Heretic (video game)
Heretic is a fantasy first-person shooter computer game created by Raven Software, published by id Software, and distributed by GT Interactive in 1994.
Using a modified 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 spawned when a character suffered a death by extreme force or heat. Previously, the character would simply crumple into a heap. It's notable that besides background music, the game also used randomized ambient sounds and noises to further enhance the atmosphere, such as evil laughter, chains rattling and water dripping. All music in the game was composed by Kevin Schilder.
Storyline
Three Serpent Riders came to the world Heretic takes place in. Inititially, they gained power by bringing peace through controlling magicks, eventually controlling even the seven powerful kings of Earth. A race of elves called the Sidhe were unaffected by these spells however, and the Serpent Riders' disciples and blind followers plotted against the Sidhe, regarded as heretics by the Riders' followers. As the kings' seven armies prepared to advance upon the Sidhe, the Sidhe's Elders blew out seven candles that were tied to the powers of the world and the armies of the kings. With that, those armies were destroyed and the Elders were weakened. In this moment of weakness, the forces of the Serpent Riders struck and violently killed the Elders. After the deaths of their Elders, most of the Sidhe went into hiding. You (being the player character), however, instead set out in search of D'Sparil, the weakest of the three Serpent Riders and the only one still remaining on your world. Thus, the game begins....
You must first fight your way through the undead hordes infesting the 'City of the Damned'. At the end is the gateway to Hell, guarded by the Iron Liches. After defeating them, you must then seal the portal and so keep "more undead, and even worse things" from entering your world. However, the portal must be sealed from the other side, so you go through...
And come out in the pits of hell. From here you must complete the impressive task of emptying Hell of demons as you battle your way to D'Sparil. After clearing a path to the Chaos Portals, you then must kill the Maulotaurs, which guard them. After destroying them all, you can step through any one of several portals to travel to D'Sparil's fortress.
Once inside the fortress, you once again battle your way through a number of challenging chambers filled with demons. Once they have all been slain and you have found your way to the Keep, the final battle begins.
Once inside D'Sparil's keep you must destroy all the creatures guarding it, and then step through another portal which takes you to a large courtyard filled with weapons and powerups. Waiting for you is the final enemy, D'Sparil himself. He is initially mounted on a large serpent-type animal (hence, Serpent Rider). Once it is killed, he rises from the beast's remains and fights you on foot, summoning multiple demon 'disciples'. After a long and difficult battle, D'Sparil is finally destroyed forever and with him die all the creatures under his command. At the end of the battlefield a final portal opens, which the player steps through to complete the game.
According to the epilogue, the fortress crumbles into oblivion as you travel back to your own plane of existence. The evil is destroyed and the darkness which covered the world is gone, yet you feel insecure. You call to mind the death cry of D'Sparil, which "sounded like a curse? Or a summoning?". The game ends with the image of another Serpent Rider (Presumably Korax, the main antagonist in Heretic's sequel, Hexen.) gazing at you through a crystal ball as you step back onto your own world.
Versions
The original version of Heretic has three unlinked episodes - the City of the Damned, where the player must go through an abandoned ancient city overrun by monsters, Hell's Maw, which is set in Hell, and The Dome of D'Sparil, which is set in a city at the bottom of the ocean, protected by gigantic crystal domes. A stand-alone retail edition, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, was also made available and features two additional episodes - The Ossuary, which takes the player to the shattered remains of a world conquered by the Serpent Riders centuries ago, and The Stagnant Demesne, where the player enters D'Sparil's home stronghold (which was designed to be the hardest episode of the game). A patch was freely downloadable to enhance the original Heretic up to Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders and add the missing episodes. A shareware version was also released which contains the first episode of the game.
The first sequel, Hexen, which also uses a modified Doom engine, was released about a year after Heretic in 1995. The next game in the Hexen/Heretic universe, Hexen II, was released in 1997 and was based on a modified Quake engine. Later in 1998, Heretic II was released, using a modified Quake II engine.
In early 1999, the source code of Heretic was published by Raven Software. This resulted in ports to Linux and other operating systems, and updates to the Heretic engine to utilize 3D acceleration.
Engine
Heretic is made from a modified Doom engine. However, trying to use Doom cheats results in the opposite effect (eg. "iddqd" which gives immortality in Doom immediately kills the player in Heretic). This cheat comes with a humorous message: "Trying to cheat, eh? Now you die!" Typing in "idkfa" which gives the Doom player keys, full ammo, and armor, takes away all of the Heretic player's weapons, including the starting weapon, the elven wand. It says: "Cheater, you don't deserve weapons!".
Because of the release of the Heretic source code, it has been ported to almost all modern operating systems and computer architectures.