My thoughts on pistol starts

[T-Rex]

I know there's a lot of people here in the Doom community who are treating pistol starting each level in a megawad as the standard way of playing Doom, and although I don't see anything wrong with that, I don't believe it has to be the end-all, be-all approach to playing Doom wads. To me, dying in any level past the first one and having to start again with just your pistol is more of a penalty for failing to beat the level, and you must try again, only with the challenge jacked up. I'd rather have the weapons I have obtained from the previous levels and do my best not to get killed, which is what saving your game is for, and that to me has always been the default way of playing Doom as there is more of a natural sense of progress as you advance to the next map. I feel that's why I see a lot of my favourite megawads from the early years of Doom mapping get greatly despised by almost everyone to the point where they deem it as unfair or unplayable (and in some cases being combined with so-called "Wolfenstein" level design), which I find to be absolute downer since I have so many fond memories playing them. This is especially due to many players going straight for Ultra-Violence and pistol-starting each map, which while I will commend as it is very gutsy, it's not recommended until you are more familiar with the maps and have played through them plenty of times on the lower difficulties. Practice makes perfect, of course. Not everyone can be like decino, who is definitely one of the best Doom players out there and his playthroughs are excellent guides which help at times at getting a better grasp at the levels, or MtPain27, who while I admit can give certain megawads too high of an overall grade in difficulty than they really deserve and can be a bit harsh on some levels due to the kind of challenges they present, even if they at least got some good level design aesthetics, he's somewhat excusable since he acknowledges in his disclaimers that he's not Doom God material, and he's open to differences in opinions, like, TNT's Mount Pain may not be my idea of a good level with good gameplay, but I can respect that he appreciates it as being the one map that shows that at that point, TNT Evilution is not going to go down without a fight.

 

With that said, I feel that pistol-starting each map should be treated as more of a form of challenge to take if you really believe you are that skilled and willing to take on a level that may not be kind to you for not having the best arsenal, and this is so true with the wads from the Doom days of yore since a lot of those wads at the time were primarily designed for continuous play (like some maps having rocket or cell ammo with no weapon for them, or maps that present strong monsters that will prove to be near impossible to take straight on for the ill-equipped). Choosing your desired difficulty is also a factor as you should know your limits, like if you can take on a megawad on Ultra-Violence, then no problem, but if you find yourself struggling, crank it down to Hurt Me Plenty or lower. Better approach when playing a wad you've never played before is to play on either I'm Too Young to Die or Hey, Not Too Rough, then once you feel you're able to blitz through the maps with no effort, you then try a higher difficulty. Yes that nowadays, wads are being made with pistol start in mind to give casual Doomers a fighting chance, even on Ultra-Violence, but there is a difference between a wad made in the 2010s and 2020s and a wad made back in the mid-late 90s. I hope all this can be considered before dismissing a wad as "unfairly hard and tedious" because of rushing straight for Ultra-Violence doing pistol start. It's not the only way to play Doom, nor is it the definitive way as given how the games are laid out in episodic structure, even the Doom 2 IWADs, it's never been their intention.

Edited January 19, 2022 by T-Rex

[RHhe82]

I can understand. I used to play continuous-only, and only recently started preferring pistol-runs, which indeed are a form of challenge that can breathe new life into familiar and easy wads (the official levels, for example).

 

But I think there’s more to pistol starts than that: I find them somehow liberating. Whenever I’d play continuous, I would withhold using resources because I wanted to save them for the next level. That means scouring the level before exiting, and it also means restraint on spending cell charges if I’m suspecting they’d be more useful on the next map. It also means I’m pressed to finish a level with full health just in case the next level start is hot full of damaging projectiles and floors.

 

But yeah, I also don’t like gatekeeping attitudes. Pistol starts are not the only way, as is not the total abstinence from using saves. And if a megawad is expressed to have been designed for continuous play, I don’t mind doing just that.

[Thelokk]

I play continuous because I enjoy the feeling of progression through a megawad, from map to map. To me a megawad mapper succeeds if they create an escalation map after map, where demons get progressively stronger and more clever, and my arsenal responds to that. An arms race of sorts. 

Single maps is a different story of course. But, when it comes to 2+ map wads... sure, each map should be completable as pistol start, but it's continuous play that tells me whether you planned the big picture, or you just stuck a bunch of maps together. 

