Quick Update

Yesterday my final video for Ultimate Doom went out, and as of today I don't have another series ready to publish out alongside Skyrim.  I have a couple I'm working on, but I've kind of decided on a policy where I'm not going to post a series of videos unless they're complete (no more Baldur's Gate playthroughs left hanging :).  I should have something new out in not too long, though.

Ultimate Doom Ultra-Violence 100% Kills, Items, and Secrets - Thy Flesh Consumed

Well I managed to complete a single-segment run of this episode as well, but just like my no-damage walkthrough, it was tedious in its own way.

This episode is hard, and the hardest part of doing this video was honestly just the first level.  For one, the map is straight up hard and there are only a few health bonuses to recover any health.  It's also a bit of a poverty map regarding ammo.  Pity those players who didn't find the secret with the rocket launcher, or couldn't figure out that at the end you need to get the Barons to group up in the corner so you can maximize the splash damage with your meager 12 rockets.  I can imagine a lot of players ragequit back in the day, running out of ammo with two Barons still alive and wondering what they were supposed to do.

So problem one is managing to finish the map with sufficient health and ammo so that you don't start out behind the 8 ball in the next map, since it's no pushover either.  That may not sound hard, but there are just so many things that can go wrong.  Quickdraw Shotgunners are probably the biggest problem, and if a couple of them get the drop on you you can find yourself in a low health situation where it's probably best to restart.

But that's not the only challenge.  Both when you release the first Baron and then again at the end when you release the last four, the ideal strategy is to stay inside the little fortress in the lava and get the enemies to group up in the corner outside.  This will eventually trigger infighting, and you can get the Barons to kill all the non-Baron enemies for you (and take damage in the process), which greatly saves on ammo.  The problem is that you have to stay near the barred window where they can see you, as you need the Barons and Imps to shoot their projectiles and hit other enemies in the process.  It's a small room and you're uncomfortably close to the enemies, making it easy to take a projectile to the face by accident.

Then, even if you master these technical challenges, there are things that can just go wrong with the map that are out of your control that will end the run.  The first is the initial Baron inside the fortress skipping the teleport trigger and staying inside with you.  For some reason sometimes the enemies that teleport in will just walk right over the teleport trigger at the bottom of the stairs that's supposed to take them outside.  If the Baron does it, it's a restart.  Sure, a good player can shotgun him down, even in such tight quarters, but the problem is it takes too much ammo.

But the biggest problem of all, and the one that ended most of my runs, was the dang "NIN" second secret.  Something is wonky with the detection, and a lot of times the secret just does not trigger no matter how much you walk over the letters.  I've never gotten into Doom map making, so I don't know what the problem is technically.  Since this isn't a source port like PrBoom, I don't have the luxury of the counters that tell you how many kills, items, and secrets you've gotten for the current level, so all I can do is just walk over the area multiple times and hope for the best.

So yeah, getting through E4M1 was by far the biggest hurdle.  E4M2 is still pretty challenging also, and a few runs ended there as well, but if you can get past these first two levels it's pretty much a guaranteed win from there.  I did have a couple more restarts due to missing some items by being careless, but ultimately here it is.  And you know the best part of this video?  I actually got to the invulnerability sphere on E4M3 without taking damage!  I can now say I have 100% the original Doom, and I'm looking forward to moving on from here to Doom II.

Ultimate Doom Ultra Violence - 100% Kills, Items, and Secrets - Thy Flesh Consumed