Magmarock: Yay Ziggurat has come to gog. I've only played a little bit of battle mage (couldn't figure out the crafting system) out of these two which one do you think is closer to Hexen 2 and what other difference between the two are there. FYI this is a VS thing, I just want to know more about how these two games differ.
JudasIscariot: This is more like Painkiller but with magic and procedural generation meaning you go into a room, the room gets locked until you kill everything in it :)
This is a solid analogy and I'm inclined to agree with it, save for one crucial respect:
Painkiller is actually fair.
I've beaten the hell out of
Painkiller: Black Edition, beating the core game on the highest difficult level and unlocking all Tarot cards as well as beating the expansion on the second-highest difficulty level.* Gameplay is fair as difficulty increases, the change solely being how much damage the enemies do to the player and what drops. Within the levels themselves, the skilled player will always have what they need to complete the level.
Zigguart is an entirely different game. The procedural/random generated levels are great, however the combination of the surprising volume of homing projectiles, number of projectiles, and random-cum-play-to-unlock armoury can create unnecessary game over conditions.
The first part of this is due to what can genuinely be considered FPS meets Bullet Hell gameplay, as many enemies in the game fire incredibly precise projectiles (kobolds, armours) as well as multiple, player-seeking projectiles (slimes, plants). When the player is finds themselves in smaller rooms this is a serious and challenging problem, however when this is coupled with a random armoury and perks this can generate unnecessary game over conditions.
I have regularly come across runs where I've received all AoE weapons, all seeking weapons, and 2+ of a given weapon type (spell, staff, alchemy). Depending on the perks rolled and the apprentice chosen, any number of games will have practically unwinnable states. Practically unwinnable, not technically unwinnable: the difference being that a very skilled player can win with any combination of perks and armoury, however the skill cap required makes that impractical.
I love the hell out of
Zigguart and it really is similar to
Painkiller, however the former game well and truly feels like it can't be won at times and the player has to unlock too much to have a chance in the labyrinth while the latter game feels like it can be won at all times with the tools given to the player at any difficulty and on any level.
Zigguart is a good game and a very demanding game, but it even play on Normal can put undue demands on the player based on having too many or too few perks unlocked and the nature of RNG mechanics.
_____
*The level design was not the same caliber as the base game and there was a certain cheapness to the whole thing, made clear when compared the cut-scenes/animation in the base game to the expansion.