The Environment While the role playing elements are somewhat interesting, the real heart of Hexen is its enhanced 3D engine, which has some really nice touches, providing for a richer, more satisfying gaming environment. Enhancements fall into several categories, which I'll call graphics, hubs, physics, and sound.
Hexen is full of nifty graphical features unseen in any prior 3D games. For instance, punching Hexen's ornate stained glass windows results in flying shards of colored glass. In outdoor environments, leaves blow across the ground, and sudden strikes of lightning illuminate the entire landscape. The blows of combat stir up clouds of dust, and below ground, blazing torches ebb and flow in the darkness. Hexen has dynamic lighting effects, so lightning, torches, and other light sources effect the environment around them. My one major complaint about the graphics is that, due to their low resolution (the artwork has been rezzed up for the Mac version, but it's still lower than what Mac gamers are used to) and bad color palettes, depth and distance become very hard to distinguish.
One very cool feature of Hexen is that it allows non-linear travel through levels via "hubs" - levels with multiple exits and 2-way transports between them. Having the freedom to travel through levels at will really opens up the whole game, making Hexen's world a much more interesting place. It also allows for greater complexity of puzzles, as players must often travel through multiple levels to solve individual puzzles. Objects needed on one level may be stored in another; in some cases, switches affect things on other levels. In effect, each hub becomes one humongous level to be solved. Unfortunately, the puzzles are of the same old lock and key variety, with very little real brain power required.
The physics of Hexen are also interesting. Hexen is fraught with earthquakes, which can bring entire stretches of roof and floor tumbling down about players' heads. And unlike prior id games, falls can be deadly. Fortunately, players can fly (assuming they have the Wings of Wrath and plenty of mana), something we hard-core gamers have been looking forward to for a long time. Another welcome addition is the ability to aim and fire weapons at objects above and below the player's current plane.
In terms of sound, Hexen features full multi-channel stereo sound effects. Unfortunately, the ambient sounds are overdone in a lot of places...they certainly make for a creepier atmosphere, but many of the ambient noises are easily confused with the sounds of an imminent attack, keeping players constantly jumping at shadows. Oddly, there almost seems to be a greater emphasis on the ambient sounds than on the combat noises.
Overall though, most of Hexen's features are already available in other games, so it's not quite so revolutionary as one would hope. The animated graphics and non-linear hubs comprise Hexen's major claims to superiority, and surprisingly, Hexen is missing a few features already available in other, older games. For instance, there's no traveling through liquids, as in Marathon, and no sloped surfaces, as in Descent or System Shock.