martiniii
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 2,112
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Post by martiniii on Jun 4, 2019 18:13:56 GMT
Not very smart to get this for Saturn when the reputedly far superior PC version can be had on Steam for 1/6 the price, but I just love playing games on my Saturn, and the Saturn controller is so well-suited to first-person shooters. So, I bought it, and it arrived today.
Of course, if only I had reviewed the old threads on these forums talking about how Hexen save files are so massive that you can only save to official memory carts, I would have reconsidered that decision. My cartridge slot gives me enough problems without swapping my 4-in-1 Action Replay cart in and out, which means I'm not getting an official memory cart, which means I have to rely on the game's password system, which means I can only save progress at the end of each hub. But what's done is done...
Any enthusiasts of this series on the board? Should I play Heretic first before digging into Hexen?
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Post by xDerekRx on Jun 11, 2019 21:58:55 GMT
I was mildly obsessed with Hexen as a kid but it was because of obsession with early FPS games (Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake) And back then there were only so many in the genre at all.
I would rent this endlessly on N64 in 1998 but the truth was I could never fully embrace it. Always got stuck on levels.
I always wanted the Saturn version when I only had my Saturn. In fact this version is better than the PS1 one. Its sad because the Hexen port runs so much better than the Doom port...
Anyway neat facts about Saturn Hexen is that there is a debug menu where you can unlock Link Cable play (co-op and DM). I tried it probably 10 years ago with 2 tvs, 2 saturns and 2 hexens and it actually works. It crashed once or twice but its pretty cool
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Post by darkman01 on Jun 12, 2019 6:53:08 GMT
I do have Hexen (along with Heretic and Hexen 2) on the PC, admittedly Im not as big a fan of it as some other mid 90s shooters , but its a decent game.
Does make me wish more Saturn games supported the keyboard and mouse (which may seem redundent to some, though obviously at the time not everyone had a PC that could run Hexen , let alone Quake or Duke3d)
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shaddow085
Advanced Saturn Gamer
Joined: January 2018
Posts: 272
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PSN: Wesker85
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Post by shaddow085 on Jun 12, 2019 7:11:03 GMT
I have not played it yet, but I am intersted to play it in the near future. I am quite interested in the early FPS games and want to play as many of them as possible on the Saturn.
I have already ordered Power Slave /Exhumed and Alien Triology. Duke Nukem 3d is also on my to buy list and Hexen of course as well.
I think Quake and Doom are on the Saturn as well, but I think the Saturn Versions of these games are not that good. But I might be wrong with that.
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Post by darkman01 on Jun 12, 2019 11:33:29 GMT
I have not played it yet, but I am intersted to play it in the near future. I am quite interested in the early FPS games and want to play as many of them as possible on the Saturn. I have already ordered Power Slave /Exhumed and Alien Triology. Duke Nukem 3d is also on my to buy list and Hexen of course as well. I think Quake and Doom are on the Saturn as well, but I think the Saturn Versions of these games are not that good. But I might be wrong with that. Doom on the Saturn is rubbish , with a very unstable frame rate. Quake on the other hand is a brilliant port . Fair enough its not GLQuake , but I would say its not really any worse than playing software Quake on a Pentium 133 PC at the time (in 320X240) Of course ,a very high PC in 1997 (ie a Pentium Pro 200 or Pentium II 233) with a 3DFX Voodoo card would make the Saturn version look a bit rubbish.
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Post by xDerekRx on Jun 12, 2019 18:52:59 GMT
I have not played it yet, but I am intersted to play it in the near future. I am quite interested in the early FPS games and want to play as many of them as possible on the Saturn. I have already ordered Power Slave /Exhumed and Alien Triology. Duke Nukem 3d is also on my to buy list and Hexen of course as well. I think Quake and Doom are on the Saturn as well, but I think the Saturn Versions of these games are not that good. But I might be wrong with that. I was a huge early FPS fan back when I only had a Saturn. Thankfully for Lobotomy we got a handful to satisfy me. Alien Trilogy for Saturn was also a great version, and in some ways better. Doom has its well documented development issues which is sad because its one of my all time favorite games. Its almost unplayable. Quake is fantastic though. Id recommend an NTSC version though as it runs better and isn't missing any of the graphical touches. This was the last Saturn game I got back in Xmas of 97 and I still run through it once a year or so. The only other traditional Doom style FPS on the system you didn't mention would be Congo. This game is a guilty pleasure for me. I just love the whole Jungle setting and atmosphere. Its a frustrating game in a lot of ways with controls and cheap enemies. Its also very hard but there always something about it that I like.
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shaddow085
Advanced Saturn Gamer
Joined: January 2018
Posts: 272
Location:
PSN: Wesker85
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Post by shaddow085 on Jun 13, 2019 7:29:27 GMT
Thanks a lot for the replies guys. Yes it is a pity that doom turned out so bad on the Saturn. Would love to Play it there looking for a decent Version of Doom on the consoles for quite some time now. Well in that case I have to stick to the PC Version or get Doom 64. Well to be fair, I think Doom 64 is worth trying out anyway, because it is different from the PC Doom. Quake on the other hand I will try out. It seems to really nice. Just read some articles about it in the UK Sega Saturn Mag and it seems to be really good. So i will order my copy soon. And thanks for the tipp concering Congo xDerekRx I will check it out.
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Post by xDerekRx on Jun 14, 2019 0:35:55 GMT
Thanks a lot for the replies guys. Yes it is a pity that doom turned out so bad on the Saturn. Would love to Play it there looking for a decent Version of Doom on the consoles for quite some time now. Well in that case I have to stick to the PC Version or get Doom 64. Well to be fair, I think Doom 64 is worth trying out anyway, because it is different from the PC Doom. Quake on the other hand I will try out. It seems to really nice. Just read some articles about it in the UK Sega Saturn Mag and it seems to be really good. So i will order my copy soon. And thanks for the tipp concering Congo xDerekRx I will check it out. Doom 64 is completely unique game and honestly one of my favorite games of all time. Doom Special Playstation Edition is a great console port of Doom.
