Nightmare : Why it was NEVER meant to be played

[seed]

1 hour ago, Kapanyo said:

I started a Nightmare run of KDiTD very recently and honestly, as scary as the "main" components of the difficulty sound, the single thing I'm most terrified of now is the reaction speed monsters have. I learned very quickly to fear Shotgunners instantly killing me if I don't creep around corners with insane care, meanwhile I've also got the nagging anxiety that there's monsters respawning behind me screaming at me to hurry up and move on, and that level of juxtaposition and stress creates an adrenaline rush that I haven't felt in Doom before.

 

If you think Sergeants are bad, wait til you get to Doom 2, the Chaingunners will want a word with you :p .

[Skullhacker]

4 hours ago, Kapanyo said:

I started a Nightmare run of KDiTD very recently and honestly, as scary as the "main" components of the difficulty sound, the single thing I'm most terrified of now is the reaction speed monsters have. I learned very quickly to fear Shotgunners instantly killing me if I don't creep around corners with insane care, meanwhile I've also got the nagging anxiety that there's monsters respawning behind me screaming at me to hurry up and move on, and that level of juxtaposition and stress creates an adrenaline rush that I haven't felt in Doom before.

E1M3 is hard as crap on nightmare. The starting room is tiny and has a single stimpack in it. The door in front of you stays open once you press it, so you can't close it and open it over and over and make the monsters kill each other. One of my strategies is to open the door, hide in the corner, and wait for one of the shotgunners to notice you and accidentally explode a barrel or hurt another demon. Then, when a shotgunner is dead, I fire my pistol to wake up the pinkie and the spectre. If the barrel on the right is exploded, go for the left one, and vice versa. You'll want to shoot the barrel once or twice with the pistol using single shots. When you see the spectre or pinkie running over, shoot the barrel until it explodes (which should only take one bullet because you weakened it earlier). After you get a shotgun, focus on taking out the other monsters while hiding behind cover. Then, search for health, and move on to the next room.

This level is STILL taking me a while to beat on NIGHTMARE. But if you make it to all the cool secrets, you can get the chaingun, rocket launcher, and lots of health and armor. But if you beat any level past E1M2 on this difficulty, you deserve a pat on the back.

[Guest Unregistered account]

E1M3 was actually the level I was thinking of when I made that post, haha

I beat it yesterday, everything from the start up until the first key had me restarting tons, and then it was just the final rooms filled with humans that had me stuck but I had saved just before it so idk if it really counts anymore lol. M4 was pretty easy in comparison and now I'm stuck on M5

[CorianderCastor]

At least Nightmare! is not reallyjoel's dad mode. I mean the first instance of that joke difficulty literally prevents ending the first level. Some later versions are actually technically playable to finish however.

 

I like SRB2's hidden harder than hard mode, ultimate. It's a simple addition to any one hitpoint platformer.

[GarrettChan]

Just saying, well, what do you expect when the title generalize things, and put that word in all caps?

 

I just played Ep1 on Nightmare! 2 weeks ago, and I had no experience in UV Speed of these maps, so it's tough for sure. However, I personally would say this is an interesting way to play besides Ultra-Violence because of its toughness. I also watched ZeroMaster's demo after the playing session, and I did see a lot of strategies in it (I know most of the strategies already, but how do you execute that strategy is another story). At the beginning, it may be a joke to include this difficulty, but right now, I don't think it's a joke any more. Of course, you can still think this is a joke difficulty because many people can't even remotely beat it, but just don't include everybody when you're saying things. (Oh god, that Z something vs B something thread still has its taste here.)

[Skullhacker]

10 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

Of course, you can still think this is a joke difficulty because many people can't even remotely beat it, but just don't include everybody when you're saying things.

Okay. I'll remember that.

[UndeadRyker]

Just don't get hit lol

 

On 1/19/2020 at 12:38 AM, RonnieJamesDiner said:

>Did you know that the Nightmare! skill level was added as a joke, in response to comments that the game was too easy?

I have no idea if this is true, but, I could believe it.

I think I remember John Romero himself saying either in a Devs Play episode or a SIGIL livestream that Nightmare was added as a joke. No idea if that was its intended source but I do remember he has said something like that.

[Tartlman]

adding things as jokes isn't out of the question either, considering the existence of IDSPISPOPD