Heretic | |
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Box art of the expansion pack - Shadow of the Serpent Riders
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Developer(s) | Raven Software |
Publisher(s) | id Software |
Distributor(s) | GT Interactive Software |
Director(s) | Brian Raffel |
Producer(s) | John Romero |
Composer(s) | Kevin Schilder |
Engine | Doom engine |
Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS |
Release |
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Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Aggregate score | |
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Aggregator | Score |
GameRankings | 62% |
Review scores | |
Publication | Score |
PC Zone | 78% |
Maximum |
Heretic is a dark fantasy first-person shooter video game released in 1994. It was developed by Raven Software and published by id Software through GT Interactive. The game was released on Steam on August 3, 2007.
Using a modified version of the Doom engine, Heretic was one of the first first-person games to feature inventory manipulation and the ability to look up and down. It also introduced multiple gib objects that spawned when a character suffered a death by extreme force or heat. Previously, the character would simply crumple into a heap. The game used randomized ambient sounds and noises, such as evil laughter, chains rattling, distantly ringing bells, and water dripping in addition to the background music to further enhance the atmosphere. All of the music in the game was composed by Kevin Schilder. An indirect sequel, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, was released the following year. Heretic II was released in 1998, which served as a direct sequel continuing the story.
Three brothers (D'Sparil, Korax, and Eidolon), known as the Serpent Riders, have used their powerful magic to possess seven kings of Parthoris into mindless puppets and corrupt their armies. The Sidhe elves resist the Serpent Riders' magic. The Serpent Riders thus declared the Sidhe as heretics and waged war against them. The Sidhe are forced to take a drastic measure to sever the natural power of the kings destroying them and their armies, but at the cost of weakening the elves' power, giving the Serpent riders an advantage to slay the elders. While the Sidhe retreat, one elf (revealed to be named Corvus in Heretic II) sets off on a quest of vengeance against the weakest of the three Serpent Riders, D'Sparil. He travels through the "City of the Damned", the ruined capital of the Sidhe (its real name is revealed to be Silverspring in Heretic II), then past Hell's Maw and finally the Dome of D'Sparil.