The DWmegawad Club plays: Sunlust

I guess Go Fuck Yourself, like many other maps, was just more fun on continuous ITYTD for me. Probably won't even last a second on that map on a pistol start.

MAP30 God Machine

so I'll try this too. why the hell knot. made it this far.

understanding the concept of the title, there's some work done on the Commander Keen enemy, where they are outside of play and function solely as resurrectors. you'll be seeing dead monsters rise up to attack again. gotta say though, the atmosphere is totally nailed.

the really nastiest fight in the first half has to be the resurrected chaingunners, which doesn't even work as intended, since some of them got stuck on structures for some reason. and them cacos don't make things any easier. Killing an enemy next to the structure ensures another resurrection too.

one of the more interesting parts is that secret fight in the southeast. WTF you could telefrag cyberdemons with CANDLES!? Original.

Hooray! Another luck-filled fight with imp and hell knight hordes, plus cyberturrets, revenants, and mancubi. Like I really wanted that. I got 5/5 secrets finally finding a hidden switch taking out the cyberturrets with candles. and of course, open-ended arch-vile occurrences.

to the final area! full-on slaughter, that damaging liquid I was previously on has finally decided to not be damaging for once!? I'm too drunk for this shit. sv_infiniteammo it is then, for the whole thing. I don't need to say anything about it.

final thingies coming soon. I like your cat, whoseever it is.

Finale

So what do we get when a slaughtermapper and a time traveler team up and make a 32 level megawad. We get a hard, fun-filled, sometimes frustrating, yet all-around enjoyable megawad. Okay, maybe it's most enjoyable for those on lower difficulties playing on continuous than those on UV pistol starting, but that's an opinion of mine. The design of course, is bliss, and the gameplay is set into some setpieces which drive the megawad on. (is running out of things to say) um good job, can replay again.

best maps were MAP05, MAP12, MAP15, MAP16, and MAP24. worst was MAP17.

MAP30 - "God Machine"

I liked the mysterious resurrecting gimmick, but not the map itself at all. The 64-wide tile-based design, the inconsistent mixture of cramped and spacious areas + the progression logic based around it, the dark tone and emphasize on an "artistic" aesthetic and atmosphere, grindful slaughter encounters of incoherent scale/difficulty, and issues with slow performance even in ZDoom - all of these factors made me not care for the map.

Bug - floating Baron corpse here: http://i.imgur.com/EEsTsgl.png

MAP30: God Machine

And so we come to the end of it all, the black and pulsing heart of the beast that is Sunlust, the God Machine. Visually this is a collision/agglomeration of several of the sub-themes deployed throughout the WAD, going back to the use of yellow as a contrast colour seen in the earliest levels, combining that with the technological grunge that's been a recurring feature of several maps and the use of cavernous outer spaces that have been particularly prevalent in this last one-third of the level set. Lights trace the outlines of distant components and subassemblies as the player makes their way through the God Machine's lower levels and innards, structural supports, beams, and pillars disappearing off into the void; the player is like an ant, crawling through a forsaken mechanism that's hinted-at as being monstrously, unimaginably huge.

Into this huge space are thrust Hell's legions; even HNTR puts the monster population of this level at a whopping 1,700+, and by the time I was done with it, the actions of pain elementals and arch-viles had pushed that above 2,000. The first few minutes of the player's time in the map are spent in silence, creeping through the God Machine's inactive workings (the ominous background music is delicious by the way) before the first monsters are rebirthed and the profane mechanism shudders into blasphemous life. The encounters start large and get larger, with the player pushing through several distinct hordes before landing in the final arena and facing a staggered, staged battle against everything Hell still has to vomit forth. One final close-quarters battle against an incoming swarm of arch-viles that the player must struggle to keep ahead of, and then it's over, a doorway opening to a construct of dancing light-rays which carries the player to final victory.

Honestly I think this map carried less impact arriving so quick on the heels of the likes of MAP28's mysterious grandeur and MAP29's clever encounter setups; I didn't find it as artistically pleasing as the former, nor as devilishly ingenious as the latter, and with only a single new trick to bring to the table (one that's readily anticipated in the presence of corpses and the rapid whirl of the kill counter at the level's start) it's left with few other options but to drop the player into ever larger spaces and pit them against ever more numerous and ferocious hordes. Even on HNTR, the WAD feels like it's already hit such a fever pitch of intensity, grandiosity, and slaughter that its efforts to top itself in this final outing fall rather flat.

MAP30 - "God Machine" by Danne & Ribbiks

Spectacular looking map. This went a lot smoother than the last time I played it. I even wondered if I had accidentally played on UV before, but seems not. The whole yellow key fight is gone on HMP, and the final battle had me rolling in ammo. Its also a lot more fun playing in gzdoom, those lost souls at the end were a nightmare in prboom. The only criticism I would make would be that the whole tooling up section at the start is a bit convoluted, I'm not sure if I was missing some navigation somewhere or doing things in a weird order, but it seemed to involve a lot of back and forth. At one point I was totally stuck for what to do next and had to go back checking the whole map again for a new bit that had opened. Other than that I had a marvelous time, I enjoyed it so much in fact that I straight away played it again on UV. This time I got as far as the door in the final arena which has a shit load of archviles behind it. Unfortunately I had squandered all the available health and just didn't have enough to carry on. Its a shame, maybe another day I will try again. By the way, the archvile snipers in that final arena are pure evil, its like having an invisible damaging floor that kills you in one hit. Not sure I like that.

Anyway, time to give some final thoughts on this wad. I haven't mentioned the visuals much because I would just be repeating myself every time, the design of these maps is bloody jaw-dropping. Its a work of art even without the guns and monsters, after a while you almost take it for granted but it really has to be said this is the pinnacle of doom artistry for me. The gameplay is mostly as expected, though I was hoping for more mindless slaughter in the later maps. Throughout the wad there is the theme of small highly engineered fights in enclosed spaces, I figured this was to keep the challenge up during the earlier maps where the monster count is naturally lower, but it continues all the way through pretty much, just ramping up the difficulty by making the player do more with less. I don't mind those kind of scenarios now and then, but I began to find them a bit fatiguing in this collection. Particularly when they demand such precise actions and don't allow for any mistakes. Compared to something like combat shock, that also has the bite-size chunks of gameplay formula, but it also has very large hordes and spaces which gives the player a lot of options for movement and tactics. For me, the most fun maps are ones that give you the tools to create your own experience, whereas some of these highly choreographed scenarios grab the tools out of your hands and tell you to stand back and watch while they show you how its done. Its the difference between feeling like I'm playing the map or the map is playing me, and I prefer to play the map personally. The other downside to this style of map is that it breaks the 4th wall somewhat by showing the author's hand placing the chess pieces, so to speak. Thats obviously not a big deal for a lot of players, just something that niggles me a bit.

Anyway, its a tough one. I've played a lot of tough megawads and I can usually soldier through them all on UV with saves and patience, but this one had a few maps at the end that defeated me. Definitely a wad to keep at the back of the cupboard and pull out occasionally when I want to remind myself how much of a filthy casual I am.

MAP30: So one of the things I love most about modern mapping trends is that the penultimate map is no longer typically the finale—mapsets can now close out on something awesome and grand instead of having to go the IoS gimmick route. And here we have a slow series of small-scale battles that build up to a monumental finale packed wall to wall with monsters. The atmosphere here is palpable—darkness has conquered the aged machine, rendering its powers inert until your naive meddling riles it up once more. Imbuing the machine with resurrection powers is utterly brilliant, though I’m sad it’s not used more throughout the map… the chaingunner encounter was the most creative IMO, since you needed to make sure to kill the cacos away from the metallic cubes.

