Sunlust - Why is it Great?

Short review and analysis of Sunlust - a megawad for Doom II.
Sunlust download link:
www.doomworld.com/idgames/lev...
Monster count analysis spreadsheet:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - Classic Doom retrospective
02:22 - Visuals and level themes
03:43 - Gameplay and "combat geometry"
04:22 - Monsters and best friends
05:15 - Difficulty
07:00 - Pistol start
07:50 - Story and level transitions
08:42 - Soundtrack
09:48 - Conclusion
Sunlust was created by Zach Stephens (Ribbiks) and Daniel Jakobsson (dannebubinga).
Soundtrack used in the video (in order of appearance):
"Desk Lamp" by Stuart Rynn
"I Sawed The Demons" by Robert Prince
"Sign Of Evil" by Robert Prince
"Premonition" by Yasunori Mitsuda
"Lord of Space" by James Paddock
Sunlust text screen (author unknown)
"Depths" by Zach Stephens
"Magician Type 0" by Tetsuya Kawauchi
"Another World of Beasts" by Nobuo Uematsu
"Gate of the Ancients" by Brian Luzietti
"Dust to Dust" by Kohei Tanaka
"Garden" by Stuart Rynn
Special thanks to metogir.
#Doom #Sunlust #Review

[@loskedanne]

Thanks man

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Oh nice, it's always lovely when the mappers themselves pop up ☺️

[@chonchjohnch]

Haven’t played it but I’m blown away by the aesthetics

[@Arkl1te]

Is there any soundfont and port you can recommend to experience Sunlust as intended?

[@myolden6528]

Fantastic video. Laughed pretty hard at "Who needs room above room anyway? What are you, an apartment building?"

[@Matt-td8xw]

Can you imagine having rooms above your room? This post was made by doom gang

[@nmpltleopardi]

*func_msgboard has left the chat*

[@n00bers38]

Shots fired at heartland.

[@spaghetti-zc5on]

what are they, a monster condo?

[@MrTastyNacho]

Sunlust's greatest gift to us was decino dying 57 times to map 28. Top tier content!

[@Bagheera2]

@@borogk decino helped me appreciate og doom.

[@yoshizeku7385]

@@Bagheera2 Same, I am a new player only 23 years old, and I started playing doom with brutal doom and Doom 2016 first. But now I love playing classic doom a lot more because of Decino, zero master and BMD

[@thetrollandahalf.3316]

1:20 This resolution/FPS transition is freaking awesome

[@IgnoreMyChan]

Great effect. The trick is simple though, he reduced the quality from the high quality feed and gradually increased it back to normal. :-)

[@IgnoreMyChan]

@@borogk Rally? Ok, that's more impressive than I thought. Nice!

[@digitalintent]

Remember, Sandy Peterson only had 10 weeks to make his levels for the first Doom.

[@lpatryk2004]

Yeah, sure, but i still can't stand doom 2's "hell" levels...

[@adammclaughlin845]

Looks like he spent 10 minutes designing Doom 2's The Chasm. Probably had his trousers down while doing it.

[@lpatryk2004]

@@adammclaughlin845 the chasm, barrels of fun, monster condo... They all suck gameplaywise, but what hurts me the most is that all hell levels look like a fricking sewer, not an actual hell

[@eebu4053]

I LIKE SHORE OF HELL AND INFTERNO BECAUSE IT HAS BERSERK AND CACODEMIN

[@HackNeyedOne]

And the in house level editor was probably only a few steps up from MS Paint for doom levels compared to Adobe Doom Builder the community was blessed with nearly 2 decades ago.

[@KaptainKommissar]

Pretty high-quality content for a channel of your size. You're underrated as hell

[@sanketower]

Why is your content so good and your subscriber count so low? It must be an error in the Matrix. You deserve a lot.

[@NightAsterisk]

I swear completing sunlust pistol start on uv changed me as a doom player and a person.

