Posted December 12, 2019
There wasn't enough space in the game's review to cover everything I want to, so... here's a better version.
Hopefully, this will give anyone interested in the game, but unsure about it, a better idea of what to expect.
Hedon is an odd game.
The title presents you with a well-drawn splash screen and a great piece of music, leading you to expect something with the pace of Tower of Guns or DUSK and the soundtrack and world aesthetic of SEUM mixed with the writing of Quake.
Then, you actually start the game.
The first thing you'll notice is the graphics. Specifically, how everything is... would muddy be the right word? Indistinct, certainly. Very few things actually pop, or are visually distinct. The textures all muddle and blur together, with sparse lighting giving very little definition to the level geometry. What looks like a wall might actually be a pillar you can go behind, and that pillar might have raised parts you can jump on that are only visible from above.
Walls and floors visually run together, objects like crates are only really discernible because they're a different color, and everything just generally lacks shading or definition. I can't say it any other way: The screenshots look flat because the game looks flat.
It's a shame, because after playing through the first three levels, I found them to be surprisingly well-designed and intricate at times. The engine just isn't being used to its fullest compared to other games, like DooM, Heretic, Hexen or Strife. The first three levels all have par times around 40 minutes, which is a little generous, I'll admit, but I only occasionally got irritated with the backtracking, mostly when it wasn't clear where I was meant to go and what I was meant to do. It's almost point-and-click adventure levels of roundabout sometimes.
As an example, at one point you have to go to two sides of a fortress to get into two security offices so that you can power the locks to open the bath house and reach the entrance to the forge. The entrance to the forge is located literally on the other side of the hall you start the level in.
Not as labyrtinthine or convoluted as Hexen, but not nearly as straightforwardly accidentally doable as Doom. I'd describe it as a less focused Strife in terms of structure.
Honestly, a good lighting/shading pass would be enough to bring Hedon up to 4 stars. The game would be far, far more enjoyable if you could clearly make things out.
I can't help but compare it to other games on the engine, specifically Hexen and Strife, and how easily readeable their graphics are in comparison.
The next thing you notice is the character sprites. They look hand-drawn, which isn't bad by itself, but the animations are barely existent. Almost every character seems to only have about 5-7 frames at most. 2 for walking, 2-3 for attacking, and a death animation. This, combined with the muddy graphics, makes actually reading a situation very difficult. Enemies blur into the background even at middle distances, and have so little movement in their sprites that you can't readily pick them out.
What do I mean by movement? Well, characters have very little dynamic movement in their animations. Zan, the player character, for instance, moves one leg slightly forward, then the other slightly forward, and that's the run animation. It looks more like a shuffle, with no raised limbs or body sway.
Another example is the basic cultist's attack. Standing, hand raised like they're politely waiting to ask a question, then back to standing. That's the cultist throwing a knife. It has very little visual difference to the standing animation, and the knife is very difficult to pick out once it's actually heading towards you (it seems to be transparent, as well).
In general, none of the sprites are particuarly dynamic. It feels like everything should have more energy to it that it actually does, to the point that even the largest battle in Map 03 feels more like being attacked by a horde of cardboard targets.
Likewise, enemies have very few, if any, clear barks or callouts. No chanting, no angry shrieks, no bellowing "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!". I think they have death gurgles? Nothing I can remember clearly, at least. (After playing with the volume much higher for a while just to double-check, it turns out that enemies do have sounds. Mostly very low groans and growls, and I can't tell if they have any alert noises or not.) Again, it really does feel like being attacked by cardboard targets.
On to the good. Rather, the VERY good.
The music is great, when it's not droning ambience. It's very energetic and, as I said above, very similar to SEUM at times.
Most of the time, you'll be exploring to ambient droning, but it doesn't really get that annoying. When the action kicks up, though, in comes the metal music to make everything that bit more awesome. I'm actually listening to it while writing this review, and while the title theme is probably the best so far, most of what I'm hearing is certainly worth listening to.
