PC Longplay [092] Heretic Shadow of the Serpent Riders - Episode 1

http:/www.longplays.org
Played By: JonL
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
Raven Software 1994, 1996
Source port used : ZDoom v2.4.1
** The Story
The world of Parthoris was populated by many people who divided themselves into seven great nations, as well as the mystic Sidhe elves. It was these elves who kept the Tomes of Power and the sacred candle flames which eternally burned to represent the armies of the world.
The Sidhe believed in a prophecy of Armageddon, and their prophecy ultimately proved itself true when from the east came the three terrible Serpent Riders cloaked in black. They were great sorcerers, and they demonstrated their power by quelling the wars of the eastern provinces. Soon the men of the seven nations turned to their worship and built a great temple in their honor. Upon the temple was the Sign, a crossed trident, and the worshippers came to call themselves the Order of the Sign. The deeper into reverence of the Riders' dark ways they fell, the more they were sapped of their free will and spirit. Once all of the seven realms were theirs, the two eldest Riders departed, leaving D'Sparil alone to prepare the world for destruction.
Recognizing the fulfillment of prophecy, the Sidhe refused to follow in the worship of D'Sparil and thus they were set apart from the other people of the world. Once sacred guardians, they were now heretics, hunted and hated everywhere they went. D'Sparil's disciples turned the minds of the seven kings toward conquest of the Sidhe realm, and when the Seven Armies marched upon them, the Sidhe Elders extinguished the sacred flames, destroying them all.
D'Sparil was enraged and in the chamber of the Elders he stirred up a storm of white-hot flame, killing them all. The earth burst open beneath their charred bodies and from within poured legions of the undead as well as murderous beasts from worlds beyond. This new army overwhelmed the Sidhe and slaughtered them in untold numbers. In only one day, their civilization was destroyed and their survivors were scattered far and wide. The darkling creatures had carried off the Tomes of Power and the other artifacts of the Sidhe as spoils of war. Left defenseless, it was surely only a matter of time before all Sidhe perished under the Order of the Triad's unyielding fury.
Most of the few remaining Sidhe hid themselves away, but Corvus was determined to have revenge. Heading east into the wilderness he came upon the City of the Damned, where the very air reeked with rot and decay and the only sounds were the screams of foul creatures seeking his blood. Armed only with his staff and Elven Wand, he had little hope to survive. So began the downfall of D'Sparil and the salvation of Parthoris.
** Notes
The initial release of Heretic in 1994 featured 3 episodes. In 1996, Raven Software released two additional episodes for free, upgrading the game to Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders. This longplay starts with the 3 Heretic only episodes, then switches to Heretic: SOTSR for the 2 additional episodes.
The ZDoom game engine is slightly different from the vanilla Heretic engine, but the result is reasonably faithful to the original game. Originally, the player could look up or down using the keyboard only, but I used togglable mouselook instead.
There are several inventory items that I rarely (or never) use. Timebombs of the Ancients are dangerous to use. If you don't move away fast you'll get splash damage. The Shadowsphere makes you partially invisible, which makes the enemy flak erratic and unpredictable. The Chaos device has the incredibly useful effect of sending you back to your initial position in the level.
Some levels are litterally filled with Quartz Flasks. As you can only carry 16 of those at a time, in several occasions I had to gobble them like candy to be allowed to pickup more and get 100% items.
You'll probably notice that Iron Liches (large floating helmets with horns and an evil grin) simply LOVE to send me flying with their magic tornadoes. During practice sessions, everything would go fine, but each time I decided to record a level, I just KNEW I would run in trouble with Liches. Maybe my bad luck or something. I kept those shameful sequences for you to laugh out loud. :p
** Completion
In the first level of Episode 4, I left a Maulotaur alive because I don't think I had enough ammo to kill it.
Apart from this exception, 100% kills achieved in all levels.
100% secrets achieved in all levels.
At least 90% items achieved in all levels. Heretic levels are choke full of items and getting them all taxes my poor memory. -
Disclaimer: Most videos by World of Longplays use SaveStates!

[@labtob]

game still looks good in 2018. not even lying

[@bullcheese2236]

Yeah on the first room we can already see how good the lightning is.

[@bullcheese2236]

@Shallex yeah, but I downloaded and played the DOS version, don't changes that much.

[@bullcheese2236]

@Shallex true

[@laylover7621]

Nope.

