About Hexen II
Hexen II is a first-person shooter that Raven Software developed and id Software published for Windows. It came out in North America on September 11, 1997, and in Europe on September 19. It is the third game in the Heretic and Hexen series and the last in the Serpent Riders trilogy. Raven built it on a modified version of the Quake engine. Brian Raffel directed it, Eric C. Biessman designed it, Steve Stringer produced it, and Kevin Schilder composed the music.
You choose from four character classes, each with different abilities: the offensive Paladin, the defensive Crusader, the spell-casting Necromancer and the stealthy Assassin. DOS.Zone describes a grim medieval world torn apart by three warring factions, with nonlinear levels and environmental puzzles. The game has single-player and multiplayer modes. An expansion, Portal of Praevus, followed in North America on March 20, 1998, and a Macintosh version arrived there in July 2002.
How it runs in your browser
This listing works differently from most of DOS.Zone. Rather than running the old Windows release inside an emulated PC, DOS.Zone runs Hexen II on FTEQW, a modern open-source engine for games in the Quake family, which suits a game that started life on a modified Quake engine. According to DOS.Zone, the switch brings better stability, modern rendering features, higher resolutions and improved input handling, while the original levels and gameplay stay as they were.
DOS.Zone doesn’t say how FTEQW was built to run in a browser. The listing carries a credit to the DOS.Zone user Carter54 but gives no other technical details.
Pressing Play opens dos.zone/hexen-2-fteqw in a new tab. The game data loads from the site, so you don’t install anything or bring your own files, and there’s no account to create and no ads. The listing, titled Hexen II (FTEQW), holds a rating of 5 from 197 player reviews. It doesn’t say whether Portal of Praevus is included, and there’s no multiplayer room for it on DOS.Zone.
Controls and devices
Hexen II is played with a keyboard and mouse. DOS.Zone points to better input handling under FTEQW but doesn’t list the controls, so look in the game’s options menu for the key bindings before you set out.
Phones get DOS.Zone’s virtual on-screen controls, though the game was made for a keyboard and mouse and is more comfortable on a computer. Chromebooks haven’t been checked.
Who it’s for
It suits players who liked Quake and want something on a related engine with a fantasy setting, spells and a choice of class. It is also a way to reach the end of the Serpent Riders trilogy without an install. For an earlier id Software shooter, Doom II is on DOS.Zone too.
Is Hexen II Free, Safe and Official?
Can I play Hexen II online for free?
You can play Hexen II free in your browser on DOS.Zone, with no account and nothing to install. The listing is single-player only, as DOS.Zone has no multiplayer room for it.
Is Hexen II in the browser running in an emulator?
No. Instead of emulating an old PC, DOS.Zone runs the game on FTEQW, a modern open-source engine for Quake-family games, with the Hexen II game data loaded from the site.
Does Hexen II work on a phone?
DOS.Zone offers virtual on-screen controls for phones, but Hexen II was built for a keyboard and mouse, so a computer is the better fit.