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Post by darkman01 on Jun 14, 2019 7:52:16 GMT
Doom on PS1 is a good version , fair enough its based on the Jaguar levels, but as far as console ports go , its probably the best one at the time (Doom64 as you said is a different game entirely)
Would have been better if the game used the original soundtrack though , the 3DO version for all its flaws did the music correctly.
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Post by The Elite MYT on Jun 14, 2019 10:24:19 GMT
I have Hexen but have never played it. The whole password system is putting me off since I don't know how long it'll take to reach the next hub.
I'm sure I'll play it one day
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martiniii
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 2,112
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Post by martiniii on Jun 16, 2019 2:57:58 GMT
I gave it a whirl as a cleric, and made it through the first level. It's an interesting game so far. Seems like more of a dungeon crawl than a first-person shooter, but that's certainly fine with me. The melee mechanics work well. It took me a little bit to figure out, but the hit-and-run attacking has a surprisingly good rhythm to it. It was a great "Aha!" moment when I discovered that you can and must break the stained glass windows. The intro FMV is superb, but apart from that I'm a little puzzled as to why people say this is a better port than Doom. It's been a while since I've played Doom, but offhand the frame rate and slowdown seem about the same. It occurred to me that people might be more charitable to Hexen because it's a more advanced game, in the same way that few people will admit to Saturn Quake's dodgy frame rate and confusing pixelation, but the Saturn version of Hexen actually looks to be less demanding than the Saturn version of Doom. The maps (so far) are smaller, the level of detail looks about the same, and the enemies only have front-facing sprites. I'm not complaining, mind you; I enjoy Saturn Doom. It's just puzzling. I also keep wondering about the massive size of the save files. It really seems like they could have found a way around this. They could have limited saves to the beginning of levels, or done better compression (the similar Slayer lets you save anywhere without using anywhere near the 3DO's entire memory). Also, contemporary reviews for Saturn Hexen weren't positive by any stretch of the imagination, but I haven't seen even one which warns players about this. The back of the box doesn't say anything about it, either. I can't imagine the attach rate for Saturn memory cartridges was better than 50%, so there must have been a lot of people who forked over $59.99 for the game back in the day only to find they had no way to save.
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Post by xDerekRx on Jun 16, 2019 6:22:06 GMT
Youll have to give Doom another try but it runs at a sluggish frame rate almost all of the time and the gun fires at a faster rate than the game is moving. So overall Saturn Doom just feels awkward.
Hexen has slowdown in parts but for the most part it runs well enough to play.
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martiniii
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 2,112
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Post by martiniii on Jun 16, 2019 14:32:04 GMT
Youll have to give Doom another try but it runs at a sluggish frame rate almost all of the time and the gun fires at a faster rate than the game is moving. So overall Saturn Doom just feels awkward. Hexen has slowdown in parts but for the most part it runs well enough to play. Everything you've said here is true of both Saturn Doom and Saturn Hexen. (Well, except for the fire rate, but having slowdown on your weapon doesn't seem like an advantage.) I've still only played the first couple levels of Hexen, but given how small scale the first level is, I find it hard to believe that the game runs better later on.
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martiniii
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 2,112
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Post by martiniii on Jun 21, 2019 2:52:13 GMT
I had a long play session with the game the other day. Had some good fun. The flechettes are very satisfying to use, at least as the cleric. They remind me of the booby traps in Shadow Warrior, but without the AI being programmed to simply walk around them, so they're actually useful. It adds a good bit of strategy, especially when there aren't any narrow passages close at hand. I found the centaurs and their shields pretty cool, too, at least until I learned that they have a ridiculous amount of health, which compounded with their regularly raising their shields means that unless you have a lot of room to retreat, flechettes are the only way to deal with them. The afrits, on the other hand, started out being frustrating but became increasingly fun to fight as I continued.
The stage designs are inventive, and not overly complicated as I had feared they might be.
When I reached the part in Guardian of Ice where the floor and ceiling shift around, though... Holy moley. Suddenly the game drops to about five frames per second. I figured it must have been a fluke. It was, but not in the way I thought. I died, so I had to reenter that section, and this time it dropped to one frame per second. For a moment I actually thought my Saturn was freezing up. It's getting harder and harder to understand why this port is compared favorably to Saturn Doom.
It was shortly after this that I gave up. Instant deaths caused by the ceiling coming down on your character with no warning whatsoever don't bother me too much, even when I have to start the whole level over afterwards. But when I've been playing the game for the better part of an afternoon, putting a serious strain on both my Saturn and my endurance, and am still nowhere near reaching the first password save point, that sort of thing is too much added delay. For me at least, completing Hexen without being able to save to memory is clearly not a realistic goal. I'll have to play it on an emulator.
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Post by xDerekRx on Sept 26, 2019 18:37:36 GMT
After my extensive play throughs of Quake I decided to give Hexen yet another try. Im determined to actually beat this game one day and it'll be the Saturn version. martiniii not sure if you ever gave it another go since? To me the only way to play this game is with the Memory Cart. You can do instant saves any time you like. Yeah its dumb you have to use 3000 blocks but I again wouldn't play it any other way to be honest. At first it wasn't recognizing my cart so I moved all my important save files to my system memory, then to AR cart to back them up. Then formatted my cart (cleared it) and now its fine. Put in about an hour and as a Cleric. Have yet to get to the really confusing levels that I think normally keep from finishing.
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