[@gir9261]

My dad gave me the demo of heretic, i was amazed, this game came to be my first game ❤ now i got a tattoo of D'sparil.

[@jikissgamer]

Heretic, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of the Triad = My childhood

[@TheAngelOfDeath01]

Same here.

[@skizum5432]

Me too!! Would like to add Jazz Jackrabbit and Duke Nukem.

[@skizum5432]

And Quake 1&2

[@bryanaragon6679]

For me it was Heretic, Doom 1 and 2 and Hexen:beyond Heretic = My childhood.

[@ratwithamullet]

As a kid I used to watch my dad play this game almost all the time. It brings back memories of my childhood!

[@uzimonkey]

Man, I remember this game. I only had the demo which I bought at Walmart (yes, there was a brief time you could buy demos for games on disk for cheap) and I didn't know how to set up the sound in DOS, so I had to make the sounds myself. I played the shit out of this thought, I didn't have any other shooters and I was real into fantasy so this was just awesome.

[@gir9261]

I started with a demo too! It came in a computer's magazine, it became my childhood.

[@Gauntlets]

IMO, I think da Heretic series deserves a remake 4 dis generation's gamers!

[@stphnmrk1]

Yes please.

[@fishyc43sar]

Yeah, really

[@zemsta]

gloves of the necromancer, my favorite weapon. And i love that evil laugh whenever you pick up a new toy, awesome game.

[@denissondani4712]

I remember when i tried to use "IDDQD" (doom's god mode) and died...then IDKFA (doom's all weapons) and lost everything but a stick.... xD

[@marcelos9909]

"Trying to cheat uh? Now you die!"

[@denissondani4712]

@Felipe sad but true...think of a disappointment for a kid...

[@daveygravey4335]

I did the same lol,I forgot all about that

[@guaiaco23]

How can I play this game in an ipad?

[@eljaminlatour6633]

Maybe their gods cursed them for becoming heretics, I guess.

[@SaintPatrick33]

Heretic, Duke Nukem 3D and Rise of the Triad. Played the crap out of these games.

[@SiliconBong]

God I mis these games.

[@Galimah]

you forgot the best one! Hexen: Beyond Heretic

[@Rereldfke]

Hexen II, Blood, Star Wars: Dark Forces

[@DarkWhiteCrow]

I love that crossbow :)

[@vampireleniore]

Me too. My favorite weapon.

[@OMP25]

What a great game. So many good and old memories

[@StrawHatErwin]

Good old days. back when life was just simple.

[@freshwhisper1343]

I used to love this game. Man, the memories it brings back... Can't believe it's been 20 years since then.

[@BTTB]

This. The three FPS I played religiously as a child. High five man.

[@Rakiarmas]

Damn this looks like a neat game. Great art & graphics, cool theme, weapons & monsters, great atmosphere & well done levels. Oh boy I would like to play this game. Thanks for playing this, JonL. I'm going to enjoy this & rest of the Heretic videos in this channel.

[@danvossler4300]

Seeing this game after 20 years is just insane! I put in some heavy shifts in grade 12 no sound on a relic running on ‘95 Blasting to Marilyn Manson,Korn and Buckcherry right around the time of columbine.What a era trip this is...

[@FeelingShred]

the first time I saw that maze in the darkness at 7:20 is one of these moments in gaming I can never forget, still looks amazing

[@FeelingShred]

that's why I'm glad this video was recorded with Zdoom instead of gzdoom... it preserves the original colors and darkness of the original game, to have the intact experience in modern systems

[@johnnyzero8853]

A game that is mixed between Elder Scrolls and Doom

[@Goyimknowsitall]

When i was a kid . i had a CD with the first 10 FPS games for PC , i couldn't Save game cause the save file was on the CD , so i've beaten Doom , Heretic ,Rise of the triad with NO SAVE GAME ! and this is how i became the Legendary gamer i am today !

[@badungajunga7749]

Greenson Yusef yeah but how many times did it take you?

[@gabrielohim154]

r/iamverybadass r/gamersriseup

[@thegeniekazam1127]

@@gabrielohim154 I mean not really...

[@PaladinMika]

I'm 24, and I play Heretic every once in a while, I played it first in elementary school when I was 12 maybe. I just realized I never played this game with sound.

