The shaded woods in Hexen has this structure of "you find a key in one area -> go to the next area -> find another key -> go to the third area -> get the last key you need -> backtrack to find all the other switches". It's a small part of why it's hard to recommend Hexen to people who don't have a walkthrough on hand.
Glad you enjoyed it! As for the HUD, try typing in "hud_scale -1" in the console (or go hunting around in the HUD options -> Scaling Options -> User Interface Scale to "Adapt to Screen Size" so you don't need to bust out the magnifying glass to see your stats.
