/vr/ - Retro Games

>>2537853
I'm not super close to the Doom community, so I don't know if this question has been asked to death:

Is playing through each level of Doom 1 and 2 with pistol starts the "true" way to play them? The Ultimate Doom felt astonishingly more tense and way more fun when I decided to play it all the way through with pistol starts, which makes sense seeing that that's how the levels were playtested.

On the other hand, apparently Alien Vendetta can also be played fully through pistol starts, and I'm getting my balls busted even when I go into a level with maxed ammo and a megacharge. Am I not getting the megawad's "true" experience by playing it straight through?