Stray offers the purr-fect pastime

Stray takes players on a journey through a world without humans through the eyes of a feline, with an immersive setting and story.

Bluetwelve Studios created a beautiful world in Stray. The orange feline you play as is painstakingly recreated in the game. Not only is the feline detailed, but the movement is also realistic. The cat animates as it retracts the hind legs and then uses them to spring or jump forward. The locations in the game showcase a cyberpunk style. The crammed-together huts and buildings are decorated with bright neon lights, signs and holograms, giving the world a futuristic look and feel.

This adventure game has you playing a cat who is separated from his pack of friends. Something happens, and you are thrown into a world of robots but no humans. As you play, you learn more about the world, but many questions remain unanswered.

As the player, you control an orange feline as you enter a cyberpunk-style world filled with robots. The game is done in a third-person perspective, perfect for the feline adventure ahead.

The game controls are straightforward. You move the cat around with the left thumb stick and the camera with the right thumb stick. The cat can sprint around the environment with the R2 button. As you start playing, you’ll quickly release the jumping mechanics are your best way of getting around the game’s environment.

The cat can be pointed towards an object above or below, giving you a highlighted X showing you can jump onto that object. You can jump up onto AC units, pop machines and any other object that doesn’t have spikes on it.

As you explore this Cyberpunk world, you’ll see that the robots are very humanlike. All the robots talk to each other in their own language, which is translated for you. Each of the robots you run across has its own style with different clothes and hats. To make them even more relatable, each robot has a screen that shows emojis relaying its current emotion.

The game’s story might start slower than some might like it to, but it gets going after about an hour. Once you get your robot companion B-12, he will help you out in battles and with translating robots.

The game lets you live your best cat life. When you’re not jumping around the environment, you can do other cat-like things. The game lets you meow with the press of a button. This comes in handy attracting enemies and robots - or just because.

The cat can also rub up against robots, purr along with friends, jump boxes, or take naps on cat beds. You can even scratch on walls and furniture. The game has a ton of options for letting you interact and live with your cat live. The game even has puzzles, though simple in nature, uses the cat as you’d expect.

Everything in the game is there to make you feel like the cat you’re supposed to be.

The main story will take around four hours to complete. Robots will offer you side missions that unlock more of the backstory or earn you badges.

Stray is a great-looking and playing game for a small entry price of $39.99. I do wish there was some extra content after you beat the game.

If you’re looking for a game by a smaller developer that looks great and has great gameplay, Stray is for you. 9/10.