Stray came out in 2022 and was developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive. The synopsis is that you play as a cat who fell down into an underground city and you're trying to find your way back to the surface. In my headcanon, my cat was a boy named Kitty Cat cause that's what I kept calling him.
First Impressions:
After pressing "Start game", you're shown a bunch of cats, clearly Kitty Cat's besties. My very first thought was "Oh my god, they're so stinking cute" and "Wow the controls are so smooth" so that was super promising.
You spend a little bit of time learning the controls and hanging out with your cat buddies, and I was starting to think "This is so cute, but what's the point?" when things got a little heavy. My poor Kitty Cat fell down into the depths of an underground city and it was a rough landing
I mean doesn't that just break your heart?
Gameplay:
Once again, the controls are super smooth, and I really enjoyed being a cat. Sometimes, I would press the wrong button to select certain things because I've been used to it being "A" but it was "X" in Stray. That's not even a developer problem, though, it's a me problem so that wasn't too bothersome. One of the coolest things though was that you can press "B" or "L Alt" to meow on command. I spammed that so much because it was so cute, oh my god.
The actual gameplay is very puzzle driven and can even be a little spooky, scary, and suspenseful. Puzzles are everywhere and they aren't your standard Uncharted or Tomb Raider puzzle. They're more intuitive, I think. For example, at some point you need to find a hat and vest, so where do you think to go? Well, obviously the hat store and clothing store! But then there are separate puzzles to make it into each store and successfully retrieve each item. There aren't many hints either which I think was pretty nice because it forced me to sit, think, and figure it all out on my own. There were so many times I was thinking "What's going on here?" just to think "Oh, I see" moments later.
I did kind of wish I could have customized my cat at the start of the game. Like what if I wanted to be a Sphinx Cat? (I didn't, but still.) Good news for PC gamers, there are so many mods out there if you want to play as a particular cat; there's even a Garfield mod! There's also a puppy mod that I thought was kind of cute. I stuck to – and usually stick to – vanilla games with no mods installed.
Another cool aspect of the gameplay is the collectibles. There seem to be a lot laying around; I didn't collect them all, but there is the ability to revisit specific chapters even if the game is not completed.
Overall, I thought the gameplay was awesome and I wouldn't change a thing.
Story and Characters:
You might be thinking, "Oh a game about a cat, how good could the story and characters even be?" Dude, I got misty at the end. At the beginning, the game is truly just about a cat on a little cat adventure trying to make his way back to his friends. But then you meet other characters and get to know them. A five hour story is pretty short, but it was enough to see each character's personality and how they affected me as a player and even the cat I was playing as. One of the most important characters happens to be a little robot drone that rides in a little cat backpack. It's amazing how the developers were able to pull off such an emotionally driven story in such a short amount of time.
As the story progresses, lore is uncovered about the in game world and even our little drone friend learns more about himself (itself?) too. I don't want to spoil too much, but I feel like the lore is decently rich with a lot to uncover, especially for a five hour game. There are a few things that are unanswered, but maybe it's because I didn't collect all of the lore collectibles. Who knows? Probably Google, I guess.
The craziest thing is that there are no voice actors in the game at all, but it was still able to evoke such strong emotions.
All that being said, the story hits so hard and is one of the best story-driven games I've played in a while.
Art and Sound:
All right, let's get into more of the technical stuff. Long story short, the art - amazing, the sound - eh.
Here's the follow up. While the graphics aren't something like Death Stranding 2 or anything, the level of detail put into each building, city, sidewalk, and character was astounding. Like the detail of the shoulder blades shifting as the cat walks was super cool to see.
This game was clearly something that a lot of people put a lot of love into. Sometimes, I can't believe that all of this just lived in someone's head, and they made it all with computer graphics.
On the other hand, I didn't fully vibe with the sound. The meows were adorable, obviously, and the sound effects were pretty good. My biggest complaint is the music. Sometimes, the music seemed very fitting and it totally went with the vibe, but other times it felt like an retro dungeon crawl or something and just didn't fit in very well for me.
Best and Worst:
So my favorite thing about the game has to be the relationships and character development throughout the game. Some people might think that's super weird to say about a game where you play as a cat, but y'know what, it's true.
My least favorite thing would probably have to be how short it was. I really wanted to keep playing it, and I feel like there's so much more to learn about the in game world.
Would I Replay/Recommend?
I would probably replay it sometime in the distant future, but I'm not itching to at the moment. I at least want to revisit some of the chapters and find all the collectibles someday. I lowkey don't want to replay the scary bits though. It stressed me out!
I would 100% recommend it. Even if someone doesn't like it, you don't have to play for very long before you figure out if you like it or not, so I definitely would say to give it a shot. (It's on sale on Steam for $17.99 USD right now until January 5, 2026 too).
Thank you for reading, and hope to catch you here next time!
-Beck
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