My diary and autospy of a full Nightmare run

[PsychEyeball]

I played a lot of Doom 2 over the years. Started out as an early teenager playing on I'm Too Young To Die with a Gravis Gamepad. Ended up graduating to Hurt Me Plenty and eventually switched to the keyboard to play on Ultra Violence.

 

Flash forward to a few years ago, where I decided to tackle the challenge that many people did (but not me): The Pistol Start run. It was an interesting experience and helped me appreciate how some of these levels were designed more (or less, if the game decided to not put a super shotgun in their maps!).

 

But there was one big thing left to do: beat the game on Nightmare. And this challenge came to dawn as kind of a April's Fools stream joke where I put on a variety show where I spin a wheel and it decides on painful games to play. The wheel landed on the Doom 2 Nightmare Run and I'd play this for a hour. After this initial session, I went back twice more to do the whole thing. My runtime was a little over 1 hour, but it took over 5 hours to get this monstrosity done, with over 4 hours wasted in deaths and saving/reloading.

 

For shits and giggles, I once tried Nightmare way, way back. I gave up on Map 4. The Focus just seemed impossible with the fast and respawning hitscanners. But hey, I'd get to try again!

 

So the rest of this post will be me describing my experience, map by map, say how it went and assign a pain score. Could I beat The Focus this time? I mean… I just said I did, but pretend you didn’t see it!

 

MAP 1 - ENTRYWAY: With the chainsaw, this map is simple enough. Trying to go for the shotgun was a foolish maneuver that ended in death. But skipping it provided a swift victory and 93% health for the next map. Pain: 1/10

 

MAP 2 - UNDERHALLS: This level drilled me two concepts: hitscanners are super dangerous. The super shotgun is also way too slow to be reliable. Out of panic I blow myself up with barrels trying to get a good SSG shot out. Everything is so fast and my fingers react faster than my brain does. The shotgunners at the end very quickly reduce my health to 21%. Pain: 5/10

 

MAP 3 - THE GANTLET: I wisely suicide to get my health back at the expense of the SSG. I unwisely charge ahead in 5 imps and a shotgunner: 100% to dead in 1 second. You sure die quickly, huh? The courtyard has more bark than bite at least. Once the chaingunners are out, the rest of the map is surprisingly easy. Blur sphere and supercharge mitigates the hitscan menace. Botched up the fight with the pinkies at the end though... they sure are very fast! Half health is not an ideal spot to be in ending this. Pain: 3/10

 

MAP 4 - THE FOCUS: THESE OPEN AND CLOSE SHUTTERS. I HATE THEM. The shotgunners behind them killed me so often. These are worse than the Blood cultists because they feel way more accurate and you can't lob TNT sticks everywhere. This is also the first stage where respawning enemies will actively get in your way. And of course, most of the hitscanners in the main room respawned within less than 20 seconds so I had plenty of opposition when I got the SSG back. I got grinded down enough by the imps that by the time the red key was got, I only had 25 health. Of course, I took all the health in the main room so that’s all I’d get. The main room also has windows where imps in the blue key room can snipe you and most shotgunners would be back. The run to the red room resulted in over 20 more deaths and copious yelling. Then I made it in with 4% health left. There’s 6 stimpacks inside that last room but fast specters, shotgunners and chaingunners with perfect reflexes. Plus I realize the zombies from the main room are moving into the red room to snipe me from afar. Somehow, the miracle happened, but not before a respawning zombie shot me in the back multiple times while dealing with the final demon. I have only 8% left as I leave, never to return. Fuck this level. Pain: 9/10

 

MAP 5 - THE WASTE TUNNELS: Tough, but a breath of fresh air after The Focus. Plenty of easy supercharges and a mega armor is ripe for the picking. Couldn’t get the plasma rifle (way too much hitscanning scum to try that) and going for the rocket launcher might have been a mistake given it’s also heavily guarded; these 4 extra rockets were not worth it. The small prison cell in the caves is a big bother health-wise, but thankfully the map runs out of steam and I reach The Crusher with 6 health. Pain: 4/10

 

MAP 6 - THE CRUSHER: Thank goodness for that early Megasphere. This level likely was the easiest yet, once I got the Megasphere I was in business… until a chaingunner respawned next to me and ended me. Warning: a crushed Spider Mastermind can still easily shoot you! Otherwise, only the final encounter was taxing and left me with mid health. Pain: 2/10

 

MAP 7 - DEAD SIMPLE: A scary level on paper. You need to ensure all the Mancubi reach the death state at the same time… given that monsters can take as little as 12 seconds to respawn, this can be very problematic. Once it’s done, repeat that step but with Arachnotrons. It forces you to not take your time killing the monsters, but it went better than expected. The Mancubi rush probably is the hardest part and yet it only took about 4 tries to pull off. Pain: 4/10