[@ghoulbuster1]

Man 2 God

[@tenhundredkills]

I just started playing Sunlust this morning. Damn it's tough! I'm thinking of just starting over and doing a playthrough on I'm Too Young To Die since it's my first go at this WAD.

[@NightAsterisk]

@@tenhundredkills if its your first time starting then yep I HIGHLY recommend going a lower difficulty. Hurt me plenty seemed to be enough of a challenge where it wasn't unfair, but don't do what I did and yolo it first go on ultra violence.

[@tenhundredkills]

@@NightAsterisk After getting getting my ass kicked all day today with the YOLO approach, I've finally decided to start over on Hey, Not Too Rough. It's still quite a challenge, but much better suited to my skill level (or lack thereof in this case)!

[@NightAsterisk]

@@tenhundredkills Ayy good luck my guy/gal

[@UltraViolenceDoom]

Great video :) sharing this on Twitter! Keep it up!

[@henryfleischer404]

Well, I just started playing sunlust a couple hours ago. The wad has made me smile and laugh about as much as touhou 18 has, which is the highest praise I can give for something I haven't finished.

[@SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

I need to give this a try, watched both Coincident and Decino play it. It seems like it has a great balance of difficulty and pacing, all with it's own unique mechanics/design, fantastic architecture, and the great soundtrack to top it off.

[@dinonuggiesguy4847]

This deserves more views. Good work!

[@ZackKoutaRoxas]

Thank you for highlighting difficulty and saving. I've struggled getting some of my friends into the scene because they feel that they have to be as good as me. But I've been playing DooM for 25 years.

[@xX_Lol6_Xx]

6:00 you made me feel happy of playing in the lowest skill level.

[@valletas]

Ive been save scumming it on uv its not too hard but it really reminds me of smt games where you have a lot of ways to make the battles easiers but sometimes you enter in a battle where the demons kill you instantely by abusing the same tools you have

[@pablostufff]

Lmfao at "Go pat yourself on the back"

[@tobiyoarcangel]

Well well, today I was recommending Sunlust to a friend, and felt like googling stuff about the wad itself, and it turns out you uploaded a video on it, saying a lot of stuff I agree with...talk about lightning hitting twice! Anyways, amazing video! Keep it up!

[@generalroasterock8114]

Fantastic video, a brilliant overview on Sunlust beyond its monstrous difficulty, covering elements of its design not appreciated enough. I hope to see your channel explode in popularity throughout the year.

[@estefencosta1835]

Sunlust is a pinnacle of level design that has yet to be surpassed and you can't change my mind.

[@HexenStar]

Sunlust is good. Verdant Citadel. Lullaby. Now that's great.

[@estefencosta1835]

​@@HexenStar They're both great, but they're also both not vanilla doom and take good advantage of advanced GZdoom features. And as far as gameplay Sunlust is still king for me.

[@thatbrokesilverhairedguy4326]

First video and i am impressed by its quality. Your editing is absolutelly top nutch. Can't wait for more.

[@NiGHTS108_]

10:22 Nice reference to Sunlust’s ending

[@bobosprinkles]

YES! You did a great job of capturing the majesty of this WAD

[@MissHercuLiz]

A masterpiece of a video. I love this description of Sunlust, and how you bring out the details. Although I have been a fan of DOOM games since about 1996 (I even had the SNES version), I am new to playing the Sunlust. I first found out about it during lockdown, but only began my journey into it recently. It is punishing for sure, but beautiful indeed. Not sure if I'll make it to God Machine, but that'll be an achievement for me if I do.

[@lhfirex]

I gotta play Sunlust sometime. I feel like most of this praise for it can also be said for Speed of Doom, and that's why it's (so far) the most memorable WAD I've played. I don't play Doom that much for the past couple of years, but I've played a lot of the big ones people throw out, particularly Eviternity and Ancient Aliens. And there's still just something really memorable about the challenge and the level design in Speed of Doom that I can't forget. The only other WAD I've played so far where it's stuck with me like that is the JPCP, and that's really just because of a couple of standout levels more than the whole playthrough. But I think this video did a lot more to get me interested in playing Sunlust than a lot of the community talk about it, where it usually boils down to "it's hard" and doesn't really go deeper into what makes it great.

