Prepare for an epic journey into the heart of darkness with 'Hexen: Veil of Darkness' - a fresh and fiendish hub adventure utilising the power of GZDoom's Hardware mode. A shadowy sorceress, the notorious and macabre Mistress Nox, has acquired the Chaos Sphere. With its dark power at her disposal, she's building an army of abominations, casting the world into eternal twilight. You are the chosen one, a hero marked by the Gods themselves. Your divine quest? Venture through treacherous swamps, delve deep into haunted forests, explore creepy castles and dungeons, and ultimately unlock the enigmatic portal to the Shadow Realm. Prepare thyself for: New and nastier adversaries to conquer. Shiny new items to master and wield. Puzzles to perplex and ponder. An intricate hub world for you to get lost in (in the best possible way). Interact with exciting new 3D objects
Fantastic episode that deserves way more attention.
Tons of new enemies, art and a new villain with great char design that fit Hexen spot on. The level design is quite incredible, with each map bringing fresh ideas, traps and monsters. All have a different visual vibe and none of the maps went on for too long.
The pacing is similar to an arcade game with a boss fight every hour or so - they are a ton of fun too.
Not gonna lie, I think this was even more fun than the original Hexen episodes.
I only have one complaint and it's that the automap wasnt quite working (only a fraction of the level was showing). Add to that getting lost because the hub is huge and a dozen keys and quest items along with infinitely respawning monsters eating up your mana and it can get frustrating figuring out what to do while never left in peace. (Apparently there is a console command to turn off respawning somewhere)
I've already attempted a playthrough of this. It's very impressive, even to the extent that it's actually a better game than H:BH. The witch is a more interesting and loathsome adversary than Korax, the maps and their themes/layouts are varied and well done, the puzzles are engaging and clever (not just hunting for obscure buttons); it all just works. If you've never played vanilla H:BH, you could easily just play this without missing anything, and be far more amused.
That being said, I wasn't able to finish it. I'm pretty sure I was right at the end, but the realization that I had left so much unfinished with so many unanswered questions was too irksome (yes, I am a strange man).
Every map had undiscovered secrets, I was only able to find one of those trolls, I couldn't figure out what to do with the lanterns I kept finding, and there were strangely-placed portals that seemed to be inaccessible. I played for a couple days, on and off, and I could not rectify any of this over the course of about 14 hours, so I just stopped. I'll give it another shot if someone releases a walkthrough, though.
10/10 - It just needs a good walkthrough for those "Alright, dammit! I give up!" moments.