How Would You rank the doom games by difficulty?

[Dr.Ferret]

Even though it has been out for a while, with doom eternal out how would you rank the doom games from easiest to hardest?

[Hellektronic]

My ranking (revised)

 

*EASY*

 

-Doom PS1

-Doom 64

-Doom

-Doom 3

-Doom 2

-TNT Evilution

-Plutonia Experiment

-Doom 2016

-Doom Eternal

 

*HARD*

Edited August 7, 2020 by Hellektronic

[GarrettChan]

Doom (original 3 episodes): 0.1/5

Ultimate Doom (episode 4): 0.5/5

Doom 2: 0.5/5

TNT: Evilution: 0.8/5

Plutonia: 1/5

 

Can't rank Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal since they are not the same game, but it wouldn't be harder than hard Classic Doom WADs.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

31 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

I don't like having to dance like a crippled, crackhead mime

 

That's quite the image. Have you tried less crippled, crackhead mimery and more... shootey shootey the demons in the face? :P

Edited August 7, 2020 by RonnieJamesDiner

[Hellektronic]

7 minutes ago, RonnieJamesDiner said:

That's quite the image. Have you tried less crippled, crackhead mimery and more... shootey shootey the demons in the face? :P

 

Try doing that on nightmare and UN, lol. You're gonna have to run from em eventually, and when you do, you're very likely going to get sniped by all manner of ranged attack nonsense mid-retreat. I've been playing since the game came out and it still aggravates me. They aim their shot perfectly in the directly you're moving, perfectly calculated by the speed you're going... so you get hit by total nonsense.

 

Occasionally you can outwit their robot aim, but it's basically by being so unpredictable they can't aim in front of you. Because they will aim in front of you. 2016 had it too, that's why a lot of people said imps were the hardest enemy on UN.

 

But Eternal has a lot more projectile shooting enemies, and they generally deal a pretty gnarly amount of damage from a single hit.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Hellektronic

[Dr.Ferret]

I just say do hurt me plenty on the new doom games. No extra enemies, no high difficulty.

[Chip]

41 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

Doom (original 3 episodes): 0.1/5

Ultimate Doom (episode 4): 0.5/5

Doom 2: 0.5/5

TNT: Evilution: 0.8/5

Plutonia: 1/5

why would you make it out of 5 if it goes up to 1? there aren't other games you're ranking. 

 

my rankings. 1= easy, 4=hard

 

DOOM 64=1

Ultimate DOOM=2

DOOM 2=3

Final DOOM=4

[Hellektronic]

1 hour ago, Dr.Ferret said:

I just say do hurt me plenty on the new doom games. No extra enemies, no high difficulty.

 

I don't so much mind more numerous and aggressive enemies, I just wish I could dodge a fireball or two without having to like... stop mid-run and hope it borks their AI into shooting in the direction I was going. Or, ya know, jump, dash, jump, SUDDENLY CHANGE DIRECTION FOR NO REASON, dash, boogie in cover for a bit and hope their ai aims at the wall for a few shots, jump, dash, jump, dash, dash, jump. It gets REALLY annoying in my opinion. On nightmare, that one fireball that you get nipped by zaps your entire armor count pretty much, then anything after that is like killing any strength advantage you formerly had. You need to not get hit in nightmare, but that's very hard, given that enemies basically home their projectiles like robots.

 

If you dash perpetually like a maniac that's less of a problem, but it's still a problem. You try to strafe back and forth, you're inevitably going to have to run because all demon projectiles are like plasma, slightly slower than hitscan... they saturate an area with suppressive fire pretty easily, allowing heavy demons to just walk right up and knock. Then you try to run, the fireballs start aiming in your path so that they hit you perfectly based on how fast the projectile moves compared to how fast you're moving. I guess the guys at id were hoping dashing would be the magic bullet to fix that, but it's still a huge issue.

 

Then you play Doom 1/2, and it's like whole different dimension entirely. Fireballs are fired AT you, not in front of you... so you can dodge them, but occasionally the sheer volume of fireballs swamps your ability to dodge. Hitscan enemies, yeah they will still hit you, but cover is very useful in Doom 1/2. In Eternal? Hell, you can't take cover. Cover is like a 2 second reprieve that may or may not help you dodge a few before you get steamroller'd by heavy demons and crap for not moving. So- as a result, dashing, dancing, and jumping is pretty much the best cover you can get most of the time.

