Icebound (Chris Lutz)

 

Icebound | ICE-LUTZ.WAD

Chris Lutz

You’ve probably guessed by now, upon seeing three Chris Lutz map reviews in a row, that I greatly admire his work making maps for Doom and Heretic. A big part of that is due to his flair for visual style; the maps he made for Caverns of Darkness and Phobos: Anomaly Reborn — the projects that put him on the map — are visually stunning. But while his prolific career seemed to peter out some after a contribution to the Crucified Dreams deathmatch map pack and a remake of Doom II’s penultimate level “The Living End,” he has maintained a low-key presence in the years since, most recently dropping Corrupted Cistern on an unsuspecting 2022 Cacowards and in 2011 contributing to Doom the Way id Did and releasing his third and so far final Heretic map, Icebound.

This map was played in Blasphemer v 0.1.9-fork 2.

Icebound is sprawling, a single massive semi-underground fortress complex currently under a deep freeze. Its story is even more cursory than Lutz’ previous Heretic maps: “Clear the heretical forces from the frozen caverns” — not even a period. Who gives a shit? Get in there and get medieval on their asses. It’s a relatively unique theme, this — I like how much of the map is just a creepy temple complex tucked away in ice-cold caverns. It’s a frostier variant on a theme that Lutz has returned to over and over, that of the underground ruin, which is a very fantasy sort of setting when you think about it. (I may also be thinking of Philippe Lesire’s Khazad-Dum map, which currently holds a placeholder status in the most recent version of Blasphemer.)

Where Lutz’ earlier Heretic maps, made as they were in 1999 and 2000, show the hallmarks of a mapper early in his career, Icebound has no such distinctions, instead being a stunning monument to Chris Lutz in his prime. The level of detail is 100%, unapologetically Lutz, with fantastic-looking columns, doorframes, elevators, archways, canals, caverns, whatever. The attention to detail is such that when I took a peek through a recently-opened window into what I thought was just going to be utter blackness, I could see the shine of ice on the ground below — you never go there but it’s a reminder that the frozen halls of Icebound don’t exist in a vacuum, but instead there’s a real sense of place. He makes use of silent teleporters (a vanilla Heretic feature, believe it or not!) in strategic locations, such as the lava trap room underneath the blue key area, or a narrow upper corridor that bridges two areas otherwise bisected by a wide hallway.

The other thing that stands out to me is that Icebound is hard. With 389 monsters on difficulty 4 it’s clear that this map is intended to be an adventure in and of itself; more than just another Heretic level, you’re assaulting an entire place, a sprawling complex with different, distinct areas, and as you progress you’re just not going to be going back to these older places save to grab ammo or health you didn’t need at the time. Progression is thus obviously rather linear, but the map itself is intricately linked together with shortcuts to previous areas just for your own convenience, which I thought was a nice feature (but also is another example of how much of a place this map feels.)

We start off on a boat, just freshly docked at what appears to be a side entrance to the fortress. Right away you’re under assault by gargoyles; inside, golems hold court in a beautifully-detailed antechamber with its own waterfall fountain. As you progress deeper into the complex, you’ll come across some pretty solid multi-tiered setpiece design, such as the large cave with an upper walkway you can’t reach just yet, overlooked by a ruined sanctuary up some steps at the far end of the cave making it easier to take potshots at the undead warriors. As you explore you’ll see things like older, ruined parts of this fortress, a throne room, and a much larger dock with a massive sea gate (and an undead warrior standing guard in a distant watchtower!)

There’s a lot of cool fights and ambushes throughout the map; gargoyles are perhaps the map’s MVP as there are quite a lot of them and they tend to assert their air superiority whenever they can. The most memorable fight to me is the whole setpiece down in the flooded cave beneath the blue key plaza; once you’ve killed the guarding disciples, you throw a switch, lava flows into the chamber, and the previously safe watery floor is now scorching hot lava, and your ass is trapped on the central platform with disciples and gargoyles coming your way. Shoot the stone faces that appear and pseudo-3D stone columns drop from the ceiling, forming stepstones you can jump across to grab the Phoenix Rod or run for the exit. I had a lot of trouble with this encounter but it was satisfying to conquer.

I really appreciate Icebound. It’s such a sprawling adventure with different parts that in bygone days would have been whole maps just by themselves. It’s also Chris Lutz at his best, giving a sterling example of the whole reason why he was my favorite map author back in the day. Whether you play it in Crispy Heretic or you slap Blasphemer on it like I did (it looks great with it by the way) you’re sure to have a solid Heretic experience way beyond what we’ve come to expect from the old stock maps.

 

 

 

 

get it at /idgames

 

-june❤

 

I stand upon the mountainside of my mind
And stare the walls inside - I'm icebound
Harsh cold walls of ice in my mind
Lock me deep inside - I'm icebound