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Title: Heretic and Hexen have received a surprise remaster from Nightdive
Studios

Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2025 20:57:47 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/heretic-and-h...

Nightdive Studios and id Software have announced a surprise remaster of
fantasy shooters Heretic and Hexen. The games are now available for modern
consoles in a new release, dubbed Heretic + Hexen, that includes support for
co-op, cross-platform multiplayer and community-published mods.

Heretic + Hexen combines Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond
Heretic and Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel into a single bundle. On
top of making the updates necessary to get the games running on Xbox,
PlayStation and Switch, Nightdive also created "two brand new episodes" to
play through called Heretic: Faith Renewed and Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur
that include new levels inspired by the original games.

When they were first released in 1994 and 1995, respectively, Heretic and
Hexen featured the novel pairing of Doom-inspired first-person action, with
rudimentary RPG elements like character classes and an inventory. The games
helped put developer Raven Software on the map not long before it went on to
create games like Quake 4 and Wolfenstein for id Software.

Nightdive Studios has worked on other id Software remasters, but the idea of
remaking or rereleasing Heretic and Hexen has been in the cards for quite a
while. Microsoft completed its acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent
company of the games' original publisher id Software, in 2021. Microsoft
Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was on the record as recently as 2023 as being
interested in rereleasing both games. It took a couple years, but the
remasters finally happened.

Heretic + Hexen is available now for Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5,
Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. If you
already own any of the original versions of the games, you'll get upgraded to
the remastered bundle for free.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/heretic-and-h...
remaster-from-nightdive-studios-205747137.html?src=rss

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