That’s not to say the other fights weren’t stellar though—the battle for the BFG in the easy is my favorite encounter on the map, as it fills you with dread seeing three megaspheres awaiting you for the road ahead. That encounter demands you to be attentive of what’s going on at all times and even incentivizes you to unleash the AVs early, in order to allow the infighting to distract them. Most of the fights on the map were actually pretty tame and generous—which I enjoyed coming hot off the heels of MAP29—until I stumbled into the big final arena.

Holy cow did that take a bit of work to chew through (as well as to make I assume)! I like how the map was pretty fickle with the yellow trim use, instead relying on the metal textures to convey an oppressive, bleak tone, building up to the resplendent golden heart of the God Machine. I didn’t find the encounters there as demanding as the ammo shortage, since it requires you to really make every shot count. Playing in Zdoom made the two “corner” encounters quite the mess as the lag meant I had little control, but I muscled my way through them with plenty of saves. And then the PEs come out to play, along with a massive army at your back… by that point I was kinda tired and seeing a horde of PEs infighting with each other and raising the monster count by 4000 wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight. And I can understand the use of the AVs floating in the northern section to deny circle-strafing, but their line of sight seemed extremely ambiguous and I felt like I was rolling the die over and over just to see if I could pick up a megasphere without being seen in the second half of the fight. It’s a cool area that offers up plenty of challenge, but I still feel it’s inferior to MAP28’s secret slaughter arena, as most of the intended philosophies (PEs to start carnage, AVs to deny circle strafing) were more straightforward and engaging (less obnoxious too).

I probably had the inverse experience of Demonologist, where I adored the slow base-crawling (exploring beautiful environments is fun!) at the start and felt the finale was too much. Nevertheless, I can respect the map for putting up a fight and featuring some of the best visuals out of the entire wad, and am super glad that Sunlust closes on an immersive journey into the cold, brutish heart of evil. Also, it has a real nifty yellow slinky as an exit, which is pretty novel.

Overall, Sunlust is an awe-inspiring juggernaut that is as good as I hoped it would be. It's intimidating—true—but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be going in. I'm more of a setpiece battle kinda guy so most of its design suits my tastes perfectly, but I can understand what mouldy is getting at with crafting chaos rather than being subjected to it. I think my personal fault with the set is that there isn't much of an atmosphere to the maps outside of 7,14,17,26, & 30, as most of the design minutae (eg microscale stuff) are similar, but this is an entirely minor thing as the gameplay takes front and center stage for the journey. The maps are absolutely stunning too—no doubt about that—and no matter what your tastes are you can at least admit that Danne and Ribbiks have crafted a technical marvel that will stand as a Dooming landmark for years to come. It's rare for me to revisit mapsets considering how much I have left in the Doom catalogue to play, but this will definitely be one I'll trudge through in another time.

Top three are MAP26, MAP29, and MAP14.

Bottom three are MAP31, MAP23, and MAP05.

Brilliant stuff I'm super glad you guys developed and released.

I ended to replay less maps of what I was thinking, but at least I'll post my final impressions on all the wad. The first time I played Sunlust on UV, pistol starts with frequent saves and swearing.
I liked how there's a good attention to secrets, optional areas and even some gimmicks; things that honestly I wasn't expecting to find, or at least not so much. All the levels are very well done and the work of the authors is just amazing. There are many nice visuals, but at the same time I found that many maps didn't catch my attention so much with beign too abstract or without having something more to distinguish them from other maps.
The challenge was really great and the overall medium lenght of the levels didn't make the playthrough tedious. I was also expecting more bigger levels and epic battles in the vibe of Sunder, but that just me for what I recall of Stardate20x6 and Combat Shock 1/2. The only thing that I didn't like so much is all the emphasis that it was put to set the fights in cramped places, and the (almost) ever present archviles.
Overall this is an excellent megawad.

Map 03 -- Forgotten Shrine - 101% Kills / 60% Secrets - FDA
Cloistered near the fortress's heart is a shrine to unknown powers, a little pocket of doleful serenity in the unlikeliest of places, where ambient warmth and a light dusting of volcanic ash have allowed the ancient terraces to grow a mossy mantle, even as rivulets of lava course here and there through its stony seat.

This is of course Ribbiks' first solo map in the set, and thus the first of many appearances of his trademark smooth, delicate curved shapes, which here assert themselves in the rocky terrain into which the shrine itself is set. Someone (probably KMX) observed that the whole lovely tableau is like nothing so much as an expat from Crumpets, and I certainly agree; again, replace the lava with some more mudflows or some green slime, and perhaps take the overall light level down a notch or two, and it'd fit right in to that mapset, marches of braziers and dreamy BGM and all. While it's a simple setting and a pretty common theme for Doom on the surface (e.g. bricks and rocks), I almost invariably enjoy Ribbiks' take on it, as there always seems to be something subtly otherworldly about his framing of it, despite the earthly setting. Very likely it's the curves, come to think of it....they hardly look manmade (in game, I mean), but are also too smooth and regular to seem quite 'natural' either, lending most scenes a heavily stylized feel even when they're portraying something as mundane as a little pile of rubble in a brown rock/dirt clearing. It hasn't gotten old for me yet, anyway, despite its commonality in Ribbiks' work. On that point, while I think it's probably fair to say that this author's stuff does tend to be decidedly trope-y within itself (or perhaps 'self-referential'), we would be remiss to overlook the loving bits of subtle detail which go into each piece; it's a tiny thing, but I couldn't help but notice the unusual specimen of a key-actuated direct lift in front of the elevated yellow door, presumably something involving a voodoo closet behind the scenes purely for the sake of feel. Another interesting undercurrent is the idea of objects (including Doomguy himself at one point) frequently materializing from the aether amidst rows/rings of torches, while the painstaking shadowing on the floor of the entrance hall in respect to the narrow window-slats high on the west wall stands out as a loveletter to pure aesthetic.

I believe this is actually one of the physically smallest of all the maps in Sunlust (perhaps even THE smallest?), though as others have said it seems larger than it is by dint of the heavy verticality in the layout, where most of the main play areas are not separated by gates or teleporters or the like, but rather by drops and lifts. In practical terms this contributes more to the feel of the setting than to the actual combat (since most encounters are unleashed based on an obvious trigger or snare, and height differentials between you and what's attacking you at a given moment are rare), although it does lend itself well to exploring the shrine grounds for hidden nooks and crannies, the little alley-oop leading to the whimsical orange pinwheel pocket-dimension with the plasma gun(s) being the most involved (I have a sneaking suspicion that the two secrets I didn't find were probably the easiest/simplest of them all).

Fights themselves are still decidedly on the gentle side at this early point, though as with map 02 we see more concepts which will eventually become quite prominent in the WAD later on debut here, ala the value of a pacifistic (read: trolling) approach in the pinwheel secret. As a generality, Ribbiks is even more loath than Danne to allow players to simply run away from/back out of his traps, so most of the encounters here have at least a token sentry guarding the back door, although actual physical strictures on where you're allowed to go once the action begins are pretty light, the blue key trap (which gives me HEAVY deja vu for some other level I can't quite put my finger on, incidentally) being the obvious exception. On that point, while it's something we could just as easily talk about at countless other places in the WAD, this particular ambush is a fine early example of one of Sunlust's dominant philosophies about staging encounters: it is of course blatantly obvious that "it's a trap, Jim." It's supposed to be obvious, so that you can examine the situation and the environment and work out some kind of plan before the screaming and shooting and dashing and bleeding actually begins (hence why I didn't haplessly hop in when I first saw the setup, when I had 52% health, no armor, and just a shotgun to work with). Many of Sunlust's encounters are almost ridiculously lethal and seemingly insurmountable at first blush, but having a plan is often more than half the battle; while developing a plan realistically entails some degree of trial and error in more complex encounters, you will inevitably fare better if you use your head rather than trying to win on guts and reflex alone. This element of the experience is where a lot of the fun/satisfaction actually comes from in this style of map, rather than from the raw twitch/arcade reflex aspect of combat alone, perhaps something to consider for those members of the audience to whom this kind of stuff just looks like "mindless monster-spam" or whathaveyou.