[@pneyndes]

fantastic video, i am always impressed by how much creativity doom inspires

[@the_kovic]

The occasional forced pistol start is my favorite design decision in Sunlust.

[@TheWolfgangGrimmer]

Codified by Scythe, and re-used in many megawads since because it's such an effective balancing tool.

[@irwolfy]

Great review and video editing quality. I also played sunlust and got back into doom after watching decino's videos. Your review is spot on and you made a very high quality video.

[@zbynekchmela7778]

Come on decino recommendation, stayed for quality content. You make such a good videos. Subscribed immediately.

[@CoffeeRampage]

Those camera angles during the intro is so awesome. Good stuff!

[@domukaz]

Great video! It's really rare to see people celebrate artful difficulty scaling, especially with regards to WADs like Sunlust that demand so much of the player. Looking forward to the next one.

[@peccatummihzamiz7376]

Great video, subscribed! Love the editing especially! Can't wait for your next video!

[@renegade4358]

Beautiful letter of love to a modern classic Megawad, hope you in a future do more reviews from other classic megawads like Speed of DooM, Plutonia 2, Scythe or Memento Mori

[@reax5526]

I don't know much about doom but this video was very interesting!

[@expendableround6186]

You’re missing out.

[@nitrosnowman7410]

I found “Go pat yourself on the back” quite funny as opposed to the real level title, Great video!

[@Dhakadice]

9:22 Magnificent structure indeed! (I'm assuming it's made of LOTS of thin sectors, but lining up the textures like that is still hella impressive)

[@northernlefty5412]

This is quickly going to become an amazing channel. Such awesome content!

[@genevievebertolet2909]

"Monster placement is clever, and encounters are memorable, and I am heavy weapons guy."

[@kitschmensch-chip]

Nice captures!! Especially that shot at @1:18--really well done

[@PolygonDonut]

Super well produced video, I'll be trying this megawad soon!

[@Nob1ej0n]

I'm not even interested in Sunlust, but I had to watch this whole video. You're content is incredible.

[@adiveler]

The WAD that almost mentally broke Decino! Great video! Are you going to do more on other great WADs like Eviternity or Ancient Aliens?

[@halborunda5084]

Another great vid! Love the format. Thank you

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Sunlust is uber-accessible and doesn't alienate anyone not too proud to play on a difficulty below UV, it is to be commended on the look and sound department. It never bores the player. Frustrate, maybe. Bore? Never! And finally, the design _teaches_ you. It is almost impossible to be mad at the wad when you get shredded - 98% of the time it's because _you_ did something wrong. If you open your eyes and ears and pay attention to what the levels want you to do, it is a big stepping stone in your skill progression, whichever level you're at. This is a wad I recommend to literally EVERYONE that enjoys Doom, and not for just a few reasons.

[@Optimus6128]

I was a bit discouraged to start playing Sunlust (as I am not fan of big slaughtermap wads) but watching your video makes me wanna try it (in lowest difficulty level :P)

[@Soundwave04]

I actually decided to jump into Sunlust, though playing it on the lowest difficulty to level and to my surprise, I'm liking it a lot! As you say, lower difficulties are accouted for, quite a few moments I can tell where heavy hitters have been replaced by lower tier monsters. The encounters, though still hard, give you a lot more breathing room and recovering time if you make mistakes. So I am glad I jumped in! I think some put offs where worrying about how much lower difficlty would be accouted for (E.G 8 Cyberdemons are now 7 Cyberdemons and 1 Imp) and the whole "UV is the only/correct way to play Doom, anything else is wrong" mindset you see. :s Nether the less, I am a Sunlust believer now!

