No Rest for the Living

From DoomWiki.org

No Rest for the Living logo used in the Doom Classic Unity port's add-ons menu

No Rest for the Living is a Doom II expansion set originally developed by Nerve Software's Arya Iwakura and Russell Meakim for the 2010 release of Doom II on Xbox Live Arcade. It is also now available as part of Doom 3: BFG Edition, in the PlayStation 3 release of Doom Classic Complete, and as an add-on for the Doom Classic Unity ports.

No Rest for the Living was one of the winners in the 17th Annual Cacowards.

Episode[edit]

The episode consists of nine levels in all, eight standard levels and a single secret level, as a homage to the similarly structured nine-map episodes in the original Doom, particularly Knee-Deep in the Dead.[1] It uses music tracks by Bobby Prince from the main Doom II levels, but in a different order relative to the main game. As Doom II did not have episodes per se calling No Rest for the Living an episode is technically a misnomer. Indeed, the episode selection screen reads "Which expansion?", listing options "Hell on Earth" and "No Rest for the Living", selectable at the inception of a new game, in a fashion similar to Doom's episode selection. Selecting "Hell on Earth" propels the player into the classic 32 map Doom II campaign, whereas selecting "No Rest for the Living" starts the new 9 map addition. This expansion selection prompt is also displayed when the player intends to load a previously saved game, with each campaign having its separate save game directories. Completing No Rest for the Living in singleplayer on any difficulty unlocks the "And Back Again" Achievement, and unlocks the "Doom II Marine Suit" Avatar award.

According to Nerve Software president Brandon James the expansion set "continues on Earth after Hell's forces have [seemingly] been vanquished".[2]

Levels[edit]

Level Soundtrack[notes 1] Par time Sky[notes 2] Notes
Level 1: The Earth Base D_MESSAG 75 SKY1
Level 2: The Pain Labs D_DDTBLU 105 SKY1
Level 3: Canyon of the Dead D_DOOM 120 SKY1
Level 4: Hell Mountain D_SHAWN 105 SKY3 Secret exit to MAP09.
Level 5: Vivisection D_IN_CIT 210 SKY3
Level 6: Inferno of Blood D_THE_DA 105 SKY3
Level 7: Baron's Banquet D_IN_CIT 165 SKY3
Level 8: Tomb of Malevolence D_SHAWN 105 SKY3 Doom II cast endgame.
Level 9: March of the Demons D_DDTBLU 135 SKY1 Secret level. Completing takes the player to MAP05.

Notes[edit]

  1. These tracks are only applicable to the original Xbox Live Arcade release, the Doom Classic Unity port add-on, and compatible fan-made source ports. The versions included in Doom 3: BFG Edition and in the PlayStation 3 release of Doom Classic Complete instead play the tracks corresponding to the similarly numbered Hell on Earth levels, meaning Level 1 will play D_RUNNIN and so on.
  2. These skies from Doom II are only applicable to the Doom Classic Unity port add-on, WadSmoosh and the most current releases of Crispy Doom. All former official releases use SKY1 for all maps.

Source port support[edit]

The Doomsday Engine has a built in profile for No Rest for the Living.

The Eternity Engine has built-in support for the episode if the entire doom2.disk file from the Xbox 360 version is loaded, or if a path is configured to point to the PC version of Doom 3: BFG Edition (this can be automatically detected when the Steam version is installed, or can be manually configured by the end user if the PWAD is in a different location). It uses the metadata.txt included in the diskfile, or reads a copy of it from eternity.pke if needed.

PrBoom-Plus, since version 2.5.1.4, has partial support for NERVE.WAD, as long as the user loads the Doom 3: BFG Edition of DOOM2.WAD. There is even more partial support (only proper level names and music tracks) if the user loads the classic version of DOOM2.WAD. It does not, however, automatically register it as sub-episode of Doom II.

Zandronum has partial support, allowing the proper playing of the episode itself via the NERVE.WAD file, loaded as PWAD file for Doom II, but otherwise does not register as a sub-episode of Doom II.

ZDoom and GZDoom automatically recognize NERVE.WAD if it's present inside the working directory or in the Steam install directory, while LZDoom recognizes it as its own IWAD. The PWAD is detected by its size and MD5 sum, and is allowed to be played as a Doom II episode, regardless of the version of the Doom 2 IWAD loaded with it (map slots for No Rest for the Living episode are LEVEL01-09) with proper metadata provided by the source ports themselves.

Speedrunning[edit]

Current records[edit]

The DSDA episode records for No Rest for the Living are:

Run Time Player Date File Notes
UV speed run 10:12 Ks4 2021-08-20 nerve-1012.zip
UV max run 42:44 Andrea Rovenski (Cyberdemon531) 2018-05-15 nrall-4244.zip Uses map set 12 - 19. Plays back with nervenew.wad
UV -fast run 1:01:55 Andrea Rovenski (Cyberdemon531) 2016-11-24 nrallf6155.zip
NoMo run 05:10 Teedre 2021-02-28 nrallo-510.zip

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 28, 2022.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Russell Meakim (TheCastle) (26 May 2010). "Comment by Nerve Software developer." Shacknews. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  2. McCaffrey, Ryan (9 November 2009). "Doom II." Official Xbox Magazine (archived 🏛). Retrieved 22 January 2022.


Games in the Doom series
Classic Doom
Doom 3 Doom 3Doom 3: BFG EditionDoom 3: VR Edition

Expansions: Doom 3: Resurrection of EvilThe Lost Mission

Official ports: Doom 3 (2019 version)

Related: id Tech 4

Doom (2016) Doom (2016)Doom VFRDoom Eternal

Related: Development of Doom (2016)id Tech 6id Tech 7

Mobile games Doom RPGDoom II RPGDoom ResurrectionMighty Doom
Canceled games Doom AbsolutionDoom 4 1.0
Tabletop Doom: The BoardgameDoom: The Board GameAssault on Armaros Station
Related: Commercial gamesExpanded universeList of booksList of commercial compilations