Doom 1 & Doom 2 maps that tripped you up on your first playthrough

[Alfonso]

E3M6, i didn't know about the wall with the candle so i thought the game softlocked me.

12 hours ago, idbeholdME said:

Map 11 - I hate to admit it, but it took me pretty long to realize that you have to run over the gap to make it to the ramp leading to the final area.

 

Map 28 - I do remember being confused by this map initially. Most likely due to the random shootable suff, a fake wall and the entire yellow key area.

Did you play a pre 1.9 version of map 11?

Because that one lacked the rising wall to make the jump easier.

[RoastDoom]

Doom 1 - Phobos Anomaly - When I first played the shareware version I was 9 years old and had no idea about the concept of strafe running(or really...strafing in general), so I'd just try and take the 2 Barons head on with the shotgun...and it turned out pretty bad!

 

Doom 2 - Icon Of Sin - On first playthrough(10 years old I think?) I had absolutely no idea how to beat the deadliest wall texture of all time, and ended up just getting engulfed by all the incoming monsters. Once I discovered IDDQD, rather than beating it, I would love seeing the the entire room up with hundreds of monsters until the pc crashed.

[peach freak]

10 hours ago, Alfonso said:

E3M6, i didn't know about the wall with the candle so i thought the game softlocked me.

Did you play a pre 1.9 version of map 11?

Because that one lacked the rising wall to make the jump easier.

 

I believe this map in PSX Doom and GBA Doom II were based off the old version. Pre-1.9 you had to make the jump from the center O.

[evouga]

I had a *lot* of trouble with the opening part of Barrels o' Fun. I remember Gotcha! also being a struggle, with its really nasty Chaingunner ambush...

I think E4M1 gave me the most trouble in Ultimate Doom. I kept running out of ammo and had to try to punch the NIN barons to death.

[idbeholdME]

16 hours ago, Alfonso said:

Did you play a pre 1.9 version of map 11?

Because that one lacked the rising wall to make the jump easier.

Definitely. I don't remember this platform at all. I always sprint to jump it from the middle circle, even today.

 

Back when I first played this map, I couldn't even strafe run yet. My child self could not handle more than arrow keys, CTRL, SPACE and SHIFT. I distinctly remember dodging projectiles by going backwards and rotating to the side :P

Edited August 16, 2022 by idbeholdME

[RichardDS90]

MAP02's red key part, because I didn't realise you could run.

[Dark Pulse]

On 8/13/2022 at 2:02 PM, DoodlesYT said:

you've never seen true fear until you where forced to go through this area in E2M6 on PS4 at the age of 12.

Try the PS1 one at a similar age, albeit around 1997.

 

[peach freak]

9 hours ago, Dark Pulse said:

Try the PS1 one at a similar age, albeit around 1997.

 

 

I raise you both the SNES port of this map (which, unlike the PS1 version, uses the PC version and not the chopped down Jaguar version of this map), made even more terrifying by the SNES port's rendition of Sinister.

 

I knew how to navigate the level, but it was one of the very few levels that terrified me, so I would do the absolute minimum needed to beat the level and did not dare to go into any optional areas for fear of releasing a Cacodemon or Baron of Hell.

[Dark Pulse]

16 minutes ago, peach freak said:

 

I raise you both the SNES port of this map (which, unlike the PS1 version, uses the PC version and not the chopped down Jaguar version of this map), made even more terrifying by the SNES port's rendition of Sinister.

 

I knew how to navigate the level, but it was one of the very few levels that terrified me, so I would do the absolute minimum needed to beat the level and did not dare to go into any optional areas for fear of releasing a Cacodemon or Baron of Hell.

Believe me, I know all about the SNES version. It was my first Doom.

 

I would know. You should too.

 

We talked before, back in the day, on AIM. I'm quite sure I told you all about it back then. :P

[spd7693]

• Phobos Lab - I didn't know at first that the essential switch was that one beyond the nukage in the west. (Robot's head.) I always thought I had to press something in those raising pillars. 
• Warrens was always a drag at the going back. The shotgunners are so annoying. 
• Tricks and Traps - took me a while to learn the platforming or the teleporter trick. I started beating it consistently only when I used source ports. (Until 2012 I had always played on DOSBOX.) 
• The Chasm. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! HOW MANY TIMES I DIED EITHER IN THE PIT OF THE LAST CACODEMON OR AT THE FINAL LEDGE WITH THE LOST SOULS!!! 
• The Abandoned Mines from a pistol start - the combination of narrow corridors and cacodemons ain't fun by any means. 

Honourable mention - The Catacombs, but I figured my way out through it the first time I played it. But chaingunners, revenants and pinkies/spectres, all on different height levels is quite a tricky and deadly combo. It's more likely tripping me up now than then and even though I made sure I grabbed the blue armour and soulsphere at the start in my full game attempt, the chaingunners managed to shoot me down in a second. This is the furthest level I've gone to without dying. 

