izigame.me

Stray

Stray is an third-person, adventure, puzzle, walking simulator type game that is set in a dystopian cyberpunk world, in which you control a cat, that tries to go back to the surface after some unfortunate events happened.
Story
The player controls a cat that has fallen into a walled and isolated city populated by robots and small metal eating creatures called Zurks. The cat is being led to a lab in which it ends up finding a new companion called B-12. During the journey back to the surface the player meets new robots, helps out friends and tries to survive whilst doing cat stuff like pushing objects to the ground and meowing.
Personal Note
Stray was first announced in 2020 and I thought that the idea of a controlling a cat in a cyberpunk type environment could be fun and worth trying out whenever it would be available.
Roughly two years later and Stray was released in July and I have to say that I enjoyed playing through the game but it was not necessarily what I expected it to be at first.
Stray is essentially a short adventure game in which the player needs to figure out things via puzzles and dialogue – whilst this is fun and entertaining, I felt like the game was a bit too short for my liking. It took me around 6 hours to complete my first playthrough and I spent a fair amount of time discovering hidden areas and exploring the beautifully crafted levels.
I personally enjoyed the fact that I couldn’t understand what the robots were saying without the help from B-12 – so sometimes I felt kind of alienated because I didn’t understand the language, but was guided by instincts and simple motions which makes sense because I was controlling a cat, right?
All zones are beautiful and low key stunning in their own way. From the dangerous sewers to the wonderful small and bigger urban aeras in which the dystopian cyberpunk style shines a lot.
The story itself is quite simple but the combination of the story, gameplay and atmosphere was intriguing enough to kept me going – also the fact that this game feels pretty unique, was something that kept me interested as well.
One of the coolest things about Stray is that you can do things a cat would do as well: Push objects to the ground, jump to places you shouldn’t usually jump to, make robots fall because you walked between their legs and meow whenever you like.
Not having a photo mode in a game with such stunning visuals is a missed opportunity in my opinion.
Rating
Pros
Simple story
Great graphics and aesthetics
Good soundtrack
Unique concept and design
Some unique world interactions

Cons
Some weird frame drops at times
Quite short

Conclusion
Is Stray worth getting? Yes, but it mostly comes down to if you go by the principle: $1 an hour.
As I’ve mentioned, the game is good and quite unique with beautiful graphics and a story that is being told in a way that has not been done before, as far as I can tell at least, but Stray is quite a short game.
If you don’t mind spending 26,99€ for a 6 hour long game and you’re into this dystopian cyberpunk style that features adventure, puzzle and walking simulator elements then your money might be well spend – if not, you probably should wait for a sale.
7.4 / 10
“You’re the only one small and quick enough to evade the Zurks. We need you little Outsider. Bring us to the sky!” – Momo to the cat
If you found this review helpful, feel free to visit my curator page.