History VideoGame / Heretic

* StoneWall: On difficulties less than HarderThanHard, the Maulotaur is surprisingly low on aggression, but has 3,000 HitPoints, just short of both D'Sparil and his Chaos Serpent. Play on HarderThanHard, and Maulotaurs (like all monsters) become LightningBruisers thanks to their "Nightmare" aggression and a BullCharge.

** The Ethereal Crossbow is gain almost immediately upon starting an episode, and acts as Heretic's [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Shotgun / Super Shotgun]]. With plentiful ammo and Tomes of Power being quite common, this weapon can be your close-range workhorse for the entire game. The weapon is also very ammo efficient, making hard to run out.

** The Elven Wand that you start with has its own exclusive ammo (unlike Doom's pistol / chaingun), so it can be use to finish off weakened enemies in order to save ammo for your more powerful weapons. Power it up with a [[QuadDamage Tome Of Power]], and it can be used like an automatic shotgun, with best results at close range thanks to all of the shots landing and causing a CycleOfHurting for most monsters. Because it is a magical weapons, the wand is 100% effective against ghosts.

** The Ethereal Crossbow is gain almost immediately upon starting an episode, and acts as Heretic's [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Shotgun / Super Shotgun]]. With plentiful ammo and Tomes of Power being quite common, this weapon can be your close-range workhorse for the entire game. Depending on who you ask, it may in fact be SimpleYetAwesome.

** The Ethereal Crossbow is gain almost immediately upon starting an episode, and acts as Heretic's [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Shotgun / Super Shotgun]]. With plentiful ammo and Tomes of Power being quite common, this weapon can be your close-range workhorse for the entire game.

* NoFairCheating: More savvy players might be tempted to try ''Doom'' cheats, since this game runs on the same engine. ...Only to discover they usually do the opposite of what you expected (e.g. Using the GodMode cheat instantly kills you).

* DevelopmentGag: As [[http://pixelships.com/adg/ep0158.html this video]] points out (~9:30), the Firemace functions similar to how the original ''Doom'' BFG was ''supposed'' to work, but couldn't due to the limitations of PC hardware at the time.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: In ''Doom'', the Rocket Launcher is placed in slot 5 while the Plasma Rifle is placed in slot 6. However, ''Heretic'' places the Phoenix Rod (its equivalent to the Rocket Launcher) in slot 6, while the Hellstaff (its equivalent to the Plasma Rifle) is placed in slot 5. Just try and ''not'' get mixed up after playing ''Doom'', especially since the Phoenix Rod can still cause SplashDamage to yourself.

* BFG: None present, although as [[http://pixelships.com/adg/ep0158.html this video]] points out (~9:30), the Firemace functions similar to [[DevelopmentGag how the original ''Doom'' BFG was supposed to work]].

* BalefulPolymorph: The Morph Ovum, Porkelator and Seal of the Ovinomancer items in the first three games of the series.
** In the multiplayer for Heretic II, the Morph Ovum can be used on players. Using the Tome of Power after you've been turned into a chicken will turn you into a ''giant chicken''. This doesn't work in Heretic I.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: An unusual example in the keys. The yellow key is the first you collect, followed by the green, and the blue one afterwards to get to the end of the level, ''in all levels '''without a single exception'''''.

* ColorCodedMultiplayer: The players are red, yellow, green, and blue.

** In Heretic II, a powerup finally allows leaving a tornado countermeasure, also in Hexen II the Crusader's third weapon can create tornadoes with the aid of the Tome of Power.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Turns out that when you're using a series of seven [[AmplifierArtifact Amplifier Artifacts]] to turn your entire race into [[PhysicalGod physical gods]], you really want to use the original item, not a duplicate. Morcalavin, the [[spoiler:FinalBoss]] of ''Heretic II'', finds this out the hard way.

* ExplodingBarrels: Takes the form of strange plant pods. For even more fun, some clusters grow back.