Map 04 -- Sol - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA
Another candidate for the set's smallest map, 'Sol' is another Dannemap (you can tell by the cell/platelet look to the natural terrain) that has had its nose powdered and its hair done by Ribbiks, like map 01 before it. Centered on a lava spring nestled in a rocky peak with some rudimentary base/fort trappings framing it (I like to imagine it's at or near the very pinnacle of the volcanic mountain), this map marks the end of the first thematic cluster, and ironically enough, also marks the final time we'll be seeing anything resembling the Terran sun for the rest of the duration, courtesy of the stylized sunwheel 'secret' (like pretty much everyone else that has played, I have no idea what I did to actually unlock that). Like a number of the other early maps, the visual aspect of the level is rather understated in comparison to a lot of what's to come by dint of the modest scale, but it's still quite aesthetically pleasant in its way--I think the starry night sky makes a much better accompaniment to the glowing lava than the sunset-orange sky of maps 01 and 03, and of course I'll hear no words against yet another marvelous Stewboy midi. Dude's a national treasure, I tell ya.

In line with the map's small stature, congestion is the name of the game in the combat here, as made clear by the uncomfortably snug pepperbox Doomguy begins in, staring at a pack of sweaty, clammy imp posteriors. The whole romp is a short little three-key CYA setpiece outing as most recently popularized by Skillsaw (who makes maps on this template in his sleep, no doubt), and two of those three setpieces operate on trying to smother you with infernal bodies while you're stuck in a dead end of some sort (the YK fight being the exception, where it's presumably assumed/intended you'll flee back to the little hub area before beginning to fight back). In my playthrough, I went to the BK's cupola first, and I reckon this little number was my favorite fight in the level--the obnoxious overlooking chaingun snipers were expected, but it's the blindside revenant podium that makes it work. On that note, it seems to me that which key setpiece you actually end up going to first (and then second and then third) is not particularly strategically relevant in this case, which seems natural enough given the early game slot. You can always get the RL after one fight thanks to the rarely seen 'any key'-tagged switch gating it, and in any case both the RL and PR are more luxury items than crucial survival tools in this outing; I reckon you can win all of the fights here (even the last one) with your sawn-off and a cool head, if need be, as the level's balance can brook quite a few mistakes: I didn't play so well in the FDA this time (really only did well in the final fight), but ended up escaping without deaths anyway, mostly by dint of generous health/powerup distribution. That being said, as befitting the final map in the cluster, the overall lethality of the action here is certainly higher than in the previous three maps, particularly if one is unaccustomed enough to this style of gameplay that being cornered by a clot of monsters automatically elicits panic.

On to the next cluster, which takes place in and on a cybergothic satellite apparently hanging in low orbit over the fiery peak. Looking at the exit scene in 'Sol', I can't help but be reminded of the image at the focal center of the Sistine Chapel's painted ceiling...

MAP29 Go Fuck Yourself:

Is this even possible on pistol start on UV? This was a nightmare on continuous. This map was easily the most difficult map, no contest. I didn't really like it in all honesty. The room with the spinning thing was cool but there were way too many imps, hellknights spawning in. We are expected to use the Rocket launcher here. So it's very annoying having to keep moving shooting rockets, as well as keeping a distance because you are bound to eat a rocket eventually. I did have some BFG so when the hellknights started coming out I switched to it to help. I eventually made it through after countless saves. I started playing some death metal (Bolt Thrower), and that gave me the strength to get through the rest of the map. The invulnerability secret was a fucking godsend for the last part of the map. Maybe it wasn't that bad all in all, but it was frustrating as hell. Only one more beast of a map left...

map 21: DNF, 2/4 secrets, 12 deaths, no saves

Another clever application of secrets present. There's one that contains a single medikit. Underwhelming but there's more to it than surface appearances suggest. It opens up one at the start which also serves as a means of making a future battle easier, a neat reward.

Very Eternal Doomish with the visuals and texture choices though the futuristic windows remind me of CChest 4. I totally missed an area the first few times I played the map where I lost all semblance of skill upon grabbing the blue key and got chewed on and burned. More alert and aware on the next go around, I made for an easy escape (which in a rare show of mercy in this set is not blocked off) and was able to cheese the encounter. Different attempts had me trying out the yellow key fight and dying to cacodemons and another where I died to the spider mastermind only figuring out what to do after the fact. This map may be within my skill level and will consider returning to it at another time.

map 31: DNF, 0/1 secret, 11 deaths, no saves

The music upon loading this up sounded so familiar yet I could not place it for awhile. It would be days later before I remember I first heard it in Jenesis map 10. The music alone probably inflates my perception of the map. Very puzzley and slower paced, the pinch comes from tight ammo rather than the combat. Armor is quite scarce while health is somewhat more available. Dual archvile encounter is the most tense encounter for me due to weapon availability and that SSG is only available once the encounter is triggered. A memorable situation had me at 5% after dealing with a pair of hellknights and revenants (handled by having them beat each other up and finishing off survivors, of course; ammo is tight after all). Yeah, not making it to the end like this. Think this is also within my skill level to finish, without saves even.

Map14 – Troglobite by Ribbiks – Kills – 100, Items – 77, Secret – 50. End Health – 164, Armor 164. Death Count – 13

I'm going to try to finish this by Wednesday. I've actually had more difficulty finding time for the write-ups than for the playing. ;)

This is a tale of 2 maps, because first time through, my death count was Zero. That's right, zero. But my kill total was only 58% so, because I save just before the exit in case something like this happens, I opened my save and found most of the other stuff.

The start of the map shows what a huge impact playing continuous has. After going straight in and getting munched a bit, I opened a save and rocketed the Hell Knights from the start area, which woke up some Imps who were soon acquainted with my shotgun, afterwhich I dealt with the Sergeants and the Mancs. Thus, a challenging opening battle was reduced to a doddle. Because of this, I can't really evaluate the maps fairly from a combat standpoint because my approach runs counter to the spirit of the gameplay. I acknowledge that, while also ackowledging that I'm too wimpy to pistol-start on HMP.

The nifty Revvie trap at the door still presented problems, but that led to a quick bit of business with the HK/Revvie trap that followed. With low firepower, starting infights would have been vital in this battle. Instead, it was just a nice way to get rid of 1 Revvie.

This room – I'll call it The Boat Room – was gorgeous. I really loved the lighting on the terraced overhangs. Just dripping with atmosphere.

After this, I triggered the lowering-floor trap, which I enjoyed on both of its descents. Had I paid more attention, I could have entered the “optional” areas from here, IIRC. But once that floor lowers, you're SOL. After this, it was a camping exercise in the big Parkour Room, rocketing away at the heavies before stumbling over to the exit.

