Stray Review

As soon as I saw the first trailer put out by Annapurna Interactive for Stray the game developed by BlueTwelve Studio, I was in love! I have been a massive fan of cats since I was a child, and my love has grown over the years. It's not very often you have the chance to play as a realistic-looking kitty; all the titles I have played in the past have been more cartoon-like versions of felines. So I was incredibly curious about how it would feel to play and if the cat would move realistically or if it would be clunky and difficult to control.

When the game starts, we see our little orange kitten surrounded by other little kittens. Later in the game, our protagonist receives the nickname Little Furball by a key NPC later on in the game, so I'll be using this to refer to them for the rest of the article. You get to play as Little Furball, interacting with the others. It was cute to wrestle and play with them, just like a cat would; this was a great tutorial showing all the controls you will be using. My favourite addition is having a button dedicated to meowing; this isn't just one meow that is constantly repeating, but a variety of them that change every time you press the button. It's so realistic that my cats were interested in where this cat was that they were hearing, so they came over to investigate and sat down to watch the screen as I played. As far as movement goes, you cannot jump around whenever you please; instead, you can interact with an object or platform, a symbol with an A will appear, so at that point, you can jump. This ended up being incredibly helpful to have it set this way as you don't spend too much time exploring areas you don't need to go to at that moment.

Some of the jumps the cat has to make look quite scary; I was concerned that if they weren't perfectly lined up, the poor cat would fall, but luckily the game is very forgiving, and as long as I hit the A button when prompted I never missed a jump! I thought this would make the game incredibly frustrating and stressful to play, but that is not the case. This little kitty has impressive parkour moves while exploring the environment, except for that one time when they got separated from all the other kitties. 

Unfortunately, as the story progresses, it stops being about a cat playing around with their friends; this isn't a cat simulator game, after all! Little Furball is out exploring with the others, then falls off some pipes to the world below. Initially, the cats are in the Outside World, but the kitten falls down into the Midtown Slums. The kitty is all alone and hurt; when you try to stand up and walk around, the kitty is limping. I felt so bad for the little guy I was tearing up; I was attached to the furball within minutes. Luckily, after a couple of minutes, the cat is feeling better, and you can explore this dystopian world you now find yourself in.

Stray won't tell you exactly where to go; instead, the developers Annapurina Interactive want players to explore and find the hints in the slums leading you to your next area. These clues are hidden in neon signs, graffiti on the walls, and images on computer screens, so being observant is helpful. While playing, I was always searching for things I could interact with that might lead me somewhere new that I hadn't explored yet. As a suggestion, try to keep an eye out for buckets that you can jump into that will take you to a nearby area you couldn't reach before, or look up on buildings for ledges and platforms to jump on. 

While wandering the streets, I realised there are no humans here, only robots and long-abandoned buildings. Luckily our little kitty won't be alone; he gets a little droid named B12. This new companion accompanies you and helps you out with translations for what the signs say, serves as an interpreter for the robots, and gives you hints and clues on where to head next. At first the robots you meet will fear you; they think you are a Zurk, which is something that humans working at the Neco waste management system — named after "neko", the Japanese word for "cat" — created to deal with the garbage being dumped into the slums from the higher levels. They created the bacteria to eat the waste, but once the humans were gone, the Zurks mutated and now eat anything they find, including metal. Considering the game saves very frequently, I found it best to just evade the Zurks by finding higher ground so I wouldn't die to them and have to repeat fights/encounters again. While you aren’t being pursued by those monsters, Little Furball is busy making friends with all the robots they meet. After rubbing against their legs, they usually warm up to the little fuzzball and will aid you on the journey to be reunited with its kitty family.

The story in Stray doesn't only focus on the cat; while playing, you meet robots who have dreams of escaping the slums and getting out to the Outside World. However, leaving isn't as easy as it sounds, as the humans who used to live here created a barrier to protect the city and keep the outsiders out of the area; the problem is that they can't get out of the slums either. You meet a robot named Momo, who was working with a group of robots before they disappeared to find a way to get out of the slums and invent a weapon to destroy the evil Zurks who are in their way. Momo realises that if a living creature got into the barrier, the world around them must be suitable for life and not a dangerous wasteland like everyone was led to believe.

I can honestly say that I have never played a third-person adventure game that was anything like this. Stray is so rewarding and makes it feel like you really are a cat; I would never have thought I would experience a game like this. You can tell a lot of care and detail went into the protagonist's creation and it shows. The other characters you encounter in this futuristic world are unique and interesting, with a cool backstory to unravel as you discover all the items that bring back memories for B-12. I feel that Stray is a must-play title for anyone who enjoys third-person adventure games, dystopian-futuristic worlds, exploration, and especially cats. Plus, I can promise you that you will never see a cat butt. Even though the camera is placed directly behind the cat, its tail is always down, which is unusual for a kitty since they seem to try and show off their butt as much as possible, but it is definitely a welcome change!