#592: Chris Lutz’ Reclamation
Caverns of Darkness before Caverns of Darkness
Initial release: February 13th, 2001
Platform: PC (single map for Heretic)
Developer: Christopher Lutz
Bear with me as I try something relatively new here. This isn’t my first time covering a single map for a boomer shooter, but the other example, City of the Damned: Apocalypse, is a rather singular product, intended as a wholly self-contained experience. Reclamation, on the other hand, is just a standard map for Heretic, like a hundred others — but for my purposes, I am treating it like a standalone experience too, alongside two other maps by the same author. Also note that this map and the others were played in Blasphemer, version 0.1.9-fork-2, as I wished to cover Chris Lutz’ Doom and Heretic maps as part of my journey through various media on this blog, not just as one-offs for my other blog, and Blasphemer was the best way to incorporate them. I’ll be using Heretic names for everything just to avoid confusion, though.
The Doom community (which includes a sizeable overlap of Heretic fans) has had a lot of big names over the years, people whose inclusion on a project is enough to garner excitement. For a time in the early 2000s, one of those names was Chris Lutz, whose work on Caverns of Darkness and Phobos: Anomaly Reborn caused quite a stir and raised what at the time was a big discussion about how much detail was Too Much Detail. Perhaps stung by the overdesigned Gothic 99 deathmatch map pack, there was a sense that an abundance of detail got in the way of maneuverability or other aspects of gameplay. Lutz’ maps certainly seemed to run afoul of this sentiment, a fact that he’s acknowledged yet remains unapologetic about. (For what it’s worth, his more recent work doesn’t seem to have revived this particular complaint as far as I can tell.)
Of course every mapper has to start somewhere. While Lutz’ earliest release is Inferno, his own personal take on the themes of Doom’s third episode, as well as a contribution to the 10 Sectors community project, Reclamation and Torture, released on the same day, presented a pair of new Heretic experiences shortly before Lutz would make a name for himself with the Doom II mod Caverns of Darkness. Reclamation doesn’t have much of a story for itself, just a very brief statement in the text file about a defiled underground sanctuary that requires cleansing, so grab your wand and get killing.
Going by the timestamp on the file, Reclamation is the oldest of the two, having been initially created in 1999; as such it bears some of the hallmarks of a mapper still honing his craft. While the architecture is mostly solid (albeit possessed of a little bit of the abstract strangeness native to Doom and Heretic maps) there are misaligned textures here and there and some strange encounter design decisions, mostly the gaggle of nitrogolems hanging out on the switch platform in the lower cave area shortly before the sanctuary entrance. It’s difficult to deal with them as you’re constantly having to run back down the stairs before they can throw screaming skulls at you.
I rather like the naturalistic bent of the map. Much of it is set in caves, and the sanctuaries carved out of the rock. The map opens with you dropping down a waterfall into a flooded cave; the river continues through an outdoor area with a rather large welcoming party of golems and gargoyles, so managing ammo is a must, even with the crossbow on offer. You’ll then jump down into another cave with more golems and other bullshit. There’s a shield in a small ruined chapel nearby (a feature we’ll see more often in Caverns of Darkness — Lutz seems to enjoy underground spaces like this as so many of his maps involve the player going or being underground.)
The sanctuary itself is divided into several different parts, with a series of antechambers before the sanctuary proper. The defensive wall that divides the sanctuary from the cave isn’t much of a threat per se, but the Ophidians standing guard inside might be difficult to deal with at this early stage — luckily they’re stuck on their pedestals, so you can just run through the area without engaging. Beyond it gets a little cramped, with lots of golems, gargoyles and undead knights. I think my solution was to run into the lefthand room and carve out a corner where I had some cover from the bad guys. The righthand path from the entrance leads you up into a gaggle of gargoyles but it’s worth fighting through them and the undead knights standing guard for the stuff they’re protecting.
The sanctuary fight itself is pretty low-key. On difficulty four there’s an Iron Lich lurking about (and another, immobile one sitting on a throne that doesn’t attack, at least not for me it didn’t) as well as several golems, but by this point a Tome of Power and the gauntlets should make short work of all of them. The rest of the map is just poking around in rooms beyond the sanctuary, though the standout encounter to me is the Disciples ambush as you grab the key in the tiny upstairs chapel.
Most of the map you’ll be relying on your wand and crossbow to make things work. The most powerful weapon you get is the dragon bracer and there’s limited ammo for it, but Lutz is generous with Tomes, and it’s worth saving one to power up the bracer for the final encounter. Actually getting the bracer requires finding the third and final secret, however, but the area it’s located in is cool looking for how cramped it is (and populated with more Disciples!)
I had a good time with Reclamation; it’s an interesting mix of idtech1 naturalism with a creepy gothic underground church vibe that you don’t see very often but which Lutz would revisit for his later work. If Blasphemer can’t get enough original maps to fill out its map roster, Reclamation would fit nicely somewhere in the middle of an episode.
-june❤
Reclamation can be downloaded from /idgames.