[@oholandesvoador9164]

HI! I'm 26 and I loved to play this game when I was 9 y.o.! Do ya know where do I find this game for download and if is it possible to play this on windows 7? If it isn't how can I play it nowadays? Tks

[@PaladinMika]

Google "Heretic .wad" and you'll need GZdoom to run it.

[@npc_blob1609]

If you find heretic.wad on Google and use it, you're illegally pirating the game.

[@oholandesvoador9164]

And who will sell it nowadays? What the fuck will happen? The Fbi will come beat at my door in Brazil to stop me playing a pirate game from 20 y ago? Maybe the maker of this game has already dead.

[@npc_blob1609]

Have you ever heard of EBay? If you want to play it legally, you could just use STEAM. And no, the maker of a 1994 game isn't dead. It's a freakin' company.

[@nandvunltdentmt]

The game before was even more frightening than the present.

[@hofas2007]

HeXen and Heretic made my childhood :)

[@SergeantCabrano]

This game was, and is amazing

[@PappaMustafa]

The good ol days.

[@howardelfman4727]

Taking me back to the 'Shareware' days here. Wow. Only the 30+ age crew will understand.

[@_vally_2818]

MANNNNNYYYYY MEMORIES WITH THIS GAME

[@aldar98]

I actually discovered Heretic only after playing Hexen xD I still remember, it was a demo but there were some sort of community packs playable through the demo and which to an extent allowed me to play nearly the first whole levels that were locked originally from the main room of the 2nd level. Go figure :P "flawed" demo sure made me one happy nerd youngling :)

[@ant9350]

I used to watch my dad play this game when I was like 4 yo 💓 love this game

[@bloodrunsclear]

This game ate my time back in the day XD

[@NicktheGuitarguy]

Used to play this game sooo much, this makes ma all nostalgic :D

[@DawnHibiki]

I used to play Heretic back in the day. It's one of my favorite first person shooters of all time, along with Doom. :)

[@andrewhaxley9467]

DawnHibiki agreed, doom and heretic are both amazing old school fpses along with hexen 1 and hexen 2 to this day imao,

[@emi98a]

Hexen is not that good. Heretic, with Wolfenstein 3d,Doom(I II Final Doom and Doom 64) and the first Quake are awesome for me.

[@japandave3871]

I haven’t seen this in 23 years. It’s been too long. lol

[@Book7BrokeMyBrain]

Goddamn it! Three minutes in, and I screamed. Almost as bad as playing it.

[@Hegel88211]

wow I played this game when I was 10 or 13 years old

[@adriannitrovlb4206]

I when i was 9 years old

[@ehekserog7126]

Who play doom. Heretic ur the living legend

[@FeelingShred]

I'm so glad Zdoom was used for this, instead of gzdoom... This is how the original game looked, bright, colorful and you can see the details on the distance, nothing is blurred or pale like in gzdoom. Also the parts where there are darkness are really dark, like in map2 here: 7:20

[@FeelingShred]

the original doom/heretic engine had so many subtle features, in order to get the same result in modern computers you have to use the Software Renderer (which is the one Zdoom and Prboom uses... unfortunately Prboom doesn't have Heretic support)

[@FeelingShred]

in that section there 7:20 you can see that when he walks into dark rooms the game engine automatically adjusts your visibility range to be diminished... that happens automatically according to the amount of light in a room

[@FeelingShred]

when you play these games in gzdoom (which uses openGL, uses GPU for graphics) these features of the original engine are removed, which greatly affects the Atmosphere the original games were known for

[@FeelingShred]

for example look what happens at 7:33 he is inside of a dark room, but when he gets closer to walls they become visible to him, in order to not get lost (that was a gameplay feature of the original games) But also notice how the dark wall at the distance still remains out of sight, while the brighter room to the right is fully visible... that is a feature of the original game engine that fortunately Zdoom still keeps relatively intact (not gzdoom)

[@FeelingShred]

These subtle elegant details are what made Doom/Heretic/Hexen games great back in the day and why they stand the test of time so much.

[@domenicosavio8259]

Beautiful game!!

[@earlgrey2130]

YES! YES! FUCK YES! Haha.. i remember when my mom caught me playing rise of the triads and got so angry she made me return the game in my gamestore and then she told the guy working there what a monster he was for selling this game to me (i was 9) haha.. omg. Such amazing times :D

[@coxandrewj]

I played this game a TON as a kid. Way more than was good for me. I remember distinctly dreaming about the monster that I called “floating tornado skulls”. When I was 4 years old my dad hosted a LAN party of this game. My brother (who was 7 at the time) and I smoked all my dad’s coworkers and friends despite us being so young haha. Such a great game

[@suntroman3287]

great memories..thanks!

