According to id Software, DOOM's hardest difficulty setting is so punishing that even the forthcoming first-person shooter's developers cannot beat it.
Those gaming fans wanting DOOM's single player campaign to be nearly impossible are in luck, for according to a recent talk between the title's Executive Producer Marty Stratton and Creative Director Hugo Martin and IGN, no one within the offices of id Software have been able to beat the game on its highest level of difficulty to date. As it happens, with the forthcoming first-person shooter's developers not even having the ability to best its most fearsome challenge, Stratton and Martin revealed that a competition of sorts has come to pass within the walls of id Software to see who can get the furthest in the mode.
For those unaware, DOOM developers ensured that the hardest mode would be so challenging by adding on a permadeath feature to the second-highest difficulty level, Nightmare, and went on to call the top-tier test of skill Ultra Nightmare. This means that should players die while facing some of the most brutal and daunting enemies DOOM can offer, they will have to start over at the very beginning of the game.
Interestingly enough, DOOM's Marty Stratton also went on to explain that developers not only wanted Ultra Nightmare to provide an extremely intimidating trial for fans desiring a challenge, but the studio also wished for the mode to be a competitive event in its own way. The id Software exec detailed a feature that would have players taking on their friends to determine who is the most adept at downing the game's ferocious monsters and demons, saying:
"When you die, it drops a helmet, a DOOM marine helmet, in the world and your friends will see those and you'll see them. So you can always try and get a little bit further than where you see that collection of helmets early in the game."
Of course, with DOOM's release date being a little over two weeks away, it remains to be seen as to whether or not the game's developers are simply talking up the Ultra Nightmare mode's intensity to cater to fans who want the shooter to be ranked among the top permadeath games of all time. It's entirely plausible that someone within id Software has already completed the mode and developers are just blowing smoke. After all, in order to make sure that Ultra Nightmare is fully functional to the bitter end, the id Software team would need to have at least finished it once for the sake of properly testing its overall quality.
At any rate, should the gameplay in DOOM's Ultra Nightmare actually be as onerous as developers have described, players who can't stand the heat can at least try the game's multiplayer modes for a change of pace. Although, with a lot of practice over time, some fans may become more menacing in DOOM's deathmatch arenas than the title's brutish creatures and send folks back to Ultra Nightmare.
Are you looking forward to DOOM's Ultra Nightmare mode? If so, do you think it's going to be as tough as developers are claiming it to be? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
DOOM is set to release on May 13, 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.