History VideoGame / Heretic

* EverythingsBetterWithChickens: The Morph Ovum, which looks like an egg, turns enemies into helpless chickens.

The weapons seem to be medieval fantasy-themed edits of ''Doom'''s arsenal: An Elven Wand for the pistol, the Ethereal Crossbow for the shotgun, the Dragon Claw for the chaingun, the Phoenix Rod for the rocket launcher, the Hellstaff for the plasma rifle, and lightning-shooting Gauntlets of the Necromancer for the chainsaw. There is no equivalent to the BFG, and the player is instead offered the rapid-firing Firemace (a [[NonIndicativeName misnomer]], as the weapon actually fires bouncing metal spheres).
** Actually the Firemace becomes the BFG once it's modified by the Tome of Power, as it starts shooting huge cannonballs which rip an enemy (or unarmoured player) apart with one hit. And it's not a misnomer, it's a pun - the manual states the Firemace is a cross between magic and mechanics, an animated mace cannon of sorts (allusion to Gatling guns?).

* StandardFPSGuns: Even if the weapons are shown as magical staffs, and artifacts, many of them still seem familiar if one has played VideoGame/{{Doom}}. (Shown in terms of WITH / WITHOUT "[[QuadDamage tome of power]]")

** Actually the Firemace becomes the BFG once it's modified by the Tome of Power, as it starts shooting huge cannonballs which rip an enemy (or unarmoured player) with one hit.

One notable addition was the inventory system, which allowed the player to carry items to be used later at will. Among these are the health-pack Quartz Flask and Mystic Urn; hourglass-shaped Time Bomb of the Ancients; a simple Torch; the Tome of Power, which gives your weapons new and more powerful attacks for a limited time; and an egg that turns any enemy it hits into a chicken.

* ''Heretic II'' (1998) - Unlike the previous games, uses a third-person view. The protagonist from the first game, Corvus, must stop a mysterious plague that has decimated his homeland.

* BalefulPolymorph: The Morph Ovum, Porkulator and Seal of the Ovinomancer items in the first three games of the series.

* DualBoss: On the easier skill, the Iron Liches and Maulotaurs are the bosses of the first two episodes. If you inrease the difficulty, they appear in a pair or triplet.

** 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's seems to have thought in his mad search.

* MeaningfulName: The Latin name for the common raven is ''corvus corax''.

** 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.

** 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.

The weapons seem to be medieval fantasy-themed replicas of ''Doom'''s arsenal: An Elven Wand for the pistol, the Ethereal Crossbow for the shotgun, the Dragon Claw for the chaingun, the Phoenix Rod for the rocket launcher, the Hellstaff for the plasma rifle, and lightning-shooting Gauntlets of the Necromancer for the chainsaw. There is no equivalent to the BFG, and the player is instead offered the rapid-firing Firemace (a [[NonIndicativeName misnomer]], as the weapon actually fires bouncing metal spheres).

Heretic also upgrades Doom's "2.5D" engine to nearly-3D: the game allows you to look up and down - and failing to do so when attacking an enemy above or below your level means your shot will ''miss'', unlike in Doom where all interactions are really done in 2D. A powerup also enables the player to fly for a limited time. It's still not possible to create a room above another room, though, or objects like ledges or bridges that can be passed over ''and'' under.

Heretic also upgrades Doom's "2.5D" engine to nearly-3D: the game allows you to look up and down (and failing to do so when attacking an enemy above or below your level means your shot will ''miss'', unlike in Doom where all interactions are really done in 2D. A powerup also enables the player to fly for a limited time. It's still not possible to create a room above another room, though, or objects like ledges or bridges that can be passed over ''and'' under.

* DifficultySpike: The two episodes added in ''Shadow of the Serpent Riders'' ramp up the difficulty. [=E4M1=] alone has a Maulotaur and a whole posse of Iron Liches, and not a lot of weapons or ammo to go around.

** [=E3M9=], The Aquafier. [[FridgeLogic How the hell can the water stick to the ceiling (read: LITERAL waterfall texture)? How the hell the "inside" section of the level has windows protected only BY BARS?! How can Corvus STILL BREATHE when you go "outside"? Is it SUPPOSED to be an UNDERWATER level, after all?!]]
*** [[AWizardDidIt D'Sparil Did It.]]

** Hell Staff = Energy-projectile Submachine Gun / Area-denial-red-rain

** Dragon's Claw = Energy-projectile Submachine Gun / Magical-projectile-grenade-shrapnel?
** Hell Staff = [[{{Doom}} Plasma Rifle]] / Area-denial-red-rain

* StandardFPSGuns: Even if the weapons are shown as magical staffs, and artifacts, many of them still seem familiar if one has played VideoGame/{{Doom}}. (Shown in terms of "no-tome of power / with-tome of power"

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

** Hell Staff = [[Doom Plasma Rifle]] / Area-denial-red-rain

* StandardFPSGuns: Even if the weapons are shown as magical staffs, and artifacts, many of them still seem familiar if one has played VideoGame/{{Doom}}.

* DifficultySpike: The two episodes added in ''Shadow of the Serpent Riders'' will make you cry for mommy. [=E4M1=] alone has a Maulotaur and a whole posse of Iron Liches, and not a lot of weapons or ammo to go around.

* GoddamnedBats: The gargoyles.
** ''Heretic II'' introduces the harpies which are even worse, since they like to hang back very high in the sky, dodge just about everything you can throw at them. Unless you use the homing meteor swarm on them.
* IAmNotShazam: Some of the old FAQs name the protagonist Heretic, since he didn't have a proper name at that time. Funnily enough, just adding "the" in front of it would have made it appropriate...

Your task as Corvus is to seek out the weakest of the three Serpent Riders, D'Sparil, and destroy him. The other two serpent riders, Korax and Eidolon, would later be destroyed in the game's sequels, ''{{Hexen}}'' and ''Hexen II''.

* ''{{Hexen}}'' (1996) - The player plays as one of three character classes to hunt down the second Serpent Rider, Korax.

* 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.

* VideoGameFlight: The Wings of Wrath lets you fly for a short amount of time. They return in ''{{Hexen}}''.

Raven Software licensed the ''{{Doom}}'' engine from id Software to create ''Heretic'', a medieval-fantasy-themed FPS released in 1994.

The weapons seem to be medieval fantasy-themed replicas of ''Doom'''s arsenal: An Elven Wand for the pistol, the Ethereal Crossbow for the shotgun, the Dragon Claw for the chaingun, the Phoenix Rod for the rocket launcher, the Hellstaff for the plasma rifle, and lightning-shooting Gauntlets of the Necromancer for the chainsaw. There is no equivalent to the BFG, and the player is instead offered the rapid-firing Firemace (a [[NonIndicativeName misnomer]], as the weapon actually fires bouncing metal spheres).

* {{all lowercase letters}}: everywhere, where possible.

* ClassicCheatCode: As a twist, IDDQD and IDKFA, the iconic ''{{Doom}}'' cheat codes, [[NoFairCheating instead (respectively) kill you and rob you of all your weapons except a staff]].

* DualBoss: On the easier skill, the Iron Liches and Maulotaurs are the bosses of the first two episodes. If you inrease the difficulty, they appear in a pair or triplet.
** In the expansion ''Shadow of the Serpent Riders'', the episode's final level has at least 8 of these bosses on the hardest difficulty.

* 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.

* PowerupLetdown: Like ''{{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.

* StandardFPSGuns: Even if the weapons are shown as magical staffs, and artifacts, many of them still seem familiar if one has played {{Doom}}.

* GoddamnedBats: The gargoyles.