Sins of the Flesh (A_SOTF.PK3)

SINS OF THE FLESH
by "zrrion the insect"

When I committed myself to reviewing zrrion's back catalog in preparation to the curiously strong Mouldy Old Void, I did not know that he had another release languishing somewhere in a half-assed (but well-intentioned) community project. Thankfully, he was kind enough to pull this level back out for a solo publication and gently notified me of its availability. Sins of the Flesh is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II to be played in GZDoom. Made sometime in 2014 but released to the archives in 2016, it's also sort of an aesthetic sequel to his previous The Blood of Virgins.

The original level told the story of a warrior entering the crypt of a long-dead sorcerer to ensure that his bid for immortality, wrought from the blood of the innocent, failed. A_SOTF doesn't continue the plot but both levels feature a lot of green marble, blood, and skin. The atmosphere's a bit different, too. Sins of the Flesh has more of a palatial feel rather than a dank and dark mausoleum, like some sort of stately classical mansion that has since succumbed to demonic taint. The look of the previously manicured, half-blasted bushes implies a recent timeframe for such an intrusion.

The atmosphere is still ominous, especially given the ambient dynamic lighting and sound of the lightning and thunder. I really like how the level sort of comes to life with every fulmination, leaving its regular state - at least, in the Doom and Software settings - as relatively normal dynamic lighting. Playing in Standard mode leaves everything in a sort of dull, overcast appearance that only pulses when the lightning strikes. If you look really hard then you'll see a few bits of sector-based lightcasting but they're well tucked away. Completing the atmosphere is more slow, sludgy metal; I'd be surprised if it wasn't zrrion's favorite.

V_BLOOD used GZDoom for some eye candy but Sins of the Flesh takes it to the next step with bits of 3D geometry for you to walk above and below. The most important thing I can tell you is to JUMP. There are a lot of handy things stashed around the level and many of them lack any clever, secret routes. It took me awhile to realize that there was no other recourse but afterward I was goating around and visiting some out of the way powerups... and a few places not meant to be accessed, like the southwestern cliff / peninsula thing. I'm tickled to be able to visit them, though. It's rare that a place exists in Doom for the sole purpose of going there.

As far as combat goes, A_SOTF tends toward a slow pace and uses mostly the shotgun and then the chaingun with some rocket launcher action if you go looking for it. Incidental combat predominates. The largely cramped confines and low-tier weapons lead to a lot of pressure on the player. The finale, which unleashes a tidal wave of imps with a Cyberdemon overlord in the main outdoor area, also opens access to the indispensable combat shotgun. Grinding down big boy with the SSG isn't much of an improvement over using the regular one on Hell knights and cacodemons but it injects a bit of desperately needed flavor into the level's final act.

Sins of the Flesh would have been a shoe-in for my favourite zrrion map but for the release of Mouldy Old Void. He did some crazy stuff in the latter that I really appreciate for it not having been done before. Sins is just a rock-solid GZDoom adventure and really works to justify its choice in engine, enough that I'd love to see zrrion take on a slightly longer mapset with his now experienced level designer chops. If you've been slavering for Doom II levels that exploit GZDoom on a fundamental level then you'd do well to give Sins of the Flesh a look.

SWIM THE WARM WATERS OF
SINS OF THE FLESH