Like the Heretic expansion, this one is just more Hexen but harder. There aren't any new mechanics and most of the execution is strictly worse than the base game.
Deathkings has some interesting level design and they persist with the hub structure here from Hexen. These levels feel a bit more gamey, though, with less discovery and mystery around how to complete them (for better and worse). This game also uses verticality in a novel way for the series thus far and even has some rudimentary navigation puzzles that feel a bit more cerebral.
Unfortunately, any interesting things the levels are doing is brought down by the encounter design. Almost every room in the game contains a horde of monsters you just chew through. Anything interesting about the weapon and enemy interactions is thrown away in favor of quantity and the game really suffers for it. On top of that, the already pointless and annoying respawning ettins have been replaced with respawning slaughtaurs (I think? the shield knight guys) which are just annoying to deal with, especially in these quantities.
Hexen is such a good exploration of a different take on Doom level design while trying some new and interesting weapons and enemies and this expansion just doesn't succeed in the same way for me. Encounters are tedious and nothing new is really introduced to make this worth playing.
Deathkings has some interesting level design and they persist with the hub structure here from Hexen. These levels feel a bit more gamey, though, with less discovery and mystery around how to complete them (for better and worse). This game also uses verticality in a novel way for the series thus far and even has some rudimentary navigation puzzles that feel a bit more cerebral.
Unfortunately, any interesting things the levels are doing is brought down by the encounter design. Almost every room in the game contains a horde of monsters you just chew through. Anything interesting about the weapon and enemy interactions is thrown away in favor of quantity and the game really suffers for it. On top of that, the already pointless and annoying respawning ettins have been replaced with respawning slaughtaurs (I think? the shield knight guys) which are just annoying to deal with, especially in these quantities.
Hexen is such a good exploration of a different take on Doom level design while trying some new and interesting weapons and enemies and this expansion just doesn't succeed in the same way for me. Encounters are tedious and nothing new is really introduced to make this worth playing.