 

In the simplest terms, there is simply no such thing as a "defensive" playstyle in Eternal. You almost have to be moving every second to dodge fireballs while simultaneously avoiding melee tank demons like dread knights and barons. You try to take cover from the fireballs, you get crushed by melee, you try to run from the melee, you get shot by the fireballs, lol. That's what I mean, the playstyle intended for Eternal is pure breakneck speed, and occasionally bullshit happens. And when it does, it's like you've been hit by a freight train and can't recover fast enough.

 

I know all about it, hah. You can sometimes claw your way back up the foodchain by glory killing the hell out of everything you can get your paws on, or like grenading herds of flame-belched fodder demons, but it's still like... good lord. And that's what I mean by "bullshit"... it's not so much that it's hard, it that enemies have robotic advantages. That's totally ignoring enemies that hit you with area of effect attacks through walls, that's a whole 'nother rant entirely.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Hellektronic

[Pseudonaut]

4 minutes ago, LiT_gam3r said:

why would you make it out of 5 if it goes up to 1? there aren't other games you're ranking. 

 

Probably taking community wads into account. Compared to something like Sunder, Plutonia is easy.

 

Anyway, in terms of difficulty, Doom 1 < Doom 2 < Thy Flesh Consumed < TNT < Plutonia.

 

The only other one I've played all the way through is Doom 2016, but it's too different to rank. UV was challenging enough that I thought it was fun.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Surprised so many peeps find ep 4 easier than TNT.

For Me it's DooM (all 3 episodes), DooM 3, Doot Twoot, TNT, TFC, Plutonia, Sigil, DooM 4

(not played Eternal and not finished DooM 64)

[xdarkmasterx]

From hardest to easiest

 

(on the highest non-gimmick difficulty, so Nightmare for Eternal/2016 and UV/Veteran for everything lower):

 

Doom Eternal: Average

Master Levels: Average

Plutonia: Average

TNT: Average

Doom 2016: Easy

Doom 64: Easy

Doom 2: Easy

Doom 1: Super easy

Doom 3: Super duper easy

Resurrection of Evil: The Artifact nuff said

 

💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪

 

 

Edited August 7, 2020 by xdarkmasterx

[Redneckerz]

1 minute ago, xdarkmasterx said:

From hardest to easiest

 

(on the highest non-gimmick difficulty, so Nightmare for Eternal/2016 and UV/Veteran for everything lower):

 

Doom Eternal: Average

Master Levels: Average

Plutonia: Below average

Doom 2016: Easy

Doom 64: Easy

Doom 2: Easy

Doom 1: Super easy

Doom 3: Super duper easy

Resurrection of Evil: The Artifact nuff said

 

💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪

 

 

No fi but your avatar scared the shit out of me, and that when i just had a family burial today... :/

[Chip]

20 minutes ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

 DooM (all 3 episodes), DooM 3, Doot Twoot, TNT, TFC, Plutonia, Sigil, DooM 4

2 questions. Which game is Doot Twoot? Also, you think Si6il is more difficult than TFC? I always thought Si6il was much easier than TFC, especially that final level. 

 

also, I have a question for the OP. Would you consider the Add-ons to the new DOOM ports games? I mean, they are add-ons, but so is Si6il, and people are including that. Because NEIS and BTSX could go way up there. LoL. 

[snapshot]

From Easiest to Hardest:

 

Doom < Doom 3 < Doom 2 < Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil < TNT Evilution < Doom 2016 < Plutonia Experiment < Doom Eternal

 

Doom 64 was a snoozefest, couldn't be arsed to finish it heh.

Edited August 7, 2020 by sluggard

[D4NUK1]

From Easiest to Hard to.

< DOOM 

< DOOM 64

< DOOM RoE

< DOOM 3

< DOOM 3 BFG

< DOOM 2:No Rest for the Living
< DOOM 2

< TNT EVILUTION

< SIGIL

< PLUTONIA

< DOOM 2016

< DOOM ETERNAL.

Edited August 7, 2020 by jamondemarnatural

[GarrettChan]

3 hours ago, LiT_gam3r said:

why would you make it out of 5 if it goes up to 1? there aren't other games you're ranking. 

There are actually hard WAD I rate it 4.5, so it makes sense.

[Chip]

4 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

There are actually hard WAD I rate it 4.5, so it makes sense.

what's the hardest WAD you've played?

