A medieval/fantasy Doom-style game with more options and an incredible replay value.
HeXen is usually refered as the sequel to Heretic, but in truth has little in common with his precedor. While both Raven titles uses the same engine, HeXen is away more complex, as you have three classes to choose (Fighter, Cleric and Mage), quests to solve, ability to jump (great feature, but already present in the old Shadow Caster - Raven Software, 1994) and, with the patch applied, support 'Death Matches' up to 8 players (4 players in 'Cooperative' mode).
I believe what makes HeXen unique is the possibility to choose between three classes. The Fighter is fast and strong, deadly at melee combats; the Mage is slow and weak, but powerful with magic and ranged attacks; while the Cleric is something between the other two. Well, you have six difficult levels, three characters and a huge single-player campaign. If you think it's not good enough, then you can play it in multiplayer. I recommend the 'Cooperative' mode, which allows you to combine the classes and use the 'save & load' feature.br />
The gameplay is simply brutal, as you will fight against hundred of different monsters at the same time, like the Afrit (some sort of flying imp), the Centaur (uses a shield), the Ettin (mytholigical criature) and so. Each single monster has a different strategy to beat, but you can simply engage your foes hitting without thinking, which makes your job a little more diffucult, depending of the difficult level you've chosen.
Each class has four weapons. At first, you can think that the Mage is better, because he starts with a unlimited wand that fires a magical bolt from distance, while the Fighter uses his glauntets and the Cleric a mace for melee attacks. But all the three characters are well-balanced and fun to play. The Fighter will eventually find a magic hammer that can be thrown for ranged combats, and the Cleric a serpent staff to hit in distance and leech life from opponents in melee attacks. All three classes have mana to use their weapons. For instance, Blue Mana is used for number '2' weapons; Green Mana for number '3' weapons. The forth weapons are very strong, uses both Blue and Green mana. These weapons are divided in three pieces, which you'll find through the game.
Quests in HeXen is fairly complex, you'll need to find switches, levers, keys and artifacts, while entering in portals and visiting a variety of places. You can get stuck sometimes and this will certainly annoy you, but if you pay attention and look closely, this can be avoided.
There are items that you can keep in your inventory, such the Chaos Device, that when used will teleport the player back to the starting position of the actual map. There are many others: Quartz Flask (heals the user), Dark Servant (summons a powerful ally) etc. All items, after used, will disappear.
Sound effects and Music is just right, everything fits in the game's atmosphere. Graphics are, obvious, dated. You'll see 2D sprites and not 3D models like in Quake. There are some good Win32/Linux ports for HeXen that adds some Direct3D and OpenGL features to the game. Controls are, in the most part, restrict to keyboard, and there isn't a logical reason to use mouse, as you don't have to vertically aim your opponents. Again, some HeXen ports adds a better mouse support.
A great game that still enjoyable after all these years. If you can play it over the net (using a port) or in local multiplayer, is even better.