#595: Blasphemous Experiments

A showcase of what Blasphemer can do for Heretic

Initial release: September 8, 2021
Platform: PC (single episode for Heretic)
Developer: Cacowad

For a time, Doomworld member Cacowad was a devoted contributor to, and maintainer of, Blasphemer, a years-long project to build a freeware replacement for beloved(?) fantasy shooter Heretic. You don’t take a job like project maintainer for something like this without having some passion for the game you’re attempting to clone; as such, Cacowad has spent their decade-plus in the community making maps for both Heretic and Doom, contributing to projects like HYMN and the DWANGO anniversary project. It seems much of their output thus far has been Heretic-focused, and in 2021, they released Blasphemous Experiments, a collection of nine of their Heretic maps, greatly expanded on and retextured in the Blasphemer style, and released as an episode with the intent of donating it to the Blasphemer project.

As a map pack, Blasphemous Experiments is pretty solid. It’s representative of nine years of growth, and Cacowad’s extensive editing of their older work for the pack has more or less hidden whatever more amateurish or underdeveloped aspects there might have been. The end result is a well-designed gauntlet of extra-hard Heretic maps that make extensive use of golems and gargoyles (perhaps more than any other monster) for an occasionally slaughtery experience, especially on higher difficulties. From the very first shot drawing a horde of golems out of hiding to the crush of Disciples while you’re trying to put down a Maulotaur and his Iron Lich pets in a narrow arena, Cacowad knows how to keep the pressure on. An especially common feature is the veritable clouds of gargoyles, whole flocks that establish air superiority early on and have an annoying tendency to find a way into whatever shelter you’ve found for yourself. Lesser used are the Disciples, usually trotted out either to add a little extra oomph to a monster fleet or in large groups to punish the player. The majority of monsters are golems and undead warriors and their variants; they fill the mouldy tombs, patrol the dusty corridors and snipe at you from cragged perches along stone ridges.

The constituent parts of Blasphemous Experiments might not have been built with Blasphemer in mind, but they generally suit the gothic atmosphere pretty well, ranging from forsaken churches with sinister earthworks in back, to long-abandoned, dusty tomb complexes, to sprawling haunted medieval fortress towns. While sometimes the sheer amount of monsters — especially in some of the later maps — can be overwhelming, sometimes it’s as much about the journey as it is about the goal, and other than a few tough spots (mostly to do with a lack of ammo and/or weapons) I found the difficulty curve to be fairly gentle, albeit starting off high.

If you like Heretic, or you’re looking for a proper episode to play Blasphemer with, you could do worse than Cacowad’s heretical experiments.

-june❤

Blasphemous Experiments can be downloaded from its Doomworld thread.