 

MAP 8 - TRICKS AND TRAPS: Surprisingly underwhelming. Knowing the ideal route destroys this entire map. Getting the BFG led to a demon scare, but otherwise invulnerability spheres make this level a freebie. Only map I didn’t die on so far. Pain: 1/10

 

MAP 9 - THE PIT: The Pain Elementals are guests to this whole enterprise if you don’t need a rocket launcher thanks to the Lost Soul limit. Otherwise, the hitscanner squad at the start can be severely problematic. Rest of the level is business as usual provided you have enough rockets and cells to push back everything. The Spectre at the end can be scary since he’s hard to track. Pain: 4/10

 

MAP 10 - REFUELING BASE: This one was tough. I first tried to headbutt my way through the hitscanner cubicle hell but I was getting nowhere due to the hot start and low starting health and armor. Thankfully, powerups can turn the tide in your favor. But unlike Map 8, the road back and forth is not foolproof. The winning strategy was to bring Partial Invisibility into Hitscanner Cubicle City to not horribly die and be careful around the demons. If you can teleport inside the Cyberdemon arena, this level should be in the bag. But doing it was way harder, it took me almost 40 minutes to beat. Pain: 7/10

 

MAP 11 - CIRCLE OF DESTRUCTION: The climb to the blue key was the toughest part for me. The Arachnotrons and Cacodemons can focus fire your butt in oblivion fast but the first arch-vile shouldn’t have time to do much. The secret rocket stash is a godsend and if you make it to the Red Door’s invulnerability in due time, the rest of the level is a freebie. But the central circle and content before is enough to not make it a total cakewalk. Pain: 3/10

 

MAP 12 - THE FACTORY: Mostly barren. Kill that Arachnotron watching over the Blue and Red keys, he got me twice before I got the memo. The final room with the switch gave me the scare of a lifetime, but a single try got me through. That still was a very unpleasant fight and I hated every second of this circus act. Pain: 5/10

 

MAP 13 - DOWNTOWN: This one wasn’t too bad until I was tasked with eliminating a bunch of revenants hanging near the blue door building while a firing squad of spiders, cacodemons and imps survey the scene. It’s a recipe to lose close to 100 health in half a second. And of course, you can’t really preemptively clear them out first and then teleport later, they likely will be back alive by then. Save an invulnerability sphere for that super slow elevator ride at the end and take your time before killing the imps, they’ll be back alive before you jump to the yellow key. Pain: 4/10

 

MAP 14 - THE INMOST DENS: What a heart attack. Hitscanners are sweating out of this map’s pores and no section of this map is easy. At least it’s short. Dunno how I’d ever pistol start this one on nightmare, that archvile courtyard is well… a nightmare. Also you can barely try running through certain rooms (ie. the last one) without becoming swiss cheese. Pain: 6/10

 

MAP 15 - INDUSTRIAL ZONE: PAIN. This level is enormous, non linear and there are hitscanners EVERYWHERE. No area is safe. I couldn’t get myself to get the blue armor because the hitscan menace is too relentless for you to halt anywhere. The detour to the secret level feels almost mandatory since it skips so much of that grueling map. That blur sphere after the red key door feels too little too late as a nice gesture, and even it can’t save you when dozens of hitscanners are shooting at you all at once. Pain: 8/10

 

MAP 31-32 - WOLFENSTEIN AND GROSSE: Giant rooms full of too few nazis to be a real threat. The demons can be mean but you don’t have to fight them if you don’t want to, but that BFG secret sure is tempting. I missed the partial invisibility at the beginning of MAP31 and yet it was a cakewalk. MAP32 is even easier: carefully snipe the nazis, get that invulnerability sphere and the map’s over. Pain: 0/10

 

MAP 16 - SUBURBS: The invulnerability sphere definitely helps getting a footing in this, but this level is pretty easy since it’s mercifully lacking in hitscanners. The blue key horde seems imposing, but the level is so large that you can easily ignore it. Revenants become stationary turrets shooting a never ending array of homing missiles, but their missiles don’t get any faster on Nightmare and again, the level’s so large you can easily lure them in crashing somewhere. Pain: 2/10

 

MAP 17 - TENEMENTS: And here the pendulum swings the other way. Lots of hitscanners, tiny platforms, touchy movement… that final section on its own required more than 2 dozens of deaths. You have very little agency in what happens to you here because you can fall so easily in the slime. While the rest is not the worst, infinitely tall monsters can be a real pain in many areas here. The arch-vile in the cage always feels finicky to me for some reason and I’m always super uncomfortable fighting it. The end “puzzle” can be beaten without trouble thankfully, but the megasphere secret will be of no use to you since it makes you backtrack so much. Pain: 7/10

