Hands of Necromancy II

An old-school and a conventional FPS game which is a mix of Heretic, Hexen and Shadowcaster. The retro visuals looks okay with the billboard sprites, though it makes difficult to see the enemy above or below. There is not much story to tell, just wandering and shooting in random areas without much context or plot. There are only two playable characters to choose, and their arsenal are too similar to each other to give different play style or replay value, unlike the Hexen games. The shooting is very basic in this FPS, but with magic instead of guns. The magic is typical fire, air and ice magic, but there is no innovative or interesting shooting gameplay. So no elemental resistances or weaknesses, no boomerang or homing projectiles, no setting things on fire or no ability to deflect the enemy projectiles with your own projectiles mid-air. At least there a few specialties, like raising the fallen enemies as minions, though they are not always so helpful, and deflecting enemy projectiles with your sword. There is also shapeshifting into different forms, allowing some metroidvania things like going through narrow places and smashing certain breakable walls. However, those abilities are not really needed that much, only a few times. The game world is quite static which is a shame. Some of the game objects are destructible, like the oil jars and smaller trees, but some are not, like the barrels and slightly bigger trees. The game levels are okay, but the only puzzle to proceed in-game is to find the necessary keys to unlock the closed doors. I really didn’t like the map menu with no scrolling controls and pausing the game. I didn't like the default HUD of the game, but luckily it can be changed from the Settings. The only thing it really needs is a visible list of your weapons. It's not like the game is unplayable. It is just like a free game level, like Freedoom.

When I played the first one on GOG years ago, I was excited when a sequel was announced after so much silence. It's not unusual for a project like this to have a one hit wonder and move on so I wasn't expecting any follow-up whatsoever. Now that it's here, I kinda wish they stayed silent. I will get this out of the way: I don't mind paying for GZDoom stuff. Hedon was great. And free ones like Ashes 2063 deserve to have my money. So when I say that I feel like I didn't get my value's worth with HoN II, I am speaking purely on the aspect of incongruent and lackadaisical level design. The sequel to HoN feels like its levels were from the first game that were left on the cutting room floor. No sense of connectivity or thematic appeal. You're just dropped in these random ass caverns and fortresses with your usual slew of bad guys and secrets. I'm not asking for an epic plot but I except at least some kind of coherence to these places. Granted, things do look better graphically but Idk I kinda miss the old feel. I just have more expectations when a game decides to be bigger in scale and more expensive in price. I kinda feel ripped off. It kinda gets better by the 3rd Episode but by then it's too late. I don't wanna make fun of the now existing cutscenes in between chapters but the old single screen of text was alot more effective in elucidating the narrative than what was presented. It feels cheap and uninspired. I can't recommend this sequel but some of my friends claim its actually better so I don't know. I think it's just a matter of taste.

Distinctly an upgrade over the original in that the levels are no longer something you get lost in, but it still suffers from some of the same issues. None of the weapons really feel punchy, none of the enemies really feel like they fit different roles(1 to 3 shots with the Ice Staff still kills everything, enemies either stand still and shoot at you, rush towards you to hit you or fly around getting stuck on geometry and not understanding the Y-axis they've been saddled with ostensible mastery of) and a lot of things just work wonkily. I still don't understand what half my inventory items do and some of them I understand but don't like(the titular Hand of Necromancy animates a dead enemy as an ally that immediately gets stuck on a wall and stands there while you explore the rest of the level or animates a dead snake instead of the stone golem you were looking at). And of course, like usual, the game is miserably dark and enemies tend to have the same colour as wall textures so good luck actually seeing what you're supposed to fight. I also understand the desire to be a "retro" game but that really doesn't excuse not having learned much about actual level design since Heretic. Actually I feel like that's short-selling Heretic a bit since there was less visual clutter and more open areas that actually let you play. Like the original, it works, but it doesn't work exceptionally or in a way that gives you much of a reason to play it when there are better options.

