Doom II - Chord 3 (UVMax 12:14)

Channel:

Devour Inc 2

Subscribers:

197

Published on January 23, 2024 5:23:29 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSOoDeB9udc

Game:

Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994)

Duration: 12:29

186 views

11

Source Port: Dsda 2.7.5
UVMax, Pistol Start, No Saves
SoundFont Combo by @GoranObal
Wad of the SoundFont Cover:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/133wLWQWm4YV0wdDnkAmlUbSe2awNr3ZB/view?usp=drive_link
Chord 3 on idgames: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/chord3
Chord 3 on the DSDA archives:
https://dsdarchive.com/wads/chord3

Rating Guide: https://1drv.ms/w/s!AitP5v-ElMHLl1RybUbDRHw6dokK?e=SR5hxv
My BIG wad list: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AitP5v-ElMHLlwIMHsJIMj0zzGkg?e=N9UKsT

Map Author: Malcolm Sailor
Song Name: Waiting for Romero to Play (Robert Prince)
Difficulty: 10
Design: 7.5

Chord 3 is the main event of the Chord series. It was awarded the 3rd top wad of the year 2000, and placed 41st on the Doomworld top 100 most memorable maps. That is a well deserved title. This map takes all the best things from the rest of the series and amplifies them. It is a distilled form of the word "hard". One of the original combat puzzles meant for masters only. The visuals are much more sophisticated, with some great lighting effects. Still, it appears to be a simplistic layout, however everything is placed with intent. The shape of every stair, the height differences between floors, the angles of every wall, all built like a very complex lock that will take meticulous trial & error to solve. Ammo and health is drip fed, but is overall still a famine, which makes this like a final exam of Tyson skills.
When I first started, I was genuinely doubting my abilities to beat this map. I thought my amped up berserk confidence from 2022ado would be enough, but that only got me killed over and over within the first minute. I stepped back, and rewatched the beautiful record demo done by Maribo. Maribo's route is leagues more optimized than the previous record, but also far more difficult to pull off. I wanted to follow that route as close as possible, regardless of my final time. When I did manage to get it, it still landed as a 2nd place just due to how much time the route saves.
The main difference with this route, is that the berserk pack is grabbed immediately. This already makes it far more dangerous, since
1. It requires much more skill to clear all those rooms with only berserk
2. You are throwing away one of your only sources of health for the entire map
3. Doing each encounter in order means you can utilize infighting much less, you will be doing all of the heavy lifting.
This means you have to do pretty much everything perfectly for about the first half of the map. Every single little hit you take majorly decreases your chance of survival. I would reset every time I dropped below 60 hp before the first medipack, which resulted in this taking over 400 attempts total. If I was below 60 by that time, I would consider it basically unsurvivable.
In order to get through this I had to rewrite a lot of my berserk muscle memory and take a lot more into account with how the monster AI works. I rewatched several Decino videos to solidify my understanding.
For the first room, you want to start by clearing a space to the right, and leaving the alcove you drop down into asap, it is not safe there. Once you make your space, keep distance from the rest of the imps. Imps are more likely to attack once a certain distance near you, so try to keep them just out of that distance and run in and out to pick each one off, stopping between each to watch their movement and better dodge attacks.
I had to become much more careful fighting revenants as well. I usually rely on luck that they wont randomly decide to fire a missile. I know there's a specific dance that can be pulled off for guaranteed safety, but found that it is equally consistent to just bring them into a larger area with more freedom to bait and dodge to the side when they fire missiles.
It gets a little more manageable after that point. Not easy, but manageable and I believe self explanatory. This is the first time I actually reached the final room though so I think I'm pretty lucky to get that down. The archvile and all the chaingunners can go wrong in an instant.
I am so relieved to finally have this done. It represents a lot to me with my skill progression. I think I deserve a much needed vacation to some shorter maps.

Other Statistics