GAME REVIEW: Stray (2022)
So, my first thoughts on being told that there is a video game called Stray that is about a lost cat… was that I don’t want to play because it sounds sad and I am a lot more sensitive to animals than I am to humans in media. Fortunately, the game was so well-reviewed (and it was also mentioned that there simply aren’t humans around to look after the cats in this world, taking out that one emotional knife), so I decided to try it out anyways, especially since I do tend to like games made by Annapurna.
The game opens with a group of wild cats hanging out together in a post-apocalyptic world. As you wander around, your PC cat falls down (the last clench-my-butt moment where I wanted to cry) and is separated from the other strays. This is an adventure game about getting your cat back to wherever it came from after it falls into some sort of strange, cybernetic underground village of androids. Your cat eventually meets up with a little AI robot that helps you on your way, who also eventually gets the power to roast the swarms of bug-like enemies that show up from time to time, which seem to have been what killed all the humans at some point. They’re an interesting threat, because they only exist in parts of the world, but they seem to have the ability to eat through anything, which is, frankly, pretty creepy.
Perhaps the most fun thing about the game is just… playing as a cat. The mechanics are delightful: there are doors and carpets and couches to scratch, you can take ambient naps in a lot of places that will zoom out and show incredible scenery, you can rub on the legs of the androids, and any time you meow, all of the real cats in my house would look up, all “WTF was that?!” One of my cats was even obsessively watching me play the first evening we put it on. The mechanics work quite smoothly, as there’s not a whole lot the cat can do.
As an adventure game, it’s not too hard, but it can be complicated to get around. As someone who tends to get lost in video games easily (it takes me a long time to remember a map), I didn’t actually have too much trouble finding places, though sometimes it took me a while. The music, scenery, and ambience were all wonderful. Story-wise, it’s not very complicated, so I won’t get into it, but the androids also seem to have varying degrees of desire to get out of their underground homes. Ultimately, it’s a laid-back, fun game, with a few intense moments, and an overall simple but sweet story. Definitely recommend for cat-lovers and gamers alike!
