Stray review: A wonderful platformer that needs more time to stretch its paws

Having entered a stranger’s home through a small window, kneading the tattered carpets and arm rests, I scratched at a door to communicate my intentions to its owner: let me out.

The robotic owner of the apartment, enrobed in a discoloured dressing gown, relinquished the comfort of their chair towards the door to respond to the request. Having grown bored of waiting, I then leapt across every surface of the boxy apartment before settling on a roost above the fridge, which gave a great vantage over the small space.

From here, I could see the finer details, such as the resilient houseplants, cared for in a disused bathtub, a mix of English and strange symbols decorating the owner’s wall and a dirty bowl filled with circuit boards and oil, seemingly ready to be devoured. In that time, the owner had shut the door and returned to his seat, which was when I realised I still needed to leave. I jumped down and started scratching at the door once more.

In Stray, assuming the role of a cat comes naturally. It’s not just immersive for its controls, interfacing or animations, all of which help to sell the experience, but the way in which the world is constructed, with raised bars, narrow ledges and death-defying leaps that come naturally to our feline friends.

With Stray, BlueTwelve Studios has created a memorable platforming experience with an emphasis on giving its stark setting the warmth of a human touch, or paw in this case.

Our review of Stray is based on a PS5 version of the game. It took approximately five and a half hours to reach the end of the story. According to the game’s publisher, Stray can take 10 hours to finish a complete run, including finding all collectibles and achievements. Here’s what we made of it.

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Rating: 8/10

Review

In Stray, you play as a cat that has fallen into an enclosed city populated by robots long after the humans who built it have disappeared. In order to be reunited with his family, the cat must find a way to reach the surface and escape.

By navigating the slums and the city streets, the cat can enlist help from the robotic “companions” that still reside there and make use of the tall yet narrow alleyways, roofs and narrow ledges.

As a quadruped, the cat is able to snap to this terrain like a magnet, with no fear of heights or unbalanced beams and can also interact with objects as a cat would, like knocking precariously placed boxes or meowing incessantly to draw attention.

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This, of course, creates plenty of opportunities to be something of a rascal, such as walking back and forth across keyboards to relay gibberish on a screen, or jumping on stacks of books to watch them come crashing down. It’s clear that the developer has a clear love of its furry friends, even when they’re at their most obnoxious.

Along their journey, the cat will team up with a drone named “B-12” who can act as a translator for the robots’ archaic language, as well as interface with the environment in ways the cat’s non-dextrous paws cannot, such as collecting items and accessing terminals.

Stray could have easily been told as a non-verbal story, interpreting speech and action through environmental cues rather than dialogue (as a real cat would) but by being able to read the thoughts and aspirations of the city’s inhabitants opens up the game in ways that would have otherwise hindered it.

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With B-12, the undulating jargon of the robots can be understood, with one-sided conversations revealing the lamentations of their situation, remaining trapped under a steel sky and even pondering on their adoption of human rituals, such as wearing clothes, reading old newspapers and eating “food”. The screen-faced complexions of the shambling robots only become more endearing once their display flashes a love heart at the cat’s brush of their metal legs.

While the city exists in a dark enclosure baked in the glow of neon signs, each district feels distinct. Certain areas have been cordoned off, due to the infestation of “Zurks”, biological parasitic creatures that prove to be one of Stray’s main threats.

Being nimble and able to navigate through obstacles quickly, the cat is able to outrun (and outsmart) these creatures, which make up a significant portion of Stray’s chapters. Other deadly threats also include armed drones that need to be crawled past by avoiding their cones of vision.

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But outside of these chases, stealth segments and platforming puzzles, the world of Stray has plenty of areas to explore and revisit. Collectible “memories” of the old world help to pad out the, admittedly short, runtime which can be discovered by investigating the game’s various nooks and fulfilling requests from the city’s inhabitants.

With Stray, BlueTwelve Studios and Annapurna Interactive have crafted a memorable experience that finishes just as it gets comfortable with its footing. But while it is short, it’s a testament to how the game looks, sounds and plays that it begs for more.

Those who are curious to explore Stray’s world on Playstation can pick up a free copy with a PS Plus extra and/or premium subscription, making it a worthy addition to your digital library.

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