PC Longplay [092] Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders - Episode 3

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• published: 09 Jun 2010
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Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders Raven Software 1994, 1996 Source port used : ZDoom v2.4.1 ** The Story The world of Parthoris was populated by many people who divided themselves into seven great nations, as well as the mystic Sidhe elves. It was these elves who kept the Tomes of Power and the sacred candle flames which eternally burned to represent the armies of the world. The Sidhe believed in a prophecy of Armageddon, and their prophecy ultimately proved itself true when from the east came the three terrible Serpent Riders cloaked in black. They were great sorcerers, and they demonstrated their power by quelling the wars of the eastern provinces. Soon the men of the seven nations turned to their worship and built a great temple in their honor. Upon the temple was the Sign, a crossed trident, and the worshippers came to call themselves the Order of the Sign. The deeper into reverence of the Riders' dark ways they fell, the more they were sapped of their free will and spirit. Once all of the seven realms were theirs, the two eldest Riders departed, leaving D'Sparil alone to prepare the world for destruction. Recognizing the fulfillment of prophecy, the Sidhe refused to follow in the worship of D'Sparil and thus they were set apart from the other people of the world. Once sacred guardians, they were now heretics, hunted and hated everywhere they went. D'Sparil's disciples turned the minds of the seven kings toward conquest of the Sidhe realm, and when the Seven Armies marched upon them, the Sidhe Elders extinguished the sacred flames, destroying them all. D'Sparil was enraged and in the chamber of the Elders he stirred up a storm of white-hot flame, killing them all. The earth burst open beneath their charred bodies and from within poured legions of the undead as well as murderous beasts from worlds beyond. This new army overwhelmed the Sidhe and slaughtered them in untold numbers. In only one day, their civilization was destroyed and their survivors were scattered far and wide. The darkling creatures had carried off the Tomes of Power and the other artifacts of the Sidhe as spoils of war. Left defenseless, it was surely only a matter of time before all Sidhe perished under the Order of the Triad's unyielding fury. Most of the few remaining Sidhe hid themselves away, but Corvus was determined to have revenge. Heading east into the wilderness he came upon the City of the Damned, where the very air reeked with rot and decay and the only sounds were the screams of foul creatures seeking his blood. Armed only with his staff and Elven Wand, he had little hope to survive. So began the downfall of D'Sparil and the salvation of Parthoris. ** Notes The initial release of Heretic in 1994 featured 3 episodes. In 1996, Raven Software released two additional episodes for free, upgrading the game to Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders. This longplay starts with the 3 Heretic only episodes, then switches to Heretic: SOTSR for the 2 additional episodes. The ZDoom game engine is slightly different from the vanilla Heretic engine, but the result is reasonably faithful to the original game. Originally, the player could look up or down using the keyboard only, but I used togglable mouselook instead. There are several inventory items that I rarely (or never) use. Timebombs of the Ancients are dangerous to use. If you don't move away fast you'll get splash damage. The Shadowsphere makes you partially invisible, which makes the enemy flak erratic and unpredictable. The Chaos device has the incredibly useful effect of sending you back to your initial position in the level. Some levels are litterally filled with Quartz Flasks. As you can only carry 16 of those at a time, in several occasions I had to gobble them like candy to be allowed to pickup more and get 100% items. You'll probably notice that Iron Liches (large floating helmets with horns and an evil grin) simply LOVE to send me flying with their magic tornadoes. During practice sessions, everything would go fine, but each time I decided to record a level, I just KNEW I would run in trouble with Liches. Maybe my bad luck or something. I kept those shameful sequences for you to laugh out loud. :p ** Completion In the first level of Episode 4, I left a Maulotaur alive because I don't think I had enough ammo to kill it. Apart from this exception, 100% kills achieved in all levels. 100% secrets achieved in all levels. At least 90% items achieved in all levels. Heretic levels are choke full of items and getting them all taxes my poor memory.