The opening level of Downfall 2 is very short. Without practice, most players can easily complete it in under a minute. But in 1998, an experienced speedrunner completed the small level in five seconds. And finally, after that almost three decades Of the people who said it was impossible to beat him, someone was able to break this record.
Entrance, the opening level of Downfall 2, is basically just a hallway with two branches and a door. There are a few enemies in the tiny level and that’s about it. It’s trivial to complete this level. It is likely that thousands of players have started Downfall 2 and raced through this level in 30 seconds without even noticing.
But 1998, legendary Doom Speedrunner Thomas Pilger completed the level in 5 seconds. Technically, Pilger’s time was 5.97 secondsBut Doom doesn’t show you all the time. This means that to beat Pilger’s time you would have to save 0.97 seconds or a few frames of playing time. Sounds easy? It is not. Even saving a few frames is difficult because the level is so short and there is little opportunity for optimization.
As explained in a new video out of YouTuber and speedrunner Karl Jobstbeat this old one Downfall 2 Recording took a lot of time as players had to find multiple ways to optimize an already short run to shave off less than a second of gameplay. This involved replaying the level without monsters to find better routes and test different strategies. Finally, one player – 4shockblast – realized that he could use a very hard maneuver called “Thing Running” to essentially bounce one of the enemies at the start of Entryway, sending him around the corner just a touch faster.
On April 6th, all the techniques and strategies that have been developed for decades will be used Doom Speedrunners, 4shockblast completed this run and beat the first level of Downfall 2 in 4 seconds.
Jobst reports that the new record holder achieved this amazing run after “100,000 attempts.” That’s a lot of grinding! But now the oldest existing speedrun record in Downfall 2 was beaten. And no, I don’t think anyone will ever finish this level in three seconds. I mean…probably not.
Anyway, I’ll pay someone $100 if they can beat Entryway 5 seconds on a lawn mower.
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