Hexen is sort of a sequel to Heretic, which is a game that's more or less a reskin/total conversion of Doom, having fairly similar overall gameplay.
Hexen is expected to be somewhere along these lines, but it's not, and I think it's a matter of people not having their expectations met. Hexen tries to kind of be somewhere between the Doom action shooter, and the old RPG dungeon crawl with puzzles, but it doesn't really do a good of a job of being either.

From a Doom perspective, Hexen does not have very good monsters and not very good weapons (you only get four per playthrough, and they're just not that fun). The monster types are lacking in variety and aren't enjoyable, one of the most common monsters is one which will block your weapons and which you need to throw flechette flasks at, he's obnoxious and not fun at all to fight. Every time I see another one of the Centaur fucks, I sigh in bored frustration.
Even when you aren't having attacks blocked, most of the weapons don't feel particularly strong or effective.

You're not figuring out riddles or solving any real puzzles (nor are you talking to anyone), you're just going back and forth for switches and keys, which sometimes are not conveyed particularly well.
The dildo key! It would logically go in the dildo lock, but where the fuck is that? I don't know, maybe you remember seeing it somewhere back, or maybe you haven't seen it at all yet.
Flipping a completely non-descript and plain switch somewhere, "a third of the puzzle has been solved." What the fuck does that mean? What is the puzzle? How do I solve the rest? Look for another plain and non-descript switch, maybe if you pull all three of them, something happens?

I don't WANT to hate on Hexen, because there's still cool things about the game, but it's a struggle to enjoy.

>>11811792
Exactly, it's even titled Hexen : Beyond Heretic.