Serpent: Resurrection - Review

Hexen was an odd one to me. It had a combination of really cool things (multiple characters each with their own weapon set, really good artwork and atmosphere) and a bunch of horrible things (that terrible initial level set, a mere 4 weapons per character in a melee-heavy game) that prevented it from being amazing. The potential was there, but I felt it was never really realized until Ultimate Doomer released his Serpent Resurrection mod.

TUD's projects have always had slightly sparse level design, but with tons of fantastic ideas and a plot to see them through. The story is always fairly simple, but lots of things happen in between to keep the adventure going. Super Sonic Doom could be considered a sort of precursor to SR (despite having no connections apart from a few level themes being greatly elaborated on in this) Weighing in at 25 maps, Serpent Resurrection is a massive Hexen mod with a hub and somewhat simplistic RPG system. It has new monsters, weapons, spells, and inventory items to increase Hexen's limited amount and allow for greater variety, and it also adds a new character (A female assassin inspired by Hexen 2's) Whilst visually it's not always fantastic, Serpent Resurrection is still one of my favorite mods of all time.


The adventure begins with a simple cutscene that sets the story...the Serpent Riders (the 3 antagonists of Heretic, Hexen, and Hexen 2) are back and you must travel to the island of Caldera to put a stop to them by plunging their hearts into the volcano at the heart of the island. That's essentially it for the story, and it doesn't divert or change from there. You start off in a small city, where you travel via a great real-time boat ride (where you actually travel through the ocean and then throughout smaller islands to reach your destination) before the adventure truly begins. Each level is sprawling and filled with tons of enemies, and due to it's HUB nature you'll be travelling back and forth between each level frequently. Tied into the game is an RPG system - it's fairly basic with some stats that you can put points into when you level up. There's also shops that you can either buy or sell items and spells at, using gold found throughout the levels. It's very very simple, but adds so much to the game because it allows you to play it how you want. If you enjoy using spells and items, you can buy to your hearts content. If you prefer to just wade in with your weapons you can sell anything you find and just buy health or armour. It's an approach that lets you decide how best to go through the many levels and enviroments.

The levels in Serpent Resurrection follow the classic RPG format - you have your lava level, ice level, swamp level, sewer level, castle, ancient temple, seaside town, and right at the end a simply massive palace with 3 floors that take up entire levels each. Exploring this last section was the peak of the mod as I slowly conquered each floor piece by piece, retreating and selling/stocking up on items ready for another run. It reminded me of classic RPG books like Warlock of Firetop mountain. Each level is also accompanied by music so fitting I at first thought the soundtrack was custom made to fit the mod (many of the tracks are from modplug websites, but they suit each map near perfectly)


Spread through each level are little books that offer a small slice of backstory into the lifes of the previous inhabitants of the island. They're mostly minor fluff but add a bit of life to the maps. There's also a hidden secret level, as well as different endings depending on what you do during your quest. The mod is simply massive, and took nearly 2 days to finally clear my way through. That's certainly not a complaint, as SR proves that Hexen could of been fantastic if Raven had been a bit more ambitious with what they were doing (especially when it comes to level design)

If you take apart Serpent Resurrection, it has flaws that prevent it from being perfect. There are jumping puzzles in the mod, and you need a semi-decent PC to play the levels at a good framerate (due to the extreme size of some of them) Some of the boss fights are slightly unfair if you go in unprepared, and fights are sometimes brutal to the point it may seem hard to recover from. But SR is one of those mods that is greater than the sum of all of it's parts. It's incredibly ambitious, and succeeds at feeling like a genuine adventure rather than just a romp through some loosely connected Hexen levels.


The music, the atmosphere, the hub system....I remember all of it distinctly and in fact I remember I first played this when Bioshock: Infinite came out. I couldn't draw up the effort to even come close to finishing that game, but SR held me firmly in it's grip for nearly 2 entire days from beginning to end. It's an epic adventure, but also from what I understand The Ultimate Doomer's last project. It's a shame, but SR is a masterpiece of a project for a single man to end his modding career on. If you enjoy Hexen and want to get lost in a new place, you can't go wrong with Serpent Resurrection.

Download link for Serpent Resurrection at idgames

Comments

  1. good review, its have a good information, its interesing, y play this mods and its very cool. a fps rpg game. and one more thing james, I play your games, amc tc and imagination world and are very good, me and my friends, liked a loot your job

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  2. cheers glad you liked it, hopefully ep2'll be out at the end of the year as well

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  3. thats cool james, im still waiting the second episode of this great game amc tc.

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