Doom WADs’ Roulette (2011): Lunatic
G3: Lunatic
Main author(s): Paul DeBruyne (skillsaw)
Release date: August 11th, 2011
Version(s) played: ???
Required port compatibility: Boom
Levels: 5
Looks like we are talking about an actual banger today, folks.
Lunatic is one of the two 2011 Cacoward winners created by a man nicknamed skillsaw. You probably heard about him; one of the more well-known WAD mappers, a man who made Valiant, Ancient Aliens (at this point probably my favorite WAD, but I would have to replay it), and Heartland, all of which won a Cacoward in each year these were released.
Skillsaw himself uploaded his first WAD in 1998, disappeared for almost a decade, only to come back, and he would later contribute some maps for Zpack (of which Thunderpeak comes from) and… Stronghold… I’ll ignore that-
Surprisingly, compared to the history of its creator, Lunatic doesn’t really have that much of its backstory. All I found out was that it took 10 weeks to make it, and it uses textures from Community Chest 4 (that wasn’t released at that point). And its plot is about how our moon was hit by the gigantic ball of demons, and you have to hop on the rocket before the moon crashes into Earth.
With that said, let’s take a look at the WAD.
Lunatic looks great, especially with the outdoor areas. And the skybox makes it all even better… I wish I could say more, but what else is there to add? I like the design of this WAD.
Same with the music. It starts and ends with bangers. And even the ones in between are good to listen to.
The WAD is simple to understand. The only thing that might count as a problem is that you have to wait for a while in some of the areas (it’s especially prominent in Rocket Zone), but you are thankfully occupied by waves of enemies coming through, so you won’t even notice when the passage is unlocked again.
Space Weapon Research has, as the title points out, areas where the rocket launcher and the plasma gun are tested, but instead of finding them, you find out that these have been stolen and taken to the aforementioned Rocket Zone, and in exchange, you get ambushed by new enemies (about them later).
The final map, Final Countdown (guess what MIDI it uses >:]), is a gauntlet of ten waves, and as the time passes, more locations unlock in the arena. It is also the only map where you can find BFG, from what I know. -_-
Anyway...
Lunatic is rather medium when it comes to difficulty. The first map is rather easy when RNG is on your side, and it ends with slaughter in the final map. I would say that the first area in Super Lunarcomputer is kind of assholish, because I think that it’s kind of too small, and the arch-vile here doesn’t help, but honestly, I think I have experienced worse, not to mention how enemies are turned around when you teleport onto the map.
Going back to Space Weapon Research for a moment, you start it out like MAP04 that I mentioned just now, but here, you sneak without waking enemies up to arm yourself before tackling the starting area.
There are two new enemies. Both zombies, but at least they are not hitscanners. Both can be easily killed, too.
First enemy is a pale baldy that has a plasma gun, and for some reason drops chaingun ammo (probably because you would be stacked with plasma by the time you find the plasma gun).
The second enemy is a cyborg hoovy, who fires revenant’s rockets. He thankfully doesn’t fire as often as the spoop meister.
Lunatic is a great WAD to play. It might be kind of assholish in some areas, but overall, I had a blast playing it. Worth checking out.
Next WAD on the list requires Doom I, so let’s hope I won’t fall asleep while playing.
See you all next time.