After opening the save, I found the way down to the yellow switch and then into the Room of Horror, where I got squashed like a bug 9 times in a row. I finally hid from the Mancs, Chaingunners, HKs and that central Revvie sniper behind one of the very thin columns – keyboarders love those!!!!! – and took out the converging Mancs before starting on everything else. I don't have enough directional control with my playstyle to exploit all the infighting opportunities here. If I ran out from behind the column, I got wiped either by Chaingunners or Mancs, so I simply had to cower behind the column until the Mancs were dead, then I rocketed the Chaingunners 1 bank at a time before killing the Revvie. The HKs were just ammo sponges.

I was, to say the least, furious when, after all that hell, I didn't get the yellow key!!!!!! You could've fried a steak on my head! :D I did, however, find an invuln – great timing on that – and used it to instead explore the Boat Room, where I found a place that's opened by a yellow key, and eventually, the opening to the big optional area. And then, at last, I saw the damned yellow key, and a BFG – a bit ominous, that – and walked forward, and good holy shit, there's 2 Cybs and a shitload of Nobles all of a sudden.

Hmmmm, SteveD plus 2 Cybs plus a small space plus a bunch of nobles to prevent effective dodging in one direction means I'm gonna die several times. All told, it went better than expected, only 4 deaths before I prevailed. By my standards, that's a pleasant cruise on the lake. ;)

Overall, this map was what I expected more of when I started playing – nice-looking abstract environments, slow, pretty music, and brutal gameplay. But maybe because so much of the map was optional, or because I felt like I got assraped in that one fight but didn't get the yellow key, or because the actual yellow key fight felt so completely artificial, this ended-up being one of my less favored adventures.

MAP30 God Machine:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Big puzzle maps are some of the worst type of maps for doom. If I wanted to play Half-Life I would play Half-Life. A lot of switches that I can't figure out what they do. Lots of teles. Lots of sloggy gameplay. Lots of lifts. This would be the worst map in the set IMO (just like Scythe 1 MAP30).

Now for the WAD review. I actually quite enjoyed this map set. It was difficult, fun at times, and the maps were indeed stunning looking. This is easily the hardest set of maps I've ever played. I also really liked the music used in most of the maps (except for MAP29's music). If I had to give an overall score I would give it a 4 out of 5. I enjoyed it up until the last map. The "puzzley" like design of it is just not my thing in doom. Another thing that marks this set down for me is, I can't see my self ever wanting to play this set again, as most of the maps require too much trial and error for my taste. Once again I like to ONLY play on UV and the mappers should consider toning down the difficulty a tad on UV, that way it is more enjoyable for more players. That's just my opinion though. Overall fun for a one time play I can't wait to play Plutonia 2.

Top 5 Maps:
MAP24
MAP18
MAP12
MAP19
MAP27

Worst 5 Maps:
MAP32
MAP30
MAP21
MAP29
MAP14

Map15 – Strength And Anger by Danne – Kills – 100, Items – 95, Secret – 50. End Health – 171, Armor 172. Death Count – 21

This one sure knocked the snot out of my nose.

The map got off to a good start with some nice initial combat before I found a window overlooking a spectacular exit area.

The BFG trap was pretty strong, but manageable, mainly because I already had every weapon. IMO, this worked in favor of making the trap fun, rather than against it.

I died a few times at the red key battle by trying to Rambo the room and grab the Megasphere just as my health was dwindling under Archie attack, but that never worked out, so I camped the opening, rocketing HKs and Chaingunners, drawing Archie in as I ducked to my left and around the corner, until he was finally close enough for a rocket barrage. From that point, it was smooth sailing.

With a bit of a breather, I noticed that this cavern system was drowning in brown shitwater, with diarrhea waterfalls everywhere. I felt like a sewage worker! :D

There was some trivial combat before I raised a bunch of platforms, making for the second map in a row requiring Doom Parkour. Yay. It wasn't so awful, though, but it did slow things down as I had to save after each group of platform runs.

So I finally get to this jagged room where I kill an Archie and see a Zerk in front of yet another diarrhea waterfall. I didn't grab it right away since I was well over 100%, and this mapset hasn't been really big on Pinky punching. So I go to the switch, press it, and . . .

O
M
F
G
!

The diarrhea waterfall vanishes and 85 million Pinkies are pouring through, aiming to eat my face, and a Cyb is towering over them like a general leading the charge. This is literally like a nightmare I used to have as a kid. I'm glued to my spot, my mouth hanging open, completely dumb-struck and transfixed. Even when a Hell Knight smacks me upside the head from above with green slime, I just stand there. And now I notice Revvie rockets heading my way. For some reason, that makes me finally move. And I die. Open save, die again. I think I died about 5 times, once to Cyb rocket, twice to Pinky bites, once to Revvie rocket, and once to HK slime right when I had cleared just about everything. That one really pissed me off. When I finally made it, which involved charging into the big room as soon as I could to enjoy a little infighting goodness, I found this to be a very exhilerating fight. Whew!

So on to the really BIG fight against 10,000 Revvies and their pals. Oh yes, it's Suitepee's Nightmare come to life. I died like a dog, again and again. I am really not equipped to battle this many Revvies in the open. As in the previous map, I had to figure out how to dodge behind columns – in this case about the thickness of a human hair – wait for the homing rockets to hit them, and then move out before I got nailed by ballistic missiles. Good thing there were 2 Soulspheres. I reckon I died about 12 times in this battle, including twice to the damn Cyb, which was embarrassing. Once I finally killed all the Revvies, I decided to wimp-out against the Cyb and peck at him from above until I got so bored that I went down and finished him off with rockets. I was just too shellshocked at that point to be ballsy.

After this it was time to kill the exit Cyb and find all the switches for the secret exit, which was utterly tedious. I wish a better answer had been found, because it really threw a damper on a great map.

All in all, I found this map to be atmospheric, with a nice mellow music track, totally in keeping with what I expected. The big battles were really severe this time. I loved it! My favorite map so far.

Just wanted to say, I played the summer of 69 outakes and it was quite interesting to compare. I think they definitely made the right choices with all the changes they made.

Also, I hope DOTW keeps posting his writeups and demos. I want to see how he copes with some of those hard bastards later on.

mouldy said:

Also, I hope DOTW keeps posting his writeups and demos. I want to see how he copes with some of those hard bastards later on.

I second that. I want to see how he handled that Revvie trap in Map15.

Map31 – Birds of a Feather by Ribbiks – Kills – 100, Items – 66, Secret – 0. End Health – 200, Armor 100. Death Count – Zero

This is a really beautiful map, a wood and metal waterpark floating in a deep space void. It was also shockingly easy for a continuous player. Reading the comments, I gather that it was meant for ammo-starved Tyson play, which is never a favorite trope for me. Still, this map is a perfect example of how playing continuous completely destroys maps like these. Because I had ammo, the gameplay was very uninvolving, almost fall-asleep easy.

I should have played at least UV-continuous for the first 2 episodes. That's probably the best compromise I could have made between my lack of skill plus my enjoyment at having my ass kicked. I really have no one to blame but myself for the relative ease of the gameplay.

Edit: I wanted to mention that the teleporting torches are pretty damned cool.

