Stray (2022)

For whatever reason, I've been playing a lot of indie games lately. I guess I want to have short experiences that stick with me right now, rather than delving into a massive game that will take me forever to beat. I find that in the indie game space, I appreciate a game that knows its limitations, like Gone Home, telling an entire story in two hours, and hitting hard with an emotional impact, all while you're stuck inside a single house. And I've played a lot of games recently that are ambitious and grander in scale, but don't quite nail it, in my opinion, like Tacoma or Firewatch — both games I still really like.

But then, there's a game like Stray, a small indie game that knows its limitations, and yet manages to create something grand and sprawling, without ever feeling like it was made by a team of less than two dozen people with a small budget. It's the kind of idea that a larger studio probably wouldn't make, and yet, Stray does incredible things despite the limitations, showing how much can be done with so little.

Beyond just how impressive this world was, one of my biggest takeaways from Stray was that I found myself surprised by how often it would throw some idea my way, I wouldn't be sure how it would work, and it would quickly become something I'd appreciate. For example, after a few levels of just playing as a cat, I wasn't sure if this was for me. But by the time I got to the core of the game, and I was introduced to robots, I appreciated the idea of just playing as a cat, and didn't want to be a more active participant in this world. But it didn't take me long after that before I was doing tasks for robots and appreciating the characters that I was meeting. Stray constantly surprised me by throwing me into ideas that I sort of bucked against at first, proving my first instincts wrong over and over.

At its core, though, I love that Stray is essentially just a simple puzzle game that throws you into an area and asks you to figure out how to just get around. It's throwing you into a huge world with clever segments, but it all comes together in a way that feels large and impressive. I wanted to explore, I wanted to learn as much as I could about this world, and I wanted to help everyone in it.

For a game that you can beat in just a few hours, Stray crafts a rich, remarkable world that I could've spent far more time in. A great presentation of what indie games are capable of, and I'd love to see more games like this in the future that are daring and impressive in equal measure.

Review

I've read a lot about the buzz that Stray caused in the gaming media. I found the whole "cat game" thing quite curious. Even more curious is how I've started trying out all kinds of games after buying the Switch Lite (this console is addictive). Since I’m already talking about the device, let’s start with the first point.

Graphics

The game must be beautiful—I say that because playing this originally PS5 game (not even a direct competitor, considering the Switch is from the PS4/XONE era) as a port on 2015 hardware (yes, released in 2017, but already outdated back then)?! My friends, what a stunning port! The game runs smoothly most of the time, with few frame rate drops. I only experienced some stuttering during the section where you need to get the atomic battery. The textures get pretty ugly, and some air conditioner fans are just a single 3D block—you can’t even see the blades separately. It looked like something straight out of the PS2 era. That said, the lighting, reflection effects (except for the barber shop mirror, where there should be a reflection on PS5, but on Switch it's just a blur), and shadow work are fantastic and give the game a new-gen polish.

Gameplay

The gameplay is intact—and I think that’s perfect. I can’t imagine it playing differently on other platforms. The cat’s movement is flawless; it feels like watching a real feline. When it gets defensive, it arches its back, bares its teeth, hisses, and licks—spot-on animations. The characters’ movement is also very fluid, reflecting a more recent gen quality. The exploration and puzzle-solving mechanics seem identical to the other platforms (I’ve only played the Switch version, but it feels unaffected gameplay-wise—only the visuals took a hit).

Story

Note: From here on out, I’ll talk more openly about the plot. I’ll try to keep it general, but read at your own risk.

The story is interesting. The game gradually reveals what happened to that world. We meet characters and, though the game is short, we form an emotional connection within reason, thanks to some charismatic characters and helpful worldbuilding. To sum it up without spoilers: the game shows a world where there are no more humans, only robots living in a city.

Analyzing the core structure of the plot, it’s essentially a dystopia under an authoritarian regime. One thing I didn’t like is that the “villain” is a big corporation. Maybe I’m wrong, but this feels like your typical anti-capitalist trope. I’m not a fan of this mindset, because companies—especially small and medium ones—create jobs for people. Normal people need jobs to support themselves and their loved ones (and I say this as someone who’s been unemployed for 2 months—it’s awful...).

This trope shows up in anti-capitalist movies like Robocop, Alien, Avatar, etc. But just like those, you can ignore the politics and enjoy the story. (Unlike modern Hollywood, which struggles with this balance. Want to preach? Fine—but tell a good story! Don’t go full Snow White on us.)