[T-Rex]

On 1/17/2022 at 11:24 PM, RHhe82 said:

I can understand. I used to play continuous-only, and only recently started preferring pistol-runs, which indeed are a form of challenge that can breathe new life into familiar and easy wads (the official levels, for example).

 

But I think there’s more to pistol starts than that: I find them somehow liberating. Whenever I’d play continuous, I would withhold using resources because I wanted to save them for the next level. That means scouring the level before exiting, and it also means restraint on spending cell charges if I’m suspecting they’d be more useful on the next map. It also means I’m pressed to finish a level with full health just in case the next level start is hot full of damaging projectiles and floors.

 

But yeah, I also don’t like gatekeeping attitudes. Pistol starts are not the only way, as is not the total abstinence from using saves. And if a megawad is expressed to have been designed for continuous play, I don’t mind doing just that.

I wouldn't say anybody's gatekeeping, otherwise they would be telling us "Hey, you can only experience Doom if you pistol start each level on UV." All of us here are free to play the game in any way we like, and while I play continuously, I scour the levels as I always try to get 100% of everything. That said, pistol starts can be liberating, but my point is that for anyone unfamiliar with the maps they play, they can be in for a rough time, especially on UV and when attempting 100% kills, which is apparent in older megawads where continuous play was the norm at the time. Don't get me wrong, most maps then and now are doable on UV-Max pistol start, but it depends, and without efficient experience, it may not be worth the frustration.

Edited January 18, 2022 by T-Rex

[Gibbon]

It is a form of challenge.  It cannot be a 'standard' as the actual way most megawads are intended is a level-by-level approach with using what you previously got in other levels.  Pistol starting, along with -fast is simply for an extra challenge.

 

To put it this way, in order to pistol start in vanilla, you'd need to quit and warp to the next level.  Anyone who says "Oh you're not playing pistol start" is either immature or an elitist.

 

Playing Doom after all should be fun.

[RHhe82]

32 minutes ago, T-Rex said:

I wouldn't say anybody's gatekeeping,

 

I think I'm detecting faint reeks of gatekeepism every now and then, but I don't how prevalent it actually is, as I could just be misinterpreting people, english not being my primary language (as is the case with many here).

 

34 minutes ago, T-Rex said:

most maps then and now are doable on UV-Max pistol start, but it depends, and without efficient experience, it may not be worth the frustration.

 

I agree -- my hunch is that older maps tend to be designed for continuous, whereas pistol-start inclination is a more modern mindset. IWADs are pistol-startable mostly because they are quite easy anyway. (That said, insisting on playing UV-MAX on pistol starts can truly be frustrating when it turns out there just isn't enough ammo lying around, or that you'd have to be doomgodly perfect and lucky to get max damage rolls and inciting lots of infighting where enemies knock each other out simultaneously etc. -> beyond my skills).

[LadyMistDragon]

I normally play continuous, but like you say, modern wads are more designed for pistol starts so it's not exactly a huge deal. However, I'm not sure I can agree an extra challenge is necessarily present. In.my experience, there's been many occasions when carryover ammo has only made a modicum of difference. The majority of modern wads are careful enough with ammo balancing that I can't be sure playing Eviternity continuously for instance will give you a large advantage (outside of some select maps; Anagorisid I'm looking at you).

 

 

[SMG_Man]

12 hours ago, Gibbon said:

To put it this way, in order to pistol start in vanilla, you'd need to quit and warp to the next level.

 

There was no need to quit the game in the originals. Either go to the next level and die (the game didn't autosave at all, so it would load the current level from pistol start) or simply use IDCLEV to change maps to the next, which would also force a pistol start.

[jmac]

As someone who's been pistol-starting for a couple years now, I want to point out that it's not always done as an added level of challenge. My skill level at the game is probably only average, and I'm not overly concerned with improving. A lot of people tend to enjoy treating doom wads as one continuous journey, and playing continuously makes the most sense in that context. Lately though, I've preferred treating each map as its own self-contained journey, and pistol-starting is the best way for me to experience that. This is especially true for community projects, where balancing for continuous play is much more difficult.

 

It's also actually less stressful in some ways, as some others in this thread have already said. You don't have to worry about conserving ammo for the next map, or make sure you end the map with a reasonable amount of health.

