Phml
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Posts: 2036
Registered: 06-09 |
I'm no elite speedrunner and I do have a job - as far as I know, you can't get a paycheck for playing Doom, but if anyone has any insight on that front, I'm all ears - yet I can beat Sunder. So the idea one needs to have godlike skill and endless amounts of free time to beat this wad is hard to buy, knowing there are so many people out there who can humble me when it comes to gaming.
Mindless BFG circlestrafing does tend to make many Sunder maps much harder than they actually are if you just think it through. That Map12 fight you mentioned, for example; with a slight adjustement in tactics, still running in circles around the revenants but carefully balancing position and movement as to optimize each shot and minimize splash damage (once you're out of cells and have to use the RL) is enough to make winning this part a near guarantee.
Going for the switch right away is in my opinion a death wish if you're already having trouble dealing with revenants, basically turning an entirely predictable and manageable fight into a chaotic infighting situation, high-risk due to cybie rockets and likely to get swamped between the limited space and every monster being high tier.
However, it is certainly more fun than spending 2 minutes circling around revenants, and that's where the interesting part is to me. Rather than a tedious process where I just have to shoot things until they're dead, it becomes a balancing act, with me having to gauge how confident do I feel in my abilities, whether I have already killed enough revenants to go for the switch, and once the entire horde is out, managing cybie rockets, BFG shots and my own movement to maximize infighting while leaving enough open room to be able to sneak through in the temporary holes that form here and there as monsters are consistently moving or getting killed, without getting overwhelmed or plain killed myself. This is the part where someone looking over my shoulder might just see "mindless BFG circlestrafing", whereas there's several different priorities in my head, all juggling together and each of these adjusting on the fly.
This is the kind of gaming experience I just can't find in most wads. That isn't to say these aren't enjoyable. Doom gets the weapons, the player movement and the monster behavior well enough that even maps made as buildings or places first, with monsters placed as an afterthought out of concept or of some sort of inadequate ammo/health/foe equation can still have good entertainment value. At the same time, it is nice sometimes to have a little more meat to the game, and to have the option to do so with wads like Sunder - or Scythe 2, or Vanguard, or... I would like to say "the list goes on", but it's painfully short in my opinion ; to have that option, of a well-balanced experience on a higher level, rather than awkwardly tacked on difficulty like NM, changing so much and in such a blunt and global way it might as well be a different game.
I'm all for easier difficulties. I think I argued for it earlier. I don't think Sunder is a flawless masterpiece of game design, either ; but I don't believe you can dismiss specific fights if you don't even fully understand the dynamics involved, nor imply the whole wad is difficulty for the sake of difficulty when the fights work so well for some of us. Personally, I strongly dislike hard stuff. Enjoyable gaming, to me, is about the illusion of challenge and overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, and Sunder fits that bill very well most of the time, just like Doom 1 did once upon a time.
Ultimately, I don't think anyone is stopping you from playing on ITYTD ; and/or cracking open an editor and making quick edits yourself. If it's a simple matter of throwing a few more powerups or removing some monsters to make this enjoyable for yourself, why not do just that? If I recall correctly, Insane_Gazebo's stance on lower difficulties was that he wouldn't mind, but with his very limited free time he'd rather make new maps than do that.
Last edited by Phml on 02-29-12 at 09:21
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09-01-11 22:08 
