Doom 2 In City Only - MAP24: Blur Affinity (UV-MAX in 16:22) [TAS]

This map has fascinated me ever since I played one of the release candidates for this WAD. I was impatiently awaiting the idgames release, so I could record a demo.

To the uninitiated: Should your partial invisibility ever run out, you immediately die. Essentially, each Blur Sphere you pick up gives you 60 seconds before you need to pick up another to avoid instant death. You must find all six keys to open the exit, and to access the keys you must find and press three switches scattered around the map.

On top of this crazy gimmick, the map is already very hard. There are several tricky fights, and some easy to mess up platforming, and having to do it all under very strict time pressure is borderline unreasonable. Just exiting the map alive is a substantial challenge, and you are pretty much required to know the map like the back of your hand to succeed.

Even after learning the map and planning a route there are so many super tricky sections you have to contend with. First, an Arch-Vile jump to the secret BFG. The BFG is mandatory, there is no way you can survive the Blue Skull fight without it. Second, and I don't think this one is strictly necessary, but the jump to the secret backpack is quite precise, and it's easy to get blocked by monsters from below. Third, to get to the switch that opens the Red Skull arena, you have to maneuver past a bunch of Mancubi, whose firing patterns are totally unpredictable because of the enforced Partial Invisibility. Fourth, platforming over pillars to get to the Red Keycard. If you fall, you waste so much time, I would just reset at that point if I were you. And finally, the Blue Skull arena... Four Arch-Viles, and no cover. Place your BFG shots well, and pray to RNGsus. And then there's all the other stuff, of course. While not nearly as difficult as the abovementioned five points, it's still nowhere near easy, and you could easily screw up at any time.

I don't know if a "legit" UV-MAX of this map is even humanly possible. Non-TAS, sure, if you grind for long enough, but I think killing every single monster without the aid of IDDT just isn't doable, and IDDT is not allowed in a proper UV-MAX. The map is basically a huge labyrinth, and the monsters can wander pretty much anywhere they want, so it's very easy to miss a few stragglers. There's no way you'd find them on time without IDDT. Not to mention the pop-up maze housing the Yellow Skull. Good luck finding everything in there in a reasonable time without assistance from your map. Oh, and you'll also have to kill the two cybers at the end, which is pure RNG. If you're just going for the exit, it's fairly easy to slip past them. The one blessing this map gives you is, that you don't have to kill any of the turret Mancubi or Arachnotrons. They all die as soon as you jump into the exit.

This map was made by Scionox. If you want to give this map a go, you can download the WAD here:
www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/143936-doom-2-in-cit…

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Source Port: DSDA-Doom 0.27.5
IWAD: DOOM2.WAD
PWAD: D2ICO.wad
Map: 24
Category: UV-MAX (TAS)
Time: 16:22
Tools used: Restore Key Frame + Reveal Map
Date Recorded: 05/19/2024