** Staff = Weak melee attack / [[{{Doom}} Berserker Punch]]

* DyingCurse: D'Sparil utters one upon his death at the end of the original ''Heretic''. It turns out to be the reason for the following two episodes in ''Shadow of the Serpent Riders,'' though we don't learn about it until ''Heretic II''.

* HumanoidAbomination: D'Sparil.

* LastOfHisKind: Corvus

* NonIndicativeName: [=E4M6=] is "[[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/E4M6:_Halls_of_the_Apostate_%28Heretic%29 Halls of the Apostate]]" -- rather strange, given that ''you'' (the player) are the Heretic and hence the Apostate, and any halls you might have are millions of miles away on another planet.
* NoOntologicalInertia: After D'Sparil's death his entire army kicks the bucket... except for those remaining in his home plane, hence the ExpansionPack.

* OneManArmy: The player, surely.
* PowerupLetdown: Like ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', the Shadowsphere causes enemies to fire shots wildly. While useful if you stand still, it actually makes projectiles harder to dodge, especially in large groups.
** The Shadowsphere is still very useful when dealing with groups of Undead Warriors, because the magical axes they throw (including the bloody ones that pack a real wallop) fly right through you as long as the sphere is active. The Shadowsphere makes matter, non-magical weapons fly through the ethereal player, therefore granting immunity to regular weapons.

* QuadDamage: Tome of Power.
** As an added bonus, many of the weapons [[SecondaryFire gain other effects besides a simple increase in damage.]] As mentioned below, the Gauntlets of the Necromancer gain the ability to drain health.
** Actually it's more the other way around - Heretic preceded Quake, and also had John Romero as gameplay producer, hence the Quad Damage is more of a plain Tome of Power with no secondary fire effects.
* {{Retcon}}: The protagonist of Heretic was unnamed until Heretic II, which also established that there were a total of seven Tomes of Power in existence (despite being able to carry up to sixteen in the first game) and that Corvus really had only one of them.
** Could be justified by saying that the Tome items Corvus was collecting were really just additional Phlebotinum for the Tome he had on him.
*** Heretic II explains this by stating there were fake tomes that had power, but weren't the real thing. Morcalavin used one in his original ascension ritual to replace the one in Corvus' possession and it corrupted the effect and drove him crazy instead.
*** Doesn't explain how Tomes of Power appeared thousands of years later on a different planet in Hexen II though.
*** It's a different world, different Tomes, why should there be any explanation?
* {{Shareware}}

* HealingPotion: Crystal vials, quartz flasks, mystic urns.

** Being turned into a chicken counts. You have next to no durability, but if you can manage to get close enough to an enemy to peck them, you can one-hit kill them. There is a special humiliating message for getting killed this way in multiplayer. Also, chickens are small, can run very fast, and can glide, which lets you jump through windows you normally couldn't to run away.
** Getting turned into a chicken also carries a one-in-ten chance of getting turned into a gigantic, uber-powerful demonic chicken.

** In the multiplayer for Heretic II, the Morph Ovum can be used on players. Using the Tome of Power after you've been turned into a chicken will turn you into a ''giant chicken''.
** However, in Heretic I, using Tome of Power while turned into a chicken just turned you back to normal.

* DegradedBoss: Iron Liches and Maulotaurs.
* DescendingCeiling

* DyingCurse: D'Sparil utters one upon his death at the end of the original ''Heretic'', though we don't learn what it actually did until ''Heretic II''.

* FlunkyBoss: One of the main things that distinguishes D'Sparil from Korax and Eidolon is that he constantly teleports away while summoning mooks to help him, instead of just straight up trying to tank you like the later Serpent Riders do.
** Not quite: Korax also teleports. D'Sparil only starts summoning disciples after losing some health.

* GuideDangIt: [=E3M2=] - The Cesspool. Figuring out how to lower the bars in front of the blue door to the exit room. [[LetsPlay LP'er]] WickyDoo had to run around the level a couple times after clearing everything else out, speeding up the video on that point.
** However, it makes sense for the switch to be somewhere close to the exit, or at least somewhere in the area that was only accessible through the green doors, and not randomly placed in the level as WickyDoo seems to have thought in his mad search.