Forlorn
By LVENdead - 12 Maps
Format: Limit Removing
[Download]
Started: September 23rd 2026
Finished: September 24th 2026
Status: Completed
After playing and really enjoying LVENdead's maps for D2ICO and D2IRO I really wanted to check out his other work, and this ended up being a great way to start! Forlorn ends up being fairly similar to Snaxalotl's "Abscission", but I think it does what that wad was attempting to do much, MUCH better. Forlorn goes for more of a melancholic atmosphere rather than straight up horror, which lands better in a game where you're straferunning around and shooting cartoony demons. Forlorn's decayed industrial world has a fantastic vibe to it, the awe and grandiosity of all this metal and machinery, long untouched by any human life. The use of exclusively vanilla textures is VERY impressive (for a while I was pretty sure there were some custom textures involved), and the fully original midis slot perfectly into the experience. Your journey through through the mechanical wasteland is pretty much seamless, the end of one map transitions directly into the beginning of the next, which I always really like. The earlier maps mostly just get you warmed up to the setting, but Map 4 "Circuit Breaker" is your first real lengthier outing, powered by a fantastic mournful midi and ending with a tram ride into the heart of some unfathomably huge mechanism. The center of said mechanism is I think where Forlorn fumbles a bit, Map 6 "Smelter Engine" has some annoying combinations of crushers and damaging floors, and Map 7 "Demon Retention" is very dark and finnicky to navigate, and feels the least cohesive out of every map in the wad. Map 8 "Pit" makes for a great dramatic transition, taking you through the deepest underbelly of the supermassive machine you've spent the last few maps traversing, now crawling through dimly lit tunnels just WAITING for something to appear around the next corner, finally spitting you back out even further into the industrial center than you were before, but at least granting you a full view of the sky again. After spending so much time in the metallic guts of the superstructure, Map 9 "Drilling Rig" makes for a fun way to unwind, a vast interconnected set of techbase islands in a lake slowly being filled with muck from what seems like decades of nonstop drilling. The train lover in me was very glad to see Map 10 "Railyard", the doomcute train cars are a treat to look at, and it captures Forlorn's mix of action and contemplative atmosphere perfectly, this formerly bustling shipping hub now run down and sinking into deep pools of nuclear sludge. Forlorn's finale, Map 11 "Hollow Spirit of Enterprise" comes as a weirdly sharp difficulty spike, but it does feel fitting considering the setting. Back inside the depths of the mechanized wasteland, things are starting to become noticeably... off. Previously everything looked like it served a purpose, but this place is filled with scrolling metal walls, random pillars moving like pistons in some incomprehensibly large engine, and the environment itself shifting and morphing as you get close. The final section is an unfortunate anti-climax, with an awkward platforming gauntlet that can softlock you if you fall in the wrong places, and an underwhelmingly finnicky Cyberdemon elevator fight to close things out, but that does little to ruin many of the otherwise fantastic things Forlorn has already done. As always I appreciate the extra touch of a "thanks for playing" map in place of being unceremoniously dumped into whatever Doom 2 map comes next in the order, but this one felt a tiny bit underwhelming as well, but that's a petty complaint at best. Regardless, this is a fantastic little mapset, a great addition to my arsenal of "coffee break" wads, and has further cemented LVENdead as a high tier mapper for me.
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Favorite Map - Map 10: "Railyard"
Least Favorite Map - Map 11: "Hollow Spirit of Enterprise"