Trivia / Heretic

• Development Gag: As this video points out (~9:30), the Firemace functions similar to how the original Doom BFG was supposed to work, but couldn't due to the limitations of PC hardware at the time.
• Dueling Works: Heretic II vs. The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. Both are action-adventure fantasy computer games, feature a protagonist returning to save his homeland after a long period of absence, are the fourth installment in their respective franchises, the first in those franchises to be played from a third-person perspective, and were released in Fall 1998. Heretic II is also this with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, since it came out shortly after the latter and was also about an elven hero (Link for Ocarina of Time, Corvus for Heretic II) aided by a small magical female companion that floats around him (Navi for Link, the Tome of Power for Corvus) saving his homeland after it is thrown in turmoil when the game's Big Bad selfishly attempts to achieve godhood.
• Dummied Out: Shadows of the Serpent Riders, in addition to its two episodes, has a sixth hidden episode. ^note It has no official name, but fans call it "Fate's Path". It cannot be accessed in normal gameplay, only via cheats, and it has just three levels, the third of which has no exit and seems to be meant for deathmatch.
• God Does Not Own This World: Activision (the parent company of Raven Software) has the developing rights to Heretic, but id Software has the publishing rights to the first three games in the series (dubbed the Serpent Riders Trilogy). As of January 2022, this could change, as Xbox Game Studios (the parent company of ZeniMax) will be acquiring Activision.
  • However, the addition of Galena in Quake Champions suggests that while id Software is unable to make new games in the series or use characters that are established in these games, they can still create new characters from the same universe to use in their other games.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Heretic II has not had a re-release. The only way to play it is to hunt down a physical copy or get it by shadier means. Even if you get a physical copy (still available from some sellers), good luck finding a 16-bit Windows on which to run the installer.^note The good news is that, having installed the game somewhere, you can then simply move/copy the installation to your modern Windows... but you will still need the CD to run it.
• What Could Have Been: Another game in the series, Hecatomb, was planned but got cancelled for unknown reasons. A totally different game, Hexen II, was released in its place.
  • There is a cameo of a Heresiarch from Hexen at the very end seen watching Corvus. This was originally going to be the design for the second Serpent Rider, however, they replaced him with Korax and demoted him to The Dragon for unknown reasons.
• Word of Saint Paul: John Romero posted a tweet that claims Heretic and Hexen take place centuries before Rise of the Triad, and implied that the Order of the Triad, which worshiped the Serpent Riders, would eventually become the Triad from that game.