[@TheRealGunfish]

my favorite FPS ever.

[@gabrielmarchiori5503]

TheRealGunfish tfc??

[@vladimirbes9382]

heretic is a doom's medieval mod))

[@GmanMilli]

+Vladimir Bes Ya, so what if most of the gameplay is the same, it's still nice to have a fresh new theme with new visuals and sounds. The inventory system is a nice addition to the gameplay though.

[@adriannitrovlb4206]

Yies for the creators of Doom AND quake

[@MrTopflight29]

The nostalgia consumes me.

[@CTREP3racer]

Rami: I was just thinking the exact same thing!!! Gotta love the pixels! All 5 of them ;-) LOL

[@FreeMan4096]

most under-rated game ever

[@satheeshrajamanickam5179]

Wow my golden memories

[@정애순-f5y]

Thanks so much

[@Night-Jester]

I

[@JonnnLeee]

Taken from the longplay description : "This longplay starts with the 3 Heretic only episodes, then switches to Heretic: SOTSR for the 2 additional episodes."

[@AlekN89]

i remember this when i was a child.

[@jeffdragonball6050]

First 3D game I've ever played

[@MapleMilk]

Just like DOOM 1993 had "clones" (and games running off the same engine) I wouldn't mind that again for this and the 2016 DOOM

[@solidbossmanx287]

This game and Hexen deserve a newer version like Doom and Wolfenstein. The creatures in these games always scared me.

[@bugs1yb1ins]

Wow, I had a demo of this.

[@jackoneill45]

Just played through this coop with a buddy on the hardest difficulty. Not bad, but it was way too easy. We beat the last 2 episodes in less than 20 minutes, and 3/4ths of the monsters we just ran by, didn't even have to kill. This does have some cool stuff, but Hexen & Hexen 2 are overall a much more challenging, and satisfying experience for coop.

[@SupposedFish]

I love the Dragon claw

[@spearPYN]

Still the best Doom clone in a fantasy setting...

[@dorfschmidt4833]

Heretic was great!

[@savanaviolenta]

My favourite game

[@JackTheRaccBot]

I have it on steam now. The whole collection and I got Final Doom (I played doom since I was about 5 years old).

[@naorohana5513]

Man you are like heretic bruce lee...nice play

[@JonnnLeee]

@Phlebiax yep, 100% secrets ;) Some items missed though. I was so pissed off that I had missed that urn in E5M9

[@dorgodorato]

Doom guy had a weird new universe he's going through. Bet he misses his chaingun!

[@0110100536]

Since it was not possible to aim, this game was mostly about improving the player' sense of direction.

[@vgmaster9]

Would love to see Raven make an FPS game similar to Heretic and Hexen.

[@medved_rus]

шикарная игрушка была

[@pumperalaka]

I just love how the maps from old FPS make absolutely no sense.

[@npc_blob1609]

Well, in City of the Damned, they do, and in the later two episodes they're in ethereal worlds. Episode 2 is set in Hell, and I think it makes perfect sense. Episode 3 is set in D'sparil's underwater fortress, which is designed to be difficult. Episodes 4 and 5 (for Shadow of the Serpent Riders), though? Now they make NO sense.

[@rikudoumadara6868]

my chillhood heretic doom2 hexen

[@signofzeta]

@ScrapChild1979 To add, skull with horns = plasma gun Golden winged rod = rocket launcher

[@supermadmac]

MY ANOTHER FAVORITE DOOM!!!

[@protectorofillinois3]

I got a confession - when I played this game, I cheated lol. I turned on God mode to be immune to the enemies' attacks, especially the Iron Lich's attacks.

[@Galimah]

Heretic is good, but Hexen Blows it out of the water

[@sarpkacmaz5910]

Heretic is better than Hexen.

[@VinoIxRxMxA-cq2iy]

5:45 aaand this is the why we are here

[@QwertyTSecond]

The 3d levels and the 2d sprites give a very strange sense of depth perception.