Demon of the Well said:

Map 03 -- Forgotten Shrine - 101% Kills / 60% Secrets - FDA
Cloistered near the fortress's heart is a shrine to unknown powers, a little pocket of doleful serenity in the unlikeliest of places, where ambient warmth and a light dusting of volcanic ash have allowed the ancient terraces to grow a mossy mantle, even as rivulets of lava course here and there through its stony seat.

lol @ punching that knight's corpse through the the teleport line ;)

sunlust will take several people way longer than the month it was scheduled for to play through. i'll be away again and miss a good part of plutonia2, but i'll post my impressions of it and of sunlust later, as it's a too good megawad to miss. i ran into trouble with UV pistol starts on map08 or so, because of these locked-in setpiece battles and its tendency to turn seemingly safe areas into death traps. i have much less problems with a horde of revs as long as i can move, than with just a few of them in a crossfire and little space. not only are your comments very detailed and fun to read, but your FDAs show me every time how simply things can be done with some observation and intuition. for contrast, i tend to look disoriented when playing a new map, dying a lot until i know the layout, and only then it works. pretty embarrassing and indicative for what i should work on.

Map32 – Postcoitus Doom by Danne – Kills – 100, Items – 75, Secret – 100. End Health – 200, Armor 200. Death Count – 6

Another nice-looking cavern map. This one is much brighter thanks to extensive use of SP_Rock1, which is frequently misaligned on the horizontal plane, but we all know how tough it is to align such vast expanses of this texture. There is also plenty of brown shitwater and the charmingly familiar diarrhea waterfalls for that nice, homey touch.

Once again, combat was pretty easy, indeed, mostly trivial to continuers, up until the end. I managed to die twice to the Cyb and then 4 times to the Archie flood. After the 3rd Archie death, I decided to go to that one little cubbyhole just below the Archie platform, and then take advantage of mouselook to assassinate some Viles and thin-out the horde. I still got wiped on my next pass, but I almost made it, only getting taken out by the last Archie in that wing off to my left. Next time through was the charm, and I saved the Megasphere for the post-Archie Victory Party.

Although I suffered some ass-kicking, this map did feel a bit stick-up-the-ass in terms of its rigid setpieces. I'm really wanting some craziness and some continuing, unstructured combat instead of this “One Hamburger Hill After Another” trappy gameplay.

Map16 – Lost Antiques by Danne – Kills – 100, Items – 62, Secret – 33. End Health – 83, Armor 83. Death Count – 4

This one had a nice, rough start with the player stepping into a classic U-shaped corridor of death. I savescummed quite a bit in these early battles as I learned the map, but nonetheless, I was very surprised when I opened the yellow gates and got a Cyb leading the welcoming committee! I died once in this battle, but I soon learned where to chokepoint the mini-hordes and prevailed quickly enough.

The underground battles were quite easy, and I was happy to figure out the BFG secret, mainly to get the extra cell charge pack.

That bit of business with the unleashed Arachnotrons was nasty, and rather tedious to deal with. I had to frequently duck behind a corner before cleaning them out with rockets and chaingun. Then came the double-sided Revvie/Imp flood plus a bazillion teleporting Pinkies. I fled screaming towards the rear, only to discover 2 Archies guarding the area. They dusted me. After opening a save, I raced to the rear immediately, spraying rockets everywhere until I killed the Archies, then it was a fairly dull ring-around-the-rosie on the Revvies, Imps and Pinkies. Pretty weak fight given all the monsters. The saving grace is that the area looked impressive.

I died my first try at the exit when I failed to pain-chance an Archie in the open. This was a nice, crazy little battle that I really enjoyed. I recorded my pre-death exit health and armor stats, which show that this map successfully kept me whittled down even though it wasn't immensely threatening. Pretty good map.

Map 4 plama rifle secret: a lone armor bonus marks the trigger to open it up

Moving on for my last map writeup for this.

map 7: 35% kills, 3/9 secrets, 12 deaths

Stats are taken from when I first reach the exit. I do go back and track down the rest of the secrets later.

Mission Briefing
The way forward lies beyond a security door that is impervious to any weapon the marine can utilize. A number of cybernatic spiders with plasma cannons control the lock to the security door. Terminating the spiders will cut off the signal to the security door causing the lock to disengage. There is also a (optional) locked compound with heavy weaponry that requires a set of keycards to gain entry. Entering it will involve obtaining the keycards off the enemy units that carry them. You'll also need to find a hidden path to reach it. Good luck.

Played in early October, it's writing the little backstory imagined in my head that caused me to delay posting this. Probably more story than the WAD itself, hehe. Long, long, ago when I still tinkered with a map editor, I imagined a map which started out like Dead Simple. Kill the Mancubi and..., where are the spiders? This map realizes my vision far better than anything I dreamt up.

Died a few times at the start when trying this, including one where I recklessly chased the SSG and got swarmed. On the attempt I lasted more than 3 minutes on, I turned around and took out the first spider with the shotgun before proceeding farther. With that threat gone, I could slow down the pace and gain a foothold. Had fun searching out the secret pathways. One of them allowed me take out a waiting ambush from behind, cool. Didn't have much trouble other than the rocket launcher trap (for the required progression anyways). Solved that one in a rather odd way. Looked like Ring aournd the Rosie with a number of revenants. The spiders that showed up ended up gangbanged by skeletons. Though I could have left the arena sooner, waited until the spiders were dead before making a break for it and sening some rockets down the hallway. The computer map at the exit is a welcome inclusion and fits the exploration theme of the map.

Despite numerous delays and such, I still have every intention of finishing what I started here.

Map 05 -- Gear Up - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA, 1 death (the first of many)
I see that this was one of the least popular maps in the set during the main playthrough. Makes sense, I suppose, I think it's the first map (of many) where some degree of foreknowledge of what's coming is not merely a convenience but more or less essential for practical survival, and of course there's always something potentially jarring about that 'now shit gets real' transition point in this or any WAD. It's also another of the least 'sightsee-y' maps in the set, where the main visual draws are largely superficial niceties on top of a decidedly utilitarian blocky/orthogonal frame. Nevertheless, while it's definitely not going to make my top 5 of the set or anything, I reckon it does have some unique/interesting qualities to it that are worth considering.

Apart from the relatively oppressive action start, where some degree of silence is very helpful (something that's going to be a loooooooooong running theme in this mapset), I reckon the idea that most immediately jumps out at one here is the riff on fetch-quest progression: Doomguy doesn't make progress by collecting keys in this one, instead he collects a series of armor infusions reverently displayed on plinths all around the orbital platform (is it some sort of bizarre war museum? fashion show?) before gearing up with the game's first combat armor at or near the conclusion. At face value this design angle could be taken as being purely cosmetic, simply swapping the traditional MacGuffin (read: keys) for a stand-in, and even in that simple sense I think the idea is worthy enough, adds a touch of uniqueness to the proceedings without requiring a commitment to a starkly high-concept map at this early stage. If you're a fan of that 'ludic' analytical angle that seems to be all the rage of late, I suppose you could also view this as a form of training, as later in the mapset the notion of picking up small trinkets in order to progress will appear again, usually in far less obvious ways than that seen here.

More importantly, though, this setup--which uses neither keys nor switches/doors to formally gate or segment progression--means that this relatively unassuming outing is actually a sandbox of sorts, something that is quite rare in this WAD. Many later levels include significant aspects of non-linearity, optionality, and rich lodes of secret/hidden content to add depth and replayability, but very few of them allow you to roam at will the way this one does, especially while combat engagements are still active. It's a small level, but it seems like one you could play in all manner of different ways (even moreso if you aren't pistol-starting and thus aren't chained to some degree of pacifism and/or infighting in the early going), as you can move to and trigger almost any of the discrete encounters in any order you like right from the outset. The lack of hard physical boundaries between most encounter zones is also a notable feature here; many of the later maps use lock-ins or other deterrents to keep cowards/strategicians from simply fleeing/meta-gaming their way through key encounters, which is conducive to flashy/detailed choreography and 'action puzzles' but stifling to flexibility and player ingenuity, but here it's the other side of the coin--not only are you allowed to scamper about setting off a bunch of booby traps at once, it's very likely that's the way your early forays into the level will play out, whether you like it or not.

