Why is Doom more fun than Heretic?

[Tuaam]

I think Heretic's issue was with the monsters. You had alot of very cheesy ones which were like lost souls on crack, and half of them would just tank up damage and use up precious ammo (which was hard to come by because for whatever reason, many of the levels had so few of it).  Not to mention, they were all pretty generic ripoffs of Doom enemies, alot of them even being horrible to fight up against. Like, who even wants to fight against 4 undead warriors in the same cramped room?

 

What I did like was it's style, which is something I rarely saw in a video game. Heretic (and Hexen) had a dark-fantasy setting which imo compared to other games of the time wasn't really explored. For instance, in lieu of guns the motif was instead laser-scepters which were powered by crystals. In fact, most other games which were ostensibly medieval-themed only focused on swords and maces, which tends to become very generic. I figure it had to do with being creative with making what were essentially IWADs of a completely different game, honestly.

[Alex S.]

On 1/30/2022 at 12:59 AM, Marscaleb said:

Okay, I know that this is really just a matter of taste, but I just find Doom so much more fun to play than Heretic.  But that said, I SHOULD like Heretic more.  I like Heretic's theme better, and I'd rather play a game where I run around a fantasy world than one where I run around military bases.  Heretic has some more interesting powerups and you can even activate them when you need them.

But yet, I just have more fun playing Doom than I do Heretic.  Even though I've played Doom so much more and neither Doom nor Doom II have many surprises left for me, I am more enticed by the idea of playing through Doom yet again on a new system than to play through Heretic.

 

And yes, this is all just a subjective thing, and I'm not going to knock anyone who thinks Heretic is more fun.

But still, I can't quite put my finger on why I like Doom more.

Any thoughts?  What is it that Doom is doing better than even Heretic, a nearly identical game (mechanically speaking) just can't quite do as well?

Here are my top reasons:

 

• Doom has hit-scan enemies, Heretic does not.
• Heretic uses the same key order for every official level whereas Doom changes it all around to keep you exploring.
• Some Heretic levels are absolute bullet-hell but in larger arenas. Doom has slightly lower visplane limits and thereby smaller maps adding to that "chaos" feeling while keeping the player in control.
• All Doom weapons are good. Heretic is mostly good but the firemace is just.... *shudders* 'balls of steel'
• Doom has no holding inventory - You gotta think quick and strategize more in realtime