Doom, impossible difficulty?

[sirlynxalot]

I've recently experienced doom on jaguar. As anyone who has played this version knows, in lieu of saving, you select levels from the main menu and the game will start you at the level with only a pistol as a means of continuing your game.

Is this to say that ID Software thought it might be somehow technically feasible to beat any level of the game just by starting with the pistol and the 40 or so bullets you will get? I have been playing the later levels lately (high teens and early 20s) on the "not too rough" difficulty, and it seems completely impossible to beat many of these levels despite your doom skill level without having to resort to cheat codes. Here are my reasons why:

-You may find ammo for advanced weapons, but it is not so frequent that you will find the actual weapon, such as the chaingun or plasma rifle. Without the weapon in your inventory, you cannot use the ammo/weapon.

-It is not so common to find the shotgun, a reasonably powerful weapon that can be used effectively by experienced players, as the later levels have primarily demons/imps etc rather than the shotgun wielding soldiers or shotguns lying around generally.

-It is difficult to maintain bullets for your pistol since these later levels have more of the hellspawn type enemies who have higher hitpoints (taking up more of your precious bullets) and do not leave any replacement ammo once you kill them rather than the soldier enemies.

-There are too many enemies that deal large amounts of damage per hit to permit simply running around and collecting keys and finishing the levels without minding the enemies.

-When you run out of ammo, you will have to use your brass knuckles, which essentially mandates that you will take close range damage from anything you are trying to hit - and you will very quickly die if you are facing a group of more than one enemy.


What do you think? Is it legitimately impossible or is my Jag Doom skill level just not up to the task? I pose a similar question for Wolfenstein 3D on the jag, whether it is possible to beat the later levels just by starting with the pistol and a small amount of ammo (what happens if you die on a level and do not reload your save game) - at least in that game you will get replacement bullets from almost all enemies.

Edited April 23, 2015 by sirlynxalot

[Austin]

Yes, this is a problem on later levels, at least on Ultra Violence and Nightmare.

[Hyper_Eye]

It may be difficult but it is doable. John Romero discussed how important this was to him while designing levels in this video @19:40:

 

[Atlantis]

The video showes and says that you have more of a chance beating the higher levels if you jaglink and co-op, hey, you would then have the double amount of bullets for your two pistols and a slighter chance to beat the level between the jaglink crashes, at least theoreticaly.

[Goochman]

I got through a majority of the levels starting from scratch on Nightmare level. I forgot where I left off - but maybe had 3 more to complete. Its brutal and you really need to know where things are by heart and have some luck.

 

THis was of course when I would play alot of Doom on the PC and then Jag - no way Id get very far today.

[Atlantis]

Thinking of jaglinking Doom.

Q: The code for all weapons (pause then press #, un-pause and release #) does it work in 2-player jaglink mode? Can you actually pause the game when networked and enter the code?

Would add some to the deathmatch not only having the handgun and shotgun.