[msx2plus]

from the player perspective: nobody should care how anybody else plays. log off if you do. what matters is that you're having fun with doom. i pistol start because i enjoy taking in a level "as designed" (in editing we start with a pistol, there's no real convenient way to design around carried over inventory and doing so requires that the player stay on top of saving, because if they die the entire thing is FUBAR - game over) but i also save before every fight (and in extreme cases mid-fight) and platforming section. it's what makes doom most fun for me.

 

from the designer perspective: if you design for a pistol start and your maps get harder over the course of the wad, you win both audiences. if you require it as a designer, you enforce it through death exits or other means. simple problem, simple solution. plenty of wads will suggest pistol-starting in their readme and then go on to only use a couple death exits to actually enforce them. we're generally aware of the options a player has and above all happy somebody is engaging with a thing we make.

 

community projects could benefit greatly from enforcing this since there's not usually a super clear progression. having to warp at the start of every map does kind of suck ass lmao - the project organizer should always step up and make the decision that benefits the map authors and showcases their work most transparently.

 

i also wouldn't take MtPain too seriously or like any kind of authority; he's just a guy playing doom and sharing his experience and feelings. he has a good reason to pistol start (see: critiquing levels "as designed'). i think him enforcing pistol starts as one of his rules probably rubs off on people the *wrong* way: people giving other people the authority over their opinions and their view or how others interact with [x] thing is the actual problem, and will always be the problem.

Edited January 19, 2022 by msx2plus

[Shepardus]

I like it when mappers balance their maps for pistol start, but also throw a bone for continuous players. Some examples that come to mind are the medikits at the end of levels in Ancient Aliens and the rockets in MAP02 of Scythe X that are only usable if you have the rocket launcher from MAP01 (there's no rocket launcher in MAP02). Maybe it ends up being a bit easier than intended for continuous play, but on the other hand a map is probably harder to others than it is to the mapper due to familiarity, so I like to think it balances out in the end. Besides, even if continuous play does make it easier, I as a player don't think that's really a problem.

 

I don't like it so much when mappers force pistol start for every level. I think it makes sense when death exits are used sparingly, like at the end of episodes, but doing it for every level removes an element of complexity that I like as a player. When routing an episode or D2All run, it's fun to figure out ways for earlier levels to affect later levels that distinguish the run from IL (individual level) runs. This can be things like using stronger weapons to speed up a fight, performing a skip with an otherwise unavailable rocket launcher, or making an RNG-dependent encounter more consistent (important for a long demo!). It can even go the other way around and add to the challenge for continuous players, like how Sunlust MAP17 ends with a sector type 11, leaving you with low health at the start of MAP18. Another interesting concept seen in Sunlust is how MAP28 has a "normal" death exit and a harder to reach "secret" exit that rewards you by not being a death exit, much appreciated considering the map that comes after. If you force pistol start on every level, you lose that depth and an episode/D2All run becomes basically a bunch of ILs strung together, which I find less interesting. The extra possibilities from continuous play may be daunting to a mapper, but I think mappers shouldn't have to think too hard about it - it's okay for a map to play differently from what you expect!

 

Another consideration is that forcing pistol starts on every level can mess with gameplay mods with progression systems that carry across levels. I know accounting for gameplay mods usually isn't a high priority for mappers, but it's nice to at least avoid needlessly breaking them.

 

If I want to pistol start every level, there are plenty of ways I can do that myself. Source ports make that especially easy now (PrBoom+, dsda-doom, and Crispy Doom have a level restart button that makes it as easy as pressing a button, as well as a command-line option to force pistol start without pressing any buttons. GZDoom has mods to achieve the same).

 

These days I mostly pistol-start levels, not so much for the challenge but because dsda-doom's rewind feature has spoiled me and I hardly even bother with saves now. It's nice to be able to start a level and play it in a session without managing save files or thinking about what I need to keep for the next level.

[SiFi270]

21 minutes ago, Shepardus said:

PrBoom+, dsda-doom, and Crispy Doom have a level restart button that makes it as easy as pressing a button, as well as a command-line option to force pistol start without pressing any buttons. GZDoom has mods to achieve the same

For a couple of years or so now, it's been possible in GZDoom without mods if you enter 'bind (whatever key) "map *"' into the console. In earlier versions, it was still easy enough to bind a key to "kill", as long as you deleted any saves that might get loaded instead.

[Borg]

What is the easiest way to pistol start in Zdoom? I've been using IDCLEV.

