Thread:Vorknkx/@comment-3547390-20161116194210/@comment-1496755-20161217194331

Woo, that was a good time that we had. Really good time.

I was thinking about it last night I was pretty sure you'd enjoy the game, despite your initial skepticism. It has the right blend of completely new gameplay elements and some old familiar stuff from Heretic to make it intriguing.

We often joke about punching stuff, but this is a game that actually takes punching seriously. In Wolf 3D, Doom, Heretic and even Quake, melee is a last resort kind of thing that you only use if you've run out of all other resources. But in Hexen melee is a legit fighting method, on par with ranged attacks (and even better than them in some situations) and melee weapons are actually powerful and practical. Even the default gauntlets you start with are fairly efficient and can be used even late in the game to great effect. But then again, Baratus is a melee-oriented fighter so he is supposed to be good at close range, if he wants to survive on a battlefield.

The other thing - different classes. They are not just cosmetic different appearances with different sets of weapons - they actually require you to use different play styles, from fast and aggressive for the warrior, to cautious and methodical for the mage. And this adds some replay value too,for those inclined to play the whole thing all over again with a different class. By the way, I suppose you'd make a video trying out the other two classes? I'm sure you'd enjoy testing their weapons on "willing" subjects ;)

You are in a pretty nice place right now - made some progress, yet most of the cool new stuff, the surprises and the challenges are still ahead of you.

The hub system is easier to understand if you think of it as an evolution of the old episodic system. Eacgh hub is like an episode, except that level progre3ssion is not linear, there are no tally screen, and the experience is not broken up into different sections that you select from the "new game" menu. The hub itself is this "central area" that the other maps are always connected to - in your case this is currently the Seven Portals. This hub doesn't have a very clear theme, it's something like a magical fortress (with the "guardians" being its sub-regions) and the puzzle is a bit vague too, but it's a good start to the game overall. The Winnowing Hall where it all started is more of an intro level to help you get used to your character's controls and capabilities.

So, I'm definitely looking forward to the next episode. The vacation is an excellent time for this kind of stuff, as free time is not a big issue.