"Your suffering will be legendary, even in Hell!"
Hellbound: Hellraiser II isn't a great film, but it does have some really good lines. I've always wondered what that legendary suffering would look and feel like - what kind of pain would make Satan himself go "Ohhhhh, damn!!!!!" ?
I'm not much of a fan of Nu-Doom's over-explanatory lore, but the idea that every single Doom WAD is a canonical entry in Doomguy's perpetual torment really works for me. According to Bethesda, Doomguy has spent all of his infinite eternities running around abstract renditions of Hell brewed in teenage bedrooms, murdering crude MSPaint renditions of Simpsons and South Park characters, quicksaving and quickloading himself back into existence over and over and over again in recreations of high school gymnasiums across the world, all with absolutely no hope of respite. His suffering must be legendary, even in Hell.
Of all the cruel punishments I've put Doomguy through over the past year, Sunlust has got to be one of the worst. I didn't even choose Ultra-Violence, but still Doomguy died again and again and again and again, in so many different ways. When I accidentally quicksaved myself into a corner with three Archviles and Doomguy only had 7HP and no armor, he died again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again while I tried in vain to find a way out.
Challenges in this wad often seem impossible. Three cyberdemons, forty revenants and five pain elementals? On the 'normal' difficulty'?! "It can't be done!" is the Sunlust battlecry on just about every level. But somehow, there always seems to be a way. Yeah, it usually requires Doomguy to die upwards of two dozen times, but there's always a way.
Zach Stephens and Daniel Jakobsson have essentially designed a puzzle game in the Doom engine - one that requires players to learn just about every facet of John Carmack's beautifully twisted engine. How the weapons work, and what they work best on. What the powerups do, and where and when they can be used most effectively. How the enemies think and move, and the orders in which they can be most capably defeated. The ways in which Doomguy himself moves, and how that movement can be exploited to keep him safe. By the end of the wad, I was doing legitimate math to work out the HP/ammo risks associated with certain decisions! It's beautiful, legendary suffering.
There are so many moments here that make you wonder just how much of the Doom engine's magic was actually by design, and whether Carmack knew it was capable of making something as grand as Sunlust. Was he pissed off when Sandy Petersen made rinkydink shit like The Cathedral or Tricks & Traps? Maybe we weren't ready for Sunlust back then... Exposing 1993 Doom players to something like Sunlust's Go Fuck Yourself would probably be like giving an Extreme Nacho flavour Dorito to a medieval peasant. They just couldn't handle it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-CpzZJl8w
Hellbound: Hellraiser II isn't a great film, but it does have some really good lines. I've always wondered what that legendary suffering would look and feel like - what kind of pain would make Satan himself go "Ohhhhh, damn!!!!!" ?
I'm not much of a fan of Nu-Doom's over-explanatory lore, but the idea that every single Doom WAD is a canonical entry in Doomguy's perpetual torment really works for me. According to Bethesda, Doomguy has spent all of his infinite eternities running around abstract renditions of Hell brewed in teenage bedrooms, murdering crude MSPaint renditions of Simpsons and South Park characters, quicksaving and quickloading himself back into existence over and over and over again in recreations of high school gymnasiums across the world, all with absolutely no hope of respite. His suffering must be legendary, even in Hell.
Of all the cruel punishments I've put Doomguy through over the past year, Sunlust has got to be one of the worst. I didn't even choose Ultra-Violence, but still Doomguy died again and again and again and again, in so many different ways. When I accidentally quicksaved myself into a corner with three Archviles and Doomguy only had 7HP and no armor, he died again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again while I tried in vain to find a way out.
Challenges in this wad often seem impossible. Three cyberdemons, forty revenants and five pain elementals? On the 'normal' difficulty'?! "It can't be done!" is the Sunlust battlecry on just about every level. But somehow, there always seems to be a way. Yeah, it usually requires Doomguy to die upwards of two dozen times, but there's always a way.
Zach Stephens and Daniel Jakobsson have essentially designed a puzzle game in the Doom engine - one that requires players to learn just about every facet of John Carmack's beautifully twisted engine. How the weapons work, and what they work best on. What the powerups do, and where and when they can be used most effectively. How the enemies think and move, and the orders in which they can be most capably defeated. The ways in which Doomguy himself moves, and how that movement can be exploited to keep him safe. By the end of the wad, I was doing legitimate math to work out the HP/ammo risks associated with certain decisions! It's beautiful, legendary suffering.
There are so many moments here that make you wonder just how much of the Doom engine's magic was actually by design, and whether Carmack knew it was capable of making something as grand as Sunlust. Was he pissed off when Sandy Petersen made rinkydink shit like The Cathedral or Tricks & Traps? Maybe we weren't ready for Sunlust back then... Exposing 1993 Doom players to something like Sunlust's Go Fuck Yourself would probably be like giving an Extreme Nacho flavour Dorito to a medieval peasant. They just couldn't handle it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-CpzZJl8w
curse
4 months ago