I am so disappointed, I honestly don't even feel like writing a review.

Unlike Heretic 1, this game is basically a third-person slasher with shooter elements, similar to the later Jedi Knight games Raven would make. And the combat in this game is one of the best I've ever seen. Which is something I've also said about Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. You got the acrobatics, the dismemberment, the force powers (or spells here). I would call it a proto-JK if JK didn't already exist as a series. The amount of ways to fight the enemies provides an incredible amount of strategic depth. Actually, seeing how this game has no lightsabers, overall it reminds me more of Rune (funny enough, created by Raven refugees).

Visually, Heretic 2 is a homerun. The environments here are so vivid and beautiful. There's a kinda Giger-esque insectoid hive, a Lovecraftian reptilian city, a "cloud fortress" seemingly somewhere up in the mountains. And there are a lot of platforming sections, which are actually kinda fun to play, reminiscent of the old Tomb Raider games.

But man, the level design here is just fucking awful. Almost exactly like in Jedi Outcast. With games like this there's always that one moment when you go "oh, fuck off" and start using cheats or walkthroughs. I tortured myself through the first half of the game, until I reached one level where the solution was this tiny ledge that was just impossible to notice. I swear, if I didn't use the noclip cheat, I would've NEVER figured it out on my own.

And it just doesn't get any better from that point. I eventually reached the penultimate level where you gotta find six switches. I've found four and bailed because even with cheats it was so painful to play. Basically I could've just tagged the game "completed" because the final boss was right afterwards, but I want my "abandoned" tag to forever represent how much I suffered with this game, so that I never touch it again.

And man, it's such a shame, cause other than the level design, this is a masterpiece. It's most comparable to Jedi Outcast, but I actually like most of its aspects more than Jedi Outcast, but the level design in Jedi Outcast is probably slightly better because I actually managed to finish it.

I initially wanted to get into more detail on all the great things about this game, but because of how much it hurt me, I have no desire to anymore.