[Hellektronic]

30 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

There are actually hard WAD I rate it 4.5, so it makes sense.

 

Ah, I dunno man... that still really doesn't make sense.

 

We're talking the Doom IWADs, not custom wads. It sounds kind of... uh... hipster of you to mention all the wads you've played. I've played hard wads too... but they're not "Doom games" are they? They're custom maps, mods, extra content.

 

If we're going to rate out of 5, if all the games don't top 1.1 I think we have a serious issue.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Hellektronic

[GarrettChan]

27 minutes ago, LiT_gam3r said:

what's the hardest WAD you've played?

Right now it's Stardate 20X7. I played some other, but haven't finished.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

Ah, I dunno man... that still really doesn't make sense.

You didn't give a range, so it's hard to evaluate. It's hard in my real life skill or whatever is the top? It's hard to say. If you just want IWADs, you can just scale everything down/up to make it match.

[Pseudonaut]

13 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

We're talking the Doom IWADs, not custom wads.

 

You're technically right, that's what OP asked for, but I think custom wads are such an indispensable part of classic Doom at this point that I don't care. Anyone who has spent more playtime with the IWAD levels than PWADs is really missing out.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Pseudonaut

[Hellektronic]

9 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

You didn't give a range, so it's hard to evaluate. It's hard in my real life skill or whatever is the top? It's hard to say. If you just want IWADs, you can just scale everything down/up to make it match.

 

I don't think there's really like... a finite range or rating system, lol. Just give an arbitrary rank based off your person opinion, it's just for fun.

 

3 minutes ago, Pseudonaut said:

You're technically right, that's what OP asked for, but I think custom wads are such an indispensable part of classic Doom at this point that I don't care.

 

Oh I'm not saying custom wads are irrelevant, lol, I'm just saying it was a direct comparison of game difficulty without mods or extra content.

[GarrettChan]

6 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

I don't think there's really like... a finite range or rating system, lol. Just give an arbitrary rank based off your person opinion, it's just for fun.

I know what you mean. The thing I want to say is that even "easy" and "hard" don't really have a meaning if you don't get something to compare, right? The rating system out of 5 I used is for all the WADs out there, or even you can comprehend it's something related in real life. Just like "looking for a job is hard", so "playing a game is not hard"... something like that. However, there are definitely more difficult games which is harder than looking for a job.

 

I guess technically for the IWADs is just the easiest is Doom 1, the hardest is Plutonia, Doom 2 and Episode 4 is in the middle, TNT is somewhere between Doom 2 and Plutonia.

[Pseudonaut]

9 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

Oh I'm not saying custom wads are irrelevant, lol, I'm just saying it was a direct comparison of game difficulty without mods or extra content.

 

Don't worry, I'm not saying that's what you said. Just making a semi-relevant point that I felt like making.

[Hellektronic]

I'm mostly just pointing out that custom wads can be pretty much...  infinitely hard, like outrageously, nonsensically hard if people want them to be.

 

So if anything is hard to judge difficulty on, I'd say wads are hard to judge, hah. Whereas the base games are like: "well... I died a lot in Doom 3 so it's hard" or "well... I never died in Doom 64 so it's easy", lol.

 

But by rank?

 

*EASY*

 

-Doom PS1

-Doom 64

-Doom

-Doom 3

-Doom 2

-TNT Evilution

-Plutonia Experiment

-Doom 2016

-Doom Eternal

 

*HARD*

 

Some people argue that 2016 is too easy, but I think they're just bragging, lol. It's actually really hard on Nightmare/Ultra-Nightmare, I don't care who you are.

 

Technically I'm not sure I should even include Final Doom because they're just custom wads, but eh, why not.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Hellektronic

[Pseudonaut]

20 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

I'm mostly just pointing out that custom wads can be pretty much...  infinitely hard, like outrageously, nonsensically hard if people want them to be.

 

This is true. Anyone could make a map that starts the player in a tiny room with 4 cyberdemons and no weapons, and it would probably be impossible even for a TAS. On the other hand, there are maps that can be beaten, but only by a TAS. Then there are maps that are humanly possible to beat without saves, but only by Doomgods. As you move down this difficulty spectrum, potential popularity generally increases. I guess it depends on where you draw the line in that regard.

 

20 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

Some people argue that 2016 is too easy, but I think they're just bragging, lol. It's actually really hard on Nightmare/Ultra-Nightmare, I don't care who you are.

