Despite starring in a cat, there is no additional lint in Stray. The game takes place under the dome of an artificial sky, in a futuristic city populated by robots and far from the natural world, and mechanically, it is also perfectly contained. Every detail of Stray has a purpose, whether it’s an environmental indication that propels players toward a specific path or the ability to meow at will, which is adorable, but can also distract enemies in combat scenes.
Stray is a cyberpunk playground where players are rewarded for trusting their instincts and offers a beautiful balance of exploration, puzzle solving and relaxing activities for cats. And somehow along the way, he manages to tell a heartbreaking human story without any people.
Cat people, you’ll love Stray, but there are also some scenes that are hard to see. The game begins with a gang of four cats living their best lives in a lush, covered industrial park that has long since been abandoned by people. Players are an orange tabby who jumps through huge pipes and steel beams until a single slide changes everything. As his friends watch, the cat falls dozens of feet down a deep black hole and lands in a broken pile on the concrete floor of a sewer. The cat is injured, which causes players to walk limping and dizzy for a while before regaining normal mobility. The injury scene is hard to see and even harder to play, even for a dog like me, but it creates an instant emotional connection with the tabby that carries the entire game.
Most of Stray takes place in neon-lit neighborhoods trapped under the dome and populated by anthropomorphic robots. Players explore as they try to find a way to return their friends to the sunlight, and finally the cat is equipped with a cute little drone that helps it communicate with robots and hack certain terminals. The drone, B-12, tries to solve a mystery of its own: as they roam the cities, players collect memories of random shiny objects, helping B-12 to remember where it came from.
The story goes on
Stray’s world was created for humans and bipedal robots, which makes it especially intriguing to explore as a cat. From one foot of the ground, things like doors are useless, while items like pipes, railings, and air conditioning units provide ideal platforms for climbing buildings and navigating the revolving alleys under the dome. Environmental puzzles take advantage of this perspective at the cat level, inviting players to look at the world with different eyes that reflect light.
Deviated
None of Stray’s puzzles are too complicated, though many of them are clever. The most attractive puzzles ask players to travel back and forth between various locations, helping or tricking various robots to get what they need, with a minimal direction of the game itself. These puzzles are solved by exploring cities and talking to their inhabitants, naturally building the story at the same time. And Stray doesn’t stay with any mechanic for too long, presenting new enemies and new situations to solve with each environment.
The path forward to Stray is usually obvious, with yellow paint marking jumpy platforms and large neon arrows often pointing the way. These navigation elements are not exactly subtle, but they are integrated into the wealth of the city, they only stand out when they are really needed. This makes progress on Stray feel completely natural: with the environment constantly leading players down the right path, the next jump is usually the right one, and that keeps up the pace very well overall.
Deviated
There are minimal on-screen instructions in Stray, and most have to do with performing pet cat activities such as scratching carpets, knocking down plants and paint cans, and crawling to sleep. These actions are as beautiful as hell, but they also help advance the narrative at times. For example, grabbing the leg of a sofa is fun and adorable, but the cat can also scratch certain doors to make the robots open, unlocking new secret rooms. Meanwhile, meowing can occur at any time, even during movie scenes or while you sleep, and this is pretty much the game’s best mechanics.
The most common warning on the screen is a small indicator that clings to the edge of any surface that can be jumped, whether the cat is climbing or jumping down. This is the most restrictive mechanics of the game, as it determines where the cat can move and sometimes cuts paths that seem viable. There are many moments in the game where I feel trapped for a moment, wanting to jump into a specific area but unable to move without that little white dot telling me I can. This diminishes the game’s sense of freedom and adds hiccups to its overall rhythm, but doesn’t completely destroy the ability to explore cities. I would say I am able to complete 80 percent of the jumps I want. I also see how this mechanic helps cultivate a sense of confidence like a cat in every scene: it’s impossible to fall off the edge of a catwalk, no matter how thin or wobbly, because you can’t leave until that point appears on a platform. next. With invisible walls like these, who needs nine lives?
Deviated
I do, apparently. While players can’t jump to their doom, it’s possible to die in Stray, and I did it more than once. The city under the dome is infested with vicious bacterial stains that chase the cat non-stop every time it is nearby, creating a handful of dramatic sequences of running and dodging. If the spots jump on the cat and stay there for a few seconds, the game is over and you start at the last checkpoint, which is usually a minute or so behind. There are also floating sentries at the rear levels that shoot anything that enters your pool of light, causing many shadow puzzles and some intense time puzzles.
Amidst all the puzzle-solving problems, ledge jumps and dodging drops, Stray introduces a world of cheerful dystopia, where robots don’t hate the humans who preceded them, and instead try to cultivate plants that can survive in the dark. from the dome, just because people would have liked it. The same robots have different personalities and engaging stories, and as a cat, I was able to absorb everything and carry those stories along my journey.
Deviated
Compared to most dystopian cyberpunk games, Stray is downright cheerful. It is a perfectly contained adventure game with many new ideas, each reduced to its purest form. Even the mechanic of the meow.
Stray comes out on July 19 for PlayStation 4, PS5 and PC via Steam.