Enjoy the adventure in this solid game that merges action and fantasy in a unique way.
Even if this game is powered by id Tech 2 (Quake II engine), it features a Third-Person view a la Tomb Raider. You may find it weird because the original Heretic was a standard First-Person Shooter, and this may lead to some obvious questions: "is Heretic II a faithful sequel?" or, even worse, "is this just a medieval version of Tomb Raider?". Make to mistake: this game is a true continuation of its predecessor and has little in common with any other game to be considered a knockoff.
Let's start with the boring stuff. =) As in the original Heretic, you play with an elf called Corvus. This sequel continues the story pretty well, when Corvus had just won a difficult struggle against D'Sparil. Then the hero returns to his homeland, just to discover that things had changed drastically since his last visit. Corvus finds out that his people became victim of an unknown plague, which leads the infected to instant death or makes each individual inexplicably violent. In a quest to find a cure, Corvus become infected by the disease as well and must fight his way through a variety of places in order to save his people and himself.
Your character will travel between some really nice areas, such as swamps, mountains and dungeons. They all look amazing, and things become even better if you have a Direct3D or OpenGL compatible video card. Everything is beautiful in Heretic II: textures, fog, water, objects etc. My only complain are most of the characters models, which looks very thin and sometimes bizarre.
The game runs smoothly, but I found strange that it's limited to 30 FPS. It doesn't seem to cause any negative impact on the gameplay, except to the controls that have an annoying delay when you issue simple movement commands, such as a sidestep or a sprinting jump. It isn't that hard to get used with the controls, but you'll find that it's better to just stand still while firing against your enemies, instead of trying to dodge meanwhile. The autoaim system helps a lot, and with some manual editing in the camera options, you'll ease most of your problems in no time.
Sounds in Heretic II are perfectly fine, although I had to turn the CD music off because of the constant CD-ROM access, which slows down the game a bit. Here I missed an option such as the one in HeXen II, which allows you to hear the midi version of the game's soundtrack. Nonetheless, the sound effects are great and the voice acting is convincing, and that's particularly good because there're some cool cutscenes with dialogues between the main character and someone else.
Corvus is a real master of arms. He can wield a powerful blade that allows him to not only effectively gib his opponents, but also jump great distances (which may be extremely necessary in some occasions). This melee weapon can be upgraded throughout the game, and it will become the most deadly weapon in your arsenal later on. The hero will also find a staff that casts fire orbs, which is a nice way to take down groups of weak enemies. But it's the bow that really shines in Heretic II: the ranged weapon can fire either storm arrows or powerful explosive projectiles, both very useful against almost any kind of opponent.
Those weapons alone aren't enough to beat the hordes of monsters you'll face in this game. This is where the spells take the scene. Corvus will learn two types of magic: offensive and defensive. The offensive spells are used to direct damage and will consume green mana. On the other hand, defensive magic will grant a variety of effects, which are all helpful depending on the situation. The earlier offensive spells will become obsolete as you find the powerful ones, and there isn't any reason, for example, to waste your mana casting a Fireball or a Thunder Blast when you have already the Sphere of Annihilation. Thankfully the same rule isn't applied to the defensive spells, since most of them are useful. The Tome of Power will increase the strength of your attacks; the Ring of Repulsion is great to push your opponents back while you hack them with your blade; the Meteor Swarm can hit even the most difficult targets without any trouble; and the list goes on.
The shrines are a nice addition to this game. These magical monuments can recover health or mana, grant armor protection, cast a continuous light for a period of time etc. They're all quite useful and must be used wisely before or after a combat. For example, you don't need to use a mana shrine if you don't need to recover your reserve. Instead, it's a good idea to spend it all in the next room and then come back to the shrine to recharge.
So it's true that you have a lot of options while you're combating your enemies, but that doesn't make the game easier. It's not wise to use the massive Sphere of Annihilation against a rat, for example. You will prefer to cast a Flame Wall and take down all the little rodents at the same time. The storm arrow isn't a good choice against moving targets, since its effect is best used against static enemies. As you can notice, Heretic II requires some thinking, especially if you aren't playing in the easiest difficulty setting. The bosses also do their job quite well, although they're much like any other monster in the game... they're just bigger and stronger. You don't have to plan ahead a strategy to beat them; you just fire and avoid their attacks until it's over.
Much more annoying than the enemies is to find the correct door or switch to proceed. Naturally, that's only a problem when you're in a dungeon, since the open areas are pretty straightforward. I noticed some problems when I was trying to trigger a lever, when I kept pressing the button but nothing seemed to work. I wasted a lot of time searching for everything in the room, and then I decided to check a walkthrough (normally I don't do this), to just learn that I was doing the right thing! I indeed had to push the lever, but because of a bug I couldn't do it. I tried every possible angle, and then it magically worked for no apparent reason! I also noticed some other bugs, such as an instagib non-existent trap and a particular place that makes your character stuck forever. However these problems are quite rare and can be avoided, just remember to quick save regularly.
This game lasts a bit more than any other regular action title, although you'll feel that it ends sooner than you would probably want. This may happen if you decide to take a look at the world map; there're a lot of different places, but Corvus will never visit them during the game. They're just in there to ornament the map, that's all. Still Heretic II delivers a lengthy single player that's enough to make you enjoy the adventure.
Heretic II comes with a good multiplayer support. It features deathmatch and cooperative modes, which work flawlessly and greatly increases the value of this game. No matter if you like competitive or cooperative matches, you'll have fun while playing with your friends. As you can see, Raven Software succeeded to bring an amazing medieval fantasy game, and I recommend Heretic II for every action fan.