 

That's been my experience, but I think it has a lot to do with familiarity with the game and modern shooters in general. I thought Nightmare mode in Doom 2016 was really hard when I tried it, but if I spent as much time with that game as I have with classic Doom, perhaps I would breeze through Nightmare mode in my sleep.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Pseudonaut

[random_soldier1337]

Doom Eternal is the hardest for many of you? Do you guys just decide to play ultra nightmare from the get go?

Edited August 8, 2020 by random_soldier1337

[P41R47]

23 minutes ago, random_soldier1337 said:

Doom Eternal is the hardest for many of you? Do you guys just decide to play ultra nightmare from the get go?

Its a complex society we live on, pal!

I feel a pussy if i don't do it :(

 

On topic, its the usual answer we have all the time since Final Doom was released.

But @LiT_gam3r made a good point.
The officials add-ons of the new classic port are, sorry the redundancy, ''officials'' now.

So Double Impact, Sigil, No Rest for the Living, No End In Sight, Deathless, BTSX are now all official curated mapsets.

 

Taking this into acount and talking only of good old doom:

----Easy----

-U.Doom

-Sigil

-Deathless

-Double Impact

-Doom 2

-No Rest for the Living

-TNT: Evilution

-The Plutonia Experiment

-BTSX

-NEIS

----Hard----

Edited August 8, 2020 by P41R47

[Hellektronic]

15 minutes ago, random_soldier1337 said:

Doom Eternal is the hardest for many of you? Do you guys just decide to play ultra nightmare from the get go?

 

I've played from ultraviolence up, started on ultraviolence, trial by fire learned my way to Ultra-Nightmare. It's definitely brutal.

 

My reasoning for putting it hardest is that it's generally the fastest from full health to almost dead on nightmare, everything is breakneck paced, enemies always know where you are, fireballs aim to be directly in your path and hit you mid run, fodder demons spawn infinitely until all harder demons are dead, and you've got super heavy demons like Doom Hunters adding another element of difficulty. 2016 was nothing compared to Eternal.

 

1 hour ago, Pseudonaut said:

That's been my experience, but I think it has a lot to do with familiarity with the game and modern shooters in general. I thought Nightmare mode in Doom 2016 was really hard when I tried it, but if I spent as much time with that game as I have with classic Doom, perhaps I would breeze through Nightmare mode in my sleep.

 

I've been involved with the new Doom games since the very beginning, running clubs for it on Xbox Live and such, seeing different people's perspectives and playstyles... I mean sure difficulty is relative to the player, but it's not what I'd ever call an "easy" game, and I practically live for challenge. I was like... absurdly, ridiculously good around the time I beat ultra-nightmare and got all the achievements, but even then, it still wasn't like "pssh, this game is for noobs", lol. It's a hard game! Maybe not as hard as Eternal, but it's still got its parts.

 

11 minutes ago, P41R47 said:

Its a complex society we live on, pal!

I feel a pussy if i don't do it :(

 

You need to take a long moment of introspection and think about what you enjoy. If you don't enjoy stupid challenge, drop a couple levels... society is full of shit. I'm just a mentally unstable difficulty masochist, so I feel driven to push that extra mile. Believe me when I say you're perfectly justified for playing something under nightmare difficulty, because games are for fun, not pure competition.

[P41R47]

3 minutes ago, Hellektronic said:

You need to take a long moment of introspection and think about what you enjoy. If you don't enjoy stupid challenge, drop a couple levels... society is full of shit. I'm just a mentally unstable difficulty masochist, so I feel driven to push that extra mile. Believe me when I say you're perfectly justified for playing something under nightmare difficulty, because games are for fun, not pure competition.

Explaining a joke takes away the fun, pal!

I was just practicing my new-sincerity skills.

[D4NUK1]

31 minutes ago, random_soldier1337 said:

Doom Eternal is the hardest for many of you? Do you guys just decide to play ultra nightmare from the get go?

Yes, because is the game that scales the most difficulty spike that the other Dooms don't compare.

Talking about the medium-hard difficulty, and maybe you are someone that played Doom 2016 UV and learned how to play well, Eternal shakes you up again to make you learn again. Difficulty should not be a part of you enjoyment, so don't be afraid to drop to enjoy. Im also do that in PWADS because it's better to play easy and learn how some mapper make his game around, instead of hitting myself with the game and rage quit.