 

MAP 18 - THE COURTYARD: My first thought was that this level was gonna be easy… and it is! Even on Nightmare, the titular courtyard is too big and barren to be a threat. Get the Yellow key, snag an invul sphere and collect the blue stuff with total impunity. You can even snag a Supercharge for free before leaving! Pain: 1/10

 

MAP 19 - THE CITADEL: I struggled lots with the map, but mostly because I couldn’t remember how to make that platform rise into this one room leading to the red key, which is not even the fault of Nightmare difficulty. Otherwise, it’s business as usual. The shotgunners at the start will sting, but the rest is mostly imps, spiders and lost souls. And that spectre yard. Pain: 3/10

 

MAP 20 - GOTCHA!: I wanted to watch the two titans duke it out in the arena, but many respawning monsters just loved finding their way in to ruin my fun. The best way for me was to ignore the setpiece fight altogether and go for that BFG out of the way fortress to reload on cells. Pain elementals continue to be the worst nuisance in the world so these cells will come in handy, provided you can dodge the resulting angry offspring. Pain: 4/10

 

MAP 21 - NIRVANA: For once I used every medkit in that silly starting room! While Nightmare often encourages to be reckless and super fast, slow and steady wins it in this one. The spectre/shotgun duo in that first arena represent a major threat to your health and the yellow key fight is a doozy, especially once the pain elementals join in. The acid chamber after is an afterthought with invincibility, grab whichever key you need and get the hell out. Pain: 5/10

 

MAP 22 - THE CATACOMBS. FUCK THIS MAP. The compass room is the most grueling in the whole game. Superfast demons in the slime, countless chaingunners who love to respawn on the compass or snipe through grates and weird angles, revenant turrets with no room to dodge their fireballs… this room killed me over 50 times, often in a split second of appearing to this chaingunner firing squad in the center. The wear and tear in between could be worse, but the chaingunner ambushes are merciless and… that compass room… ugghghghghghhhhh… Finishing this level with over 20 health felt like a miracle and ground me down to paste. Pain: 10/10

 

MAP 23 - BARRELS OF FUN: Starting this map with 20 health was a mistake. It took me over 15 tries to make it through the barrel/chaingunner room at the start because they will almost always hit you and surviving boils down to complete luck. Then comes the barrel room with 6 pain elementals. Don’t even try to fight it, just run and BFG if necessary. It’s likely a question of seconds before they hit the lost soul limit. The demon rush afterwards is pretty scary, but once you get past it, the rest of the stage is actually pretty easy. Getting a spider mastermind to in-fight is so easy to achieve on Nightmare and the revenants/archvile/demons afterwards are pretty manageable. Sadly, more nearly unavoidable chaingunners await and get some cheap shots at you on the way out. Hopefully they blow up soon enough and you outrun the massive explosion. Maybe the level would have been better with more health, but the beginning is so painful. Pain: 6/10

 

MAP24 - THE CHASM: This level tested my narrow ledge running ability. Thankfully, doing this with mouse and keyboard is simple enough, which is more than necessary when a herd of lost souls threaten to haunt you alive or push you in the inescapable slime pit. I actually rushed straight to the exit door in order to immediately summon that floor to appear, which was critical to kill the lost souls so they don’t murder you after getting the key (thank goodness they don’t respawn). Still easier said than done though: these things never ever give up attacking! The demon room is scary, but quick navigation made it possible to escape this nightmare. Pain: 4/10

 

MAP 25 - BLOODFALLS: I ended up playing this level the way I usually always play it: go to the Megasphere room first to clear the enemies, get the megasphere and retreat to the start. Otherwise, I’d be standing dead by the time I get the skull key or I couldn’t even leave the ledge due to infinitely tall monsters murdering me. The rest of the level does get easier with a BFG shot in the locked room. Even on Nightmare, this level is a bit boring. Pain: 4/10

 

MAP 26 - THE ABANDONED MINES: I was expecting this map to be easy due to the lack of space in the central hub… and boy did this map hand my ass over to me hard. The cacodemon menace can be rather unpredictable, as they take potshots at you either through the grates or teleport in the narrow hallways and block all possible progress. And finally, I found my spot to be for the next 20 minutes: the zigzagging cavernous path filled with imps and cacodemons. I was back to feeling completely helpless as it felt like nothing I’d do would work, or somehow the monsters would miss every shot because of something weird. The mancubus/baron of hell duo guarding the last key has more cacodemons and lost souls to cut off any escape route. Sometimes teleporting back to the zigzag cavern entrance would get me killed instantly, sometimes not. This map made me thoroughly hate the random respawning mechanic when the time to get to the exit came. Sometimes I could get to the end, sometimes a cacodemon and chaingunner would surround me and end me. Pain: 8/10