[@nougat8311]

1:20 to nitpick a bit, the original resolution is 320x200 not 240

[@eebu4053]

320x100

[@eebu4053]

210x100

[@GT_V]

I'd love to see more videos where you select a particular megawad that's worth breaking down as being "great". I find this kind of recommendation way more compelling than the surplus of "top 10" or "best wads" type videos. I download them but there's so many I end up not playing any since I haven't been given enough of a reason for any one specific wad to warrant getting fully into. I have sunlust but have never played it, now because of this video it actually stands out in my wad folder and I'm going to start it up(:

[@maxattacks2395]

i love the cat at the end. its just so fitting somehow.

[@sebastianmalmsteen]

It's easy, I see a Doom Mod Review, I subscribe. Thanks for the content, mate :)

[@ImaginaryNumb3r]

For many people, playing Sunlust has been a major revelation of their suppressed masochism.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

It hurts so good we don't even need aftercare.

[@mr-alexander-doom]

I'd love to see an overview like this for other major challenge megawads, like Sunder or Ribbiks's episodes taken collectively. Great work!

[@wilburcobb8990]

I feel like youre whispering so sweetly into my ears

[@TheEddiefiend]

Great video. I like your channel a lot, I came from decino shouting you out.

[@snackerfork]

Thank you very much for this video! You have no idea how appreciative I am to hear someone talk about this WAD and mention the accessibility of lower difficulties and that there's no shame in "save scumming." I've been too intimidated to even touch Sunlust and thanks to this video I'm now playing it on HNTR and having a great time. On MAP08 right now and it's been pretty easy but I've had a few deaths, and I'm expecting it to ramp up!

[@pedrobeirao7348]

Amazing video editing!

[@andersdenkend]

Great video! Please more of this.

[@novakato2438]

Need more wad reviews like this

[@MeczennikFitnessu]

I am not even a doom player, but I love those in depths videos. Keep up the good work man.

[@dotfortun3]

Never heard of this before and now I want to play it. Seems nuts.

[@greenjacketman560]

Looks like we have a new great doom content creator.

[@donoteatmikezila]

Amazing video. After watching this I gave the wad a try and it's an absolute 10/10 masterpiece.

[@burgerthief5333]

Level design is everything in Doom, relaxing video to watch

[@AntonyCannon]

Cool video. Hats off for pixel-kitty!

[@Portponky]

This video was really cool and informative. I'll give sunlust a shot.

[@Portponky]

Ok, I UV pistol started it (with saves, I'm not a machine) and I have to say this video is very accurate. Masterpiece is a good word to describe Sunlust. Shout outs to map25 and map29 for extreme awesomeness.

[@Cornelius-Slate]

great way to start the channel!

[@somesassybrat305]

maybe a little detail forgotten in this video, but Sunlust also has a great co-op value. Played it with a friend and it was great fun- changes the gameplay a lot as well, since ammo/health/powerups respawn over time, and you have infinite lives to restart, as opposed to 1 or opting to save. Levels are also built in a way to support co-op, so normally you should never get stuck if you die in an encounter.

[@Vospi]

What a narration job. What a writing job. Subscribed, and I'm not even a gamer.

[@simpy5499]

A bit off topic but the term "God Machine" sounds so terrifying, foreboding and eldritch, but also epic and grand.

[@akeem2983]

This channel was a great eye-opener for me. I enjoyed classic Doom since I was a teenager, but only played Steam version of original Doom via its internal Dosbox. And maybe because of framerate and hard configuration it wasn't a very pleasant experience for me. But because of your video "Doom engine - Limited but still 3D" I discovered Doom source ports and completed first three episodes of first Doom for the first time in CrispyDoom, which sure made the "learning curve" much more bearable for me. Now I'm playing Sunlust for the first time and feel like I discover a whole new world again - the world of Doom mods. For me it weirdly feels like playing Celeste - the mod is really hard, but its design and gameplay are so good - I always want to continue playing

[@borogk]

I'm glad the videos were able to help you in such a way! Good luck on your Doom journey. I played a lot more Doom stuff since making this Sunlust video and some WADs are definitely even more impressive, but Sunlust will hold a special place in my heart as the one that sparked my interest.