 

However - TNT Map 5 took me 6 years (!) to beat before I figured out how to get the blue key. The only level that took me longer - 13 years - was the third level of Jedi Outcast. 

[Skittle]

When I was going through Doom 2 for the first time, I spent a good while figuring out how to approach 'Tricks and Traps'. Something about the relative freedom in your ways to approach the level and the really tight ammo had me scratching my head for a bit.

 

Eventually I realised you can bring the Cacodemons into the room with the Cyberdemon and Barons, to have them all in-fight, thus saving on ammo. After that it was just making sure I didn't fall into the goo in the room before the exit... I fell in multiple times. It is what it is though, it's not that difficult to me anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[SPG]

E3's Unholy Cathedral. Trying to figure out which teleporters to take was an unholy experience. Limbo wasn't as bad but the damaging floors made it a pain, and Doom 2's Citadel at least suggested a correlation with the map itself. There's probably other "transporter maze" maps but I seem to recall Unholy Cathedral being the one that tripped me up the most.

[TheHambourgeois]

For a really long time I would try to run as far through Doom2 as I could and almost always hit a wall at map15 even though I've beaten it multiple times.

Also I basically hate playing Icon of Sin and any time I use the Icon of Sin assets in a map I try to make reaching an appropriate ledge more of a gauntlet/survival issue than trying to time a lift.

[act]

Halls of the Damned - no question about it. To this day, the nightmares that level inspired still has vague echos in my mind. Something about its music, its dark design, and its implications by name alone bring me great fear.

[Faceman2000]

On 9/26/2022 at 2:34 PM, SPG said:

which teleporters to take

*Hint hint*

 

It’s the only one that’s blinking.

[Nightmare2989]

Maybe back when doom shareware was out before doom and i was pretty new too PC gaming i didn't know how to open the first door in Doom E1M1 i think it took me a week to open it bare in mind i was just a wee lad  

[ImpRevenant]

Definitely map 28: the spirit world, I really like the flow of the map, but I couldn't figure out that you had to shoot the skinny walls to open the exit, so I just spent 30 minutes or so just wandering around the map trying to figure out a nonexistent puzzle

[Geniraul]

On 8/13/2022 at 8:21 AM, Sonikkumania said:

One thing I can remember is when you press the use key (space bar in this case) in Doom 2's first story screen, you know, between MAP06 and 07, you accidentally active the switch and meet the Mancubi for the 1st time. Classic.

 

Oh, I remember having so much trouble with this story screen and the button as a kid. 😂 One day I said to myself that I would replay map 06 again and again until I stop accidentally pressing this goddamn switch on Dead Simple, and that seemed to take an eternity ;D

[Geniraul]

Actually, there was a lot of maps that got me in trouble first. Well, at the end of the day, this is Doom — in most cases you first should pass through the era of learning, hard-working, critical thinking, choice of tactics and skill improvement before you are able to master certain map well.

 

Some good examples of such maps for me were the levels where I would get stuck in one or several areas and not know how to proceed further:

• E3M6 because of the way to the final building (i. e. these 2 teleporters and the path to each of them),
• The Spirit World — didn't get that you had to shoot that texture to approach the space close to the exit,
• TNT's map 32 Caribbean cause I couldn't figure out how to open both exit doors first,
• E2M2 which made me scratch my head when going through the crades labyrinth,
• TNT's map 11 Storage Facility for the same reason as Containment Area,
• E3M7 with its insidious maze C:

I'm sure I will not lie if I say that this list can be continued. And of course E4M1 and E4M2 did not pass by either, because of how difficult these levels appeared to be, and I think they still cannot really be considered as "easy" nowadays. Perfect Hatred put me to the test without knocking on the door with almost no health and little ammo, and it especially made me sweat due to all its barons.

[Maximum Matt]

I've been lost in too many levels for me to say, I can't remember working out progression of the levels back in the day (mainly because I'd always be noclipping around the maps, and had walkthroughs even back then), and of course Final Doom scrambled my brain up even more, but I do remember one thing: first playing E1 on the SNES port, my first play I overlooked both the optional maze in E1M2 and the optional yellow key area in E1M3, just would've strolled past the entrance to both, because on my second (or even third) go I was like "whoa shit, I missed this area".  

But yeah, also agree with the others about Command Center/Unholy Cathedral/Gate To Limbo/Downtown/Chasm/Spirit World.  Fuckin Petersen.

[Eon Toad]

The big one that tripped me up back in the day was The Spirit World in Doom 2. After cheating through the levels as a kid, I did my first full legit playthrough in my teens and got stuck at the wall you have to shoot to open the final room.

[General Rainbow Bacon]

I did what most of you did when you first played Doom 2.  I idcleve'd and idclipped around to look at the maps.  I remember several times that I visited map 17, the Tenements, and in the section where you get the blue key, that 64 wide slime pit with tag 19 would sometimes change into the floor texture but go DOWN infinitely until the game would crash.  It was very weird.

[jerk-o]

E1M8 because I didn't know that dying was the way to win.