Play Heretic - Shadow of the Serpent Riders Online

You creep through gothic ruins blasting undead knights with a magic staff, dodging fireballs in maze-like halls that reek of ancient evil. The extra episodes drag you deeper into D'Sparil's nightmare—crumbling ossuaries, stagnant swamps, all that good 90s doom-and-gloom.

Developer: Raven Software

Genre: First-person shooter

Released: 1996

File size: 6.39 MB

Game Overview

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders is basically the beefed-up version of the original shareware Heretic, with two extra episodes that take you deeper into the Serpent Riders' messed-up world. The Ossuary is all crumbling ruins and ancient evil—like walking through the aftermath of some forgotten apocalypse. Then there’s The Stagnant Demesne, where you get to stomp around D'Sparil’s creepy home turf. If you had the original, you could patch it to match this version, but honestly, the retail release just feels more complete.

It’s classic 90s FPS action with a dark fantasy twist—less sci-fi than Doom, more gothic castles and magic staves. You’ll still recognize the fast-paced shooting and maze-like levels, but now with way more lore (and way more places to get lost). The atmosphere’s thick enough to cut with a sword, and those extra episodes? They’re not just filler—they actually add some of the game’s most memorable moments.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".