Release Date: 19/07/2022
Played On: PS5
Available On: PS4 / PS5 / Win
Time Played: 7h 37m
Progress: Completed
Developer: BlueTwelve Studio
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Not long after I'd finished playing Stray, someone asked me if it was any good, with the implication being that this was nothing more than a meme. It's no surprise that any game featuring a cat as its main character would garner a lot of internet attention, but I tend to stay away from those kinds of things and hadn't seen a single meme during my time with the game. Thankfully I was able to respond with the clarification that this is indeed, more than just a meme.
The reason I point it out is because this happens far too often, where an otherwise decent game can get overshadowed by the ludicrous social media hype and the memes that go along with it. It must be a double edged sword for game developers, as it not only brings a lot of awareness and marketing, but it makes the game look cheap and relatively void of substance. At least, that's what happens when my brain registers a tirade of social media attention, but I accept that I'm an 80s kid in a new millennium; so what the hell do I know?
What really disappoints me about hype in any form, is that it makes us judge the hyped thing much more critically than we otherwise might judge it. A game like Stray ends up suffering from this extra scrutiny, as it's not mind-bendingly amazing enough to rise above expectations, but it's decently solid enough to earn a better reputation. I suppose that's why I want to open this post with my sincerest recommendation that Stray is not just a meme game, as it has a whole lot more to offer.
If you've never heard of Stray before and are wondering what the hell I'm on about, then here's the straight dope. You play as a cat who is living in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic future world where humans have either reached extinction, or at least vacated the city you call home. In their place are a cast of colourful robots , as well as a hostile kind of macro-bacteria that eats away anything it can infest and destroy. The entire city is covered in a secure dome, but somehow you manage to fall through a hole, separating you from your cat buddies on the overgrown outside and leaving you stranded in the lifeless city.
Thus, the adventure begins and we control our cat persona in third person as they explore the alleys and apartments of this new urban landscape. Thankfully it doesn't take long to stumble into a scientist's home and find a small robot who will act as our translator and guide. After all, cats don't speak robot, and the robots living there don't speak cat, so it's good to have a companion who will act as a bridge between the two.
In video game terms, your robot companion acts as the game's interface and dialogue window, allowing the player to understand what's going on and make certain decisions along the way. It's a relatively simple solution to the problem of getting a cat to function adequately in a video game world, which ends up introducing a bit of uncomfortable dissonance to the narrative, but we'll talk about that a bit later.
The main bulk of the gameplay in Stray comes from exploring the different locations available in each chapter, and interacting with the robots who live there. It turns out that they all have a heap of problems that a cat just like you can help with, even if you're sometimes left wondering why a functional robot couldn't go on a simple fetch quest around their own neighbourhood.
To move the main story along, there are a number of tasks that you must complete, each one advancing you into a new area to explore and the next piece of the puzzle. Most of the time, completing quests is as simple as exploring an area to find how to get where you need to go, then solving a simple puzzle in order to get the thing you're trying to get. There's a definite emphasis on exploration, as many NPC robots will have nothing to offer other than a line or a story about their time in the city or when the humans were still around. Although, I found these little interactions super satisfying, as they really helped me connect with the world and what those sad little robots were doing there.
Perhaps the strongest part of Stray was the overall world building and the beautiful environments that were nothing if not detailed and expertly put together. As a cat, we're able to crawl into tight spaces and jump onto narrow ledges that always lead to somewhere interesting. I quickly felt as though everything was within my reach and it was up to me to find all the nooks and crannies of the world to see what was going on. Happily, most of those out-of-the-way places held some kind of environmental gem to add to the narrative. Whether it ended up being a simple prop in an apartment, or a blatant stack of lore; the incidental story-telling went a long way to further extend the depth of the game's world.
During my playthrough, I was given similar vibes to a game like Inside or FAR: Lone Sails, which had a similar sense of strong world building through environmental storytelling. Even with our little robot companion allowing us to relate to the robot world, Stray still felt like a game about being an outsider, as our cat never really managed to fit in with the world around them.
The robot city was not built for organic life, while the infested sewers overflowed with hostile bacteria and was anything but welcoming to outsiders of any form. The entire game made me feel like something of an imposter, as if I were exploring an alien landscape that made no sense to me. Even when I found a comfy area to curl up and have a snooze, I still knew that it would be over soon and I'd be pressing on to continue my mission of escaping the city and reuniting with my feline companions.
This otherness was only further enhanced by the excellent animation and design that was put into the cat we spend the whole game with. Thanks to the fantastic art direction and care taken to capture all of the essential cat nuances, it's easy to get carried away with the game and really start to think like a cat. Before too long I was considering vertical movement options as much as regular running on the ground, and I got used to constantly looking up at everything that was always taller than me. I was surprised to realise how convincing it was to experience the world at cat level, and was equally disappointed to think that the little robot whose sole purpose was to connect me further with that world, was the very thing that took me out of it.
Along with being highly agile, there are a number of fun and interesting aspects about being a cat, but sitting down and having conversations with people is not one of them. So when Stray started making it seem as though we were communicating with every robot we met and discussing history and politics through the help of a translator, I found it hard to lose my disbelief. Part of me wished that I'd never found the translating robot and had to communicate through understanding body language and gestures, which would have been fun to decipher as a cat interacting with robots.
After all, with my little translator robot I was never treated like a normal cat. Most of the robots I talked to thought I was an intelligent being who understood complex concepts and dialogue trees. I'm sure someone out there will think that 'cats are people too' or something to that effect, but playing as a detailed and realistic cat in a game that treated them as if they were an intelligent and capable human being felt a bit strange to say the least.
The saving grace was that it never got too silly, despite some fairly ridiculous conversations that hinted at the direction the writers could have taken us. Thankfully everyone kept the narrative on track, preventing Stray from being forced into some weird anthropomorphised nightmare and for the most part, the cat just stuck to being a cat. I managed to convince myself that I was able to understand everything because my little robot translator was able to speak cat so fluently that he could convey everything in a perfectly understandable fashion.
Maybe it's that slight disconnect that held back Stray and prevented it from being something truly incredible, but I don't think it damages the game all that much. Sure the story isn't anything to write home about, but it's serviceable and interesting enough with a nice predictable ending that wraps everything up neatly. The gameplay is very satisfying, not least because the cat itself has been animated and designed so well that it's perhaps the most compelling cat I've played in a video game to date. The world is the real star though, as it was a complete pleasure to explore the city streets and meet its robotic residents. Even running for one's life through the infested sewers felt exciting and worthwhile at the time, so I really can't fault this game for much more than a bit of cognitive dissonance.
There's already talk online about Stray being a GOTY contender, even against the likes of Elden Ring, which has garnered its own trail of memes to contend with. However, as much as I believe Stray will be one of this year's highlights, I don't think it has enough meat on its bones to take out the GOTY. Instead, I think this is a game that manages to create a compelling and fascinating world to explore, in which you happen to be a playing as a cat.
It's as simple as that.