Combat is brutal and satisfying, with the axe being one of the most satisfying FPS melee weapons I've ever seen.
I can even forgive the lackluster sprite animations because it's just so darn satisfying. Tearing a group of cultists apart with a single axe swing actually surprised me the first time, since I wasn't expecting it to have an actual AoE/arc. The shotgun is fun, the flamethrower is... alright. Not the worst, but not the most satisfying. The rifle is reliable and generally fun to use. The crossbow takes a bit of getting used to, since it actually has an arc like a real crossbow bolt, but getting a clean shot off into a crowd of cultists results in a satisfying pile of bodies, since the primary and alternate fire are both explosive. The fists are your "stealth" weapon, but they're almost useless. Just use the axe, it's more fun.
Every weapon has a secondary fire mode, ranging from a zoom on the rifle, to the shotgun/flamethrower combination, to simply throwing the axe for range gibbing.
I'm actually looking forward to trying the Bearserker mode, which replaces all your guns with melee weapons IIRC. I don't think the game actually tells you that, I might have come across it when I was researching the game. (That's something else to mention, that the game doesn't do a good job of conveying some information. Quick-use items in particular are nothing more than a vague icon on the HUD, and I found myself alt-tabbing out to find out what they do. Even just adding a page on them with icons and descriptions to the F1 screen would improve their useability drastically.)
One small detail that really impressed me is that, when reloading, the discarded magazines actually get dropped and stay on the floor. You're not just leaving bodies in your wake, you're leaving empty mags and drained canisters. It's a little thing that I didn't know I wanted in more games, until I saw it in Hedon and realised how much it adds to the world.
Weapon sounds are, again, very good. At least, the ones I've seen so far are. They really add to the punch most of the weapons have, and fit the aesthetics of each weapon. They all sound like they should.
Throwing the axe is fun in every way. Looks great, sounds great, feels great. Makes cultists explode.
The movement feels good and is responsive enough that I haven't found myself getting frustrated at all. The jump height could be slightly higher, but otherwise, the movement works fine with the combat and exploration to keep things enjoyable.
Hopefully, this will give anyone interested in the game, but unsure about it, a better idea of what to expect.
Hedon is an odd game.
The title presents you with a well-drawn splash screen and a great piece of music, leading you to expect something with the pace of Tower of Guns or DUSK and the soundtrack and world aesthetic of SEUM mixed with the writing of Quake.
Then, you actually start the game.
The first thing you'll notice is the graphics. Specifically, how everything is... would muddy be the right word? Indistinct, certainly. Very few things actually pop, or are visually distinct. The textures all muddle and blur together, with sparse lighting giving very little definition to the level geometry. What looks like a wall might actually be a pillar you can go behind, and that pillar might have raised parts you can jump on that are only visible from above.
Walls and floors visually run together, objects like crates are only really discernible because they're a different color, and everything just generally lacks shading or definition. I can't say it any other way: The screenshots look flat because the game looks flat.
It's a shame, because after playing through the first three levels, I found them to be surprisingly well-designed and intricate at times. The engine just isn't being used to its fullest compared to other games, like DooM, Heretic, Hexen or Strife. The first three levels all have par times around 40 minutes, which is a little generous, I'll admit, but I only occasionally got irritated with the backtracking, mostly when it wasn't clear where I was meant to go and what I was meant to do. It's almost point-and-click adventure levels of roundabout sometimes.
As an example, at one point you have to go to two sides of a fortress to get into two security offices so that you can power the locks to open the bath house and reach the entrance to the forge. The entrance to the forge is located literally on the other side of the hall you start the level in.
Not as labyrtinthine or convoluted as Hexen, but not nearly as straightforwardly accidentally doable as Doom. I'd describe it as a less focused Strife in terms of structure.
Honestly, a good lighting/shading pass would be enough to bring Hedon up to 4 stars. The game would be far, far more enjoyable if you could clearly make things out.
I can't help but compare it to other games on the engine, specifically Hexen and Strife, and how easily readeable their graphics are in comparison.