[@jaytan4902]

Nostalgic

[@tiiito1988]

When Raven Software will make another Heretic/Hexen game? I played Hexen 1-2 to death during my childhood

[@Rakiarmas]

Ince to see full playthrough of Heretic. Most videos I found about this game only show first level.

[@bagemono7248]

19:20 tutaj grającemu potrzebny jest egzorcysta

[@pawmazurek]

:D

[@loddicc]

Back when games were fun.

[@DamascusTest]

1:30:04 is it me or does the last level's music sounds like Sign of Evil, the Doom E1M8 music ?

[@HybOj]

hi, Im affraid that will never happen, nowadays players cant play those games without gameplay altering, they will also miss the cutscenes, help lines telling em to shoot the switch etc, nonstop regeneration etc.,

[@HybOj]

I bow down before those games, real FPS games!! Thanks God for modders support on those classics, I just finnished modded Quake 1 and theres nothing better for me, maybe AvP 1+2 was about the same instensity of gameplay, but Quake is level above. I tell u, get that game, get Quake epsylon mod, HD textures and play it again, u will shit bricks from start to end, level of gameplay is far far beyond anything

[@FeelingShred]

wait until you see a mod for Quake called "Arcane Dimensions"... it has dozens of new maps, fairly huge in size, some maps will have something crazy like 800 enemies on them... all running fine using Quakespasm

[@FeelingShred]

the Quake expansion packs were fairly impressive in terms of level design too, my favorite is "Scourge of Armagon", one of the official expansions available on retail stores and box

[@isaacallen8200]

Please let this and hexen be on Nintendo switch one day!

[@midtiergaming5090]

Rise of the triads

[@painmorepain5986]

Do I remember it right? There're gigantic flying hostile heads in this game, right?

[@joshua96022]

That sounds more like magic carpet, which was another great game

[@devinsears1886]

id , will you reboot this game and give it glory kills, celestial weapons like swords and spears, etc.? Oh and give the main character the coolest outfit; a powerful suit of armor.

[@anelkal3636]

Heretic and Hexen should be developed or have a sequel

[@pho3nix-]

Anyone remember an FPS which was similar to this in tone, but you used your hand to shoot magic missiles and such at enemies?

[@pho3nix-]

Finlay Norris Yeah they made a ton of FPS games with this same engine, just can't remember the name of it

[@VinTheFox]

Rebphoenix That sounds like Curse of the Catacombs!

[@perryhayes1624]

+Rebphoenix You are talking about "Rise of the Triad" ..."The God" mode

[@perrofoca7486]

hexen

[@AlphaZeroX96]

Catacomb 3D.

[@naemarian2661]

e foarte smecher

[@KrzysiuNet]

Great game! Too bad it misses evil overtone of Hocus Pocus.

[@crazymonkey6643]

I really want to play Heretic again but I really don't know where to get it from / if it would work on windows 8. Can anyone help me? Pls?

[@paulanderson79]

You can run a virtual machine in VMware or use DOSBOX.

[@crazymonkey6643]

paulanderson79 Ok, I'm going to try that. Thanks :)

[@paulanderson79]

I can send you the shareware version of Heretic..

[@AlphaZeroX96]

Actually you can easily play it without download if you go on a flash games site.

[@crazymonkey6643]

I already downloaded it from somewhere (don't remember where) and I'm using a DOSBox to play it :D. Thanks for your advice tho :).

[@DaveStar573]

so how can I get the rest of the game? please someone can tell me i coudnt get it on amazon

[@wrabit79]

why this game and doom can't be played on vista..??? anybody???

[@a_random_hollow]

Fuck remakes, graphics don't need to be like CoD

[@ViacomCigarBuddy]

I wish they would make an up-to-date version of this game. They made Doom3, why can't they make a brand new Heretic game?

[@mannansaleem1876]

Its my childhood game, can i have a link please?!

[@fllor_dellotus5918]

Sure. It's a better game!

[@BAdkins08]

Do you have Hexen II

[@UildesJr]

Muito bom!

[@maikorodrigues2989]

Producer ... John Romero ;)

[@HeathenDance]

What a shame this wasn't released for the Playstation or Nintendo 64. With the same dark ambient changes they applied to the Doom games for those systems. Hexen was always boring to me. But this one is fun.

[@toshchakfox]

Heretic? Unfortunately i missed it then. Wait, is that the Doom engine?) Its like today everything is on Unreal Engine 3 xD