[Bauul]

On 1/18/2022 at 7:13 PM, LadyMistDragon said:

The majority of modern wads are careful enough with ammo balancing that I can't be sure playing Eviternity continuously for instance will give you a large advantage (outside of some select maps; Anagorisid I'm looking at you)

 

Just for added context, I believe Eviternity was designed with continuous in mind (although of course fully supports pistol-starts). That's why there are death exits every 5 maps, which only impact continuous players. And part of the "reward" for beating the secret maps is that continuous players can start Episode 3 fully stocked.

[Kute]

On 1/20/2022 at 10:59 AM, Bauul said:

 

Just for added context, I believe Eviternity was designed with continuous in mind (although of course fully supports pistol-starts). That's why there are death exits every 5 maps, which only impact continuous players. And part of the "reward" for beating the secret maps is that continuous players can start Episode 3 fully stocked.

 

I don't get this. Having a BFG all the time would trivialize so many tricky fights. 

[valkiriforce]

I don't mind pistol-starting once in a while, but I do prefer treating map packs and megawads like a long hiking journey from MAP01 to MAP30. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the old Doom wads I enjoyed are looked down on for the same grievances brought up in the first post, but another part of it has to be some of the archaic progression of the map's designs. It might be that circumnavigating and remembering certain key landmarks has served me well in my experience playing a lot of these older map packs, so I haven't always had the same pitfalls that other players may have experienced. I also enjoy replaying a lot of my favorite wads, which can lead to "warming up" to certain other maps I wasn't so hot on the first time around. Pistol-starting is a nice way to mix things up further if the desire is there for an extra layer of challenge.

 

On 1/17/2022 at 7:24 AM, RHhe82 said:

But I think there’s more to pistol starts than that: I find them somehow liberating. Whenever I’d play continuous, I would withhold using resources because I wanted to save them for the next level. That means scouring the level before exiting, and it also means restraint on spending cell charges if I’m suspecting they’d be more useful on the next map. It also means I’m pressed to finish a level with full health just in case the next level start is hot full of damaging projectiles and floors.

It's funny - I think I've had the opposite experience where I feel at liberty to expend my ammunition at times, especially when starting the next map would have meant starting out with only 50 bullets, so I tend to consider whatever I have extra as bonus ammunition to get things rolling more quickly. It can also make things challenging when entering with less health than normal, but I like the trade-off of having some weapons to try and get a handle on the situation.

 

On 1/22/2022 at 9:01 AM, Kute said:

 

I don't get this. Having a BFG all the time would trivialize so many tricky fights. 

I don't recall having a problem with this in my experience playing through Eviternity - it still takes a bit of time to pull out the BFG and fire it in some quick encounters or situations where you could end up surrounded by enemies like revenants punching you at close-range and you need to act more quickly to get out of it. I'd say they did a pretty good job of balancing everything on both fronts.

[ChopBlock223]

I generally prefer continuous play, because it makes things feel more like an adventure with progress, but having actually made levels, it taught me to really appreciate the pistol start, and just how much your intended gameplay gets rocked by coming in with lots of extra gear.

 

In principle it makes me be a little harsher with my difficulty, because I know that I'll get away with it, but it also makes me throw continuous players a bone, like maybe putting a helpful secret near the exit, which makes little difference for the guy starting the next map fresh, but is worth carrying over for the continuous guy.

[Yasha]

I don't like to pistol-start, and much prefer continuous play, for a very simple reason: I am very bad at Doom, lol. I'm struggling through wads like Sunlust and Vigor on HNTR right now and even then they are kicking my ass. However, I still think maps should be designed for pistol start regardless, and don't begrudge map authors for making them that way. Then the map is both fair and can be made easier through continuous play. If I ever made maps, I'd design them for pistol start too, but wouldn't begrudge people playing them continuously.

On 1/22/2022 at 8:01 AM, Kute said:

 

I don't get this. Having a BFG all the time would trivialize so many tricky fights. 

 

If you're good, then yeah, perhaps. But as a beginning player it's very easy for me to get swarmed by a big group of enemies and I haven't found continuous play to really trivialize any map I've done as of now.

[BGreener]

My response to whether or not someone pistol starts is similar to the recent thread on preferred difficulties:

You do you, my dude! Pistol starts, pistol REstarts, continuous saves, playing without midlevel saves, quicksaving after every fight - delicious options to combine with your choice of difficulty setting.

