History Videogame / Hexen

* ArtifactTitle: {{Defied}} in the game's full title. ''Hexen: Beyond Heretic'' indicates that the game ties into the ''Heretic'' lore, but follows a different set of protagonists pursuing another Serpent Rider, Korax rather than the journey of Corvus in the ''Heretic'' series.

* ArtifactTitle: {{Lampshaded}} in the game's full title. ''Hexen: Beyond Heretic'' indicates that the game ties into the ''Heretic'' lore, but follows a different set of protagonists pursuing another Serpent Rider, Korax rather than the journey of Corvus.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: The game has an item called "flechettes" which are exploding potions (the exact effect depends on what class you are). A flechette is acutally a sharp dart.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to ''Videogame/{{Heretic}}'', ''Hexen'' is this in pretty much every aspect, from graphics, atmosphere, the story, soundtrack, you name it. Plus ''Heretic'' was already a pretty grim game, it was just offset by more action-oriented music while ''Hexen's'' soundtrack is more subdued and sinister.

* NonIndicativeName: Of the three Serpent Riders, D'sparil is the only one who actually rides a serpent.

** The Dark Servant [[SummonMagic summons a Maulotaur (A boss in Heretic)]] to fight for you, but there are ''only two'' in the baseline game. Can serve as a handy diversion fighting the Heresiarch, but not much else.

* OurWyvernsAreDifferent: The Death Wyvern, which appears as the {{Boss|Battle}} of the second hub, bombarding you with streams of explosive fireballs. [[AllThereInTheManual It's also undead]], meaning it doubles as a {{Dracolich}}.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The [[ThatOneBoss Heresiarch]] in the first game has an active noise that sounds very like he's saying "Up yours!"

Like the first ''Heretic'', the two [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2360/HeXen_Beyond_Heretic/ Hexen]] [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/9060/HeXen_II/ games]] are on Steam, along with ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2370/HeXen_Deathkings_of_the_Dark_Citadel/ Deathkings of the Dark Citadel]]''. ''Portal of Praevus'' hasn't been rereleased digitally as of yet.

** The effect of Flechettes are like regular hand grenades with proximity detonation. They act like a throw-able version of the Hammer of Retribution's rocket-hammers, and can be lobbed around corners to hit pursuing monsters. Flechettes are also very common so they're easy to use as medium-close-range alternative to the Hammer.

** Centaurs and Slaughtaurs can also reflect non-HitScan projectiles with their shields after they flinch from an attack, and are invulnerable to absolutely everything aside from poison clouds of mushrooms or the Cleric's Flechettes.

** The best example is the Wraithverge, the Cleric's ultimate weapon: it is the most costly weapon to fire [[note]]requiring 18 of green & blue mana[[/note]] but it's even easier to use than the ''Doom'' {{BFG}}: you do not even have to be facing the enemies you want to take out. Four separate screaming wraiths fly around and each will chase after {{Mooks}} in the vicinity causing them severe damage or death until they dissipate. The ghosts can less effectively injure the final boss but there's plenty of mana in Korax's lair.

* AmmoUsingMeleeWeapon: Timon's Axe is solely a melee weapon, but is powered by Blue Mana which causes lightning to flash around it. It can still be used if you don't have any left, but for less damage. (Averted, however, for two other weapons which look like melee weapons: the Hammer of Contrition, despite being a warhammer, has both melee and ranged attacks and only uses mana for the latter, while the Quietus, to all appearances a sword, isn't a melee weapon at all.)

** In the original Hexen, The Dark Servant allows you to summon a [[VideoGame/Heretic Maulotaur]] boss allied with you who will aggressively fight enemies for you. It sounds too good to be true, but their value is limited as a {{BFG}} caliber weapon will kill enemies much faster and ammo is usually not an issue either. You are also not FriendlyFireproof so don't accidentally trip on their "ground fire" attack or you'll be in a world or hurt.

** {{Averted}} in ''Hexen II'' with the Raven Staff, the Wraithverge's SpiritualSuccessor. You now require a Tome of Power to access the classic Wraithverge's destructive mode, and ammo is much more scarce than before so you can't spam {{BFG}} attack like before.

** The Warrior is the fastest of the three characters in ''Hexen''. He kind of has to be, though, since he's going to be doing most of his fighting in close quarters.

** The effect of Flechettes are like regular hand grenades with proximity detonation. They act like a throw-able version of the Hammer of Retribution's rocket-hammers, and can be lobbed around corners to hit pursuing monsters. Flechettes are also very common so they're easy to use as close-range alternative to the Hammer.

** In the sequel Hexen II, the Summon Stone summons a more mundane Imp to fight for you. They are mostly useful as a distraction. (See SummonMagic below.)

* OverlyLongGag: In the "Dungeon" level of the first game, there is an odd puzzle were you have to push a switch multiple times. Each time you do it spawns a [[DemonicSpiders slaughtaur]], you have to push it a total of ''seven'' times to open the next area (each time yielding another slaughtaur, although you can tell when you're finally done as the button will stay activated). Most people's reaction will probably be "how many more times do I have to push this damn button?".

** BiggerBad: Eidolon is this in ''Hexen'' and ''Heretic'', being the only person D'Sparil and Korax answer to.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to ''Videogame/{{Heretic}}'', ''Hexen'' is this in pretty much every aspect, from graphics, atmosphere, the story, soundtrack, you name it.

* DescendingCeiling: Hexen's improves on the version originally found in Doom. They no longer trap the player, and the ACS system allows scripting them to whatever is desired - adjusting speed and damage as desired. However, they usually appear as a surprise trap with no warning.

%%(ZCE)* DescendingCeiling

* DoomedPredecessor: The start of each hub contains a message from a person named Tyranith, who attempts to, like you, kill Eidolon and his generals. The last hub starts with a message with Tyranith explaining the AlreadyUndoneForYou and saying they probably won't survive for long. [[spoiler:A few rooms later, you stumble across Tyranith's corpse.]]

* ChessMotif: ''Hexen'' seems rather fond of these. Korax mentions "sweeping you off the board" at one point (which is also the player's death message if they're killed by him), and the player getting the Chaos Orb is described as being like a pawn getting promoted to a queen. The last shot of the game is of a chess board with pieces for the player(s) and Korax, and Eidolon's hand pulling the Korax piece off the board.

* StealthPun: Overlapping with VisualPun: The dark bishops in the first game usually just float slowly, but can "slide" really fast in a diagonal motion [[spoiler: just the the bishop Chess piece.]]