How long does it take you to finish playing a Doom2 megawad?

[Hisymak]

Hi!
I started to be quite curious about how long does it take to complete a regular 32-map Doom2 megawad to the other players. I mean the "real-life" time that passes from starting a new game to finishing map30. Playing with cheats does not count!
I personally finished a few megawads during last years, like TNT, Alien Vendetta, Zones of Fear, Plutonia, and finalizing Plutonia 2 right now. I always play on Ultra Violence and use GZDoom or Skulltag to play. Finishing a megawad always takes me approx. 2 months. I always play no more than ONE level per day (as I do not fancy/do not have time to play more) and also do not play every day.
Finishing one level takes me from 20 minutes (some early/short levels) to 2 hours (If I die and save&load really often, while the pure time displayed on intermission screen is slightly above a hour). I also always spend some time looking for all undiscovered secrets when I get into level exit, sometimes I cannot even find some of them at all.

[Jayextee]

For a moment, I thought this was a post about making one, which I'd advise against if you run solo *cough* I speak from experience *cough*.

As for how long to finish playing through, about a month for me. Give or take. Not just because of the existence of the DoomWorld Megawad Club (which I sometimes play alongside) but because I often bung a WAD on a handheld and get a map in before sleep to wind down a bit every night.

EDIT
Nice title edit. Much clearer. ;)

[MFG38]

For me, it varies very greatly. Some I can finish in less than a week, others I may take up to two months to fully play through. It really depends on my motivation more than anything else.

[mrthejoshmon]

It's been 5 years since I started playing PC Doom and I still haven't finished anything other than Icarus...

... And Nazi Auferstehung, but the less said about that the better.

What tends to happen to me is I get to MAP20, forget entirely about the playthrough and just leave the .wad there in limbo.

[40oz]

I play with no saves and pistol starts on each level, so most megawads, especially harder ones can take me 20 hours or more.

[LordShadowZ]

If the WAD is really fun sometimes I'll go through the whole thing in one sitting, and beat it in 2-4 hours depending on how big the maps get. I either play through on an easy difficulty or start cheating half way through though because I'm just bad at doom and don't have the patience or the time to spend 2 hours on one level on UV.

When I actually try to go through without cheats AND on UV, it takes me an infinite amount of time to beat a WAD because I usually give up by map 20, or I stop playing and never get back to it.

[AD_79]

mrthejoshmon said:

What tends to happen to me is I get to MAP20, forget entirely about the playthrough and just leave the .wad there in limbo.

So if I were to make a set that stops at MAP19, you'd play all of it? :P

I'm admittedly really bad at finishing megawad playthroughs. Usually I IDCLEV around and play a few maps, then load up something else or launch Doom Builder because the set gave me a cool idea (or I was just feeling inspired). I'll occasionally play all the way through sets I adore (ex. BTSX, Valiant), with play sessions spread out over multiple days. I don't often have the time to get through 25-30 maps in one sitting.

[roadworx]

mrthejoshmon said:

... And Nazi Auferstehung, but the less said about that the better.

do tell

[Memfis]

I either finish in 2-5 days or abandon it. I can't stay focused on a single wad much longer than that, I get too interested in trying some other stuff, my mood changes and I don't feel like continuing the same thing anymore, and so on.

[Nate River]

I usually treat a new WAD like a new game in general and for me that means that I wait for when I have lots of time to play it. With that I usually finish a megawad in 1-3 days or in the rarer cases quit after a few maps and just skip through the rest looking at the maps if there might be at least something interesting that I don't want to miss.

[HavoX]

It depends on the length of the maps. Most of the time though, it doesn't take me long, since I've gotten so good at Doom II...

[Tompig]

Jayextee said:

For a moment, I thought this was a post about making one, which I'd advise against if you run solo *cough* I speak from experience *cough*.

As for how long to finish playing through, about a month for me. Give or take. Not just because of the existence of the DoomWorld Megawad Club (which I sometimes play alongside) but because I often bung a WAD on a handheld and get a map in before sleep to wind down a bit every night.

EDIT
Nice title edit. Much clearer. ;)

May I inquire as to what handheld you use?

[Maes]

roadworx said:

do tell (about Nazi Auferstehung)

In the end, you'll feel like Ren, with Stimpy presumably being the map's creator.

[40oz]

Also if DW Megawad club is anything to go by, roughly 30 days.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I generally get bored after about 10 maps, so I've actually finished very few megawads.

[Jayextee]

Tompig said:

May I inquire as to what handheld you use?

PSP. I'm using Chilly Willy's Doom (v1.4 if I recall), which is basically vanilla-compat minus demos (and with some jankiness re: weapon-switching, but it'll do. I guess. :P).

[mrthejoshmon]

roadworx said:

do tell

See: Worst Wad

Before I knew of Doomworld I actually went to Doomwadstation to find .wads to play, NA had its own page so I thought it would be somewhat decent, I played all 32 levels trying to enjoy it but I just wanted out as fast as possible.

So yeah, the video Maes posted was a spot on explaination.

-

I also finally finished Hell 2 Pay today, well worth playing. That review was 2 years in the making.

[tmorrow]

Clearly not all megawads are equal.

Your time will depend on how you play, pistol starting or continuous, with or without saves, uvmaxing or not, finding all items or not. Pistol starts and playing without saves and insisting on full kills/items/secrets is of course going to take much longer than continuous, frequent saves and reloads and exiting as soon as you see the exit.

Simple, smaller megawads are usually finished off quite quickly since you can complete each map first time and in a decent time. Extremely hard wads may never get completed.

In my case, I usually play uvmax + full items, pistol starts, no saves. A map is not completed until I can max kills/secrets/items (or best up to any map bugs) and survive the entire map.

Easy difficulty megawads, most maps completed first time, small to medium maps, e.g. most of the id commercial wads doom, doom2, tnt, plutonia, master levels, no rest for the living: 1 week each

Medium difficulty megawads, various sized maps, some maps completed first time, some maps needing some analysis, some maps need both analysis and practice at nasty traps e.g. av, unholy realms, ancient aliens, requiem, wos: 1-3 months

Hard difficulty megawads, various sized maps, most maps requiring analysis and practice at key positions, the difficult maps possibly taking weeks to finally beat e.g. hr I & II, scythe II, sodfinal, ksutra, sunlust, resurgence, slaughterfest 201x: 6 months - never

[Four Loko Is Gross]

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

I generally get bored after about 10 maps, so I've actually finished very few megawads.

I have the same problem.

However, playing one map a day, like the OP, does kinda help with that sort of thing. Instead of trying to deal with processing multiple maps, you're only focusing on one environment at a time.

It still gives you plenty of time to play most wads, unless someone blows up the internet and they disappear forever. (Unlikely, but theoretically possible.)

[ZALGO]

My problem sometimes is pacing in a few megawads. I get kinda critical when it comes to the pacing and when it's not to my liking, I kinda forget it's collecting dust on my wads folder.

[esselfortium]

Me at the start of the first map:


Me by the time I reach the end:

[Breezeep]

This is the most accurate post I've seen all day.

[roadworx]

esselfortium said:

Me at the start of the first map:
http://i.imgur.com/FrgMLkj.png

Me by the time I reach the end:
http://i.imgur.com/pW95sKz.png

greatest sprite edit ever