It’s strange to think that in the mid-90s, first-person shooters were still figuring out what they wanted to be. Doom had already kicked the doors down in 1993 and Quake would come along in 1996 to redefine 3D gunplay, but in between those titans of the genre sat a few key games that carved out their own fiercely loyal following, like Heretic and Hexen.
They were not just Doom clones with medieval skins, my friends. They were wild, experimental fantasy shooters with interconnected levels, environmental puzzles, and a tone that swung between the operatic and metal album cover grotesque.
Heretic, released in 1994, was the gateway drug: a fantasy rollercoaster ride, but with verticality, an inventory system, and occult weaponry that felt very unlike the UAC-issued backpack of boomsticks we’d been blasting with. Hexen, materialising a year later in 1995, was more magical yet. It leaned harder into non-linear level hubs, class-based gameplay, and the kind of locked-door backtracking that was more akin to a Metroidvania than a corridor shooter.
Fast forward thirty years and now Nightdive Studios has resurrected these two cult classics for modern systems in a single package. If you’re an adoring fan of Nightdive’s previous work, as I am, you know the drill with this developer’s old games necromancy. They specialise in carefully restoring crusty milestones to work on modern hardware while keeping the soul of the originals intact. Their System Shock remaster and Turok updates set the tone, and here they have applied the same philosophy.
Booting up Heretic + Hexen on PS5 is like slipping into a pair of well-worn leather gloves that have been cleaned and stitched up until they almost look new. The sprites are still there, but sharper and brimming with details we could never quite discern back in the day. The textures are cleaner, but not overhauled and stretched into something botoxy and alien. The controls feel crisp in a way that your old ball mouse never could. The music still pounds in that chiptune-adjacent MIDI way, but now with cleaner sound reproduction that lets the eerie synths breathe.
The first thing you notice is how clean the visual presentation is without losing that crunchy 90s grit. Nightdive has implemented higher resolution textures where appropriate, improved lighting effects, and smoothed animations in acceptable ways. Playing in glorious widescreen on a 4K display, the jagged edges of the original are softened just enough to be comfortable on the eyes, but not so much that you lose that inimitable pixel charm.
The second thing to note is how much better these games feel on a DualSense. Back in the day, WASD movement was still a novelty and mouselook was not yet universal. Now, on PS5, both games run with fully modernised twin-stick controls, adjustable sensitivity, motion aiming, and customisable layouts. This is a subtle but profound change. Heretic’s vertical aiming, which originally relied on ye olde auto-aim and keyboard taps, now feels precise and snappy. Hexen’s slower, more deliberate combat benefits even more from modern controls, especially when playing as the Cleric or Mage whose ranged attacks require careful aim.
Nightdive has also added quality-of-life options that make revisiting these labyrinthine worlds much smoother. There are dynamic maps with player markers, optional objective hints, and the ability to quicksave with a single button press. Purists can switch these features off for the authentic 90s experience, but for anyone coming to these games fresh, these tools will keep frustration levels in check.
The sound design has been given the kind of polish that reveals how well these games were mixed in the first place. The ambient hums, dripping water, and crackling torches in Hexen’s darkened corridors now ring out with crystal clarity. Heretic’s triumphant weapon pickups and guttural enemy death cries have more presence, less distortion. The music tracks have been subtly remastered to retain their original instrumentation while removing the harshness of old compression.
Heretic still plays like the more accessible of the two. Its levels are linear enough to keep you moving forward, with secrets tucked away for the curious. Combat is fast and chaotic, with a delightful arsenal that ranges from the Elven Wand and Ethereal Crossbow to the Phoenix Rod and the Tomed-up Gauntlets of the Necromancer. The inventory system remains a highlight, allowing you to deploy time bombs, morph enemies into chickens with the Morph Ovum, or chug a Quartz Flask to heal on the fly.
Hexen remains the more divisive beast. Its hub-based structure means you will often backtrack through areas, solving puzzles and opening new paths that interconnect across several maps. It can be exhilarating when you finally unlock a chain of progression, or it can be bewildering if you lose track of what each switch does. Playing as the Fighter, Cleric, or Mage radically changes the experience. The Fighter is all about brutal melee and soaking damage. The Cleric blends ranged magical attacks with utility. The Mage is fragile but devastating at range.
In both games, the PS5 hardware ensures buttery smooth frame rates even when the screen is a soup of fireballs, ice shards, and flapping gargoyles. Load times are practically nonexistent, which makes quicksaving and retrying even less of a mental tax. You’ve also got to love the simplicity of a weapons carousel, local split-screen co-op/deathmatch for 8 players (!!), and cross-play of the aforementioned to the tune of 16 max players (!!!).
Nightdive has wisely resisted the urge to rebalance these games for modern sensibilities. Enemies are still relentless bullet sponges in certain encounters. Health and ammo are still finite resources you have to manage carefully. The puzzles are still unapologetically obtuse in Hexen. That might sound like a flaw, but it is also why these games stood out in the first place. They were designed for players to live in their worlds, to think about them between sessions, to draw maps on paper if needed.
That said, time has not softened all the rough edges. Even with modern controls, both games can feel a bit clunky compared to contemporary shooters. The hit detection can be finicky, particularly with melee attacks in Hexen. The level design, while ambitious, sometimes crosses into tedium when switches and keys are placed with little visual or narrative logic. And while the art style holds up, the enemy variety in Heretic in particular starts to feel repetitive after a while.
Still, there is a magic here that newer games rarely capture. Part of it is the atmosphere. Heretic’s snowy battlements, lava-filled catacombs, and gothic temples still appeal and mystify. Hexen’s weathered stone citadels, swampy marshes, and cursed cathedrals drip with mood. Another part of it is the pace. These are games that reward exploration and mastery over twitch reflexes alone.
The cultural importance of these games cannot be overstated. Heretic was one of the first to introduce an inventory system in a shooter, paving the way for more complex resource management in the genre. Hexen’s hub-based structure and class system foreshadowed design elements that would later appear in everything from immersive sims to modern looter shooters. They showed that first-person games could be about more than just moving from point A to point B while shooting everything in sight.
In 2025, they also serve as a reminder of how experimentation used to thrive in smaller teams. Raven Software, before being absorbed into the Call of Duty machine, was willing to take risks with pacing, mechanics, and genre blending. Nightdive’s remaster preserves that spirit, offering these games as they were but polished to shine on today’s screens.
For new players, the package is a history lesson and a challenge. For returning fans, it is a reunion with old friends who have aged with dignity. It’s also a thrill to be burning through new content after all these decades (two cleverly crafted episodes called Heretic: Faith Renewed and Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur).
In the end, Heretic + Hexen is a passionate love letter and an invitation to step back into a time when shooters were still perfecting their mojo. Nightdive Studios has done justice to both games, smoothing the path for modern players without sanding off the weird, sharp edges that made them special. They are not perfect, and they never were, but they are unforgettable.
This is a respectful, polished resurrection of two dark fantasy shooters that remain as fascinating in their flaws as they are in their triumphs. Essential for fans of the originals, worthwhile for students of the genre, and an acquired taste for newcomers willing to embrace a little mystery.
This review was made possible via a no strings attached code provided by Bethesda Australia.
