Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance

I went into Witchaven II hoping it had aged better than its reputation. It had not. That said, spending a few hours with Grondoval's grim return tells you something interesting about the mid-90s moment when developers were desperately trying to graft RPG DNA onto the boomer-shooter formula, and the seams show in ways that are almost archaeologically fascinating. At its core this is a first-person melee slasher built on the Build Engine, the same technology that powered Duke Nukem 3D, though you would never guess it from the level design. The RPG layer is thin but present: you earn experience points by killing enemies, level up to unlock stronger spell access and better weapon handling, and manage a small inventory of potions and enchanted weapons. The sequel's notable mechanical addition over the first game is dual-wielding - you can carry a one-handed weapon in each fist, or pair a blade with a shield for defensive play. Weapons range from daggers and broadswords to thrown axes and magical staves, and some can be enchanted, which is genuinely cool on paper. Combat is entirely melee-or-close-range, which means every fight happens at breath-fogging distance from digitized sprite enemies. Here is where the wishful thinking runs dry. The controls are the game's original sin. Hit detection in close quarters is sketchy, and judging range against enemies is genuinely difficult - you will swing a broadsword at a skeleton three feet away and connect with nothing. The physics are erratic in the way that only a DOSBox-wrapped relic can be, with the framerate-dependent game logic causing occasional lurching movement. The level design across the game's 15 levels is abstract and featureless in the way critics at the time called it: corridor after corridor of grey stone, with death traps hidden under false floors as the main source of environmental variety. Enemy variety tops out at armored knights repeated in bulk, with a handful of demon types sprinkled in for texture. For a player who cares about narrative - and I do - the story context exists almost entirely in the manual rather than in-game, which means you are fighting barbarian tribes and Argothonian clansmen with almost no explanation of why they serve a witch whose name, Cirae-Argoth, sounds genuinely menacing but is never given room to breathe. The Steam and GOG re-releases from SNEG do include both the original retail build and an Enhanced build with EGwhaven fixes applied, which remaps controls to feel more like a modern FPS and patches out some of the worst bugs. If you play this at all, use the Enhanced build. The BuildGDX source port is an even better option for those willing to set it up manually. There is also a Build Engine map editor included, which is better documented than Duke 3D's, and a ten-level fan expansion called The Horror Back exists for the committed. Who is this for, honestly? Retro-FPS collectors who want to complete the lineage from Heretic to Hexen to the Build Engine curios. Fans of the first Witchaven who want closure on Grondoval's arc (such as it is). Anyone else should look at Hexen, Heretic, or even Arthurian Legends first. As an RPG experience it is a footnote; as a historical artifact of a studio's final desperate product before bankruptcy, it is morbidly compelling for about three hours. Monika, Scout Team