Cool cat
It is surprising, given the human affinity for cats, that only in 2022 we got a game whose protagonist is a cat. There were plenty of other non-human animals, but not a cat, at least not one that hasn’t been anthropomorphized. And there’s a meow button, too!
That would be a nice thing in itself, but Stray has a good sci-fi story to offer, too. The lore is pretty rich and it leaves some things to the player’s imagination. For instance, we don’t know exactly when the action takes place. A writing on a wall suggests very far into the future, but there are many things to consider about how the robot inhabitants of the cyberpunk city perceive time, so there’s an ongoing debate. The huge amount of time would allow cats to become as intelligent as our protagonist, but their appearance would have to change, as well, so that makes it implausible.
The robots themselves are often quirky and interesting characters and the plot contains some tear-jerking moments which would probably make you feel for the robots if it were a longer game. You don’t get to spend enough time with them for that. On the other hand, it’s nice to play a shorter game now and then.
The game has plenty of references to other games, but the most poignant influence I was able to detect was Half-Life. The enemies, the crowbars you can find lying around, the atmosphere and the excellent soundtrack all point in that direction. Even the motive of the protagonist is pretty similar.
Gameplay is centered around puzzle solving, but there are some stealth sections, chase sequences and platforming. It was a bit disappointing to see that the cat doesn’t have complete freedom of movement, making it a sort of point-and-click game when it comes to vertical traversal. There’s nothing particularly challenging, the puzzles are pretty easy, as is avoiding the enemies. There’s no combat, but there’s a lot of scratching sofas, walls and carpets, as well as some other cat behaviors.
A delightful little game, Stray has much more to offer, in its short time, than playing as a cat.
The amount of "this is actually a pretty ok game" type comments I see on this I can't believe I'm actually considering playing a game as a cat protagonist. This article definitely got me thinking about it though. Good
Nice. I still have to play it😅, this motivates me to.