[DOOM II] Sunder – Map 15: Babylon's Chimera – UV-Max in
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First of all, run was made WITHOUT AUTOAIM, and with FREELOOK ON.
I know it’s not DSDA-friendly (= no “regular” speedrun but who cares). As I used to spend most of my playing time with mods online where these are mandatory, I know no other way to play Doom, even survival. Anyway there’s almost no difference at all between those two, if you forbid yourself from doing vertical rocketjumps or walking on monsters, of course…
Second, a lot have changed since my last speedrun attempts years ago (was it not decades ago already…?), so I figured out these AMAZING new Sunder maps are the best to get a new, fresh start of speedrun sessions. Besides, it’s by far my most favorite set (both old and new maps). I held myself for months before playing the new ones, and I am by no way disappointed. These’re gorgeous, giant, and hard as fuck: the perfect mix.
Last but not least: I'm not totally satisfied by my run. A better speedrunner could’ve easily avoided my few wanderings for armor/health, and could’ve also used ammo with more aggressiveness here and there.
A good, satisfying run would probably go below 1h10, while an excellent one would reach 1h05. I expect a perfect, flawless run by a master doomer to jump over the one-hour obstacle.
I spent around a hundred “decent” tries to get this done, scattered within three weeks. Most of the time these were wasted by my willingness to hasten things when I was not satisfied by the timer. Less than 10 attempts made it after the red skullkey, while only two checked the pool arena. Finally, I expected the final fight to be MUCH tougher, but I was pleased to beat it in the first attempt. Yay!
Timestamp:
1:45 – Invul fight (viles + cacos)
5:10 – First big arena with cybies
8:20 – Viles/revs trap
11:00 – Second big arena (HKs/revs)
17:00 – Spider Mastermind trap
19:25 – Switches inversion trap (HKs/Barons/Revs/Viles)
21:25 – Narrow 2 cybers fight + viles
23:10 – Revs/Imps room
28:30 – Giant hallway fight (1000+ imps + HKs)
33:20 – Red skullkey fight (cybers + mancs)
36:20 – The big fight behind the locked door
41:55 – Pool challenge (dude, 32 arch-viles it is!)
51:40 – The big stairs
57:00 – Two cybers fight (+viles/revs)
1:03:20 – Lowest floor fight (10 viles + barons)
1:05:25 – Revs/demons release
1:08:10 – Entering the gorgeous, final arena
1:13:15 – Secret exit spoiler (don’t watch buddy, go hunt it for yourself)
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In the end this map is long indeed, but not bloody hard like the latter ones will probably be. You must not be unlucky to beat it, yet you don’t need to be lucky to do so (yes, this makes a big difference).
I lost a minute traveling back to the 9th dumb revenant locked in its small room (around the first big arena): it appears the trap is improperly set (or really mean, ask I_G?), as the teleport in their trap-room is south-orientated, way south of the actual location of the fight, hence a low 40% chance of the last rev to tele with its fellow buddies (monsters tend to hug the walls sometimes, so it solely depends on luck here).
For the fight right after the Mastermind battle, you can press the second switch (which lower the bars) before pressing the first one (which releases monsters). Map’s been published long enough to make me consider it was legit (as some switches of previous maps in the older Sunder versions – see map 10 speedruns for example). Besides, pressing switches in order doesn’t cost you much in health (I cleared the trap with 100+HP left anyway). Also: bars behavior is garbage.
After the red skullkey I lost too much time as I did not play aggressive enough. I found my run decent enough already to not risk too much of it. Yet, I should’ve cleared the pool arena a little bit faster by hiding on the floor below once the viles have been shut down. This way the cyb’ squad would’ve teleported sooner for a better infight. Switches part was messy too... Finally, the big stairs part was a big waste of time (2/3 min) as I forgot to use the HUGE load of extra cells available. The two final areas at least, were perfectly executed.
(I exited via secret exit for lulz as it costs you few extra seconds only)
Run was made with GZDoom, played with a controller (I’ve always played this way, imo the mobility gain kinda offsets the accuracy loss in aiming).
Yes, there is lag. Lots of it. But it’s still largely playable AND watchable, no worries!