No Rest for the Living

No Rest for the Living is the title of a Doom II expansion pack developed by Nerve Software for the release of Doom II on Xbox Live Arcade on May 26, 2010. It is also included in Doom 3 BFG Edition. And is also as included in the PlayStation 3 release of Doom Classic Complete, is available as an add-on for the Doom Classic Unity ports and is in included by default in the Unity port successor Doom + Doom II. The episode was the first officially released episode in 14 years since Final doom was released in 1996.

Episode

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 As Doom II did not have episodes per se, calling "No Rest for the Living" an episode is technically a misnomer. The new maps are a separate selectable campaign at the inception of the 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. 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 boss Brandon James, this expansion set "continues on Earth after Hell's forces have [seemingly] been vanquished".

The goal of the expansion is to travel to a pocket dimension of Hell and assassinate a Cyberdemon that has been building an army of demons for his own personal use. "No Rest for the Living" takes advantage of the expanded capacity of modern systems, with significantly more enemies on-screen at the same time than in the original Doom II, especially in the later levels.

Levels

• Level 1: The Earth Base
• Level 2: The Pain Labs
• Level 3: Canyon of the Dead
• Level 4: Hell Mountain (Exit to secret level)
• Level 5: Vivisection
• Level 6: Inferno of Blood
• Level 7: Baron's Banquet
• Level 8: Tomb of Malevolence
• Level 9: March of the Demons (Secret level)

Playing on a computer

If you have Doom 3 BFG Edition on PC, you can take the nerve.wad file supplied in the files and use it in ZDoom (and other source ports that support it). If used with Doom II, ZDoom will automatically implement "No Rest for the Living" in the episode screen. This only works with the BFG version of Nerve.wad.

While it is playable if loaded with Doom II in DOSBox, "No Rest for the Living" will experience minor graphic flaws that can sometimes cause distant objects to flicker, and will crash in certain areas. It also will not play the proper music, but rather the default Doom II soundtrack. It is advised for DOS users to use source ports like MBF for a fully functional game.

Trivia

• There is no Backpacks in this episode except one in Map08. This was conscious decision made to limit ammo, and make the episode more challenging.
• Though it’s based on Doom II it is a 8 level (ninth secret level) episode inspired by the 9 level episodes in the original doom.
• In Xbox, PS3 & BFG version of Nerve.wad all levels use the earth cloudy sky background from Doom II (despite much of the story setting the events in an hell pocket universe). This version also has the "expansion" launcher when starting a new game (allowing for a choice between Hell on Earth and No Rest for the Living). Since this version is tied together with Doom II this version lacks the classic title screen, instead both games uses a new pentagram background with the Doom II logo.
• While technically the pentagram background is in the game files when loaded through BFG edition directly, the splash screen is the 'gold' version of the Doom II intermission screen (BFG Ultimate Doom uses silver version of the Doom II intermission screen as its splash sceen).
• In the Unity/Kex version the first three levels are set on earth, while levels 4 through 8 are set in hell. This version doesn't include the "expansion" launcher, and jumps right into the game.
• The Unity Version has a new title screen which is the XBox/PS3/BFG pentagram splash screen with a new logo/title on top of it. The menu still has the Doom II logo.
• The Kex version has both the title/splash screen (from the 2019 Unity release), and the menu includes the No Rest for the LIving (replacing the Doom II logo).
• The secret level in all versions accessed from Hell Mountain, has the cloudy earth sky. It is a tech base level so possibly a return back to earth briefly.
• Some of levels have expansive out of bounds background scenery like city buildings around the Earth Base or canyon lands in distance in Pain Labs. Some of the later levels have smaller out of bounds scenery just to keep things aesthetically interesting.
• The Maps of the episode bear a similar (shape-wise) style to Doom 64 levels.