Hands of Necromancy

The Necromancer was minding his necromancy business when hostile creatures started attacking his world. Irritated, he sets out to destroy these intruders, and by doing so, to prove his powers as a formidable sorcerer.

This simple premise underlies Hands of Necromancy, a dark fantasy first person shooter on the GZDoom engine that pays tribute to Raven Software's classic titles: Heretic, HeXen and ShadowCaster. Generally, Hands of Necromancy plays most similar to Heretic, with no player classes and a wide arsenal of weapons, but the game world is built around a system of HeXen-like hubs with magical portals connecting the different areas.

On his quest, the Necromancer uses weapons, magical items and spells, some clearly reminding of weapons from Heretic and HeXen, such as the Ring of Ice that freezes enemies. Later on, transformations become available that allow the player to turn into certain types of game monsters and gain their powers, echoing the shapeshifting ability of ShadowCaster's protagonist. Also, just like in Raven games, there are items carried around in the inventory to be used whenever needed, some of which will be very familiar to Heretic and HeXen players, but also new ones, including the Hand of Necromancy that resurrects a slain enemy as the player's ally.

The enemy roster gravitates towards Gothic dark fantasy, with venomous serpents, gargoyles, dark wizards, zombies, ghosts and golems. Almost all have unique attacks and abilities, requiring different strategies and sometimes weapons to defeat. Game areas also follow the theme, with various medieval castles, chapels, graveyards, smithies and abandoned villages, but sometimes feature more exotic locations such as a citadel seemingly entirely wrought of iron, which may be seen as a nod to one of HeXen's levels.

The art style is strongly reminiscent of Raven Software's creations in look and feel, but manages to avoid being a carbon copy, giving the game a more original yet recognizable look. While remaining a Doom engine game at the core, Hands of Necromancy takes full advantage of GZDoom's enhanced features, including dynamic lighting, room-over-room and underwater areas, alternate weapon fire modes, etc. to upgrade the visuals and gameplay to a more modern standard.

The original release of Hands of Necromancy included three selectable chapters, with an expansion episode added later.