So, in essence, you start in a rather uncomfortable position and end up stumbling to and fro around the station, getting roughed up more and more by a steadily growing population of malcontents fed by your reflexive attempts to find a quiet spot. Looked at singly, most of the encounters here are quite simple, and a few are even borderline harmless; the lava-pit helmet in the center of the southern block is a mite nasty (and an early example of spiteful incidental damage-floor use that will show up repeatedly later on), and the big chaingunner Wounded Knee scenario at the southwest corner will fuck you up in a flash unless you handle it just so (or are unbelievably lucky, I suppose), but all told the lethality of individual fights is quite low here. It's the potential for the different encounters to synergize and overlap, as allowed by the mini-sandbox approach to progression, that lends the action its flavor. On my first attempt I got off to a decent start but then did exactly the wrong thing the first time I saw the big chaingunner ambush, and eventually ended up dying via attrition as a result. On the second attempt, I used the freedom of movement/itinerary that the map allows to get off to a better start, and was eventually able to win the day, albeit after a bit of my usual bumbling. Incidentally, I actually botched my intended strategy for the early going on the second attempt (which was to turn pretty much everything in the main hub area loose at once and allow them to slaughter themselves, particularly the chaingunners that got me the first time) but still ended up winning anyway, suggesting that this level could fly by in no time flat and without breaking a sweat for a player that knows it well and has a good strategy. The downside is that, once you've got a handle on it, none of the combat feels particularly substantial, given how individually simplistic the encounters are, and how easily they are defused once you've found a way to pit them against one another.

As aforesaid, aesthetically it's not particularly striking relative to many of the other/later maps, but as per usual it's a perfectly worthy backdrop for the action it hosts, where all the usual watchwords apply (delicate lighting details, etc.). I reckon its overall appearance will scream "Quake!" to some; I myself am reminded of the mid-game maps in The Darkening, grungy industrial composite and metal shot with lurid red neon. It is the only map to make use of the lovely skintech textures, IIRC, and interestingly enough also the only map in the set that hosts anything remotely like a conventional fire/brimstone Hellscape near one of the helmets, although in this case I reckon it's just supposed to be burning piece of planetoid clinging to the station like a clump of sod.

Not a bad map, but I suspect it would've made a more favorable impression if it had come later (maybe even much later) in the set where its unique qualities would appear more contextually pronounced alongside its far more controlling brethren.

05 is my favorite aesthetically of the first five, 03 not far behind. The texture scheme with the red highlights really works for me, especially in that dim lighting.

I'm curious about what the "stand and rotate" gesture signifies. Relief? "lol I'm an idiot"? It's hilarious.

Finally done. On to Plutonia 2 if RL doesn't get in the way first!
---
MAP19 Starts out crazy. Rest of it feels tightly paced, kind of like a harder MAP08. I actually played the start about 2 weeks ago, then came back and telefragged the cybie at the start. What a way to return.

100% Kills
100% Secrets
20 Deaths (red key was hard) (95 total on HMP)
---
I like these kinds of starts. I even read this one perfectly: kill the chaingunners, dig in near the bodies, and move when the bad guys start closing in. The end was an interesting setup too. Getting one of the cybies to fight the mastermind was fun. So was freaking out when the PEs started flooding in. That part didn't kill me, though. Getting the supplies from the blue key let me BFG zerg rush them until only one or two were left. Then I turned around and the cyberdemon had LOST to the mastermind. Maybe I hit my "frienemy" with too many rays when I was rushing the PEs or something, so I took out the MM and ran for it. I'd gotten the switches during the run around the PEs, plus noticed the two soul spheres. I picked them both up at once, probably wasting some.

Also, during the caco cloud, I got the cyberdemon secret. I haven't been that happy to see one of those guys in a long time. By the fifth or sixth attempt at that part, I was calling him "cyberbuddy." Too bad he gets overwhelmed so quickly.

97% Kills
75% Secrets
8 Deaths (that was a lot of cacos) (103 total on HMP)
---
MAP21's another pistol start. At first I was afraid it would be as rough as 17, but that turned out not to be the case. Most of my deaths came trying to pit the mastermind and cybie against each other in the red key area. I couldn't get it to work. Also missing from my end of level tally was the yellow key. I cleared the area it was in, but couldn't find a way to reach it.

100% Kills
50% Secrets
9 Deaths (112 total on HMP)
---
MAP22 feels like a break. It starts out with what I'm calling a matchbox start: instant insanity whenever you're ready to provide the spark. I died once in each wing. The cacos emerging from the darkness on the yellow side of the map is pretty cool looking.

100% Kills
33% Secrets
3 Deaths (E3 low on HMP! 115 total)
---
MAP23 is pretty slow going after the initial insanity. I got four out of five yellow keys, so no BFG. I did find the plasma rifle, though.

99% Kills
40% Secrets
2 Deaths (E3 low on HMP, 117 total)
---
I was wondering where all the monsters were on MAP24. Then I got to the end. That was hilarious. I never thought I'd be so happy to fight nearly a thousand bad guys at once. I didn't even need the BFG! That's a record for monster numbers on any map I've cleared. I found the invulnerability necessary to get through the archvile mob, even with both keys to raise the pillars (that's a great idea by the way).

98% Kills
40% Secrets
6 Deaths (123 total on HMP)
---
MAP25 doesn't give me much breathing space, but it DOES let me choose which order to tackle the keys in. I did the red first, which felt like it was backloaded in difficulty. The yellow was the end way around. The ending fights were easy, and the first one was hard. Is that an intended order I'm seeing?

100% Kills
100% Secrets
10 Deaths (127 total on HMP)
---
MAP26 has a fitting name. For all the times I got bounced around by the skeleton/cyberdemon wave at the end, kinetic is a pretty good description. It took me 5 or 6 tries before I finally got them to infight long enough for me to reach the switch and make a run for the exit.

99% Kills
50% Secrets
11 Deaths (138 total on HMP)
---
In a wad of beautiful maps, MAP27 stands out as my favorite visually. Gameplay-wise, I thought choice of where to go was great. You only really NEED to get the yellow key, flip a few switches, and leave, but there's a lot more to do. Difficulty kind of felt back-loaded with the end fight contributing all but two of my deaths. That's probably thanks to playing continuously. It would make the beginning easier.

100% Kills
0% Secrets
13 Deaths (151 total on HMP)
---
Whew. MAP28 made me change source ports to glboom+, and gave me the most difficult fight of the wad so far. 15 deaths getting to the red key fight, but only three to clear the massive ending melee. That is by far my favorite battle of the wad, at least since I lost two weeks at MAP19. Maybe the insanity at the start of MAP07 with the SSG fakeouts could compete. That was great too.

110% Kills (Thanks PEs + AVs (?))
50% Secrets
18 Deaths (169 on HMP)
---
Archvile carousel, yaaay...never mind. That was pretty hard. Most of my deaths came there, but having completed it, I can imagine focusing on the trash mobs and crushing the viles works equally well compared to what I did, simply targetting them with the BFG. At least mopup is really easy that way I left 1 cybie behind after the fun at the end. The mass of enemies in the front isn't really dangerous. It's the cyberdemon replacement that got me once. After I knew he spawned there, I simply killed him first and BFG zerged the remaining bad guys. That part was fun. I even played with the three cyberdemons that survived the infighting in the end. One of them hit me in the face, but I collected about 80 health before I left.

