#591: Blasphemer

A dark dream of a free Heretic

Initial release: January 2nd, 2009 (v0.0.2)
Platform: PC (freeware Heretic replacement)
Developer: Various

A major feature of the open source movement is the drive to create competing products, free alternatives to the commercial software that we use in our daily lives. From alternatives for Notepad, Microsoft Office, or Photoshop, the world of free and open source software has a lot of potential once you get past the initial wall of incurious libertarians who wouldn’t know a good UI if it bit them in the ass and have opinions about the age of consent. A curious artifact of this culture is the drive to develop alternate versions of existing, popular video games, often games that have a strong association with the open source movement themselves. So it was that Freedoom sought to provide a complete replacement of all of Doom’s art and audio assets and levels, in short everything but code, ostensibly to give people a way to play user-made maps without having to purchase the original game, but I think at this point it’s just to play old games in a new skin. Which brings me to Blasphemer.

Blasphemer seeks to do for Heretic, Raven Software’s classic fantasy shooter, what Freedoom did for Doom. Where Freedoom went with something about mutants and cosmic horror (I think,) Blasphemer moves away from Heretic’s more fantastical trappings of pissed-off elves and evil mages towards a darker, more gothic-influenced vibe. So golems are now ghouls, undead knights are now tall gangly vampires who wear scarves over their faces save when they’re attacking (reminiscent of the Soul Reaver games) and so on. While the new textures mostly resemble their counterparts, they’re darker in tone and more fitting towards the creepy gothic fantasy setting. It works, I think.

I initially hesitated to write a review about Blasphemer. With the most recent release being only a fork of version 0.1.9 (currently being maintained by regular Doomworld community project contributor Andrew “Catoptromancy” Wood) it’s nowhere near ready for primetime. Some things haven’t been replaced yet; some of the items don’t even have new names yet! With only three episodes (out of the original game’s five) being mostly-complete, and even then still in flux as most levels are lifted from /idgames or elsewhere (for example I spotted Chris Lutz’ Torture in there, a very old map from 2001) it’s not really worth even trying to do mini-reviews of the individual maps like I usually do on my boomer shooter blog. But I went ahead with this review because I felt like it deserved, if nothing else, a look at the project as it currently stands and the potential it offers.

I’ve said it in the past, but Heretic is a flawed game, mostly due to how weak its weapons are and how limited the bestiary is. While mods like Wayfarer’s Tome can get around this issue, that’s not really an option for Blasphemer, given the new art assets, so playing Blasphemer after doing the entirety of Heretic with Wayfarer’s Tome took some adjustment. Nevertheless, it’s not that vanilla Heretic gameplay is bad, and a more modern level design than Raven’s old 1993–1994-era stuff can help smooth the edges off. We can see this in E1M1, Angry Saint’s “Death of the Blasphemer,” created directly for the project; it fits the theme very well and has a strong sense of place, avoiding the more vague architecture of some of the later, “borrowed” maps, with a managed sense of encounter design.

Some of the new enemies are great; while the ghoul looks goofy with its large, penile forehead, it’s appropriately creepy in action. The new vampire sprites are really intimidating and look great. I’m not sold on the weird raven harpy that serves as the gargoyle replacement; I think I liked the burning skull thing from earlier versions more. I’m definitely not sold on the weredragon replacement, which just looks like a dickbutt; nor am I a fan of the new ophidian, a CGI nightmare that looks like something I’d fight in a potential Witchaven 3 (thank Palutena that’s not a thing!) Like most everything else in this game, some of these monsters occupy a sort of placeholder position for now, and that’s okay.

The music I’m not entirely sold on. Some of it is fine, but I didn’t find it terribly memorable. The audio design in general is pretty good though — ghouls groan, vampires scream at you, so on. Background sound effects are put to somewhat better use than they were in the base game.

The new weapons are a mix of stuff that’s been laying around and some reused assets already made, but I think they’re all fitting enough. The wand is ugly and weird looking, but it gets the job done; the new crossbow is wicked looking, but it doesn’t seem to differentiate between the central, magic arrow and the physical arrows that fire with it. No complaints about the gauntlet replacement, though, that’s for sure. The firemace replacement doesn’t seem to fit with the rest, in part because it’s off-center whereas the others are all centered.

All this being said, I really appreciate what Blasphemer is trying to do. It’s not just trying to be a FreeHeretic, it’s proposing to bring an entirely different flavor of fantasy to a game that I otherwise personally don’t really care for, setting-wise. Combine this with the small, but faithful, cottage industry of Heretic maps — and yes, they’re still being made, check out Faithless or Elf Gets Pissed sometime — and you have the potential for a really different experience, something more akin to Blood than The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Though development has been slow, I will certainly be revisiting Blasphemer at some point down the road to see where it’s at. I might even contribute something, as I’m a believer in this project.

After all, who can say no to free?

-june❤

Blasphemer is available at github and so is its fork.
Read more about Blasphemer on Doomwiki or the development thread.
Being incomplete, Blasphemer still requires a Heretic IWAD; get the game on Steam or GOG.