The next thing you notice is the character sprites. They look hand-drawn, which isn't bad by itself, but the animations are barely existent. Almost every character seems to only have about 5-7 frames at most. 2 for walking, 2-3 for attacking, and a death animation. This, combined with the muddy graphics, makes actually reading a situation very difficult. Enemies blur into the background even at middle distances, and have so little movement in their sprites that you can't readily pick them out.
What do I mean by movement? Well, characters have very little dynamic movement in their animations. Zan, the player character, for instance, moves one leg slightly forward, then the other slightly forward, and that's the run animation. It looks more like a shuffle, with no raised limbs or body sway.
Another example is the basic cultist's attack. Standing, hand raised like they're politely waiting to ask a question, then back to standing. That's the cultist throwing a knife. It has very little visual difference to the standing animation, and the knife is very difficult to pick out once it's actually heading towards you (it seems to be transparent, as well).
In general, none of the sprites are particuarly dynamic. It feels like everything should have more energy to it that it actually does, to the point that even the largest battle in Map 03 feels more like being attacked by a horde of cardboard targets.
Likewise, enemies have very few, if any, clear barks or callouts. No chanting, no angry shrieks, no bellowing "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!". I think they have death gurgles? Nothing I can remember clearly, at least. (After playing with the volume much higher for a while just to double-check, it turns out that enemies do have sounds. Mostly very low groans and growls, and I can't tell if they have any alert noises or not.) Again, it really does feel like being attacked by cardboard targets.
On to the good. Rather, the VERY good.
The music is great, when it's not droning ambience. It's very energetic and, as I said above, very similar to SEUM at times.
Most of the time, you'll be exploring to ambient droning, but it doesn't really get that annoying. When the action kicks up, though, in comes the metal music to make everything that bit more awesome. I'm actually listening to it while writing this review, and while the title theme is probably the best so far, most of what I'm hearing is certainly worth listening to.
Combat is brutal and satisfying, with the axe being one of the most satisfying FPS melee weapons I've ever seen.
I can even forgive the lackluster sprite animations because it's just so darn satisfying. Tearing a group of cultists apart with a single axe swing actually surprised me the first time, since I wasn't expecting it to have an actual AoE/arc. The shotgun is fun, the flamethrower is... alright. Not the worst, but not the most satisfying. The rifle is reliable and generally fun to use. The crossbow takes a bit of getting used to, since it actually has an arc like a real crossbow bolt, but getting a clean shot off into a crowd of cultists results in a satisfying pile of bodies, since the primary and alternate fire are both explosive. The fists are your "stealth" weapon, but they're almost useless. Just use the axe, it's more fun.
Every weapon has a secondary fire mode, ranging from a zoom on the rifle, to the shotgun/flamethrower combination, to simply throwing the axe for range gibbing.
I'm actually looking forward to trying the Bearserker mode, which replaces all your guns with melee weapons IIRC. I don't think the game actually tells you that, I might have come across it when I was researching the game. (That's something else to mention, that the game doesn't do a good job of conveying some information. Quick-use items in particular are nothing more than a vague icon on the HUD, and I found myself alt-tabbing out to find out what they do. Even just adding a page on them with icons and descriptions to the F1 screen would improve their useability drastically.)
One small detail that really impressed me is that, when reloading, the discarded magazines actually get dropped and stay on the floor. You're not just leaving bodies in your wake, you're leaving empty mags and drained canisters. It's a little thing that I didn't know I wanted in more games, until I saw it in Hedon and realised how much it adds to the world.
Weapon sounds are, again, very good. At least, the ones I've seen so far are. They really add to the punch most of the weapons have, and fit the aesthetics of each weapon. They all sound like they should.
Throwing the axe is fun in every way. Looks great, sounds great, feels great. Makes cultists explode.
The movement feels good and is responsive enough that I haven't found myself getting frustrated at all. The jump height could be slightly higher, but otherwise, the movement works fine with the combat and exploration to keep things enjoyable.
Post edited December 12, 2019 by Cascadejackal