 

MAP 27 - MONSTER CONDO: Surprisingly easy. The invulnerability spheres could allow one to play through 3/4s of the map invincible. I didn’t do the run quite right, but after an initial struggle with the library section, everything clicked. I didn’t even respect the gimmick with the teleporting blue skull key room, dashing in to get the key and immediately leaving. That’s an army of mancubi and revenants I won’t have to deal with. The revenants and hell nobles near the blue key switch are a little scary, but again, there’s so much room to kite revenant fireballs around. Pain: 3/10

 

MAP 28 - THE SPIRIT WORLD: Same deal. The fight at the beginning I felt obligated to do because pain elementals are too dangerous to keep alive. That’s about the most fighting one has to do in this map: otherwise you can run through most of this map for free, all thanks to the countless invulnerability spheres. I feel so sad for the spider masterminds, outside of Map 6 they have no presence in the game whatsoever. Zombiemen are 100% more dangerous than the spider mastermind and I’m not trying to be funny. Once you get the BFG, you’ll get so much ammo you can just use it for every encounter that gets in your way with no fear of running out of ammo. One of the rare levels I beat without dying once. Pain: 2/10

 

MAP 29 - THE LIVING END: Enemy respawning is almost not a problem with this map, but fast monsters totally change the script on this one and the constant dead ends you must flip switches to get through will force an unhealthy amount of tough fights on you. Cacodemons and hitscanners were the stars of the show: waiting for that slow bridge to rise so you can get anywhere in the middle of the stage give them the time to shine and ruin your life. The next big challenge is the penultimate room with the three zigzagging paths, the token revenants at the start of this section will keep you busy as you go through each path, flip the switches and wade through superlava to go back to the start. The final switch is the worst, as the hell knight up there can team up with cacodemons of the previous section and clog the entire path back to the start. Once you’re ascending the big tower, there’s one final challenge: hope the chaingunners and other respawned hitscanners do not kill you as you climb the tower. Even with 82 health, I was wittled down to 22 health as I finally entered the exit. Pain: 8/10

 

MAP 30 - ICON OF SIN: Some things are easier and harder in this final level on Nightmare. The positive thing first: the revenant on the icon’s ledge is a cake to dispose of since he’s too busy being a turret, but alas: he will be back. Respawning monsters is otherwise not a problem, you don’t kill monsters most of the time in this map anyway. However, fast projectiles will be a huge bother and pain elementals will be more threatening than ever: if a lost soul gets on you, they won’t stop pecking at you until either of you dies. Finally, the miracle happened: I died, but the final rocket entered the brain and the Icon was no more. I’ve never been happier to be dead. Pain: 3/10

 

So that’s it. I beat Nightmare. With saves maybe, with carried weaponry over for sure, but I still feel as if I did something that not many people did with this game. But honestly? I’m not playing nightmare ever again. It’s too fast, too unfair and random, the random timer on enemy respawning is the worst thing to ever exist in this game and it feels like it further narrows out the utility of your weaponry. The pistol is worthless, berserk punching is almost unfeasible due to how fast enemies attack and demons are too risky to use berserk on due to their super speed, super shotgun loses so much of its luster because it’s so slow… in the end, only the chaingun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and occasionally the BFG seem to have a purpose. Failure feels super frustrating because it feels so much harder to pinpoint your cause of death on one thing: you could do everything flawlessly and still die because a baron of hell decided to respawn after only 12 seconds to block your only way out or a chaingunner respawned behind you and decided to immediately unload in your back. This mode remains a joke and a joke I’ll stay far away from in the future.

 

So that’s my tale of my Nightmare run. Did you try Nightmare and it also traumatized you? Or did you play it and love it to bits? Share your experiences here because I’d like to see them. Hope you had at least a laugh or some insight as to what one thinks when they play the whole thing on a difficulty that was made because apparently, Ultra Violence was too easy.  

[LegendaryEevee]

This is going to sound absolutely ridiculous but part of the reason I never tried this until recently was because of the respawning monsters I always thought this challenge was impossible because how could you get 100% kills when monsters keep Reviving as silly as it sounds this always kept me away from doing any kind of nightmare run it wasn't until Watching decino complete his Doom 2 nightmare run I understood you only had to wait around until your kill counter hit 100%. This is actually next on my list after I finish my UV Max walkthrough guides on my channel spoilers I have dipped in to nightmare and holy moly the idea gets me pumped to tackle it I envy all of you who are able to do it if anything it will definitely boost our overall skills and make Sunlust.wad a little less daunting LOL

Edited May 4, 2024 by LegendaryEevee