This Stray review contains minor spoilers.
This summer is seriously lacking when it comes to new releases. Thankfully, Stray from Annapurna Interactive is here to save the day – just as our feline hero and their robot companion B-12 set out to do in the game.
Stray was first announced back at PlayStation’s Future of Gaming event in June 2020. Since that eye-catching and enigmatic debut, Stray has established itself as one of the most anticipated titles of 2022.
For cat lovers, Stray is a wonderful opportunity to step into the paws of our feline friends. For those not too fond of furry house-tigers, there’s plenty to love in the game regardless. It offers great level design, a wonderfully conceptualised and realised world, unique traversal, and thought-provoking puzzles.
While Stray undoubtedly delivers on capturing the essence of being a cat, it doesn’t quite take the concept far enough. Not only that, but its short length and unsatisfying conclusion makes it feel more like an extended demo than a complete experience. Nonetheless, it should not be missed.
Stray Review: Premise and Story
In the game, you control a stray cat (affectionately nicknamed “Lieutenant Cat” by B-12) who is separated from his family when he falls into a sealed, underground city populated by robots.
Humanity disappeared long-ago and left the city closed off to the outside world. The robot inhabitants desperately miss their human ancestors and wish to venture outside.
The cat soon stumbles across a robot drone named B-12. The two must then work together to open the city, free the robots, and get the cat back to his family.
Figuring out what happened to the world and the humans is all part of Stray‘s attention-holding wider mystery. Once I sunk into the depths of the cybercity, I wanted to understand everything about it. It feels like a living, breathing yet forgotten world. And I was highly invested in helping its charming (and desperate) inhabitants.
Stray delivers on its story and cat-centric antics. Although its conclusion is somewhat underwhelming. After such a mammoth struggle, it felt anticlimactic.
There was more to see and learn, and the game hadn’t given it to me thanks to its truncated play time. Stray took less than eight hours to finish but some players will do it much quicker. There’s even a trophy for completing it in under two hours.
There’s definitely scope here for a sequel thanks to avenues left unexplored. Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, Stray certainly leaves you wanting more.
Stray Review: Gameplay
Stray is a third-person adventure game. It’s a largely on-the-rails experience with the option to explore peppered throughout.
You control the cat as he navigates dank sewers and towering roof tops, and escapes from swarms of deadly Zurks. On top of that, the game is packed to the brim with puzzles you need to solve to progress.
It’s a Cat’s World
For anyone who has ever fantasised about life as a cat – Stray delivers. You can jump, play, scratch, nap, and pretty much everything in between. It offers a wonderfully unique experience that you won’t get anywhere else.
The life-like cat animations are the game’s crowning achievement. As a cat owner myself, I recognised everything the cat does in Stray. It really is indistinguishable from the real thing.
The cat is nimble, light-footed, fast, and agile. Every step and jump carries with it the calculated grace or frantic panic of a real-life cat. The animations in Stray are a real achievement.
However, the game misses one key element of cat life – hunting.
OK – some cats aren’t hunters. But many are. My cat Minnie is about as soft as they come but even she has caught mice, birds, and frogs.
The main enemies in Stray are enlarged tick-like creatures called Zurks which swarm around the cat. For the most part, the cat must simply avoid them. But it would’ve been great to have the ability to stalk and hunt them. After all, they’re the perfect size for it. And stealth would be a great way of picking away at their large numbers.
Hunting is a disappointing absence in Stray. It was probably done in favour of conjuring the image of cats as our perfectly innocent furry friends. But the game’s world can be grim and unforgiving. And the cat could’ve done with some more fight in such a hostile place.
Kitty Parkour
The majority of the time in Stray is spent traversing buildings and other obstacles.
Back in 2007, Assassin’s Creed set a standard for how climbing and free-running should be done in video games. It has been imitated ad infinitum.
I half expected Stray (despite its non-human protagonist) to follow the same formula. But it doesn’t. Its world, while built for its robot (and formerly human) occupants, is perfectly suited for an exploring cat.
You don’t just scale buildings like you would in Assassin’s Creed. Here, you can explore every nook and cranny that would be inaccessible to humans. From climbing along narrow pipework to squeezing through tight gaps, the level design in Stray is top-notch. The Slums area, in particular, serves as a marvelous showcase of the possibilities of cat traversal.
Pesky Puzzles
Beyond running and jumping are a huge range of puzzles that dominate Stray‘s gameplay loop.
Almost everything in the game is a puzzle. Be it simply getting from A to B while avoiding Zurks, or sneaking into a guarded store to steal a hat. There’s a huge range of tasks that require brain power to solve.
Some are a bit too easy – especially when coupled with the option to ask B-12 for help. However, quite a few will take you numerous attempts to get right and they may even cost you one of your precious nine lives (you aren’t actually limited to nine lives, although there is a trophy for it).
There is no difficulty option in Stray, which is a shame. It would be good to have the option to scale the difficulty of the game’s puzzles as they will prove too easy for some players.
Stray Review: Graphics and Performance
Stray looks excellent on PS5 and plays really well.
However, the game doesn’t feature different graphics or performance options on PS5.
Without any settings to play with or official details on the game’s visuals, I’d say the game appears to run at a dynamic 4K resolution in the 50-60fps range.
While there are noticeable frame rate dips during transitions between scenes and some action-heavy moments, it’s mostly stable and makes for a smooth and enjoyable experience.
DualSense
The DualSense controller is the hallmark of the PS5. And it has been implemented reasonably well in Stray.
Haptics when rubbing against things and purring make you feel like a real cat. And adaptive triggers when scratching rugs, walls, or sofas allowed me to roleplay as my cat destroying the furniture.
Stray Review: Verdict
As a feline adventure, Stray mostly delivers. It’s fun, loveable, and heartfelt thanks to its cat protagonist, companion B-12, and the cast of characters they meet along the way.
I really cared about our hero reuniting with his cat family and freeing the robots from their cybercity prison. It drew me in and kept me hooked throughout. Unfortunately, the ending is somewhat premature and unsatisfying.
That said, I am keen to return to the world of Stray. It is meticulously crafted. The underground city carries with it a solemn loneliness as well as a belief in the pursuit of dreams and unity. Its cast of robot inhabitants make it feel human even with the complete absence of humanity.
Best of all though is the experience of playing as our cat hero. In that regard, Stray really is a game like no other. And the team at BlueTwelve Studio have done a tremendous job at realising the feline fantasy.
Even though it’s disappointingly short, Stray is a must-play game this summer.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Reviewed on: PS5
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