DOOM Artistry

It's time for me to take another quick brake from all the political, economical and social mayhem that defines our lifes in this particular juncture in time, and talk about my current favorite game, DOOM.

_{Image by tofoli.douglas - source: Flickr}

I've already written once about DOOM's wonderful ability to temporarily pull me out of the deadly whirlpool of dirty politics and hellish economics that have become the norm in the past half century, and have been exacerbated during the pandemic, some 20 days ago in Harbinger Of DOOM. I'm pleased, and actually proud to say that I've now finished the game on "nightmare" difficulty, after having finished it on "hurt me plenty" and "ultra violence" first; the time past since then is an indication of how difficult that was for me. Although I must also say that I can only play for 1 or 2 hours a day; the rest is for work, family, friends and you, dear readers.

When I was about halfway through the game for the third time, I found a video on YouTube from a video-game-charity organisation called AGDQ, which stands for Awesome Games Done Quick. They invite players to perform speed-runs before a life audience, and people can donate money for all kinds of charities during the life broadcasts. Back in the 1990's and early 2000's when I was a fervent player of Quake, I was already familiar with Quake Done Quick, QDQ, a website that had game-play videos of awesome gamers who were in a constant race to finish that game as quickly as possible; I was amazed to see the skill, trick-shots and strategy deployed and refined over and over again. These were not gamers but artists with knowledge of every nook and cranny in every map, as well as the AI and mechanics of all monsters and weapons; rocket-jumps, bunny-hops and taking advantage of ledges you'd never jump on in a normal game. It was pure artistry for someone like me, who's proud to finish a game like that on a high difficulty level at all... But this video from AGDQ I found was a performance by a player called ByteMe, and he finished the DOOM 2016 game in front of a life audience in 2 hours and 50 minutes!! And he finished it on 100%, which means he also found all secrets, collectibles, auto-maps, runes and Praetor suit upgrades. Amazing.

Naturally I immediately searched ByteMe's YouTube channel, and there I found the video I so eagerly want to share with you all; it's his world record speed-run of DOOM 2016, not on "nightmare" but on "ultra nightmare", which is the same, only you can not die at all. If you die on "ultra nightmare", the only difficulty level I myself won't even try, you start the game all over again, right from the very start. And this guy makes it look easy. In one play-through he gets all the weapon upgrades, which means he also has to pass all weapon-specific challenges. He also gets all rune upgrades, so he passes all those challenges as well... If you know this game, if you've ever played it yourself, you'll appreciate the magnitude of this accomplishment. But even if that's not the case, I'm sure you'll be mesmerized by this gentleman's skill level. It's a two hour slug-fest, so be prepared if you decide to watch it to the end; I sacrificed one night of game-play for the experience. Right now ByteMe is practicing and live-streaming daily on YouTube and Twitch, for he tries to get an invite for AGDQ or Quake-Con 2020, where he wants to perform an ultra nightmare speed-run of the new DOOM Eternal; I've already bought the game, and it's what I'll be playing starting tomorrow ;-) Please enjoy!

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