'Stray' follows the story of stray cat who, after being separated from his pack of strays, has to navigate a dystopian city and help the local robot life. The internet can finally live its dream of being a cat. To top it off, the player's eventual sidekick is a little robot trying to reconstruct its memories.
‘Stray’ is a cleverly engineered game with pathos sprinkled at the right moments for those well executed heart wrenches. The controls are smooth and despite the often cluttered levels, interacting with the environment is limited, but that is a strength. It keeps the game striding forward and mitigates a lot of chaos in navigation.
‘Stray’ is divided into twelve chapters that vary in length. Navigating the various environments and unique obstacles that come with each respective level is fairly straight forward. There is a relaxing and more exploratory element to this game not enough games embrace. That being said, you can die in this game. There are parts of this game where the story places you in danger, which not only shakes up the gameplay, but creates stakes and tension within the narrative.
The majority of the levels in 'Stray' focus on puzzle solving. The amount of climbing and hopping around the player partakes in is not only fun but very much qualifies the game as a platformer. The game designers also mix things up every now and then by providing the player with new equipment or a different enemy, but nothing gets too overwhelming and the game itself is relatively short with smart checkpoints. Having patience makes the most difficult parts of this game go smoother.
While I do not love cats the way everyone else seems to, the protagonist is quite charming. Any cat owner can see that the mannerisms and actions of the cat, which are often creatively incorporated into the story and gameplay, are spot on. The game developers monitored a cat in a motion-capture suit to fashion accurate movements and mannerisms for 'Stray'. They also recorded that same cat for the vocal work. The player can 'meow' to their hearts content if they so choose.
‘Stray’ is bitter-sweet and cathartic. It is a creative, enjoyable and overall well-crated game. It may be smaller in scale but it is rich with lore and a great starting point to what has potential to be an innovative and expansive game universe.
MY STAR RATING 4/5
Be sure to check out The Brown Deer Library's extensive and varied video game collection, which includes some of the most popular titles for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
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