No Rest for the Living | NERVE.WAD
Nerve Software
The cool thing about how in-touch with classic shooter history the games industry is (or pretends to be) is that there’s a lot of people in the industry who do actually fondly remember these games (indeed, they might have gotten their start making maps or whatever for Quake or whatever) and when the bigwigs decide it’s time to wring some more money out of people with a new release of the game, sometimes they let the devs cook up some new content just to get people to buy it. Doom on the PlayStation had some original maps to it, nothing special (except for “Club Doom” and its assault on good taste of a soundtrack) but they were there. Machine Games did it repeatedly — twice with Quake 1, even! And Gearbox got Allen Blum and Richard “Levelord” Gray to do a new Duke Nukem 3D episode, 20 years after they helped make the original.
So when it came time to put Doom II onto the XBox 360’s XBox Live Arcade, Nerve Software (one of the many companies in the old id Software “family,” having been founded by an ex-employee and being in some ways a continuation of the defunct Rogue Entertainment) was tapped to do the port like they had done for the original. What makes this one special, though, is that they put together a whole new episode, utilizing strictly vanilla Doom II textures, and called it No Rest for the Living.
No Rest, if not quite the console-exclusive holy grail that was Doom 64 had long been, was a somewhat highly-sought-after release in the Doom community, to the point that any discussion of the wad almost by necessity meant that someone had pirated it. It was relatively trivial to use a USB flash drive to bring NERVE.WAD over to a PC, but getting it to function properly in your source port of choice was more difficult — the game didn’t recognize the secret exit, the secret level exited to the base game’s MAP10, the music used the base game’s track order, and so on. Various fixes and patches arose for this, and GZDoom has automatic support for it now. The game did eventually get a PC release, bundled in with the (horrible) classic Doom port that came with Doom 3 BFG Edition. Of course, that would mean actually buying Doom 3 BFG Edition. The better option would be the more recent Steam and gog.com releases, which allow you to download “official add-ons” from Bethesda’s social platform. From there you can just grab the .wad file and run off with it towards your favorite source port.
No Rest for the Living is nine levels — deliberately modeled after Doom 1’s structure — of some of the toughest action you’ll ever see in an official Doom wad since Plutonia. I don’t know how controller users do it, fam, I really don’t — on Ultraviolence especially the action is hectic, most notably the fifth level, “Vivisection,” which is just a non-stop rollercoaster ride from start to finish where every nook and cranny is just bursting with evil. Developed by a tandem team of Arya Iwakura and Russell Meakim, the episode eases you in a little bit with a few techbase levels, before having you stage an assault on a hellish fortress, diving back into Hell itself to dethrone a Cyberdemon who had gotten too big for his britches in the aftermath of Doom II. What makes No Rest stand out for me is the level of detail; made nearly twenty years after the original games, it can be quite jarring to see an official release use a more modern detail scheme. Every level is gorgeous to look at, embodying the best of late-00s mapping trends.
No Rest is hard as nails; indeed, the Hell levels get quite Plutonious as Arya throws hordes of enemies at you; you’re constantly at a shortage of ammo as there is only one single backpack in the entire game, and you’re likely to only find it after you’ve cleared out the final level. Most of this is down to the mapping tendencies of Arya — Russell’s levels are comparatively more sedate, though the comparison is more like the difference between Dario Casali and his brother Milo. Arya has a tendency towards more compact levels full of bullshit, and again “Vivisection” comes up as it’s the sterling example of this, though it’s also a thing in “Baron’s Banquet.”
Should you play No Rest for the Living? Absolutely. Aside from the novelty of a (relatively) modern official classic Doom release, it’s just also a blast to play, making excellent use of the vanilla texture set in ways that at times feels fresh and original. Grab the community MIDI pack and off you go.
I really hope Arya returns to Doom mapping; she’s got a vicious style that I appreciate. In all honesty that’s why I like this mapset so much — Russel’s maps are all well and good, and interesting in and of themselves, but Arya’s hell levels are vicious and full of teeth, and I like that sort of thing.