[@impologist6731]

As first video I would say ... what a start my man .. very good content .. keep it up .. hope to see more of you in the next days

[@HoopleBogart]

Cool video, nice subtitles. :)

[@sparklesparklesparkle6318]

another great video I love the channel!

[@keesquortrup2212]

Yo these videos are so awesome

[@BlueMK12]

Love your content man, I gotta try Sunlust one of these days, I'm busy mapping and I forgot to play Doom ahahahaha

[@BassSlapper89]

decino sent me here. Looking forward for more content!!!

[@AnimatedAndrew]

Sunlust + Guncaster is one of my favorite WAD combos to play! The level design for each map is so well done and the music is so damn catchy. I love that they used the Magician's theme from The House of the Dead for the second map and the track that plays during the Ruins of Skania level has got to be my absolute favorite one.

[@abadenoughdude300]

I especially appreciate the track playing during God Machine, it gives the map a ton of atmosphere, making it even more unnervingly oppressive than it already is. Also gonna have to give Guncaster a try, I've been seeing it recommended here and there.

[@EkenLCH]

me encanta los niveles de Sunlust , es notable qe le han puesto dedicación en las mejoras graficas

[@mtalhakhalid1679]

Best map ever + music❤❤❤❤

[@doofmoney3954]

I would kill for more content like this

[@giovanniprovost]

Great video

[@barbariangamer6209]

you got a Huge like just for that intro alone

[@Pdotta1]

Nice job keep producing

[@cyodeneni590]

Very interesting doom channel with entertaining wad review...

[@hiramesensei3112]

Oh boy, guess it's time for my yearly replay of Sunlust.

[@H3llKeeper1]

*super violent flashback from map 29*

[@Demonskunk]

Finally someone who shares my opinion on doom 1&2's mapping! Maybe I'll give sunlust a try. Seems neat.

[@mayhem1084]

Great work. Makes me want to watch decino's run of it.

[@joelalain]

i dont know if im the only one, but i MUCH prefer the look and feel of Doom in 320x240. it's more mysterious, you cant make out stuff that is far, and it's just more immersive and looks better i believe. high resolution for me just shows all the seams and age. 320x240 is the way to go

[@davemcravedj]

Really good video 🙂

[@Cyberfoxxy]

You're new here? I love it!

[@costelinha1867]

I wonder how many devs must have started their career as Doom modders. This game is a godsend (Even though it features a lot of demonic imagery)

[@muricaneagle666]

I had a great chuckle at the end screen where it said “you didn’t load up DOOM to read...” lol

[@crystalzord]

This is great. I laughed a lot :D

[@Bigvs.Dickvs]

7:52 Doom Eternal Vs I'm here just to play!

[@nif1394]

Nice video, my dude. About those level showcasing, I wondered if you use the Eternity Engine, or other sourceports?

[@GoodmansGhost]

great vid

[@000adrianelpiola000]

I don't speak english, so i'm glad for the subtitles. This map is one of my favourites. I love doom, but even with years playing this, my skills are the same, a shit. This map beat me in the map 30. I was too frustrated, bc i played in hurt me plenty, and i think i was too noob for not beat the game. This year i will beat this map, in UV. Wish me good luck.

[@reinhartsieger6588]

Great channel

[@xDanieL.A.F.x]

We all know Sunlust was Doomguy's quest to get his cat back.

[@negirno]

Ah yes, the Cyberdemon is truly a good old friend of ours :-)

[@uncledeath2246]

I have to admit I actually LOOKED for some kind of story, with the star themes, the progression, and the map names. God Machine especially gave me some thought. Was the wad's culmination about the player's ascension? Or were you stopping this God Machine from its vile purposes by travelling through countless alien worlds in a quest to save the universe? Or, probably, it's called God Machine because of the skill of players who manage to beat it in one sitting pistol start. A Machine that turns mortals into Gods.