Stray is an adventure game released in June 2022 by the company called BlueTwelve Studio. The story begins with a cat, the main character of the game, which gets separated from its friends by falling down a pipe towards an underground city populated by robots. As the cat walks through the city, it finds a little robot in a lab, called B-12. They become friends as the story progresses. They find Momo, a member of the Outsiders, a group of robots that want to find a way to the surface. With the help of the cat, they achieve that, but B-12 sacrifices himself for this. The story ends with the cat getting to the surface.
Firstly, the game has easy-going mechanics; it does not take so much time to finish the story and has a lot of side interactions. After that, the combination between the quality of graphics and neon colours gives the player calm, pleasant moods and it makes the game more interesting and exciting. The design of the buildings is inspired from reality, the Kowloon Walled City, a Chinese enclave. This is the reason why the name of the underground city in the game is Walled City 99.
Secondly, if you are a cat lover, you will enjoy playing this game. The mechanics of the game include some interactions between the cat and different objects. For example, by interacting with a carpet or wires, the cat will start scratching them, or if it interacts with cameras, it will start meowing and the cameras will nod back. Everything that is related to a cat’s habits is very well implemented in the game.
Stray is an exciting adventure in a cyberpunk world full of hope for freedom, and that is because you play as a cat. Its mix of simple platforming and puzzling object-seeking missions can be annoying at times. With only 5 hours of gameplay, the game had us exploring every nook and cranny, sneaking through narrow streets, and climbing every rooftop and we felt like cats along the way.
As a conclusion, we recommend this game for its interesting story, astonishing graphics, and complex mechanics, but also to cat lovers.
Ailuțoaei Călin and Pais Dorian - 11C