Heretic + HeXen Review – Packed With Content, Stuck in the Past

Heretic + HeXen Review

Nightdive Studios are heroes to the retro video game community. For the last decade, they’ve been releasing phenomenal remasters of classic first-person shooters. I really wish there were more studios doing the same level of quality work for other genres. Nightdive’s major series include Turok, Doom, Quake, and System Shock. They’ve also tackled deeper cuts like PowerSlave, Rise of the Triad, and Star Wars: Dark Forces. Their newest release, Heretic + HeXen, is a collection of 1994’s wizard FPS, Heretic, and its spiritual successor, 1995’s HeXen.

Heretic + HeXen was announced and shadow dropped August 7 2025. The collection contains the full versions of Heretic and HeXen. It also includes the HeXen DLC Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. Incredibly, there are also two brand new campaigns for each game, called Heretic: Faith Renewed and HeXen: Vestiges of Grandeur. It’s a ton of content for a very low price of $20 CAD. Anyone who owns the DOS versions of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, HeXen: Beyond Heretic, and HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel on Steam, GOG, Windows Store, or Xbox Windows App will receive a free automatic upgrade to Heretic + HeXen. Even though this review was played on PS5, I checked my Steam account, and sure enough, all the games had been consolidated and updated in my Steam Library.

FPS OG

Heretic is a very old first-person shooter. It was developed on the Doom engine, and plays very similarly to the first two Doom games. Heretic is notable for introducing an inventory system to the action first-person shooter genre. It’s also one of the first FPS games to have vertical aiming. Heretic is an action-oriented game. The levels are linear, and puzzle solving just involves finding keys to open the right doors to progress. It’s hard to imagine someone playing and enjoying an early 90s boomer shooter today, without any nostalgic love for the original game, and Heretic is no exception.

I played Heretic a lot as a kid, but when I was a teenager I felt like people stopped talking about Heretic, and only talked about HeXen. I didn’t play HeXen as a kid, and didn’t understand why it seemed to overshadow Heretic so much. The base gameplay and visual presentation are so similar. But there are a lot of upgrades to HeXen that make it superior to Heretic in every way. HeXen opens with a gorgeous CG cutscene to establish the story, while Heretic just abruptly starts with the main character plunked into the opening level. There are also hub areas in HeXen, and the level progression is much less linear.

HeXen Evolution

In Heretic, the player just had a wizard to play as, while HeXen has the choice of Wizard, Warrior, and Cleric. The Warrior is a melee fighter with higher stats, whereas the Wizard is a ranged fighter and plays closer to a traditional FPS. The Cleric has lower stats than the warrior, and can use some magic, but I died extremely quickly trying it out, and never went back. There are multiple difficulty settings for all the games, but they are still quite hard. I shy away from first person shooters, and hadn’t played Heretic in over a decade, but I was absolutely crushed by normal difficulty.

The problem I had with early FPS games as a child still rings true today. I don’t find they have a lot of depth. I enjoy playing them for a couple hours, but I’ve never been compelled to finish Heretic, Doom, or Wolfenstein. HeXen is more Heretic, and Deathkings of the Dark Citadel is more HeXen. There are no changes to anything other than that there are more HeXen levels. It’s incredible that Nightdive Studios has created two new campaigns; one for each game. But they’re just more of the same. Faith Renewed is more Heretic, and Vestiges of Grandeur is more HeXen. It’s a ton of content. Add online multiplayer death matches, and mod support, and there’s a near endless amount of Heretic + HeXen to play. But it’s a lot of the same dated gameplay.

A Perfect Remaster

Heretic + HeXen’s graphics are a perfect crispening of the original games. Heretic looks exactly how I remember it, but it’s sharp on modern consoles. The controls have been reworked to a perfect twin stick set up. There’s motion control aiming auto-enabled on PS5, which does a great job to fine-tune aiming with the joysticks. Heretic + HeXen’s entire soundtrack has been remixed, and it sounds great. I love that there are multiple soundtrack options, so fans of the original have an accurate recreation. Heretic + HeXen also has tons of modern input, gameplay, sound, and display options.

The main menu for each game in Heretic + HeXen has a “Raven Vault”. The Raven Vault is an extensive artwork collection. There’s some pencil concept art, as well as 3D models for unused ideas including monsters, weapons, and props. There’s also a collection of miscellaneous unused sprites. For completion’s sake there’s hi-res box art, as well as menus, HUD samples from the original game, and company logos. There’s a collection of textures, and early animations. Finally, there are 4 pages of meeting notes and a Raven Software team photo. These bonus features are expensive. The entire Heretic + HeXen package is lovingly put together, and a must for franchise fans.

For the Boomers

Heretic + HeXen is a collection of 2 classic first-person shooters. It has both games, HeXen’s DLC, and 2 brand new campaigns. Nightdive Studios has crafted another loving remaster, with a fine attention to detail in modernizing the authentic experience of the original games. It’s a ton of content for a very low asking price. The only problem is Heretic + HeXen is two very old games that not a lot of people are going to enjoy experiencing for the first time today. But if you have any nostalgic love for the original games, then please pick this collection up for yourself, and for the sake of future Nightdive remaster projects.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher***