How do you finish a 20-hour game in under 30 minutes? Ask xamide, a Latvian speedrun god, who has ripped and teared through Doom Eternal in the time it takes most of us mere mortals to kill one marauder.
Watching his recent 27-minute speedrun of the game in an IGN video, Doom Eternal producer Marty Stratton, director Hugo Martin, level design Jerry Keehan, and programmer Evan Eubanks are stupefied by xamide’s “unbelievable” clock time.
Even more unbelievable, xamide has since reduced that clock time to 24 minutes, 42 seconds, according to Speedrun.com’s Doom Eternal leaderboard, just over a minute ahead of pasiflora in second place. Speedrunners like xamide use glitches and other exploits, though, so does it even count? Yes, because working out and maxing those glitches and other exploits is an accomplishment on its own.