99% Kills
0% Secrets
32 Deaths (201 on HMP) I don't want to ride that carousel ever again)
---
I really messed up on MAP30. During the last battle, I saved with 4HP and couldn't finish it. after dying way too many times (60?), I turned on iddqd to see the ending. I'll have to revisit this one someday. The arena was great. So was not having an icon. I just messed up.

110% Kills
20% Secrets
72 Deaths (273 final on HMP)
---
Wrap up:
Before I played it, I had heard Sunlust called a slaughter wad. Now that I've gone through it myself, I think that's an oversimplification. This isn't a wad focused around one idea. It has lots of things pulling its design in a few different directions. There's a Plutonia influence, to be sure. MAP26 comes to mind. Then there's the slaughter. It's counterbalanced by the former, plus helped by the fact that it comes in different styles. Some set pieces throw the kitchen sink at you immediately. Others are timed to slowly turn up the heat. Many are in cramped quarters. The finale's a free-for-all with all the space you could ever want (and some you don't when the AVs get loose). That's half of what makes Sunlust so great, it does so many different things well. Pidgeon-holing it is a huge mistake. The other half's the visuals. I would've brought it up more often in my individual level notes, but I didn't want to sound like a broken record. The visuals of this wad are some of the best I've ever seen in Doom. In fact, they might be THE best. I don't know with all the different art styles I've seen. This wad is definitely in the conversation for the best-looking set ever. Combine that with the varied, interesting, and damn tough gameplay, and this would have easily gotten my nomination for a cacoward, if half the forum hadn't beaten me to it. Should you two receive it (probably), it'll be well deserved. This is certainly one of the best releases of the year, and going forward, I think will be remembered as one of the greatest wads of its time, at least. Does it wind up in the all time conversation? Maybe. Time will tell. I haven't played enough of the classics to say.

One last note: overall, I had fun, especially when I got to move around in the final arena, even if I accidentally rendered it unwinnable. Thanks guys.

AAAAAAAARGGG Award for most frustrating section: archvile carousel
"I can fly!" Award: Archvile mob in MAP32
Give back my FPS Award: MAP28
Funniest section: fake SSG in...MAP07? I played that before my break
Best Start: MAP19. Run.
Best End: MAP30
Highest personal body count ever: MAP30 (Broke that record twice, also on 24 before the ending)
Golden crusher award for cheapshotting bosses: blue key section of MAP28 (needed it there too!)
Creativity award: Different starts, some fast, others with guys with their backs turned, also very interesting key usage in many places. 28 and 27 both are examples of key creativity. 22 has enemies with their backs turned.

rdwpa said:

I'm curious about what the "stand and rotate" gesture signifies. Relief? "lol I'm an idiot"? It's hilarious.

Little from column A, little from column B. It's also something I occasionally do after dying hard when I respawn or reload in order to get myself to take a breath and gather my wits so that I won't fail immediately when jumping back in again. Doesn't seem to actually work most of the time, of course, but that's ritual for you.

Map 06 -- Neo Gerouru - 131% Kills / 50% Secrets - FDA
Something of a thematic outlier in this block of levels, this starlit compound of squat tech towers floating in an artificial lake of radioactive solution is an early taste of a visual theme that Ribbiks will return to a number of times over the course of Sunlust, particularly in its final third. While most of the structure is dimly lit and comprised of anonymous industrial composite and stark iron sheetwork, the shimmering of bright green/orange neon striplights and signal beacons adds a sense of a substation thrumming with energy just below the surface. The most memorable scenes are of course the floating neon overlay to the southwest and the Tron-like cinematic exit sequence, and it's these that most obviously distinguish the level's visual flair from the other, broadly similar maps in the game--you never see anything quite like this again, which only leads one to wonder just what the flashes of 'cyberspace' imagery might be meant to suggest. On a more expressly analytical level, it also seems that this level is significantly more boxy/orthogonal than the majority of Ribbiks' maps (in Sunlust or elsewhere), but this didn't actually strike me while I was playing, I only noticed it looking at the overhead map while watching the recording*, so I suppose it hardly came off as sterile-looking or the like. That's the power of color contrast and open air, I suppose. Cool music, too, I felt the track fit nicely.

Ironically, while darker and consistently more confined (both by generally tight spaces and by the soft barrier of the nukage) than the relatively open and airy map 05 before it, I reckon this level feels far less oppressive/inhospitable while you're actually playing through; indeed, one gets the sense that what we're seeing here is 'Diet Ribbiks' at work. In contrast to something like map 03, which plays more like an early game map in the author's style, this one feels more like a training-wheeled version of the sort of fare he'll be serving up deeper into the mapset, a little appetizer if you will. I suppose this impression comes largely from my having played a lot of his stuff before, and thus having a lot of preconceptions to work with, but nevertheless, as a template 'Neo Gerouru' is quite illustrative: the action occurs almost entirely in confined setpieces with carefully calculated monster placement, where successfully avoiding being cornered/smothered is the first and last consideration on the road to victory. Incidental combat (that is, combat that occurs with monsters largely as a natural byproduct of exploration and traversal, rather than as a point of focus for its own sake) is essentially nonexistent, barring the odd imp here and there. Another key element to this type of action that we start to see come to the fore here is that players will no longer necessarily be allowed to easily flee from encounters as a primary means of negotiating them; monsters are deployed to instantly block the retreat from the ruckus around the neon overlay to the southwest (thanks much for those courtesy Baron crushers, BTW), and getting out of the claustrophobic eastern tower requires switchpresses which essentially cannot be made without engaging in a lot of CQC first.

That aside, it's still definitely early days here, as aforesaid, so nothing here is too ruthless, provided you don't stubbornly insist on clinging to a playstyle unsuited to the scenario (e.g. spray & pray, etc.). I really messed up in the congested east tower, but still got away, so Ribbiks is hardly turning the screws just yet. One final element at play here is worth noting: it can be difficult to realize at first while you're actually playing (which is arguably a good thing) given the loose geometry and very compact playspace, but the level also has a degree of structured, path-based nonlinearity to it, allowing you a couple of routes to take when you leave the initial tower. In this early map this element of choice makes little real impact on how the rest of the map plays out (i. e. both routes essentially begin with an SSG, and quickly overlap), but in later, tougher levels the path you end up taking can have a massive impact on your options in later encounters, which develops as one of Sunlust's big gameplay hooks.

* -- I also noticed that, if you use your imagination a little bit, the complete floorplan looks like nothing so much as a rabid, strangely totemic Toad character from the Mario franchise, complete with warhammer motif in his left hand and, um, 'manhood' iconography down south. No, I don't know what's wrong with me, thank you.

Demon of the Well said:

* -- I also noticed that, if you use your imagination a little bit, the complete floorplan looks like nothing so much as a rabid, strangely totemic Toad character from the Mario franchise, complete with warhammer motif in his left hand and, um, 'manhood' iconography down south. No, I don't know what's wrong with me, thank you.

Layout

Holy shit I think I can see it.

Demon of the Well said:

Incidental combat (that is, combat that occurs with monsters largely as a natural byproduct of exploration and traversal, rather than as a point of focus for its own sake) is essentially nonexistent, barring the odd imp here and there.