More of Hands of Necromancy, which is good. New levels, enemies, weapons and so on, though I didn't like the map selection as much as the first game. The game has also ditched the hub & key hunting type of Hexen gameplay for a simpler, Doom-like run and gun, which can either be a plus or a minus depending on the player. Overall, solid experience just like the first game.

Less creative, but heaps more accessible than the first game. Levels are linear. Weapons feel fine-tuned. You get lost less, and key hunting feels less burdensome. The pace of play moves at a good clip, but it keeps the more procedural feeling of the first game with weapons still firing slow and relying on timely use of alternate fire to clear encounters. Getting tapped directly by an enemy bullet still whips hp off of you on normal. I like the new secondary character a lot. The witch feels at first like a worse version of the necromancer, but then you try a few of her alternate fires and oh. Oh god. Hitstun and lifeleech off of her melee secondary? Damage is abysmal, but you can freely get a half bar refill off of a lone cultist. And she doesn't have anything as cracked as the necromancer's tornado secondary for managing crowds, but she's got lots of good, functional AoEs. Her tornado being single target is a nice touch, and in a lot of ways her kit is the mirror opposite of the necromancer's. The fact that the design sticks the landing on this is impressive. Now, I'll update as I play further, but I think it feels safe to say at this point that II is the more casual friendly game. You can jump into it with a barebones sense of what a boomershooter is and get the experience you're expecting. It's a solid pickup, it's polished, and if you like the genre you'll have a good time. It doesn't hit the highs of stuff like Hrot and Dusk, but I think it's comparable to an Ion Fury. The voice acting also continues to be genuinely charming. It is clearly not english as a first language, but it has a lot of character and the intonation is right. I'll take DIY voices over AI any day. Edit: Unlike 1, 2 is built around certain powerups being temporary. Get flight or waterbreathing in one level, lose it in the next. However, your basic transformations once unlocked are with you forever. This feels a little weird, as stages could easily be built around having to reacquire them. Ammo is massively plentiful here compared to the first game, so not being able to use the viper to stretch your limited ammo reserves wouldn't be a problem. Ultimately I think this is kind of just a growing pain, and Hands Of Necromancy III will probably have its gamefeel completely nailed down. 2 already feels more confident in its design than the first game. 2nd Edit: Like the first one, there is a LOT of game here. And it starts getting solidly creative with its level concepts by the midpoint. Nothing is super experimental, you're still running and gunning, but it starts to play with theme a bit. For example, in the egyptian tomb level you are literally excavating the map to get to the exit gate. In an earlier coastline level, you part the sea and then the parted sea becomes the walls of the stage. 3rd Edit: Whoof skyward tomb is not a great level. Lever that does nothing + backtrack to the start is rough design. I like the sad and empty vibes, but unlike something like Beyond Citadel there's no narrative weight to make them land, so it feels like kind of a strange and experimental level in contrast to the tighter tone of the rest of the game. 4th Edit: Ancient forest is somehow worse. A lever that opens a door also opens a secret passage you need to proceed, but it's on a timer and so is the door and there's no reason to assume the two are linked AND there's an intended shortcut using your spider form that's necessary to make it out the door in time that causes you to miss the progress essential timed secret passage. Like. Don't do this. It's a shame the last two levels before the finale are this frustrating, they're really the only two that pull this kind of stuff. 5th Edit: Rolled credits. The final boss is nothing special, and the escape sequence feels a little scuffed with the geometry vibrating so hard that all the sprites blur. Also at 7 hours this is definitely shorter than the first game. So, how do I feel in the end? That final stretch really took the wind out of me, but most of the game is quite playable. I also can't tell if the cutscene art is AI. If it is, I'd honestly just rather not have the cutscenes. Bare text like the first game is fine, especially in a throwback to original doom. For the rest of the game, I mostly like what it's cooking and look forward to seeing what Hands 3 will be like.

Es como el 1º pero sin hub worlds, con mas bichos, cosos y ahora podes jugar como una waifu que se parte sola de lo buena que esta (?