 

I usually waiver between “pistol starts” and “end of episode restarts”. I don’t often play with continuous saves on bigger levelsets unless it’s strict on ammo/seriously kicking my ass. 

[ImproversGaming]

I guess the bottom line is that Doom caters for a wide range of ideologies or approaches out there, just play it the way you like and have fun (pistol start or not, speed running or not, secrets or not, all kills or not, etc.). I have been having a blast with my recent WADs (Fava Beans, Base Ganymede, Sigil and now Moonblood), just do it the way you enjoy - there is no standard way.

Also, might be nice to change your approach every now and then to get a fresh rush on your favourite WADs. 

[Egg Boy]

I think its extremely wrong to assert that pistol starting is a modern concept. Even in the IWADs, all maps were designed to play from pistol start. I am not saying that its the "right" or "wrong" way to play, but simply that it has always been an option, and one nearly every wad has accounted for, because, lets face it, testing continuous is extremely tedious. That being said, there are, of course, wads that are balanced for continuous, but rarely is it the case they are not also designed for pistol starting. In a lot of ways Doom 2 is actually not super well balanced for continuous. There are maps that are much harder from pistol start, and are basically a cake walk when you're loaded with ammo and weaponry. This isn't a diss to Doom 2, since balancing for such a thing is extremely difficult.

[Murdoch]

Here we go again lol.

 

My thoughts.

- If you release a map pack, unless you introduce a narratively sensible reason to start each map with the pistol (Death's Dichotomy being a good recent example) and enforce it with mechanics, I am playing continuously. If you want them played individually, release them individually. I am not going to waste my time warping around what not.

- Pistol starts murder the sense of progression through a map set and is completely illogical to boot. "Let me just throw away all the gear I have collected before I move to this next area." - literally no action hero, ever.

- The original games (and others like it with map to map progression) may have certain things to allow for people starting at random maps like additional weapon pickups you don't need (but this makes sense, they could be left behind by other fighters or enemies), but they were clearly meant to be played from start to finish primarily, with random starts at different maps a secondary concern.

- A little creativity can allow for both styles of play to a certain degree. A shotgun on the ground is just the same as a couple of shell pickups afterall.

- Fights designed around challenging layout and enemy use are better than resource deprivation anyway, and it allows for the different approaches a player might take better than micromanaging resources does.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Murdoch

[GraphicBleeder]

On 1/17/2022 at 7:24 AM, RHhe82 said:

 

 

But I think there’s more to pistol starts than that: I find them somehow liberating. Whenever I’d play continuous, I would withhold using resources because I wanted to save them for the next level. That means scouring the level before exiting, and it also means restraint on spending cell charges if I’m suspecting they’d be more useful on the next map. It also means I’m pressed to finish a level with full health just in case the next level start is hot full of damaging projectiles and floors.

 

 

True, true. In a way pistol starts are a bit less stressful to play with due to not having to worry about conserving resources for the next level. Not saying it's easier then continuous though.

[sincity2100]

I don't really understand why the new standard is you must start every map with a pistol start, sure it's more challenging and it tests your skill, but I really don't care if you play a game with a pistol start or a continuous playthrough, let me give my to cents on that matter, you don't have all the time in the world to play every Doom map pistol start, If you want to play like this, that's on you and you alone, I really don't care and I play any Doom game the way I want, so I really don't care as long I'm having fun with the maps I play...

[7Mahonin]

I don’t think anyone argues this. What they argue for is that every level be capable of completing on UV with a pistol-start, because it is poor design to not do so regardless of if it’s a single level WAD or a 32 level megawad. Being able to complete on UV with a pistol start doesn’t mean it has to be easy but if it is only possible to beat a level by having carry over ammo and health or using cheat codes then that to me is showing that the level designer doesn’t give much time to play-testing their own level(s). 

[roadworx]

2 hours ago, Egg Boy said:

I think its extremely wrong to assert that pistol starting is a modern concept. Even in the IWADs, all maps were designed to play from pistol start. I am not saying that its the "right" or "wrong" way to play, but simply that it has always been an option, and one nearly every wad has accounted for, because, lets face it, testing continuous is extremely tedious. That being said, there are, of course, wads that are balanced for continuous, but rarely is it the case they are not also designed for pistol starting. In a lot of ways Doom 2 is actually not super well balanced for continuous. There are maps that are much harder from pistol start, and are basically a cake walk when you're loaded with ammo and weaponry. This isn't a diss to Doom 2, since balancing for such a thing is extremely difficult.

while starting an individual map with a pistol isn't a modern concept - playtesting and warping pretty much require that you do so - a player doing that for an entire wad instead of doing normal continuous play absolutely is. a few people probably did it in ye olden days ofc, but it's something that really only gained traction in the 2010s. before then, the vast majority of wads were made with continuous (and pistol-start ofc) in mind.

