What, you didn't slide up to a certain pixel on this specific terrain piece that looks like nothing in order to a trigger a hint?
Act 2: Kind of empty feeling and no real puzzle. Panthers are the hardest enemy in the game for the Assassin to deal with without the staff yet.
Act 3: Sick Egpyt theme, best puzzle in the game. 9/10.
Act 4: Cool vibe, but no real puzzle.
Final Boss: If I ever replay this, I need to hotkey items better.

Not as cool as Hexen 1, but cooler than most games. Glad I finally beat it. This game leaves a poor first impression, but it has some cool stuff going on.

>>10777474
Missed Act 5: same thoughts as 4. Cool vibe, but fairly linear. I'm not sure what playing the organ or finding the remains actually did.

>>10776609
It actually controls really smoothly for a relatively early third-person shooter and has fast paced combat like the original Heretic. I dont get why it was so ignored and forgotten.

>>10777474
>Kind of dull visually, but contains the most annoying puzzle in the game. What, you didn't slide up to a certain pixel on this specific terrain piece that looks like nothing in order to a trigger a hint?
For me, my brain kept filtering the glass near the guillotine as part of the wall. So Forgotten Chapel entrance feels like the most cryptic part of the game.

>>10777619
Yeah this too. The only actual real hard puzzle for me.

Bumping