In which difficulty do you prefer playing Classic Doom?

[Matt Eldrydge]

Boy, this depends on a lot of factors, but let's say HMP on first try unless I'm playing with a mod that makes the player stronger and UV for stuff I'm already familiar with.

 

The biggest reason is: I suck at this game. I'm still gauging what "UV" actually stands for in the fabled modern difficulty, because some of the stuff I played in HMP puts the likes of Plutonia in the dirt. I've never beaten Plutonia, Scythe 1/2, Speed of Doom, Plutonia 2, Ancient Aliens and a few other WADs that have a reputation of being stepping stones in terms for how good you are at the game.

 

Another, smaller reason (which I hope doesn't come off as shilling) is I have a channel where I set out to have at least one video a day. 99% of the time, each map of a WAD gets its own video, so I've essentially "forced" myself to get out there and play stuff out of my comfort zone - this means I inevitably bumped shoulders with slaughter and huge, long maps with difficult encounters. I beat them, which means I've improved. Plutonia doesn't really sound so bad to me, by comparison.

 

As an aside, I learned to stop forcing myself to play on UV after I died over and over in a single map, got frustrated and started talking shit about a map made with nothing but care and consideration. I realized how shitty that was of me, felt awful about it and learned to not sweat about difficulty - what's more important is enjoying what someone made out of their love for Doom in my opinion.

[Murdoch]

If the author describes it as challenging, HMP. If not, UV. I will drop the skill though if I end up getting pissed off though. My limit on a fight is about half a dozen, more than that it's just not worth the frustration.

[Gmg]

UV or UV fast monsters, sometimes Nightmare.

[Shepardus]

All of them. I like to play maps multiple times on different skill levels to see what's different or to work my way up to UV if I started on something lower.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Shepardus

[elborbahquarama]

i always play wads on easy the first time around ._. then if i really enjoy them or certain levels in particular i'll replay them on normal or hard (or both)

[LadyMistDragon]

Normally UV, though I find it expedient to play the harder stuff on slightly lower difficulties. Being as the monster count often isn't significantly lower though, I end up playing on UV anyway probably half the time

[Graverinth]

I mainly like to play on UV becuase I’m a Nintendo user and I don’t have the skills to play nightmare yet

[blueyosh43]

On my first playthroughof Doom I did UV. E1M9 killed me a bunch but after that I got better and the rest of the game wasn't so hard. Think my only other deaths were the crusher in Halls of the Damned, and getting swarmed in Pandemonium because I had jack shit for ammo. Episode 4 gave me alot of shit especially Perfect Hatred. That other level, I think E4M6 where you're running across lava a shit ton with a cyberdemon also annoyed the fuck out of me. If not for constantly having to run on lava, and alot of deaths my first few tries figuring out how the teleporter works, it wouldn't have been that hard. On Doom II now, made it to Map 10 so far but I found out I was accidentally playing on Hurt Me Plenty. Gonna start a new game on UV and use cheats to get back to MAP10 and get my weapons back. 

[Zahid]

UV always 

[Sonikkumania]

[JRT]

(UV) I'm the doom equivalent to saying your favorite ice cream is chocolate.

Doom ep1-3 UV

Doom ep4 HMP

Doom 2 HOE HMP fast monsters

Doom 2 ML UV

My source port of choice is Crispy Doom with 4:3 aspect.

Edited November 17, 2023 by JRT
make things more complicated+better

[Treehouseminis]

UV most of the time, but if it's advertised as a particular hard map or set of maps I will play HMP.  I turned down difficulty to HMP after playing the first few levels of Balls of Steel CP and 1x1 CP on UV.  

 

I used to be UV or bust type of attitude, but thats when I was laid off during 2020 and a lot more time and willpower to grind through hard maps or hard fights lol.  I don't have the patience for it anymore, I just want a semi challenging experience, not die to a fight 20 times in a row.  

[rita remton]

depends. if i am familiar with the map author, i would start in [itytd] knowing full well i would not survive at all in higher difficulty levels. for others, usually [uv] and would change to [hmp] if i wanted to continue playing the map after dying like 17 times in the same map section.

Edited November 21, 2023 by rita remton

[MFG38]

HNTR with pistol starts.

[ScarlettTheRav]

i only play on the hardest of the hardest difficulties such as "im too young to die".  although i always die on e1m1 from the radioactive waste at the beginning after you leave the first room

[Denzel20]

I normally play in the "hurt me plenty" mode in order to have a more balanced and normal experience in my opinion. Later, when I know what I should do, or I know the positioning of the enemies in general, I play it in ultra violence

[DynamiteKaitorn]

When creating DooM wads I always test UV simply because its the hardest difficulty. If its too hard on UV I know to tone it down. Too easy? Buff it up!

 

For casual DooM-ing however I almost exclusively play Hurt Me Plenty.

[idbeholdME]

UV -fast. Can't stand how uselessly slow pinkies are on anything else.

[Li'l devil]

Now I play exclusively on HNTR, although if I die I always pistol restart and I don't play with saveloads (I only save when I want to stop playing). I don't like ITYTD because it alters the core gameplay.

 

Unless it's an ironman challenge that is. I think playing blind on UV just to see how much you can survive is really fun. But it's not fun for me if I actually want to beat the wads.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Li'l devil

[DoomGuy2077]

I always start on UV. If I feel like I'm running up against a wall at any point, I lower it to HMP. After a couple dozen deaths and no clear strategy that I can think of to execute in order to progress, I just want to see the rest of the game. I might even go back to UV after the difficulty spike. It's a single player game. I'm not trying to prove anything. 

Edited December 2, 2023 by DoomGuy2077
Removed a redundant word