Sunlust's 'God Machine' feels... Sinister and otherworldly

[SovereignX9]

Though I constantly die and so far I haven't been able to actually beat it yet, there's just something really interesting about God Machine and the way it presents itself.

 

The color, the lighting, the design, (I know a lot of Sunlust has this same theme but I think it works the best in this map) something about it always makes me feel tense. The dead enemies all over that get resurrected, the music playing, the sheer chaos, it's like the level is alive in some sort of way. It's like there is something in this map actively plotting against me.

 

I don't know if that was the mappers intention (I've only started playing Sunlust recently) but there's just a tense feeling in the map like something is watching you. Like some sort of higher being of monstrosity that controls the very ground you walk upon. While the level is very very very difficult I just really like the tone and the world itself surrounding the onslaught. 

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by SovereignX9

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Interesting musical analysis! It's honestly pretty rare for me to see something like this posted on Doomworld.

[Magicana]

1 hour ago, SovereignX9 said:

Though I constantly die and so far I haven't been able to actually beat it yet, there's just something really interesting about God Machine and the way it presents itself.

 

The color, the lighting, the design, (I know a lot of Sunlust has this same theme but I think it works the best in this map) something about it always makes me feel tense. The dead enemies all over that get resurrected, the music playing, the sheer chaos, it's like the level is alive in some sort of way. It's like there is something in this map actively plotting against me.

 

I don't know if that was the mappers intention (I've only started playing Sunlust recently) but there's just a tense feeling in the map like something is watching you. Like some sort of higher being of monstrosity that controls the very ground you walk upon. While the level is very very very difficult I just really like the tone and the world itself surrounding the onslaught. 

 

 

Map 29 and Map 30 have the probably coolest theme of Sunlust, which is saying something after the cool green stuff in the previous maps.

 

Map 30 is insanely good too. I especially love that there are different paths depending on your difficulty settings too - On UV there is a whole extra fight that doesn't appear on lower difficulties for the yellow key, which is placed differently too.

[RHhe82]

I just wish I’d some day be qualified to play Sunlust. Also, from a wannabe-mappers pov, it’s really humbling to observe such maps. I saw God Machine thru Decino’s playthrough, and the dead corpses suddenly resurrecting without any obvious archviles was so amazing - and I really agree that amazingness has to do with ominous music as well.

[Gez]

Yeah, the God Machine is masterful. The gargantuan architecture, lost in pervasive darkness, the ominous beginning as everything is empty and dead at first, and the perfectly fitting choice of "Retribution Dawn" as the map's musical theme... It really sells it as the place where Man Made Things Not Meant To Be and then all went cataclysmically wrong. So you get there, and wake up the sleeping machine, and then all Hell breaks loose, again.

[TheOrganGrinder]

1 hour ago, RHhe82 said:

I just wish I’d some day be qualified to play Sunlust.

I played it on Hey, Not Too Rough when the DWMC ran through it back in '15, knowing that it would kick my ass on any higher difficulty; and as it turned out it still kicked my ass, but to an enjoyable degree that kept me going rather than frustrating me to the point that I gave up partway through.  Go ahead and set the difficulty level to whatever is most engaging to you; the map authors implemented them for a reason, and Ultraviolence will still be there at some later date when you feel more qualified to tackle it.

[RHhe82]

 

1 hour ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

Go ahead and set the difficulty level to whatever is most engaging to you; the map authors implemented them for a reason, and Ultraviolence will still be there at some later date when you feel more qualified to tackle it.

You are, of course, quite right. I’m so used to playing commercial wads that the idea of tackling lower difficulties seems, by reflex, unthinkable - sometimes you need to remind yourself that UV on commercial wads were too hard once, long ago.

[Jacek Bourne]

Atmosphere