(Doom II) Scythe: Map 26 - Fear (UV-Max Speedrun in 2:58)
4Runner: D0M0
Date: 2023-07-15
IWAD: Doom2.wad
PWAD: SCYTHE.wad
Category: UV-Max
Map: 26 (Fear)
Source Port: DSDA-Doom v0.24.3
Time: 2:58.46
Complevel 2 (Limit Removing)
Attempts: 81
Scythe's notorious map 26! The pinnacle of early slaughter and an absolute joyride from start to finish. There are zero points in this map where you are safe, it is completely cut throat to the point and you need to clear it all out as quickly as you can. Speedrunning is a different matter however. Not only do you have to worry about spawning in all the enemies at once, but you now need to be strategic with your invulnerabilities and megaspheres.
A7MAD's run was pretty much the main demo I used as reference for this map, since it introduces some really quick and efficient strategies. Yes, there is a much higher risk of death, however this map actually isn't so hard compared to other maps i've played. If I were to rank it in terms of difficulty, it would match Plutonia's map 32.
The first part of it is pressing the switches and getting to the first invuln. This was probably the hardest part of the entire run, as most of my death happened there. This was a lucky attempt I had got early on through the grind, in which I am using now as I couldn't get another run below the time after 500 attempts. Skill issue!
The premise was simple, get past the cybers and hit the switch, then hit the other switch and run back to kill all the revenants and the 2 viles in that small cave. Then push through the hundreds of monsters awaiting you at the top to grab the invuln. However, speed-running this meant you had to not pay much attention to your dangers and just go for it. It didn't matter whether the cyberdemon at the switch was targeting you as you got in the closet, just press it and get the hell out whilst trying to minimise damage. It's not always about being precise but it's mostly about being quick.
The next part was to just eliminate the cybers at the peak and grab the keys. Be really cautious when trying to grab those keys, because the cybers can knock you off, and if that happens then restart. You waste so much time at these points so be as quick and efficient as you can be. If you run out of invuln at the second point, it's fine, just grab the key and get out. The third point however you need to do without an invuln, get good ad dodging cyberdemon rockets in fairly cramped spaces because you'll need it for this.
Afterwards, you can grab the other invuln, kill the vile awaiting with the final switch and let hell break loose. If you left the middle section cybers alive, you can go back and kill those first before clearing out the rest below you in the valley. What a map this is!
This map isn't all hard overall but it offers a fair challenge to those who are unfamiliar with slaughter. Erik Alm gives the player a giant task in which you can choose to clear it out in many different ways. I personally think Fear is an incredible map and even an influential map, since it creates a sort of picture of what Alm was like with his maps. Maps like these inspired him to go absolutely brutal on the player in Scythe II, and without it, we wouldn't have progressed in terms of difficulty as much as we could have.
I recommend everyone who has doom to get Scythe and play through this map. If this is too hard or if you want something more classic, then try out Plutonia's map 32 as the whole experience is somewhat similar.
Link to wad: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/scythe
Link to sourceport (DSDA): https://github.com/kraflab/dsda-doom
DSDA Leaderboards: https://dsdarchive.com/wads/scythe
Other Videos By D0M0
Other Statistics
Doom II: Hell on Earth Statistics For D0M0
At this time, D0M0 has 8,929 views for Doom II: Hell on Earth spread across 149 videos. The game makes up 13 hours of published video on his channel, or 98.88% of the total watchable video for Doom II: Hell on Earth on D0M0's YouTube channel.