Ultra Nightmare Mode is the highest difficulty setting for the new DOOM. It’s so tough, that even the game’s developers never managed to beat it.
So of course, one fan has already managed to do it in under five hours.
YouTuber Zero Master has posted what they reckon is the world’s first full playthrough of DOOM’s most punishing mode, and it’s some pretty intense viewing.
I should point out that Ultra Nightmare Mode involves permadeath, so falling in battle means you go back to the very start of the game. Combine that with the added level of challenge the mode obviously brings, and you’ve got some pretty solid proof that Zero Master is not to be fucked with.
The intrepid YouTuber noted that you can see their helmet, which serves as a marker for where they died in a previous run, during the encounter with the final boss. They said there were moments where they should have died in their successful run, “but sometimes you get lucky.”
Zero Master’s next challenge is to complete DOOM 2’s Nightmare Mode in under 23 minutes, which will see them tearing through the classic FPS at its hardest difficulty.
The current record in that endeavor clocks in at 23 minutes and 6 seconds. You can watch that playthrough here, and check out his five hour Ultra Nightmare DOOM masterclass below.
All I can say is that permadeath would be enough to make me throw my controller out the window and give up, so good on Zero Master for seeing it through to the bitter end.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.