Stray | Review

Initial Release Date: July 19, 2022

Mode: Single-player

Developer: BlueTwelve Studio

Publisher: Annapurna Interactive

Engine: Unreal

Genres: Adventure, Indie, Platformer, Puzzle

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows

Introduction: Wow! What a game. Are we sure this is an Indie game? I’m not so sure. Okay, so, I just finished Stray about two hours ago. Before I get started check out my Stray Video Gallery Playlist article for me. Thank you. Okay back to the review. Initially I saw trailers for Stray like all of you. I thought “cute cat game”. Turns out it’s much more than just a cute cat Indie game. Keep reading to find out why.

Presentation: In Stray you play as a Cat in one of the most visually stunning cyberpunk dystopian settings I ever seen. The sky is a closed dome. Stray doesn’t scream Indie game to me. It screams first party. From the breathtaking visuals, sound design, gameplay elements, atmosphere and music. There is a story in Stray and it’s how it’s told is exactly why I like it. Stray is a game of emotion, subtleness and care.

By the end of Stray I admit I felt some kind of way when that thing happened to B-12 (the Cat’s companion drone). Technically I can recount two technical glitches with NPCs where they would walk through walls and or float T-pose. There was one occasion where I stole a Atomic Battery and the game stuttered really bad for 10 to 15 seconds. Those three things were it as far as bugs and glitches are concerned during my playthrough. The rest of the game was perfect and smooth sailing from a technical standpoint.

For an Indie game Stray is up there as one of the best when you compare AAA quality within Indie games. You have games like Sifu, SOMA, Hellblade that are borderline AA-AAA Indie games. I would put Stray over those when comparing Indie AAA quality. Like I said in my other article, if Stray had full-on voice overs it would be a first party game. Voice overs would alternatively cause Stray to lose it’s charm so thank god for that!

Story: Stray takes place hundreds of years in the future where humanity has been wiped out by a horrendous plague and all are left is cats, robots and Zurks. Zurks are a flesh, metal eating organism that consumes all ends all. Zurks are the Cat’s main enemies in the game. As the Cat one peaceful day your life gets turned upside down as you get separated from your cat friends falling into a large city below.

Cat ends up in a cyberpunk dystopian city where only robots and zurks live. Cat meets B-12, a drone who ends up becoming his best friend and companion. Cat and B-12’s goal is to escape the dome city and enter the outside world together. B-12 is known to be the last human soul encapsulated into a robotic drone. Think Ghost In The Shell. B-12 is his own character in Stray. You collect “Memory” items which tell B-12’s story over the 12 campaign chapters. Along the way Cat and B-12 meet Momo and other Outsiders who help Cat escape the dome city.

Stray’s story isn’t told by blunt dialogue cutscenes but instead subtle item collecting and world building through NPC interactions. If you ever played a “Souls” game the story is told in that fashion. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and it’s emotion playing as Cat and B-12. Usually I might think these stories are pretentious but Stray hit different, especially the end in the Control Room sequence. In the end Cat does make it out. He makes it to the outside world. As for meeting back up with his friends, I hope so. The game never shows if Cat does indeed reunite with his cat buddies or not.

Gameplay: In Stray you play as Cat along with your companion drone B-12. Gameplay is in third person with occasional wide linear hubs littered throughout the campaign. The Slums and Midtown are two of the main wide linear hubs where you are free to explore the cyberpunk world of Stray. In The Slums you have a fetch quest given to you by Momo (robot NPC). You have to collect Outsider notebooks from various rooftop flats around the city. In MidTown you have to find worker clothes for a NPC named Brazer (another robot NPC). Here you have to wake up a drunk robot worker in a bar. Next you have to steal a hat and outfit by distracting the store’s owner.

Gameplay-wise you have a few things to keep you busy within each main hub. You can collect records, scan memories, talk to many dozens of NPCs. There isn’t a true side quest mission structure that I seen but more-so exploratory gameplay moments. As you venture about you can climb vertically unlocking window shortcuts throughout the maps. Gameplay is subtle and lacks hand-holding unlike most games today. You won’t find any tacked on RPG mechanics in Stray. In Stray you have to figure out how you get from point A to point B. Cat platforming makes up much of the gameplay and it’s great.

The only in-game threats are the zurk swarms you encounter in linear mission quests. The zurks remind me of Halo’s Flood. For the most part you have to trap zurks and sentinels (sentinels are bad too). You acquire a weapon called the Defluxor to kill the Zurks. A few times I did die because the zurks are super relentless and the sentinels can one shot kill the Cat. Two missions in Midtown where you have to move stealthily past armed sentinels if you died you are pushed back in-quest. Need better checkpoints etc etc. The NPC quests are good and offer variety. You are going to do the same two types of missions in Stray. So yeah quest variety is good here.

Visuals/Graphics: Stray is the best looking Indie game I played at this point. I played Stray on my Playstation 5 which meant 4K 60 FPS. There is no hyperbole when I say this is the best looking Indie game I played. Stray is visually stunning and it has no damn business being an Indie game at that. When I entered Midtown I said “holy shit!”. I shit you not. The denseness of the streets filled with neon lights, smoke, dampness, sounds of robots all rain soaked. Midtown was a stunner type level for sure. We have all played a game where we say “this level looks amazing”. That’s Midtown in Stray.

If you been reading my words on this website you know I love the cyberpunk dystopian antithetic when done right. Done right are games like The Ascent, Observer and Cyberpunk 2077 to name a few. After beating Stray it might take the cake with Midtown’s design alone. The lighting and texture work are UP there. I still cannot believe a Indie studio made this game. It’s visually stunning. The level of detail is throughout also. From the zurks in Doc’s cage to the Cat itself and robots. Everything has a shine or fleshy-look robot or organic every object in Stray looked acurate.

Sound/Music: Sound design in Stray was atmospheric. True, there are no voiced words only robot sounds. Regardless Stray’s world sound alive, depressing and hopeful at the same time. The music was really good sounding like stuff you’d hear in Bladerunner or Cyberpunk 2077. Not the crazy voice music stuff but the mild synth beats and melodies etc. Music turned up during zurk sequences adding to it’s tension.

Final Verdict: My calculation from the videos i made I would say Stray was around 6 or maybe 7 hours completion time for me. The game can be shorter or longer depending on your play style. I can see from 4 to 8 hours playtime with Stray. So let’s recap, stunning visuals, emotional story, good music and decent playtime. For $29.99 Stray is a steal. Also on Playstation Premium I played this for free. Just saying. Smooth Criminal I really am. If you love cats buy Stray. If you enjoy Indie games buy Stray. If you hate cats shame on you go buy Stray. I’m sold on Stray. The quality is too high to pass this one up. Stray isn’t just a cute cat videogame it’s borderline masterclass in quality and presentation for an Indie game. Thanks for reading – Jason

9/10