It's ok, an improvement from the previous game, in that the hub system was more confusing than anything. The maps are still too big and usually too dark. The weapons are fun to use and the transformations are fun to use. Also use luxtorpeda-dev because the linux version did not work.

[b]KAMGUSTA's MINI REVIEW[/b] Yep, it's just another "WAD" for the classic 1990s Doom, loosely reminescent of Heretic/Hexen. Today they use GZDoom as a platform (it's an open-source project that supports modern hardware but doesn't add anything new). Back to "Hands of Necromancy 2", it's antiquated, amateurish, unpolished, uninteresting, unimpressive, unrequested and uneverything. Exactly "more of the same" of the first one. [b]Best played with keyboard & mouse Recommended buy price: 1$ Score: 4,5/10[/b]

This was released in 2024? The controls are atrocious. There's a row of items in the item bar and I can't select them in any common sense way. I'm not sure if it was taught in the tutorial because I was too confused about why my character randomly stopped moving or doing what I said. I thought the game was stuttering or crashing, but it's just the tutorial removing your control over the character randomly. Do I really need full control removed for that long just so I can read "press E to interact"? No I don't. It's just annoying for no reason. OK so I restarted the tutorial to find out how to select items in the item bar. The text disappeared before I could finish reading it. Cool. It said something about "POV1". That's not a real key. There's nothing on a modern keyboard, mouse, or gamepad that uses a key called POV1. When it was telling us how to use an item, it said to either press ENTER or POV3. Nevermind the fact that ENTER is a horrible key to assign for item usage, but POV3 is also not a real key. Upon reviewing the control mapping, you can cycle through items using ], [, POV1Right, POV1Left, the left/right mouse wheel clicks, and dpad. I guess the mouse wheel clicks are OK, but not ideal and having to run my entire hand to the ENTER key is nonsense. OK we can just rebind stuff. Fine. But this mundane clerical work should be done by the game creator before the game is bought and downloaded. I mean these binds are just awful and nonsense. There is also no explanation of what the difference is between the 2 classes or the difficulty levels. Bonus points for the game muting in the background, but the game sometimes highjacks your computer if you alt-tab so you can't reliably multitask with the game open on one screen and something else on the other. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I'm not sure why. I was unable to alt-tab over to update this review with the game open. So that makes the 2nd time I had to force close the game before finishing the tutorial. Some people have said the game is running their CPU up and causing system hangups. Kind of sketchy. I will continue to play but man that was an annoying and frustrating way to start a game. If I had any kind of life I would not have reopened it after being annoyed the first 2 times. Since I have no life I will give the game a good 20 minutes or so in the first level to start getting good. edit: ok the gameplay is pretty good and almost makes up for the early frustration, but it's not great. most FPS magic games are complete ass but this one has some fun mechanics. playing on the hardest difficulty so far and it feels fair. the transformations are pretty cool and adds a bunch of variety for exploration and combat. however, the enemies are not that interesting mechanically. they are kind of boring to fight and don't require much strategy outside of kiting or LOSing ranged enemies. The transformations are cool, but the only times you'll use them for exploration is at the obvious parts that can only be accessed with certain transforms. you won't use them in any creative ways. the game is also way too dark and some enemies just blend into the background a lot of the time. it's ok for some enemies, such as the wizard things, because their attacks light them up and show you where to aim. but for others, like the flying gargoyle things, it's just annoying trying to find them as they fly around and blend into everything. the level design is not very captivating so far. I've only played a few levels but they are pretty simple without much to see off the path laid out in front of you. you go to the only area you have access to, get a key, then go to the next, area, etc. There's no puzzles or anything like that. One more thing. you're a necromancer who can resurrect enemies to fight for you, but the summons have bad pathing and will wander off and not follow you everywhere. if you go up an elevator or something, then you will leave them behind. sometimes they seem to teleport to you if you go far enough away but since maps are pretty small you can't always go far enough away to trigger the teleport. seems like a waste of the transformation mechanic to not give us more to explore and find

Es como el 1... en todo.