Like I Said, Reviews Pwn!

Ahh, interesting.

Are you being sarcastic? :(

Ultimate DooMer, thanks - I got the feeling that's what I was supposed to do. I thought I'd try the more exciting route and run straight through the jaws of hell ;)

A nice twist to add feedback comments in its own section of your site.

NoPoet said:

HR lost points for this as it is TOO DIFFICULT FOR THE AVERAGE DOOMER, even on Hurt Me Plenty!

Let me guess: you're another guy who dont know a thing about Mr."I'm too young to die" and Mr."Hey not too rough" arent you?

Some people do really ignore the use of skills levels

That's right. Today's WADs should accomodate for all sorts of skill, thus the higher levels should be really challlenging, while the lesser difficulties should still be a challenge to less experienced players (and not just old women and little children.) There's nothing wrong, overall, with making a WAD with doom2.wad or doom.wad skill levels, but you can't complain if they are harder and if monsters are placed srategically. Old WADs ('93-'95) were, after all, made when skilled players were not known yet, if they existed at all.

Regarding the claim that "HR ... is too difficult for the average Doomer, even on Hurt Me Plenty", here are my own experiences.

I first played HR in 1997. From a modern perspective, I would describe my Doom ability back in those days as "total shit", and I doubt many would disagree. I never strafed, was lousy at jumps, camped by default, and needed to save about ten times on quite ordinary maps. Perhaps by 1997 standards I was an average Doomer, but I doubt it.

I started playing HR on UV, and got as far as the secret levels. I had thoroughly enjoyed it up to that point, but got intimidated by the secret levels, and map16 too. This was a bit of a shame, but I hoped that as I got better at Doom, I would be able to return to HR at a later date. I was glad I had tried it though - map11 and map13 in particular stand out to this day as two of my absolute favourite Doom maps.

Please note that at that point I didn't make public claims that "HR is teh suck!" or is unbeatable on UV...

Average Doomers (by 2002 standards) certainly should be able to tackle HR successfully on UV. Using a source port, you can get your controls set-up however you prefer, and if you get to know the maps (by watching some demos perhaps) and use savegames often, then they really should prove manageable, especially if you play it as an episode (not pistol starts on each map) and concentrate just on getting to the exit, rather than always seeking max kills.

BTW, HR and AV are my favourite megawads by far. HR perhaps slightly edges out AV (sorry, Andy!) since it has slightly more hardcore carnage (e.g. HR24 vs AV26, and HR22 vs AV32). I consider AV a better rounded product though (nicer looking, more thought given to -fast and NM play, etc.).

Grazza said:

Average Doomers (by 2002 standards) certainly should be able to tackle HR successfully on UV.

HMP would be a better choice IMHO

Thanks for the comments everybody.

I tend to find myself losing patience with anything that is too difficult on UV. So far, I have been able to handle everything thrown at me on UV except Plutonia, Hell Revealed, Hell Revealed 2 and Alien Vendetta. On AV and HR2 in particular I got a couple of levels in then was unable to make any headway at all. Frustrating.

I switched down to Hurt Me Plenty and played Alien Vendetta, Hell Revealed and Hell Revealed 2 again. AV and HR2 were considerably more enjoyable though still tough. They will review well, have no fear of that. Strangely enough the original Hell Revealed was still too difficult for me. I mean, I could do many of the levels but the almost random inclusion of Cybers and really tough monsters foxed me on a dozen occasions.

If these megawads had been too tough on Hurt Me Plenty as well, they would probably have killed my interest entirely. I resent the idea of being forced to play on "Not Too Rough" or "I Am A Wimp" as these difficulty levels are specifically for beginners. I am far from a beginner - I have been playing Doom for well over 7 years (the first 3 of these on the Playstation). A megawad so tough it forces me to play on these skill levels is going to suffer in the Playability score!

I will one day attempt to play Plutonia on Hurt Me Plenty - I was initially so annoyed at Plutonia that I swore never to play it again, but all this intrigue generated by my reviews has got me interested in it again.