izigame.me

If you discover this game presuming it's all about exploring a mesmerizing open world as a meowing, purring, ginger cat that can vertically climb and scratch surfaces, like it's some sort of simple cat simulator game, then I'm afraid to tell you that it's far from the truth! Stray is so much more. Stray also features: equally as much gross areas to explore, areas infested with enemies which will require you to be stealthy, and ultimately a compelling story!
All those beautiful screenshots you'll encounter of Stray online are generally from the very beginning, the very end and most commonly, from an area near the end of the game called Midtown! They're just snippets of 3 chapters part of a larger 12 chapter game!
This raises the question of what exactly is Stray then. Let me explain.

About Stray

Stray is a gripping, short adventure game where you'll be playing in third person as an unnamed, stray, ginger cat who becomes separated from their cluster as a result of falling from a loosened pipe, deep down to an unfamiliar world. In this new world, roam different types of robots. You'll first meet companion robots, which are highly-intelligent, bipedal robots with different personalities and their own respected language. They are notably slow and weak at defending themselves from predators such as zurks which are enemies you'll often encounter and have to evade throughout the game. Because of their limitations, companion robots have confined themselves to a small safe zone in which most of them refuse to leave. Within the safe zone are a few outsider companion robots who wish to reach where the cat came from - which is the surface, but the companions refer to it as the: "outside" . However, all but one outsider companion robot is inside of the safe zone when you initially arrive to the safe zone so you must track the rest of the outsiders down and follow their leads to possibly get back to the outside.
Will the ginger cat survive and make it back to the surface and reunite with their cluster? Play to find out!

My Review of Stray

I have to say, this game exceeded my expectations. For starters, I wasn't expecting chases and having to hide from enemies. In fact, I blindly got into this game expecting no enemies at all. So, these elements really caught me off-guard but in the end I had fun getting past the zurks and sentinels, it made the gameplay experience all more thrilling and intense, fueling my eager desire to get back to the surface.
In the about section, I just scratched the surface of the plot - what I shared was just the tip of the iceberg. The plot is what really intrigued and left a profound impression on me other than the outstanding visuals of this game. It's such a deep rabbit hole that I didn't see coming. The plot really deserves as much as credit as the graphics.
Learning that:
- The entire map was a closed cylindrical space called: "Walled City 99" ,
- Humans died out from a plague breakout and that the last humans lived within this confined space along with the companions ,
- There is a sort of caste system in which inhabitants live in an elevated level with respect to their hierarchy ,
- Some of the last remaining humans became companions or entered themselves into the network,
- B-12 was initially the Scientist's assistant and then the consciousness of the Scientist ,
were details that all shook me. I was not expecting such a rich story.
If you're as fascinated by the story as I am, then I encourage you to collect all of B-12's memories or to alternatively learn more about the plot from the Stray Wiki.
And of course, I can't finish this section without mentioning the graphics, the visuals - the things that truly carry this game. The game is full of many areas with colorful lighting - which is very admirable, but if I have to be honest, while the game has an abundance of orange, red, blue and other colored lights, there aren't many areas containing beautiful scenery - the perfect places to use as background footage for your screenshots. I was a bit disappointed in this aspect. As a result of this, my number one destination for photography was naturally the Midtown. So, I wish there were more beautiful areas on the map to explore. Nonetheless, the overall aesthetic of the game is stunning, even if all areas can't be used for picture-perfect moments.

My Pain Point About Stray

There's only one thing that I'm dissatisfied about Stray which is how we aren't able to go into first person. The feature to zoom in your camera felt really pointless to me because part of the cat's body would appear in the shot and kind of ruin it so I don't think I took any shots by zooming in. If we were able to enter first person, I would've taken so much more screenshots and would have put the zooming in feature into use. So, the ability to enter first person should really be introduced.
Signing off with some screenshots I took, feel free to leave them a like!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3437011326
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3437762398
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3439362917

Overall Rating: 9/10