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My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/Gauntlet.html

Jeff Feasel's Elf run

Verifier Responses

Quote:
Verifier: no one is going to appreciate how well the gauntlet run is planned out and executed
Verifier: wow its good
Verifier: 10 minutes in he has a lot of trouble wit ha warp
Verifier: i think
Verifier: or else i'm confused as to what he was doing
Verifier: but it looks like he just had an execution error (but maybe was waiting or something idk)
Verifier: bad luck in the last tressure room
Verifier: yea so he raped the old run
Verifier: v. v. good run


Quote:
The run looks well executed, decently planned out, and luck is mostly on the runner's side (except in the absolutely godawful Room 69 that should never have existed... oh, and Room 91).  The route changes end up cutting off some time and minimizing luck.  The time ends up as 17:53, marking an improvement of 2 minutes and 20 seconds.  Accept as an improvement to the existing time.


Quote:
Video and audio quality are fine, no cheating spotted.

I'm going to take the drama out of this early and say that this is a good improvement over the existing run, and I think it should be accepted.

Now having said that, I do think this run can be better.  It does do a lot of things very well.  He handles the speedy (and later super speedy) elf very well.  Love the early route change, I had no idea why the old run went the long way through level 1 and seeing that corrected puts a smile on my face.  Plus, it was cool to see the innovative use of super shots to save on keys.  Luck was generally good, especially in most of the level 4 and 5 treasure rooms, plus the vault code for O passwords is one of the quicker ones (R is the fastest to enter, but O isn't much worse).

Now for the not so good.  First lets talk about random factors that didn't break his way.  While he had decent luck in the later treasure room, some of the earlier ones definitely weren't that kind to him.  Granted those don't hurt as much as the later ones would've, but time lost is time lost.  There were also a couple rooms that could've been better luckwise, namely 69 (teleporters), the first ? room in level 4 (exit location) and 91 (same).

In terms of execution I don't have too much to harp on, the only thing I want to touch on here is considering how much health he had at the end he could've played the dragon in room 100 more aggressively and saved himself a few seconds.  There was also the two rooms where he plowed through doors while grabbing keys and I honestly think he should've at least tried to save a key and pick them up without tripping the doors, but that's also pretty minor.

The one big thing I want to point out is I really think the trip to the 10 bomb room in level 2 can be done without.  This is about a 30 second detour and also costs two keys and two bombs.  Sure, those bombs are very helpful, as is the defense potion, but are they mandatory?  I know the TAS goes without, and I also know enough to realize that alone doesn't make it plausible, but it does show it's possible, and looking at his bomb use for the rest of the run, a bunch of them could be cut.  Some are flat out unnecessary, some would require some luck to cut, and a few could be cut with a little help from a glitch in the TAS that's not too tough to do in real time.  This is walking through deaths and acid puddles.  Basically how it works is if you and the enemy are moving onto a square at the same time, you'll go through it.  The acid puddles are tricky to get through, but the deaths are actually pretty easy.

So here's all the bombs he used from the 10 bomb room on.
ok = ok
eh = understandable, but could be cut with some luck
boo! = totally uneccessary

27, clear acid puddles by exit (eh)
28, clear deaths near exit (ok)
38, clear an acid puddle to get a key (boo!, think of it as one of the the two you used in the bomb room)
40, clear a death and some sorcerers (boo!)
44, clear acid puddles (eh)
52, clear enemies (eh, only beuase it reduces lag)
56, clear acid puddles (ok)
69, clear enemies by finicky teleporters (eh)
84, clear enemies (could've saved a key without it) (boo!)
86, clear acid puddles (eh)
87, clear a lot of enemies while low on health (ok)
93, clear enemies while on a stun panel (eh, but only because it's in the last stretch, pause trick might suffice)
94, two used, one to clear enemies, the other to clear acid puddles (think one can be realistically cut)
99, four used, first three are ok, last one could be cut
100, 3 used, if cuts are made in the levels since the last treasure room all justifiable

So that's 3 definite cuts and a bunch of maybes, and since only 5 of the 8 ehs would need to be cut to make up the difference, I think the bombs are definitely not needed.

Of course the bigger loss with skipping that room is the defense potion and I'm honestly not sure if it's really feasible to go without it along with the loss of the extra bombs in real time given the walls of enemies that appear towards the end of the game.  My question to the runner though, is did you try?  30 seconds of savings is pretty huge in a run under 20 minutes and I hope you looked into it instead of just writing it off as too difficult and going the easy route.

Honestly, I think this run suffered from not having a thread on the forums.  He made good use of what existing information was out there, but I think it could've been better if he'd bounced some ideas off the community before recording and submitting.  Even if going to the bomb room is needed, I think some of them could be better used (mostly clearing acid puddles that get in the way).  The run that's up now is one of the runs I've been eyeing up for improvement for quite some time now, and with the new run that's not going to change, though I do view the possibility as much more difficult than before.

Must say I feel kinda like a dick typing some of that, but I feel it needed to be said.

In short, it's a good run, and a solid improvement over the current one, but I hope there's plans to improve it.

Accept


Decision: Accept

Reason: It's an improvement
Thread title:  
great run