Ah, Hexen. The name itself evokes pleasant memories and a sweet sense of nostalgia. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.
Hexen was an early 3-d First Person Shooter, following closely on the heels of such classics as Doom and the original Quake. Like those games, you were cast as an incredibly tough individual, taking on hordes upon hordes of monstrous, hellish creatures all by your lonesome, with a physique able to take the punishment as well as dish it out. No head shots here, ladies and gentlemen, you could just tank the assigned damage any given weapon or creature did, and keep on trucking.
What separated Hexen from the rest of the crew, however, was its assimilation of a very few and basic RPG elements into its gameplay, far before more popular and high-profile hybrids such as Deus Ex came onto the scene. You could pick one of three character "classes," from a hulking close range fighter to a much more fragile mage, and a bit of a hybrid in between. This kind of choice was new to the genre, and would not be expanded upon until many years later.
Anyway, back to the game itself. You choose your hero, and are immediately dumped into the midst of a demonically overrun temple-like place and set loose to destroy EVERY DEMON YOU SEE. Can't get much simpler than that. As you go along, it has some few Doom-like
puzzles, but they seldom go beyond the age old "find-the-blue-key/switch-to-open-the-blue-door" kinds of "puzzles" that plague survival horror games to this day. But honestly, who cares about that? If you're playing Hexen, you care about one thing and one thing only: methodically and brutally exterminating your enemies. For this, you have a range of weapons. What is interesting is that the weapons you find are different depending on which character class you chose at the beginning of the game. The Warrior-type finds basically only steadily more powerful melee weapons until you have a Magically Glowing Battleaxe of Killing Stuff. The Mage-type, on the other hand, finds new spells to add to his arsenal, ranging from simple magical blasts from his staff to burning your enemies to cinders with a wave of your hand. The variety was fun for its day, and it made playing the game very different for each of the three choose-able characters, raising the game's replay value substantially.
If you're looking for a dash of the old Doom-esque style with more of a twist, check out Hexen. It's classically fun in its mindless brutality, without resorting to unnecessaries like "plot" or "character development." Don't get me wrong, I love those things in games as well, like in my RPGs, but Hexen doesn't need it. All you need is you and your sword (or bow or magic staff), and a whole lot of monsters to kill. And Hexen provides just that.