Anyway, I bring this up because too many modern games are compromised by the woke wave. I’m not saying we need to be radicals either—I get that there are absurd examples of forced female leads, but also amazing stories where the female character was beautifully done and essential! Also, Stray is a French production... so you know how it goes. 😅

That liberté, égalité, fraternité shows up in the game's soul. I’ve got nothing against that cursed... I mean, wonderful French Revolution slogan. Politically, the motivations behind the story are terrible. But as a finished product, the game is excellent, with a touching narrative—even if it's cliché in places. And that’s fine! Clichés are welcome and necessary. People need to stop expecting every story to break all molds—those are one-in-a-million.

What I mean is: imagine 1984 with robots (though not deeply explored), add a Wall-E-like world (no humans), sprinkle in some COVID-19 afterthoughts, eco-thinking, and reflections on AI and humanity’s legacy. That’s the vibe.

Like any good Marxist tale, the game explores class division. This shows up in how the city’s neighborhoods are structured. The social issues are blamed on humans, who inspired the robots now living in the city. The current real-world class segregation is used to reflect the past—where greed and class struggle led to some living well for a while, while others suffered and died.

Anyway, I’ll put my “rants” aside. I really liked the game—it deserved the praise. It’s simple, short, to the point—perfect for older folks like me (30+) who don’t have 200 hours to sink into a single game.

Achievements

The Switch doesn’t have achievements, but I plan to get this on Steam. I manually tracked my trophies to later unlock them using SAM. “Can’t Cat-ch Me” (escape the Zurks without taking damage) was a bit annoying, so I skipped it. Others like “Boom Chat Kalaka” I ignored because the Switch’s load times are long, so reloading over and over just to shoot a basketball into a bucket wasn’t worth it. I think if the achievements had been more focused on story, badges, memories, etc., it would’ve made for a more complete casual experience.

Rating: 9/10

3.5

This game has so much soul in it. The visuals are amazing, the npcs are lovable, the cat is cute.

The gameplay, however, is really clunky. It's like the developers couldn't decide what exactly they wanted the gameplay of this to be. At first it was a walking simulator, then it had horror moments where you run from monsters, then you had stealth moments where you hide from drones, then it was a puzzle game. No matter what gameplay it had, however, I don't understand why it's advertised as an "action-adventure", when it's everything but that.

It's a light puzzle game at best, and a walking simulator at worst.

The camera made me motion sick as well. I couldn't play for longer than half an hour at a time, and that's why it took me ages to finish.

I have a few issues with the ending too, like how we have no idea what happened to those eye monsters, or how and if the robots got out of their villages. At least we have some hints that the cat reunited with its family. I would've much preferred an Undertale-like ending, where after freeing the robots, you can talk to them all and hear their opinions on what happened, and to see what they're doing after they've gotten to the surface

Cute game, however, not a masterpiece

Stray is a (mostly) cozy little sci-fi romp where you play as a cat who has fallen into a city inhabited by robots. It's up to you to guide our furry hero up out of the city back to his home and maybe help out some robots along the way.

It's sort of a platformer but only in the sense that you are moving through the world via running and jumping. Landing on platforms is handled for you. All you need to do is be close enough to a platform and click the jump button. And that's great for what the game aims to be. Movement feels great and very authentic to the way you'd expect a cat to move. You can also very much tell that the world was designed for a cat to explore. There are tons of tiny nooks, alleyways, and thin planks of wood that would be impossible for a human to traverse. There's also a decent amount of little interactable doodads for you to scratch and knock over, just for the hell of it, which is nice.

Stray is at its best when you can explore an area and really soak in the city. It's a very pretty game and the fantastic soundtrack truly elevates the neon cyberpunk vibes to make simply wandering around and appreciating what's been crafted here a joy. There are a wide variety of robot designs and I had a great time looking at all of them and chatting with those I could as I wandered the streets.

On the other hand, the game is at its worst when it's forcing you to sneak or sprint through sections with no opportunity to really look at the environments you're running through. I think I liked these parts from a pacing point of view; they add a welcome sense of urgency and danger to break up the chill exploration and puzzles, but I often felt annoyed at having to repeat them a few times each because I didn't happen to spot the box I needed to jump up on to escape, etc. There are also some relatively easy but still unwelcome stealth segments near the end, which play out almost identically to how they do in any other game of this genre. Avoid the cones of light and you're home free.

If you want to be a cat and annoy people, there are certainly better games out there for you, but if you want to explore a lovingly crafted neon city while unraveling a fairly predictable but still okay story while also happening to be a cat, then this is perfection.

I have not the slightest idea how this won any Indie-GOTY awards.

Simpifying the platforming element to just clicking 'jump' to jump onto the right object absolutely trivialized the whole thing. The gameplay feels super generic and videogame-y.