 

with that being said, i think that if you're a mapper and are looking for inspiration and such by playing maps (or if you're reviewing the map, like mtpain27 or kmxexii), i think pistol-start can be an invaluable tool; that's the reason i do it, anyways. it really helps you appreciate the mapper's decisions a lot more than if you were to go at it via continuous

Edited February 5, 2022 by roadworx

[Gregor]

On 1/20/2022 at 5:35 PM, Borg said:

What is the easiest way to pistol start in Zdoom? I've been using IDCLEV.

I use an alias that triggers a pistolstart whenever i press the p key. That's much quicker and more convenient than typing idclev each time.

 

Open the console and type: 

alias pistolstart "map *" (name the alias whatever you like instead of "pistolstart")

Press enter.

Now type: 

bind p pistolstart (use whatever key you like instead of "p")

Press enter.

Now whenever you press the p key in-game it will automatically restart the map from a pistolstart.

Type "unbind p" in the console if you want to unbind it again.

 

(And just in case you don't know, (G)ZDoom does save your alias' when you quit the game)

Edited February 6, 2022 by Gregor

[Egg Boy]

3 hours ago, Murdoch said:

- Pistol starts murder the sense of progression through a map set and is completely illogical to boot. "Let me just throw away all the gear I have collected before I move to this next area." - literally no action hero, ever.

 

- The original games (and others like it with map to map progression) may have certain things to allow for people starting at random maps like additional weapon pickups you don't need (but this makes sense, they could be left behind by other fighters or enemies), but they were clearly meant to be played from start to finish primarily, with random starts at different maps a secondary concern.

 

- Fights designed around challenging layout and enemy use are better than resource deprivation anyway, and it allows for the different approaches a player might take better than micromanaging resources does.

So I have a problem with these 3 particular points. For the first one, progression is not always defined by what you have, in a lot of doom wads it is defined by what you're up against. In the next part you say it is "illogical" which is fine. I suppose I don't really think about the realism side to doom because that's not what interests me about it, so I'm not going to argue with you there, that's clearly preferential. For this next part, I have an issue with you saying it was "intended" to be played continuous, especially when you consider Sandy Petersen saying most of the playtesting for doom was done in pistol start. So I could just as easily say that because that's how it was tested, that's how it was "intended" to be played. But I'm not going to. For the last point, I disagree outright, controlling the players ammo reserves doesn't necessarily have anything to do with "micromanaging" an example would be a room you design specifically for the rocket launcher, you lay rockets around and even a rocket launcher to tell the player to use this, and since they will likely have less for other weapons, they will be even more inclined to use it. Lets say the player enters this room with a fully loaded BFG they got in a secret from last map, no matter how well the monsters and geometry are placed, the fight will lose any intended strategy or intrigue and become a cake walk, dampening the fun for the player.

[MoreMending]

I prefer to not pistol start, start since I'm absolutely useless without the bfg I found on MAP08.

[666shooter]

While I do use pistol starts in most modern mapsets, I have found that some older mapsets, such as Twilight Zone, may be balanced very poorly for pistol starts. I believe it was map 16 that featured a room full of rockets and I did not have a rocket launcher and was too low on ammo for anything else to finish the fight, despite not skipping any other areas on the rest of the map thus far (unless it was stuck in a secret somewhere; but that's another design issue entirely).

I've seen the Sandy interview, and I respect that pistol starting the originals may be the way it was playtested to ensure the possibility of completion in the event the player died and had to restart a level, but I pistol-started House of Pain once and honestly have not been convinced that going back and replaying the IWADs from a pistol-start would make things more enjoyable in the slightest. I feel it really does depend on the mapset and how balanced the weapon distribution and pacing is to whether it feels as enjoyable to pistol start, but more contemporary mapsets seem to make this balance a priority by default, at least comparing say, Arrival and All Hell is Breaking Loose.