Announced during QuakeCon 2025 in August, the classic fantasy shooters Heretic and Hexen were re-released on PC and consoles with modern features. Bethesda has now released Update 1, available on all platforms, bringing a wide range of new features, gameplay adjustments, bugfixes, level fixes, and modding improvements.


New Features

  • Heretic: Added original Firemace placement randomization (100% spawn chance instead of original 75%).
  • Option to disable cutscene subtitles in Accessibility menu.
  • Option to restore original two-button press behavior for inventory selection.
  • Option to restore original flying behavior (maintain height regardless of look angle).
  • Option to disable weapon animation smoothing.
  • Added “look up”, “look down”, and “center view” key bindings.
  • More buttons supported to advance intermission text screens.
  • Gameplay Modifiers menu accessible from episode and class screens.

Gameplay Changes

  • Hexen: Buffed Bloodscourge damage and improved autoaim for large enemy groups.
  • Hexen: Slightly increased attack speed of Timon’s Axe.
  • Hexen: Decreased Quietus mana usage (14 → 10).
  • Hexen: Slightly increased Wraithverge mana usage (18 → 20).
  • Improved smoothness of multiple weapon attack animations (Hexen: Timon’s Axe, Hammer of Retribution, Mace of Contrition, Wraithverge, Sapphire Wand, Bloodscourge).
  • Improved smoothness of weapon raise/lower animations.
  • Disabled menu ambience if music soundtrack is set to None.

Fixes

  • Automap scrolls at consistent speed across resolutions.
  • Faster automap zoom with mouse wheel.
  • Strafe left/right keys now cancel each other correctly.
  • Monsters can no longer be pushed off ledges by player attacks.
  • Triggers can no longer be skipped when sliding along walls.
  • Enemy missiles no longer fire downward incorrectly.
  • Monster melee attacks no longer have infinite height.
  • Multiplayer scoreboards no longer display zeroed stats.
  • Disabling viewbob no longer offsets weapon sprites.
  • Locked door messages no longer print if activated from the back.
  • Fixed strafe modifier not working for mouse/controller.
  • Fixed missing accented glyphs in Classic typeface.
  • Fixed stuck messages after loading certain saves.
  • Heretic: Chaos Serpent no longer overshoots fireballs; Gauntlets no longer push enemies back; Shadowspheres penalize enemy aiming; Firemace sprite black box removed; status bar redraw fixed.
  • Hexen: Fixed melee weapon sprite jitter; explosions no longer have infinite height; switch messages in Deathkings print properly.

Level Changes & Fixes

  • Heretic:
    • Fixed blood floor textures dealing unintended damage.
    • Locked door textures consistent with original.
    • E1M6: removed overlapping monsters on Hard.
    • E2M1: reduced Weredragons in singleplayer.
    • E2M2: removed floating stalactite.
    • E2M5: fixed lava sector near yellow key.
    • E2M7: removed unreachable enemies.
    • E3M5: fixed gargoyles stuck on corpses.
    • E3M6: fixed out-of-bounds Quartz Flask.
    • E4M2: fixed yellow key pyramid softlock.
    • E5M1: fixed secrets, added Tome of Power.
    • E5M2: fixed missing waterfall texture.
    • E5M3: “Pod-walk” and “Barrel-walk” no longer required for exit.
    • E5M5: fixed unobtainable secrets.
    • E5M6: fixed sky-pillar cutoff.
  • Faith Renewed: multiple fixes for softlocks, damaging floors, and progression skips (E1M3, E1M6, E1M7, E1M9, E5M1).
  • Vestiges of Grandeur: fixed portal/teleporter usage consistency and puzzle progression in Korax’s Domain.

    Microsoft Store

    • Added support for Windows virtual keyboard.
    • Removed exclusive fullscreen mode to improve overlays and keyboard compatibility.

    Modding Changes

    • Warning shown if mod uploader used with controller.
    • Heretic: added new non-randomized Firemace actor for custom maps.
    • Heretic: wand start option restored for mods.
    • Removed ambient sound and boss teleport spot limits.
    • Sector type 4 now visually scrolls again.
    • Added new flags (WF_AUTOAIMFARTHEST, radius damage customization).
    • Added A_MStaffAttackEX codepointer.
    • Added UMAPINFO keys “endpalette” and “enddemon” for custom finales.
    • Fixed crashes when loading old mods with custom textures.
    • Updated IWAD lump order for HUD compatibility.
    • Moved Heretic UMAPINFO lump to heretic_ex.wad for better source port support.
    • Warp commandline option only evaluated on first launch.

    Regional note: Heretic + Hexen are now available on South Korean Xbox and PlayStation stores, with Nintendo eShop release coming soon.

    Source: Bethesda.net