But worst is, Stray's cyberpunk world feeds on this trope so relentlessly and in an unreflected way, that after having played it, the time to say it has finally come:

Cyberpunk now is officially overused and has become a boring clichée. If you just reproduce it in the stereotypical way that Stray does, better don't do it all.

It scratches (ba dum, tss!) at the second star, I am willing to give it, but I can't really say what was positive about it. Jumping over the roofs and climbing through fan openings had a genuine cat feel to it. It was an okay-ish cat simulator.

I really wanted to love Stray. I mean, cat simulator meets cyberpunk city? What's not to like? And with the game being around five hours, it seemed to stay true to my #1 rule for indie games: does not overstay it's welcome. However, Stray kind of did.

First three hours were fun and interesting. Loved the atmosphere, the cat is cute and I'm having a great time. Then the fetch quests start getting really tedious. Once I was done, Stray decided it wanted to be a stealth game, which would be okay except the execution was pretty annoying. I then got stuck in one of the final missions only to find out it was a bug and an NPC got stuck. After restarting the checkpoint twice, I had to restart the whole chapter to move forward. And the last stealth section was difficult in a very unsatisfying way. By the time I beat the game, it was sadly almost a chore.

I did enjoy the story which was fun and even emotional, but I really think this type of game would have benefitted from using minimal to no dialogue and instead doing more visual storytelling, as well as making the overall experience a bit shorter. Overall, I liked Stray but I don't see myself coming back to it anytime soon.

It is surprising, given the human affinity for cats, that only in 2022 we got a game whose protagonist is a cat. There were plenty of other non-human animals, but not a cat, at least not one that hasn’t been anthropomorphized. And there’s a meow button, too!

That would be a nice thing in itself, but Stray has a good sci-fi story to offer, too. The lore is pretty rich and it leaves some things to the player’s imagination. For instance, we don’t know exactly when the action takes place. A writing on a wall suggests very far into the future, but there are many things to consider about how the robot inhabitants of the cyberpunk city perceive time, so there’s an ongoing debate. The huge amount of time would allow cats to become as intelligent as our protagonist, but their appearance would have to change, as well, so that makes it implausible.

The robots themselves are often quirky and interesting characters and the plot contains some tear-jerking moments which would probably make you feel for the robots if it were a longer game. You don’t get to spend enough time with them for that. On the other hand, it’s nice to play a shorter game now and then.

The game has plenty of references to other games, but the most poignant influence I was able to detect was Half-Life. The enemies, the crowbars you can find lying around, the atmosphere and the excellent soundtrack all point in that direction. Even the motive of the protagonist is pretty similar.

Gameplay is centered around puzzle solving, but there are some stealth sections, chase sequences and platforming. It was a bit disappointing to see that the cat doesn’t have complete freedom of movement, making it a sort of point-and-click game when it comes to vertical traversal. There’s nothing particularly challenging, the puzzles are pretty easy, as is avoiding the enemies. There’s no combat, but there’s a lot of scratching sofas, walls and carpets, as well as some other cat behaviors.

A delightful little game, Stray has much more to offer, in its short time, than playing as a cat.

I thoroughly enjoy the cat. It felt like a big budget point and click adventure game which is not a bad thing at all. I love the graphics and the music is a BANGER for real. It's music you don't normally hear in video games. I will honestly bump it in my free time and/or car. The story is nicely done. The gameplay had a lot of different elements to it. A combat portion, a puzzle portion, and sneaking portion. My favorite is the sneaking portion with combat being weakest. (it really didn't need it). My only negative is that... it's missing something... I don't know what it is. It's just is.. Maybe it's the fact it's really short and it just needed an hour or 2 to really get things going.

I strongly recommend the game. I had a great time!

A game with the world stylings of half-life and the parkour elements of assassins creed, and you play as a cat. What's not too love.

I've never seen an indie game that looked so much like a AAA game. It's quite impressive.

Fallout wishes its environments were as good as these.

The gameplay and the story are fabulous. I really enjoyed playing. So fun just goofing around being a cat.

Hmm, Play-Asia already has a pre-order listing for Stray, complete with box art that looks suspiciously legit including a tag on the cover that indicates the game comes with full colour art cards as a pack-in, which is not uncommon for iam8bit. I wonder if that means were are mere moments or days away from the official iam8bit pre-order.

Looking great. Like with Tunic I am kind of sad that this is available as part of a subscription service and thus I'll receive it without having to play for it, which means I can't directly contribute to the devs that made the game. But that also means I can hold out for a physical edition which I do sincerely hope is down the road.