MAP01: The Earth Base
Russell Meakim
Russell starts us off simple with a gloomy little techbase, showing signs of decay and malfunction. The shotgun will be your primary workhorse for this map once you get it. It's actually a pretty short and easy map if you ignore the optional stuff; go on a quest for the yellow key, however, and you'll trigger an invasion as Hell's forces attempt to re-take the base.
MAP02: The Pain Labs
Arya Iwakura
Arya's only techbase is dramatically different in aesthetic and vibe from Russell's, leaning more heavily towards greys and dark browns, but feels much like a nastier take on the old Doom shareware episode. The fight in the utility room to the southeast is the standout to me, but I also like the caco ambush in the dark maze to the northeast.
MAP03: Canyon of the Dead
Russell Meakim
Russel transitions us smoothly into the Hell portion of the episode with a naturalistic no-man's land between the techbase and the front gate of Hell's fortress. Lots of fire coming your way with not a lot of cover, but if you can find the secret that gets you on the right-hand cliffside you'll have a good view of the playing field and an opportunity to deflate that annoying Mancubus. The fight at the gate might catch you off guard.
MAP04: Hell Mountain
Russell Meakim
That last level was just a preview for this, an all-out assault on a Hellish installation, moving from cover to cover as Arachno and Manc fire make the sprint up the hill a dangerous one. Get inside the fortress however and you're in for a relatively smoother ride, with a courtyard fight that's actually relatively sedate. Honestly, your toughest opponent is going to be the timer before the secret exit closes permanently.
MAP09: March of the Demons
Russell Meakim
Russell's last level for the episode starts you off with some very nice-looking utility tunnels before putting you into a big, multi-sectional techbase hallway where each new section you open also invites a horde of demons and other beasties to come play. It culminates in a surprise Spiderdemon ambush, but by this point you should have the plasma rifle.
MAP05: Vivisection
Arya Iwakura
Ahahaha oh my god. By far the craziest map of the bunch, Arya wastes no time in throwing wave after wave of bullshit after you. Almost everything you do invites trouble, including running away from it. It's a nasty little nest of snakes that wouldn't be out of place in John Romero's SIGIL. The stand-out moment for me is the fakeout when you get the red key, four ambush closets open and there's nothing in them... and that's when you hear the teleporters hissing all around you.
MAP06: Inferno of Blood
Arya Iwakura
Another piece of absolute fucking madness from Arya, this one is a sprawling red-rock canyon complex with a big ruined temple to the east. If you're savvy and know where to look, you'll find the switches that unlock the BFG, and you'll want it for the trials that await you ahead. Stand-out fight? Probably the one that comes after you when you get the yellow key -- there might be an Archie in the mix, and as he's in the other room he can get busy undoing all your hard work even as you're trying to chew your way through a mess of monsters to get to him.
MAP07: Baron's Banquet
Arya Iwakura
The centerpiece to this one is a big zigurrat that dominates the northern end of the map. Reach the top and face a cacodemon horde, but don't think that's the worst of it, oh no. The final room before the exit is a huge tangle, though you fortunately can retreat down the side hallways for cover. Another level with an extensive bonus quest that can net you a blue armor.
MAP08: Tomb of Malevolence
Arya Iwakura
The final level is a surprising let-down after all that you've experienced. The opening room is alright-looking, but when you descend into the Cyberdemon's room, you're treated to a largely featureless maze with up to a hundred imps and a single Cyberdemon. Arya is kind enough to give you enough rocket ammo to give the place a makeover, but the whole situation feels anticlimactic.
Part of a series on Classic Doom
| Doom |
The Ultimate Doom |
| Doom II: Hell on Earth | |
| The Master Levels | No Rest for the Living |
| Final Doom | |
| TNT: Evilution | The Plutonia Experiment |
| Doom 64 | The Lost Levels |
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