Doom 2 Ultra Violence speedrun sets new record
Sheds 22 seconds off the prior record from 2010.
Speedrunner Zero Master has at least temporarily made Doom history by setting the new world record for a speedrun through Doom 2's fiendish Ultra Violence difficulty.
Coming in at 23.03, Zero Master shed 22 seconds off the previous world record of 23.25, set by someone called Looper in 2010 (long before there was a movie of the same name).
"This is the second improvement in the last 10 years, though I don't think we will have to wait that long before we see the 23 minute mark broken," the runner noted on their YouTube page.
A quick note about the rules: This is done on the Ultra Violence difficulty (second hardest setting, right below Nightmare), and glitches are allowed. This is an "any per cent" run, so gathering items, finding secrets and slaughtering excess enemies is not required.
Over on the Doom World forums Zero Master showed up to document the bits where they think they could have done better. Apparently they feel they lost 13 seconds to their forbear, Looper, on map three, where they neglected to opt for a blue key skip. The runner also noted that they lost 12-13 seconds in map 30 upon failing a cycle.
"I will do map three differently in future attempts," Zero Master said. For it is one thing to set a record, but another thing to keep it. Godspeed, noble runner!