I'm of two minds on this subject. Leaving incidental combat out altogether can give maps an artificial overly choreographed feel, but too often, especially in maps centered around tough set pieces, incidental combat can seem like pure filler, especially if there's a lot of it. After dying in a challenging lock-in fight, don't want to have to spend five minutes trekking through caves shotgunning imps to get back to it. And besides, when you think about it, tame incidental combat is usually more artificial than traps and set pieces; after all, what are all of these imps doing loitering around those crags. Waiting for Doomguy to kill them? Doom levels aren't truly malevolent environments -- after all, health and ammo is just casually sitting around everywhere, and mappers tend to abstain from maximally effective ways of killing the player such as simply staging entire levels as 512x512 boxes full of cyberdemons without an exit. But they are trying to pose some sort of threat, and the best way to do that is to introduce monsters when they have a logistical upperhand. There are ways to make incidental combat threatening: e.g., resource restriction, where high-threat monsters must be left alive; extensive use of damaging floors; resource inconveniencing, where the player must willfully dive into groups and hordes in order to get the weapons or ammo needed to kill them, usually with the map geometry designed to make retreating inconvenient. But once you exhaust that list, you're back to traps; like the typical device of a couple of archies warping in and forcing you to rush into the midst of directly placed monsters in search of cover. And in such cases, I think the distinction between set pieces and incidental combat is a blurry one anyway -- many types of traps are just cleverly disguised cans of "Instant Set Piece" anyway.

I've been searching for some truly difficult maps (SWTW map03 tier, let's say) where most of the combat is direct and the typical tropes like extreme austerity and extensive damaging floor use are avoided, just for variety's sake. I don't like the feeling that there are only a limited number of ways in Doom to make challenging maps. I guess we could imagine a hybrid of Scythe 2 map23's "establish a foothold"-style combat and the most hectic parts of Going Down, where the areas are initially crammed but also repopulated five-fold by the time the map is over via trickling voodoo doll–triggered warp-ins. I did say direct combat, but smooth and steady augmentation of already populated areas strikes me as being much different in character -- not only in practical terms but also aesthetically -- from traps and set pieces that spring monsters into uninhabited areas.

I'm starting my DotW Cinema today. FDA for Map01 earns style points for DotW going all Mayweather on the Revvie and the Archie KO at the end. Nice to learn where the RL secret was, too. ;)

Map 07 -- Total Enclosure - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets - FDA
From frolicking amongst the stars to wallowing in the mud in no time flat; ain't life grand? It seems apparent that the Neo Gerouru program was not the gateway to a hypersimulate paradise at all, but rather a glorified particulate delivery system that in this case happened to be aimed at a derelict compound of abandoned bunkers or fallout shelters being gradually swallowed by a radioactive sinkhole on an unknown world. The sky glowers like stretched canvas soaked in verdigris, the metal skeleton of the tottering complex is coated in aeons of rust, and so it seems likely that your pilgrimage is far from over, a digital Lazarus reborn in a cesspool.

The ferrous-black industrial earthbase on display here, framed in the context of a toxin-drenched wasteland, naturally reminds one of some of the earlier levels in Speed of Doom, as well as B.P.R.D.'s 'Mucous Flow' from CC2, and perhaps even bits of 'Disturbia' and other Death-Destiny showpieces, but in keeping with its name the setting derives much of its flavor from how much sweat it demands of you before allowing you to stand under the open sky. Struck me as quite a departure/stylistic experiment for Danne; he likes doing outdoor terrain and vast vaulted interiors (and he's good at them), but a largely indoor setting with a palpable sense of suffocation and restriction, which of course usually requires the physical scale to be much tighter (and much more squat vertically) is again something new. The music track is again well-chosen, an unobtrusive background number to underscore the air of desolation while encouraging a more thoughtful, exploratory approach. Of the maps in the first third of the game, from a purely aesthetic standpoint I am personally most partial to solemn, deep blue 'dream citadel' look of maps 08-10, but I quite like this one as well, tried/true theme or no--I think it does a good job of teasing you with views of the outdoor areas to make you feel trapped in the decaying gut of the complex, making you want to find a way out there (the shiny BFG coyly fanning its buttstock in your general direction from atop its plinth in the interior shelter is also more than a bit of a come-on), to probe deeper into the level's secrets. And of course, the secret sidequest is literally half the fun in this case...

...which reminds me: "Not a Dead Simple map, + 1000 bonus points." The map 07 special tags are indeed at work here, but not a hint of the traditional mancubus/arach arena in sight (thank fuck). The action again plays out almost entirely through discrete setpieces; many of these are self-contained encounters keyed to triggers or objects that are clearly traps (again, I reckon you're supposed to know full-well that they're traps, for the record), but I appreciate that the proceedings kick off in something more of a freeform manner, with the cocktease phasing SSG leading you into an ambush that you may feel compelled to seek some distance from, which in turn is likely to see you wandering into one of the peripheral encounters before you've really had a chance to catch your breath. As in many of Sunlust's maps, while the encounters tend towards tightly controlled one-off challenges, there's again a significant element of nonlinearity at play, as you are free to roam within your rusty prison at will (at least until committing or unwittingly stumbling into one of the lock-in fights). The actual goal of the level was not immediately obvious to me--that is, I didn't get much of a sense of what my goal was beyond the basic assumption of "kick demon ass"--but in this case I actually consider that a plus, as it means that I was not painfully aware of the 666/667 tags driving progression. The idea is to kill all of the arachnatrons to open the exit; there are a few in each setpiece/ambush, so you need to complete all of the indoor fights before you can leave, but you can theoretically do these in almost any order, and in a number of ways (though getting the RL early as possible is probably most ideal). Again, the fights are not nearly as brutal here as they will later become, but several of them are dangerous nonetheless. The operative battle concept for the map seems to be monsters trying to swamp you from several directions while you are hard-pressed to put your back against a wall and lean on the trigger; smart use of space and your limited selection of armament (the plasma rifle is conspicuous in its absence here, it would be great for many of the fights) are paramount. The pillars/nukage setup in the western cage has the makings of a very different style of encounter but is quite downplayed in execution, surprising and perhaps a bit disappointing not more was done there, perhaps a difficulty curve consideration.

And of course there are the mancubi, languoring in their dank hidey-holes and muddy beds, your bloated, malformed siblings not yet ready to be wrenched into the upper air. It was only after finding my first few secrets (and being rewarded for each discovery with naught but A) 1 tub of lard and B) one diet soda) that I started cluing into the level's 666/667 design gimmick, and eventually set about rooting out all of the fatsos in order to eventually make my into the Big Fucking Gun's soiled sanctum, site of a lock-in moshpit fight that is the mapset's formal introduction to BFG-based crowd control. Certainly worth the price of admission, but in this case it's simply figuring out how to get there that is the real reward...there's something satisfying about a level's secrets forming a connecting 'sidequest' of sorts (including unique puzzles and combat encounters along the way), as opposed to being a bunch of one-offs with simple material rewards, and Sunlust's commitment to non-linearity and rich secret content prove invaluable to helping it maintain freshness deeper in, as it begins to lean more and more heavily on a relatively small selection of combat/encounter tropes.

Two random gripes: I don't like the slowing ooze (even though it's only relevant in at most two of the optional fights), it just doesn't feel good, not even for the 7 seconds you spend in it over the course of the map. The way the secret megasphere in the map is essentially directly keyed to an encounter trigger is also something bothersome--stretching/strategically managing and deploying your resources is a huge part of strategy in Sunlust (at least on UV), it doesn't seem right when there's an attempt to make you take/waste a valuable item when you may not need it, sort of devalues skilled play/good strategy (or good luck) in earlier parts of a map in that case. That being said, in all fairness there are perfectly rational reasons a mapper might do this in the interest of functionality (he said with a hint of foreshadowing...), and of course it was possible for me to trigger the trap without taking the item with some heavy metagaming.....but it's something I don't care for, nevertheless. ;)

Very minor complaints, though, cool map overall.