What you're playing
Heretic + Hexen is a re-release of two 1990s spell-casting shooters built on a modified DOOM engine. You fight through dark fantasy realms with staves, weapons and magic instead of guns, working through campaign maps that mix shooting with puzzle solving and exploration. Heretic follows an elf named Corvus seeking revenge after the Serpent Riders corrupted the seven kings of the realm. Hexen picks up in another dimension, where you take the role of a Warrior, Mage or Cleric to defend Cronos from Korax. Both games introduced inventory systems, vertical aiming and character classes to the first-person shooter, and this version restores them with modern options like quick save/load, a weapon carousel, widescreen support and a game balance toggle that switches between original and enhanced behavior.
Playing together
The campaign supports online co-op, so you and your friends can run the same maps as a group. Deathmatch is available online for up to 16 players and works across platforms, and local split-screen covers both co-op and deathmatch for up to 8 players. There are 117 campaign maps and 120 deathmatch maps in total, so there is a lot of ground to cover whether you are pushing through the story or fighting each other. Remote Play Together is supported as well.
Before you start
Online play and the in-game mod browser need an account, and mods have to be installed separately with their own storage space. The package includes Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, plus two new episodes, Heretic: Faith Renewed and Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur. The original DOS versions of the first three are included too. Accessibility options cover UI, legibility, contrast, screen FX and text-to-speech, and the game runs at up to 4K and 120 FPS on compatible displays. Expect gore, violence and dark gothic imagery throughout.