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The Stray Mod For Doom: The Best Match in Hell
- 7-29-2022
- Categorized in: Reviews, Video Game News
If there is something everyone knows, it’s that cats are awesome. If there’s something else every gamer knows, it’s Doom is awesome, even 20+ years later. From the modder, edypagaza, who brought the world Doom: Shinobi we get Doom: Stray! Here are my thoughts on 2 hours of playing Doom: Stray and getting this Mod running. It is the first time I’ve tried to do something like this. Let’s ride the Stray wave a bit more and mix it with the ever-popular classic Doom.
Getting Doom: Stray Running
This was my first foray into getting a Doom Mod running. This “Stray” mod required the use of GZDoom. This is a free, 3D accelerated, modern engine to run the Doom WAD in. Of course, this does require that you own the legal file (GoG and Steam will have it for $5 - on sale for $2.50). Just had to download the Zip File of GZDoom and the Mod. After that, (and the mandatory virus scan - both were clean), it was just quick unzipping them. Within just a few minutes, I had the program ready to go.
Getting GZDoom running took just a little bit of effort. First, just have the WAD files. I’d picked them up over the past year or so, so I have a number of options available when I loaded GZDoom. I made copies of the WAD files (because ~25 mb is TINY in the modern era) and loaded them into a folder within the GZDoom file called IWAD. Otherwise, it pulled from where I had my files elsewhere on the computer. I also had to change the video options in the middle left to the third option (SoftPoly) to get the program running. If the program doesn’t run, change the base settings with the GZDoom loader. Once I had it running, it was straightforward to do everything else. For something like Doom: Stray there are a few ways to get it all running. You can simply drag and drop the folder onto the EXE file to load it in and have it ready to go. There are other ways, but that’s how I got started. It was worth the effort for sure.
Playing Doom: Stray
Once everything was working, I just grabbed the folder with the Stray Mod and dropped it onto GZDoom. That loaded it up simply and easily. Then I just needed to choose between Doom and Doom II to get the game itself running. Nothing was changed about the game itself. What changes are Doom Guy and your perspective. You go from looking around the world directly into a third-person perspective. There was no run button within the controls (for version 1.0) but in both Doom I and II, you could JUMP. This does add a lot to the game and helps make up for the lack of running. Of course, there is a “Meow” button. By default, it is unbound, but it just takes a moment to bind it then you can have a very chatty cat. The cat will also meow when you tap the “Use” button as well. This could be a little annoying in a longer play setting, but just doing a few levels, you’ll be fine. It did take a little getting used to. The good news is you just need to face toward your target and fire still. There isn’t too much need to go for headshots. Doom didn’t have that, it’s all about that body.
Final Thoughts
This is a nice mod. Understand that Doom here is running LOUD. Respect your significant Others/Spouses as always. There is a lot of cat noise, especially when mashing the Use button. Otherwise, it is Doom. You have a better field of view with the third-person perspective and the cat is very responsive. All of the little quirks of Doom Guy are still there. It’s a welcome different view on Doom itself. I would recommend at least trying it. It takes a little time to get running (30 minutes for me, but sharing what I learned, you can likely do it in less) but worth it for the wider array of Doom that you would be able to enjoy after that. If you need any more help, YouTube and Reddit can be good sources of information.
Links:
GZDoom: https://zdoom.org/downloads
Mod Link: https://www.moddb.com/mods/stray-doom/downloads/stray-doom-v01